Chapter I: Preface

Not the least interesting branch of modern research is that which opens for us new chapters in the history of our own country and shows us the character and ambitions in the lives of our ancestors. The public have long been familiarised with the results of scientific inquiry into the organic structure and the habits of Nature, but the labours of the historian are too often hidden in treatises of too abstruse a form to attract the general reader. And even where an attempt has been made to present these subjects of human interest in a more palatable form we too often have to lament a looseness of expression and an indifference to historical accuracy which defeat every good purpose in view.

It is in the belief that a series of short papers, each embodying some definite contribution to local or national history, may yet be made of real interest to the average reader, that this collection of studies has been compiled. The majority of the articles appeared in the pages of the _Architectural Review_ under the title of “New Light on Old Subjects.” (February, 1911, to March, 1912.) My friend Mr. A. W. Clapham contributes those on the palaces of Nonsuch, Hertford, Havering, and Queenborough, the Tower of London, the Origin of the Domestic Hall, and the monastic buildings of Cockersand; Barking;[1] St. John’s, Clerkenwell;[2] Blackfriars[3] and Whitefriars[4] London. The reader is referred to the publications mentioned in the footnotes for Mr. Clapham’s detailed archæological examination of all the documentary evidences, and a full description of the excavations superintended by him at Barking Abbey.

[1] The Benedictine Abbey of Barking. _Transactions_, Essex Archæological Society. Vol. XII.

[2] St. John of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell. _Transactions_, St. Paul’s Ecclesiological Society. Vol. VII. Part 2.

[3] On the topography of the Dominican Priory of London. _Archæologia._ Vol. LXIII.

[4] Topography of the Carmelite Priory of London. Journal of the British Archæological Association. March, 1910.

Of the remaining papers, I will merely add that they represent for the most part some particular studies in the more general examination of London buildings which I have undertaken. The articles on Chelsea are an amplification of the material prepared for the Survey of that Parish.[5] That on Crosby Hall is the substance of a lecture delivered before the London and Middlesex Archæological Association, soon after the Hall’s reconstruction. The interpretation of the original Specification of Elizabethan date for the erection of the Fortune Theatre was originally undertaken for Mr. William Archer, and the full details as here presented were first published in the _Architectural Review_. The only paper that deals with a subject outside London is that on Abbot’s Hospital, Guildford, which provides an excuse for a short account of the chief points of interest in the history of English Almshouses and their plans. I am indebted to Mr. Clapham for details of the building dates of Eltham Palace, which are preserved in the Record Office.

[5] “Survey of London.” Vol. IV. Parish of Chelsea, Part 2. London County Council.

Both Mr. Clapham’s and my thanks are due for the kind permission granted us to reproduce old plans and drawings wherever these are in private hands and also for the use of photographs. Care has been taken to acknowledge the source of each drawing in the text, with the names of those who have extended to us their courtesy and help.

WALTER H. GODFREY.

11, Carteret Street,
Queen Anne’s Gate,
S.W.

CONTENTS

AND LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

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