Architecture of the Metropolis. 3*61 



forms of elegance and grandeur are exhibited in a size of struc- 

 ture that in vulgar hands would have been considered as insig- 

 nificant. 



Such is my estimate, according to the best judgment I have 

 been able to form, of the architectural pretensions of the 

 British metropolis. In extenuation of its innumerable defects 

 and deformities, it may be urged that London, as well as most 

 of the old capitals of Europe, having arisen from small begin- 

 nings, and mostly in beu-barous times, were built as chance or 

 caprice directed, without taste or f)lan, and without any ambi- 

 tion of architectural distinction : hence the greatest part of 

 each of them is old, irregular, mean and confined ; abound- 

 ing in narrow streets, crooked lanes, and ungraceful appen- 

 dages. Such is especially the case with London, Paris, 

 Vienna, Naples, Amsterdam, Madrid, Lisbon, Milan, Moscow, 

 and several others. Most of them, also, having been designed 

 for fortified places, it became necessary to be sparing of ground, 

 and to crowd the inhabitants into the smallest possible space. 

 St. Petersburgh is the only one of the capitals of Europe which 

 has been built in modern ages and on an integral and precon- 

 certed plan. It had likewise the singular good fortune of be- 

 ing erected under the auspices of an arbitrary and enlightened 

 monarcli, in whose view private inconveniences were as nothing, 

 and general effect was the sole consideration. These feli- 

 citous circumstances have not produced all the advantages 

 which might have been expected, but still the city of St. 

 Petersburgh, as a whole, is very superior to any of the rest. 

 Similar advantages have been enjoyed, in a smaller degree, by 

 a few others of the European capitals, as Turin, Carlsruhe, 

 Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Dublin, and Edinburgh; but 

 these are only cities of the second and third rate. It is much 

 to be lamented that the fire of London did not happen under 

 the reign of George IV. Under the influence of modern 

 taste the whole city would have risen from her ashes with a 

 splendour and magnitude which would have astonished the 

 world, and attracted the curious traveller from the remotest 

 regions. She is now too old and unwieldy to expect any 

 effectual cure of her complicated maladies, but her constitution 

 is in a source of gradual improvement. The passion for archi-. 



APEIL— JUNE, 1287. 2 B 



