Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 1.djvu/256

 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY AT A MEETING HELD AT HORSELYDOWN IN SOUTHWARK, Oct. 30, 1855.

not that when the notice of a meeting of the Surrey Archæological Society to be held at Horselydown was received by the members, it elicited a very general inquiry of—Where is Horselydown? where can it be situate? in what part of the undiscovered regions of the metropolis does it exist? is it inhabited? if so, are the inhabitants civilized? and what description of persons can possibly reside in such a place as Horselydown? But by reference to a map of the metropolis, it will be discovered that Horselydown is a part of the borough of Southwark, situate near the bank of the river Thames, about half a mile eastward of London Bridge, from which it is approached by St. Olave's or Tooley Street: and as but very scanty and imperfect notices of this terra incognita are found in any local history or topographical work, I will attempt to give some account of it.

It is difficult to imagine that a neighbourhood now so crowded with wharfs and warehouses, granaries and factories, mills, breweries, and places of business of all kinds, and where the busy hum of men at work like bees in a hive is incessant, can have been, not many centuries since, a region of pleasant fields and