GREENWICH PALACE, FROM THE OBSERVATORY HILL.
DRAWINGS BY JOHN WYKEHAM ARCHER. British Museum.
John Wykeham Archer (_b._ 1808, _d._ 1864), a water-colour painter, engraver, and antiquary, was employed by another antiquary, Mr. W. Twopeny, more than half a century ago, to make twenty drawings yearly of London antiquities, a work which he carried on until his death. Many of the buildings which he drew have since been destroyed, or have undergone restoration. The whole collection was acquired for the British Museum, and fills seventeen portfolios. A very few of the drawings were etched by Archer for his book entitled _Vestiges of Old London_.
BASTION OF THE CITY WALL IN THE CHURCHYARD OF ST. GILES'S, CRIPPLEGATE. 1841.
THE CRYPT OF ST. MICHAEL'S, ALDGATE. 1841.
GARDEN HOUSE, CANONBURY, BUILT BY THE LAST PRIOR OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S, SMITHFIELD. 1841.
A CELL IN THE LOLLARDS' TOWER, LAMBETH. 1841.
THE CRYPT OF ST. STEPHEN'S, WESTMINSTER. 1842.
MACHINERY FOR RAISING THE PORTCULLIS, TOWER OF LONDON. 1850.
WARDERS' LODGINGS, TOWER OF LONDON. 1847.
_The coloured Illustrations are printed by Mr. Edmund Evans at the Racquet Court Press._
_What are the Historical Limits of "Mediæval London?"--Derivation of "London"--The Roman City--Outlying Districts--Decay of Ancient London--Renewal after the English Conquest was Complete--London Christianised--King Alfred's London--Its Gradual Rise to Supremacy--St. Paul's Cathedral--William the Conqueror's London--London in the days of the Plantagenets.--Foundation of Westminster Abbey--Rebuilt by Henry III.--St. Clement Danes--Watling Street--The Folkmote Ground--Cheapside and its Surroundings--The Pageants--The Arches Court--London Wall, the Gates and Towers--City Trees--The Religious Houses--Monasteries--Priories--Colleges-- Hospitals--Episcopal Residences--London Outskirts--Notes of Remarkable Events under the Successive Dynasties--Aggas's Map of London, temp. Queen Elizabeth._
Mediæval London--it is a perfectly distinct and real subject, though it might be difficult to give exact dates of beginning and end. Historical periods glide in, and run their course, and fade away or take fresh shape. Yet we may venture to approximate, and to say with some confidence that Ancient London changed into Mediæval in the days of King Alfred, and passed into Modern with the accession of the Stuarts. The Great Fire of 1666 made vast changes not only in the city itself, but in the surroundings thereof, but modern London had begun nearly a century before that.