allusion to "our extensive city of Lisbon," but he forgets to show
his nationality when speaking of Portugal among the countries with
which London has trade, and he writes of London altogether like one
to the City born, when he describes its inner life together with its
institutions and its buildings. 

The book is one of those that have been attributed to Defoe, who
died in 1731, and the London it describes was dated by Pinkerton in
the last year of Defoe's life.  This is also the latest date to be
found in the narrative.  On page 93 of this volume, old buildings at
St.  Bartholomew's are said to have been pulled down in the year
1731, "and a magnificent pile erected in the room of them, about 150
feet in length, faced with a pure white stone, besides other
additions now building." That passage was written, therefore, after
1731, and could not possibly have been written by Defoe.  But if the
book was in Robert Harley's collection, and not one of the additions
made by his son the second earl, the main body of the account of
London must be of a date earlier than the first earl's death in
1724.  Note, for instance, the references on pages 27, 28, to "the
late Queen Mary," and to "her Majesty" Queen Anne, as if Anne were