BY BENJAMIN ELLIS MARTIN ILLUSTRATED BY JOSEPH PENNELL Gateway of Rossetti’s old house London T FISHER UNWIN 26 Paternoster Square 1889...

The stroll described in these pages may be imagined to be taken during the summer of 1888: all the dates, descriptions, and references herein having been brought down to the present moment. The specimen of Old Chelsea ware on the cover is an accurate copy—reduced in size, naturally—of one of the plates of the set belonging once to Dr. Johnson, now in Holland House.  For the privilege of this unique reproduction I am indebted to the courtesy of Lady Holland. B. E. M. London , August , 1888...

The embankment mansions from Battersea I had strolled, on a summer day, from Apsley House towards the then residence of Charles Reade at Knightsbridge, when I came upon one of those surprises of which London is still so full to me, even after more than a dozen years of fond familiarity with its streets and with all that they mean to the true lover of the Town.  For, as I watched the ceaseless traffic of the turbulent turnings from the great thoroughfare down towards Chelsea, there came to my min