Lysons’ Greater London
When the celebrated antiquarian nicknamed “Stumpity Stump” toured the rustic neighbourhoods that then surrounded London, writes Meyrick H. Carré, the metropolis was on the verge of a period of ruthless expansion and development.
Among the legion of writers who have explored the antiquity and geography of the neighbourhood of London, Daniel Lysons occupies an eminent place. He is a prince of topographers. The five massive volumes of his Environs of London appeared successively from 1792-1800; and a supplementary volume was published in 1811, containing a quantity of corrections and additions to the original work.
The imposing series presented to its readers at the opening of the nineteenth century, in the words of the subtitle, an historical account of the towns, villages and hamlets within twelve miles of the capital, interspersed with biographical anecdotes.
The author of this castle of learning was born at Rodmarton, Gloucestershire in 1762. After leaving St. Mary Hall, Oxford, he became curate at Mortlake, then a village on the south bank of the Thames nearly seven miles from Hyde Park Corner, moving shortly from that parish to Putney, a few miles along the river.
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