OLD LONDON CITY. A Handbook, partly alphabetical. By L. and
A. Russan. (Simpkiia. 3s. 6d. net.)
The enthusiasm shown on every page of this interesting handbook should atone for its frequent inaccuracy and naivety of conjecture. Visitors to London who have exhausted Wembley and find the theatres even duller than they had feared will, nevertheless, discover much assistance and amuse- ment in this and its companion volume, Historic Streets of London, particularly in the chatty essays on old London Signs, on Street Cries and Rhymes, and the Diversions of Old London. The alphabetical guide to the City Churches would have gained by mentioning the times at which they are open. There is much whose passing the visitor will regret—Bartholo- mew Fair on August 24th, with its fire-proof lady, its tiger taught to pick a fowl's feathers from its body, and the skeleton of a whale lately caught in the Thames. Lombard Street still shows its few signboards, but "Songs, three yards a penny," "Hot grey pease an' a suck o' bacon," and "Any letters for the post," are cries gone for ever. Rare and valu- able illustrations from the Goss collection include plans of London in Elizabethan times and later, a view showing the damage of the Great Fire, Bartholomew Fair in full swing, and an unfamiliar view of the Mansion House.
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