Primary sources

Cranbrook, Kent: water-colour by Herbert AlexanderPrimary sources are the original documents, drawings, photographs or other first-hand sources useful to historians. In this section you will find a small selection taken from a wide range of periods.

The texts by Gerald of Wales and Daniel Defoe are in print in modern editions, but since e-texts are available, they are given here, so that the place-names therein can be found through the site search. Inns and Taverns of Old London is out of print. I combined an e-text and the images from a pdf version. I am grateful to the efforts of others in making these texts available online in the first instance.

The views of 1669 are taken from a book that is long out of print. Only a small edition was ever published. Some other 17th-century views not readily available are indexed here for convenience.

Many other primary sources are now available online: