254 Metropolitan Improvements. [Szpr. 
means the beautiful gardens of Kensington might have been made 
available ; and the other in the Green Park, somewhere in the neighbour- 
hood of the present basin. Any of these situations, from being more ele- 
vated, would have been far preferable to the hollow in which Buckingham 
Palace is placed—and there would have been no necessity for the excava- 
tion of artificial lakes, the only apology for which is the necessity for an 
artificial mound or mountain to shut out unpleasant neighbours. 
The choice of situation did not, however, depend upon the architect, 
and therefore no blame should rest with him upon this score. He has an 
opportunity now of redeeming the credit of his palace, and we shall leave 
all further criticism on its merits till its completion. 
It was our intention, in this paper, to have taken up the improvements 
proposed by Colonel Trench in the year 1826, and to have compared 
them with those which are actually taking place under the direction 
of Mr. Nash, and those which have been proposed by other projectors— 
but we find this comparison would so far exceed our present limits, that 
we must postpone it for some future number, when Mr. Soane’s and 
Colonel Trench’s books, together with the new improvements, shall have 
our full consideration. 
At present we must confine ourselves to things as they are, and not 
diverge into things as they might have been. 
Carlton House, that scene of royal revelry, whose saloons have so often 
echoed to the wit of Sheridan, Fox, Windham, and Tierney—to the 
follies and coxcombry of Brummell—and to others that we must not— 
or at least, shall not speak of, has disappeared. This looks as though 
Mr. Barber Beaumont, with his great staring front at the County Fire 
Office, had literally looked his sovereign out of countenance. For there 
stands the fire office, the production of Mr. Barber Beaumont and his 
engineers, while poor Carlton House is levelled with the ground. 
The principal beauty of this building, consisted in its portico, which 
was most injudiciously hid from the public admiration by the screen 
which we all remember in Pall Mall. A great dispute has arisen as to 
the appropriation of these columns. Mr. Nash’s plan is to add eight - 
more to them, and to construct a fountain temple—that is, a temple with 
a fountain in the centre of it—in the opening between the houses which 
are now erecting to form Carlton House-terrace. The Select Committee 
of the House of Commons appointed to investigate the office of works 
and public buildings, and, if possible, to sift the jobs to the bottom, however 
object to this temple ; first on account of the cost of 1000/. per annum, 
which they think too much to pay for water—and we most cordially 
agree with them—and secondly, because they wish patriotically that this 
great opening should terminate by a grand flight of steps, for the use of 
the public, leading into St. James’s Park. We, for our own parts, hope 
that the recommendation of the Select Committee on this point will be 
carried into effect ; for we would not have this opening obstructed, and 
the park shut out from our view by the most beautiful temple that the 
elegant fancy of Mr. Nash could design; a spot of green in the midst of — 
a metropolis is delicious ; and we would not change its freshness for all 
the beauties which bricks and mortar—or even Parian marble might 
assume under the hands of the most tasteful artist in the world. 
Carlton House-terrace is rapidly growing into shape—immense quan- 
ties of rubbish and earth are hourly casting into this space to give it its 
intended elevation, which is, why or wherefore we could never under- 
