viii INTRODUCTION. 



in need of change. And I wished not only to record and illustrate 

 what is' good in them, but also to point out what is harmful. 



It is scarcely necessary to show that a clean and ordered city 

 is better than an ugly and filthy one, but it may be well to 

 consider that from the lowest point of view it is the interest of 

 even the poorest tradesman in London to help forward bold 

 measures for its improvement. Whatever the fortunes of our 

 country in the future, nobody can doubt that the English race 

 will form the most numerous of civilised peoples, nor that the city 

 where Shakespeare and Milton wrote will be holiday-ground to 

 millions of English-speaking people besides those that inhabit it. 

 The attractions of London to strangers are really greater than 

 those of any other city that exists, but our total want of plan, or 

 of any wise provision calculated to make locomotion j)leasant or 

 even possible throughout London, and the filthy and depressing 

 aspect of the narrow streets, efi'ectually drive away thousands of 

 people from America and our vast colonies only too anxious to 

 stay in London were it made possible to them. It is a common 

 occurrence for Americans to run the gauntlet of Fleet Street and 

 the Strand, and judging the whole town by their experience of a 

 few narrow and greasy thoroughfares, to escape with all speed to 

 pleasanter places. In Paris superb avenues may be seen often 

 leading to nothing ; in London many important points of interest 

 are practically unapproachable even to those who know the town. 

 Of course we cannot cut down our Fleet Streets or our Strands, 

 but we could at much less cost than that of similar improvements 

 in Paris drive a series of noble roads through the wretched shanties 

 that cover a good half of London, so that it would be possible 

 to get some clear and comprehensive idea of its plan, its suburbs, 

 its parks — its noblest treasure of all, its ship-cities, the river 

 below the bridges, its buildings, and its commerce. 



The recent very remarkable improvements in Paris, such as the 

 opening of the stately Boulevard de Saint-Germain running 

 through and opening up to sun and air and trees the whole of the 

 south of the city, and the new Avenue between the new Opera 

 House and the Eue de Rivoli, have not only been made without 

 cost to the town, but even with a balance on the right side, the 

 vastly-increased value of sites for business premises in these new 

 and noble streets having more than repaid the cost of their forma- 



