Travels in Town
By the Author of Random Recollections of the Lords and Commons, etc.

Detailed, wide-ranging, and reflective, James Grant's two-volume Travels in Town (1839) describes life in early Victorian London.

James Grant (Author)

9781108009195, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 March 2010

336 pages
21.6 x 1.9 x 14 cm, 0.43 kg

Born in 1802 in Elgin, James Grant first established himself as a reporter and then as a leading newspaper editor in Victorian London, heading the Morning Chronicle for two decades before moving on to the Christian Standard. His 1839 Travels in Town was designed as a companion piece to his earlier reflections on London, The Great Metropolis (1838) and Sketches in London (1838). This two-volume work reflects Grant's enthusiasm for 'this modern Babylon' and his lively interest in the intricacies of everyday life there. Interweaving general descriptions with specific local information, Volume 2 describes the post office and bookselling in Paternoster Row before turning its attention to the city's various religious denominations. Grant, an ardent Calvinist, concludes with reflections on London's moral state.

8. The post office
9. Bookselling – Paternoster Row
10. Religious denominations.

Subject Areas: Publishing industry & book trade [KNTP]