Vili PREFACE. 
The manorial history alone cannot, however, be made to 
tell the story of each part of the Borough, and an Itinerary 
was therefore devised as being the best means of dealing in a 
sequence easily followed with the particular history of each 
locality. The plan selected is that of a walk from Blackheath 
to Bromley Hill, with necessary deviations to Lee, Hither Green, 
Brockley, Perry Hill, and Sydenham. 
Lewisham a little over half-a-century ago consisted of the 
villas round Blackheath, a few shops and cottages in the High 
Street, interspersed with larger houses standing in their own 
grounds, and small hamlets at Perry Hill, Sydenham and 
Southend. There were practically no side roads to the High 
Street, which was unpaved, and the stream with the elm trees 
on its banks down the western side gave it a rural appearance 
not without points of beauty. Lee was a parish of parks and 
farms, the houses being mostly grouped in the Old Road and 
at Lee Green. The Itinerary tells the story of the gradual 
change to the busy town of to-day, and will, it is hoped, give 
a fresh interest to the place even to the dwellers in the newest 
roads. 
The section dealing with the Geology of the district has 
been kindly contributed by Mr. W. H. GRIFFIN, Hon. Secretary 
of the Catford and District Natural History Society, who has 
made the subject a special study. Few dwellers in the neigh- 
bourhood are aware how full of interest it is from a geological 
point of view, and how close at hand many of the problems of 
physiography can be studied. 
After the decay of the manorial system came the gradual 
rise of the present Local Authorities, whose history is told by 
Mr. A. W. HISCOX, sometime Mayor of the Borough, on behalf 
of the Lewisham Municipal Association. The number of 
authorities having jurisdiction within the Borough is bewilder- 
ing even to those fairly well acquainted with such matters. 
This section of the book will, it is hoped, tend to a greater 
knowledge of, and interest in, the work of these bodies which 
touch the daily life of the community at every point. In 
