Aestheticizing the ancestral city: antiquarianism, topography and the representation of London in the long eighteenth century.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755) defined `Metropolis' as the `mother city'. Forged from the Greek m et er, the use of maternal metaphors for London had a long tradition in literature which reached its emotive peak in the poetic responses to the Great Fire of 1666. A notable case in point is Roger l'Estrange's Vox Civitatis: or, London's Call to her Natural and Adopted Children; Exciting them to her speedy Reedification (1666). L'Estrange, a Royalist pamphleteer turned Restoration Censor, made the poignant comment that London was a `sad Mother . . . Burnt by the raging Fire almost to th' ground'. John Stow's Survay of London (1598), the first attempt to recount the successive phases of London's development, was also framed by his affection for `my native mother and Countrey'. Following Stow's example, antiquarian accounts of London were Art History ISSN 0141-6790 Vol. 22 No. 4 November 1999 pp. 472±494