282 BRICK AND STONE. 



ble practicul man would ever employ brick for tlie 

 ornamental parts of a building in a country where 

 stone was cheap and abundant. It is only because 

 London lies in the very midst of a stoneless, rock- 

 less, brick-yielding valley that London architects 

 have been compelled to develop a school of archi- 

 tecture which takes brick for the very basis and 

 fundamental groundwork of its entire evolution. 



If we look away to other places, in America or 

 abroad, we shall see at once how vastly superior 

 is the general effect of street-architecture in those 

 towns which possess at their own doors a good, 

 solid, and durable buildii)g-material. Fifth Ave- 

 nue, in New York, and IJeacon Street, in Boston, 

 owe much to the beautiful brown freestone of New 

 Haven. Bath, again, comparatively small though 

 it be, is a far handsomer and nobler-looking town 

 than Brighton, because Bath is built of its own 

 splendid and imposing local stone, which gives to 

 the Circus and the Crescent, to Milsom Street and 

 Laura Place, an air of dignity and architectural 

 plan wanting in almost every other English city ; 

 whereas Brighton, standing on the flanks of a bare 

 chalk down, has had to trnst for its long and gay 

 sea-front to brick and stucco, while its old and 

 quaint little parish church is constructed of no 

 better or handsomer material than the split Hints 

 collected from the lime-pits on the downs behind 

 it. What a contrast to the noble and beautiful 



