Originally published in 1910, this work contains details of the various companies and their tradesmen operating in London in 1651. The following passage is part of the introduction: 'The signatures contained in Harleian. M. S. 4778, are those of various of the members of twenty-two City Companies. They constitute a list earlier than any similar record of London merchants and traders. The claim of the manuscript for attention does not lie solely in its priority of inscription: it evidences, in addition, by preservation of record in excellent clearness, that our ancesters wrote, in the fashion of their period, hands every whit as graceful, and as indicative of divers characters, as we could hope to find among lists of signatures of persons of classes comparable in this day.'