Foreword

IT is only by making a supreme moral effort that I can write a foreword to Miss Ambler's book on Southwark. To be exact, I am jealous. I should like to have written the book, but my book would not have been as good as hers.

Southwark deserves a good book, for the ancient Borough is as notable a place as any within the British Isles. In the Middle Ages every visitor coming from the south to the capital rode through its streets. Pilgrims from the north, on their way to Canterbury or the southern ports, passed over London Bridge and took shelter in one or other of the hostels which abounded here. At the northern end of the Borough a noble church, now of cathedral rank, has stood for over seven centuries. Within it rest the bones of Gower, Massenger, Fletcher, and Edmond Shakespeare-men whose names are held in reverence wherever lovers of great England gather. Smithfield boasts the first London hospital, but it is more than probable that the good Canons of St. Augustine nursed the sick here before they opened St. Bartholomew's beyond St. Paul's.

London proper knew little of great drama in Elizabethan days, while "London improper" as I love to call it, heard the voices of Shakespeare and Edward Alleyn. The fact that the Chancellor of England lived in Southwark, made the old church of St. Mary Overie a convenient centre for the trial of many an obstinate Reformer who went from the neighbourhood to pay the great penalty in Smithfield or beyond.

There never was a time when Southwark was without citizens who made a lasting mark upon the history and letters of the nation.

This summary will show the reader that the story of Southwark is one of the greatest stories that can be written.

Miss Ambler has brought to her task a real historic faculty.

She has left out dull facts which interest no one and she has emphasised just those things which ought to be known by every Londoner who would be well versed in what might almost be called the most romantic district within the borders of the capital.

T. P. STEVENS.

BOOKS OF REFERENCE

Old Southwark and its People. - Rendle.

The Inns of Old Southwark. - Rendle and Norman.

Bygone Southwark. - Boger.

Southwark. - Bowers.

Southwark Biographies. - Mould.

Southwark Cathedral. - Thomson.

Southwark Cathedral. - Stevens.

Chronicles of London Bridge. Thompson.

Annals of St. Mary Overie. - Taylor.

The Victoria County History.

Survey of London. - Stow (Kingsford edition).

History of London. - Allen.

History of London. - Pennant.

Borough and Borough Hospitals. - Wingent.

Elizabethan Stage. - Chambers.

Shakespeare's England. (Published by Clarendon Press).

Early London Theatres. - Ordish.

The London of Dickens. - Dexter.