TOUR ROUND LONDON, WITHIN THE CIRCUIT OF TWENTY-FIVE MILES. DESCRIBING Whatever is most remarkable for Antiquity, Grandeur, INCLUDING NEW CATALOGUES OF PICTURES, AND ILLUSTRATED BY New scenes arife, new landscapes ftrike the eye, THOMSON. THE SEVENTH EDITION, CORRECTED AND IMPROVED. Fr & Lobb LONDON: Printed (by Affignment from the Affignees of John Bew) for 1794. Gough Add. Gen. Tops ON N the utility of a work of this nature it is scarce neceffary to expatiate. No part of the kingdom perhaps, can prefent more attractive scenes, than the environs of London; in which the man of leifure may find amusement, and the man of bufiness the most agreeable relaxation. With refpect, indeed, to rural scenery, the country, described in the following Tour, does not exhibit Nature in her more fublime and ftupendous views: it prefents no favage mountains crowned with perennial fnows, no vast extent of uncultivated wild, no tremendous cataracts, no wonderful expanfe of waters; but rural elegance and rural beauty appear in their most fascinating forms. Royal palaces, magnificent seats, and elegant villas interfperfed, afford inexhauftible gratifications for curiofity; in fome, the finest collections. of paintings, ineftimable antiques, venerable decorations of ancient splendour, or all the exquifite embellishments of modern art. Extenfive profpects charm the eye with undefcribable variety: the landfcape, lefs extensive, invites the penfive mind to contemplation; or the creative powers of Art exhibit an Elyfium, where nature once appeared in her rudeft state. To aflift the inhabitants of the Metropolis, or its occafional vifitors, in the choice of their excurfions, is a principal object of this publication: to be an entertaining companion in thefe excurfions, is another. With this view, the Editor has not only defcribed whatever he found curious in the works of Nature or of Art, but where any place has been diftinguished by fome memorable circumftance, he has not forgotten how much the incidental recollection of it may improve the fources of converfation, nor what pleasure a well-cultivated mind may derive from contemplating the favourite retreats of the beA 2. nefactors |