PREFACE.

Such historical evidence and local tradition concerning the origin of the Old Palace as it was possible to collect has already been recorded in a previous publication of the Survey Committee—the volume on Bromley-by-Bow. Little therefore remains for this present monograph but to illustrate more fully the beautiful detail in decorative work—either of stone or wood carving, panelling, and modelled plaster, in all of which the Palace so richly abounded.

I would like here to acknowledge the help so freely given in my labours by the members of the Survey Committee and others. My thanks are due to Mr. H. Hemingway, owner of the Palace, and occupier of the southern portion from 1874 until its purchase by the London School Board in 1893; to Mrs. Papineau, who also resided there from 1859 to 1873, and to Mr. J. House; to these I am indebted for much valuable information concerning the traditions and later history of the building. I have also to thank Messrs. H. Clapham Lander, A. W. Waddington, Ernest A. Mann, A. E. Nutter, and other of my colleagues on the Survey Committee for their assistance in preparing the various drawings and photographs which illustrate the book, and of which due mention will be found in the following pages; and the Committee is indebted to the Board of Education, South Kensington, for permission to use the various photographs made from the ceilings, and to Lord Balcarres for a similar permission in respect of the ceiling at Balcarres House, Fife, N.B.

ERNEST GODMAN,
Secretary of the Survey Committee.

37 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, Oct., 1901.