Preface
No attempt has been made by either artist or author to
give in this book a stereotyped and exhaustive survey
of London, that has been done better elsewhere; it is
rather the book of two people who love London in all
her varying moods, with her wonder, her unexpectedness,
her dear familiarity. The questions, "Have I
represented this or that or the other?" or "Will not
the public miss so and so which always appears in
every book of London?" have never once been asked.
Artist and author alike have painted and written
out of love, and out of their knowledge of the most
wonderful city the world has ever known. It is rather
as though they said, "Have you ever seen London like
that? Do you know just that peculiar atmosphere that
comes in the grey morning or wintry evening? Have
you realised that the streets are glorious with the records
of the great dead ? Can you see them, princes, statesmen,
bishops, nobles, men of letters, men of science,
walking about by-gone London, the same city at heart
but so different in aspect from what it is now?"
This is all I have to say,-for statistics, for minute
catalogues of names, for many other highly useful things,
look elsewhere; this book is painted and written by two
who love London for those who would be, or are, her
lovers also.
The Artist and Publishers desire me to take this
opportunity of thanking those owners whose names are
printed in the List of Illustrations, for kindly lending
the original pictures to be reproduced in the volume.
G. E. MITTON.