Description and Travel

'Stow's Survey' is a historical work readily identified by this familiar name alone. John Stow (c.1524-1605) was a Londoner, a member of the Merchant Taylors' Company, but spent most of his life accumulating manuscripts and other historical records. His great work, A Survey of London, was published in 1603, and is reissued here in the two-volume version edited by C. L. Kingsford (1862-1926) and published in 1908. Kingsford, a government education official, was also a writer for the Dictionary of National Biography, to which he contributed over 300 entries. His Chronicles of London (also reissued in this series) was published in 1905. In Volume 1, Kingsford's preface explains his editorial practice; he also provides an introduction including documents illustrative of Stow's family background and life, and a bibliography of sources. Stow's text begins with general essays on London's history, and follows with a ward-by-ward description.