BRICK AND STONE. 285 



imposing buildings. That is the result of Imperial 

 despotism and an organized plan, ruthlessly carried 

 out at the expense of all possible discomfort and 

 inconvenience to individual persons. In New 

 York, with its tall, irregular, uneven shops and 

 its magnificent brown-stone private houses, one 

 sees, on the contrary, the opposite result of Repub- 

 lican freedom and individuality. The brown 

 stone of which most of the houses in Fifth Avenue 

 are built forms one of the richest and handsomest 

 building-materials to be found anywhere among 

 the cities of Christendom. Each house stands a 

 little apart from its neighbors ; each has its own 

 personality and characteristics ; and the abundant 

 growth of Virginian creeper which drapes most of 

 the rich ruddy fronts under the blue and cloudless 

 sky of America gives an air of rusticity and ele- 

 gance to the whole which could hardly be imitated 

 in any crowded European capital. It will be long 

 before London has any street of such perfectly 

 natural well adapted houses ; but the pretty rows 

 which are now filling up Hampstead and many 

 other favorite suburbs may encourage one to hope 

 that in the course of time even the gloomy Eng- 

 lish streets may acquire a little more brightness, 

 variety, and interest than has ever hitherto char- 

 acterized the productions of British architecture. 



