A CITY GARDEN 



IF the sixty-four squares of the chess-board should 

 be taken as so many square miles, they would rather 

 more than cover the four-mile radius but still fall 

 short of the county of London. We should still have 

 to add huge tracts of brick-and-mortar in order to 

 get the idea of the actual London that includes East 

 and West Ham, Tottenham, Enfield, and many other 

 dormitories of business and working-men. A chess- 

 board of a hundred and forty-four square miles would 

 give us some concept of this town, and if every white 

 square should be made into a park or recreation- 

 ground, it would be not such a bad town to live in. 

 As a matter of fact, the four great parks of the West 

 End would about make one square green and sprawl 

 half-way through two others, and if we went east- 

 ward we should have to trudge very far before we 

 came upon anything like a quarter-square break 

 in the almost unending sea of mean and very mean 

 streets. 



The black square nearest the middle of the board 

 may stand for the City. A pin dipped in green ink 

 would suffice to trace on its blackness all the trees 

 and gardens within it which shows how very precious 

 the City garden is. Right in the middle of Cheapside 

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