THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



VOL. III.] FEBRUARY, 1827. [No. 14. 



METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 



" Oh, the wonderful alterations !" CEOCKEBY. 



As it was gratifying to our national pride during the war to read of the 

 progress of our arms, and to rejoice in the glorious result of the exertions 

 of our Government to procure permanent tranquillity ; so is it delightful 

 to the lovers of the arts of peace to see the leisure and means, which this 

 tranquillity has procured, employed by our ministers in the removal of the 

 nuisances, and in the promotion of architectural improvement in the me- 

 tropolis. 



That metropolis, which was known to be the richest in Europe that 

 London, whose very name was synonymous with wealth, from the walls 

 of which, fiats were issued, whose power was felt and acknowledged in the 

 remotest parts of the world, was little thought by the millions who bowed 

 their heads in obedience to its dictates, and who looked with eyes of envy 

 at those who visited or resided in it, to consist, with one or two exceptions, 

 merely of a congregation of filthy streets, totally unadorned by architec- 

 tural beauty ; or that its churches, and other public buildings, were so hid 

 from view by such an accumulation of vulgar dwellings in their immediate 

 vicinity, that nearly all the specimens of good architecture which the me- 

 tropolis of England possessed remained unknown and unnoticed by the 

 inhabitants themselves. 



That they were sometimes appreciated by strangers, who sought for the 

 internal beauties of edifices, the exteriors of which were concealed from 

 their view by interminable rows of brick buildings and groves of chimney- 

 pots, is certain, by foreign illustrations of London, as well as by the ob- 

 servation of one of the Clements to an English nobleman at Rome, who, 

 on being presented at the papal court, descanted to his holiness with great 

 fluency on the beauties of Italian architecture, and on the delight he had 

 experienced in witnessing the numerous and superb specimens of the art 

 which he had observed in his tour. " True," replied the Pope. " there 

 are many noble specimens of the art of Vitruvius in Italy ; but you possess 

 one in London which surpasses most of them, and is eclipsed by none.'* 

 He then named a church in the city of London, of the very existence and 

 name of which the English nobleman was ignorant. Ashamed and doubt- 

 ing, this true enthusiast in the art immediately quitted Rome, for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining the truth of what he had heard, and was astonished to 



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