358 ATchitecture of the Metropolis, 



of Genoa and Berlin were included in its circumference. As 

 almost all the higher nobility and gentry have a house in the 

 papital, and as the number of our opulent families is far beyond 

 that of any country that ever existed, it seems necessary that 

 the bulk of them should be satisfied with ordinary dweUings, 

 such as those which constitute the principal streets of the west. 

 It is this necessity which in some degree justifies, though it did 

 not originally produce, the comparative meanness of the great 

 family residences of London. 



But after allowing the utmost weight to these considerations, 

 still enough remains in the general aspect of London to excite 

 surprise and regret in the mind of every one who feels any 

 anxiety for the honour of the country, or the progress of the 

 liberal arts. The prime nobility of the land, at least, might 

 be expected to feel the generous ambition of distinguishing 

 their families, and of decorating the metropolis of their coun- 

 try by town-residences worthy of their name and wealth. 

 Many of their present dwellings occupy as much space, and 

 have required nearly as much expense, as though they had 

 been models of the finest Grecian architecture, instead of the 

 tasteless edifices that now fill the interminable lines of the 

 west of London with tiresome uniformity. Can any thing, for 

 example, be more disgraceful to the noble house of Cavendish 

 and its princely revenues, than the factory- looking building 

 called Devonshire-house, which fills a space large enough for a 

 Genoese or Roman palace ? and this disgrace is rendered 

 more apparent by its juxta-position to that fine mansion Bur- 

 lington-house, almost the only town-residence which is really 

 fit for a British nobleman. The same remark will apply to 

 Norfolk-house, Chesterfield-house, the Marquis of Stafford's, 

 Marlborough-house, and many others. Nor is it a little sur- 

 prising that none of our great commercial men are seized with 

 the architectural ardour which, in the middle ages, inspired 

 the merchants of Venice, Genoa, and Florence, and urged 

 them to ornament their respective cities in a way which has 

 proved a perennial source of celebrity and wealth. It is not 

 less singular that the British capital should not catch the 

 spirit of emulation from the sister-capital of Scotland, which 

 contains but few nobility or opulent gentry, aiid scarcely any 



