City Scenes, Or, A Peep Into London
City Scenes, Or, A Peep Into London, for Good Children (1809) COME, peep at London's famous town, Nor need you travel there; For one foot up, and one foot down, In future, you may spare: At home, a hundred miles away, 'Tis easy now to look, At City Scenes, and London gay, In this my little book. (“Introduction”) I've recently been examining a wide range of sketches, illustrations, scenes and caricatures from the eighteenth and nineteenth century. I'm particularly interested in the inter-connections between visualised text and the 'reading' of images. I'm also interested in how other senses are called upon to suggest the smell, feel and touch of the writings and depictions. There is also the deconstructive question concerning the image/text relationship. To what extent does the one silence, screen, or block out the other? Does the book as supplement to a real jounrey engage with an imagined journey that supplants the