24 SEPTEMBER 1921, Page 24

Old London Town. Illustrated and Described by Will Owen. (Bristol

: Arrowsmith. 5s. net.)—These sixty or so sketches of interesting and little-known parts of London range from Strand- on-the-Green, where Zoffany lived for a time, to Wapping Old Stairs, immortalized perhaps by W. W. Jacobs in Many Cargoes ; from Romney's house on Holly Bush Hill to Baker's Chop House in the City. In Mr. Owen's drawings, slight though they are, there is a freshness of view which is highly entertaining. Some of his subjects will be new even to Londoners. Unfortunately, Mr. Owen has chosen to dissertate upon each in an annoyingly facetious manner. Sometimes he quotes appropriately. Sam Weller's " Oh, worry well, sir, we shan't be bankrupts and we shan't make our fort'ns. We eats our biled mutton without capers, and don't care for horse-radish yen ve can get beef," is, at least, in tune with the sketch of the' George Hotel,' Southwark.