72 



bought. Were such things to be carried to the Marche aux Fleurs 

 at Paris, not a pennyworth of them would be sold. But by the two 

 flower-markets of these two principal cities of Europe, an estimate 

 of the different character of their inhabitants may be formed. The 

 wealthy and respectable Englishman, who is a connoisseur, will pur- 

 chase nothing that is common ; for if pretty, he has it already in his 

 garden ; — and the poor Londoner who cannot afford to buy what is 

 beautiful, will still obtain, if possible, something green to decorate 

 the window of his dark little attic *, and give his last farthing for a 

 bit of verdure. The opulent Frenchman, who values all objects only 

 as they please the eye, without reference to their being common or 

 scarce, is willing to pay a greater price for a lovely rose-bush, than 

 for the rarest plant from New Holland or the Cape of Good Hope ; 

 and as to the poor artizan of the French capital, he only thinks of 

 vegetable productions as they are fit for culinary uses ; and whether 

 they be blue or green to look at, is the same to him. Hence it arises 

 that the Parisian flower-market offers a much more delightful vista 

 than that of London, though it is much smaller and more poorly 

 stocked; as the French capital itself cannot compare with London for 

 extent or wealth. 



If the French pave the squares of their city that they may afford 

 a more agreeable promenade, the English change theirs into delight- 

 ful lawns, which afford a prospect of verdure to every house in the 

 square. In the larger squares, these green plots are planted with 

 groups of trees ; and in the smaller ones with clumps of flowering 

 bushes and shrubs, often interspersed with trees. By this arrange- 

 ment, these quadrangles, and the houses which surround them, have 

 quite a rural and romantic appearance. According to the capa- 

 bilities of the situation, these plots are sometimes square, sometimes 

 oval or circular ; and they are railed in with a light tasteful palisade 



* Perhaps from the custom of the ancient Romans (for the English still retain 

 traces of the manners of that people): ^'jam in fenestris suis plebs urbana in imagine 

 hortorum quotidiana oculis ruris prebebant, antequam prajigi prospectus omnes coegit 

 multitudinis innumeratiE sava latrocinatio." Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. cap. 4. By 

 this " prafigi prospectus" is not that most shameful of all imposts, the window- 

 tax comprehended, by which the people are in a nceasure deprived of that most 

 universal of all nature's gifts — light f 



