258 Architecture in the United States. 
Turkish fountain with its soft gurgle, the huge plane overshad- 
owing it, the rude bench beneath the tree, and the doves cooing in 
the branches. But I have wandered from my object and return. 
The fountain at Marseilles, from its position, belongs to both the 
streets of les Capuchins and Meilhan, and is an exquisitely beautiful 
termination to the vista in both. At the point where Les Allées des 
Capuchins meets Le Boulevard is a handsome obelisk, thus an orna- 
ment to both these streets. I was pleased with this method of multiply- 
ing ornamental objects, and should keep it constantly in view in draw- 
ing the first and main features in the plan of a city. A handsome 
edifice with five streets diverging from it, would be equal to five such 
edifices placed so as to have only one point of view. With so 
many radiating lines, however, our city would be greatly cut up and 
filled with sharp angles, and we must be extremely cautious how the 
system is used. It would be best to have but a few points for nu- 
merous radiating lines, but the principle might be employed on & 
smaller scale through most parts of the city. Those few points should 
be on eminences, for a handsome object always appears best on an 
elevated position : the edifices placed there should be the most impor- 
tant and beautiful in the city, and some of the streets diverging from 
them,-should be the widest and handsomest. To all these our main 
attention should be directed: a few other points for a few radiating 
streets and objects of less consequence should be selected, and the 
remainder of the ground be filled up with rectangular or oblique 
streets, as convenience might dictate, without however a total dis- 
regard to beauty. 
The reader who has been at Washington will immediately think of 
the plan of that city, and there is a very strong resemblance between 
it and the one I propose. That of Washington has always been 
greatly admired, and if ever filled up as seems. to have been origi- 
nally expected, will give us indeed a beautiful and splendid city- 
Those who have not seen it, will readily understand the plan. The 
Capitol and the President’s house, a mile distant from each other, are 
made radiating points for numerous wide streets which are called ave- 
nues, and are named after the several states. The whole plan is near- 
ly four miles in length, and the parts not thus occupied are supplied 
with streets crossing each other at right angles, directed, I believe, t 
the four points of the compass. The whole is worthy of our 
and with'some few exceptions, is an admirable plan... But 
it is not suited to a smaller city or atown. ‘The avenues occupy 1° 
