178 ÏUE BKITISn ISLES. 



quarters, all differing in aspect and popidation. London, unlike Paris in this 

 respect, has no collective personality. It is not, strictly speaking, a town at all, 

 I)ossessed of a well-defined individuality, and differing in any marked way from 

 the towns in any other parts of Great Britain. Its growth has been too rapid to 

 enable it to develop a well detined character of its own. Like a plant whose sap 

 rises too quickl)', it has not displayed the firmness of contour and special phy- 

 siognomy which are the characteristics of organisms of slower growth. London, 

 very unlike Paris and most of the great cities of the continent, has not grown 

 around a kernel, but is an agglomeration of distinct towns, amongst which the 

 City of London, AVestminster, and Greenwich were the most considerable. The 

 vast metropolis is the outcome of a combination of numerous towns and villages 

 placed in contiguit}'^ to each other. This mode of growth prevented London from 

 acquiring a distinct personality. It is, above all, an assemblage of distinct worlds 

 — worlds of warehouses, banks, factories, princely residences and villas — each world 

 having its proper physiognomy and history. It is an organism with several centres of 

 life, such as are typified by the Houses of Parliament, Charing Cross, the Bank 

 of England, and the Docks. But nevertheless nearly all its quarters agree in this — 

 that their houses are constructed of the same material and covered with the same 

 layer of grime resulting from the smoke-laden fogs. Though London occupies 

 a geological basin similar to that of Paris, it does not enjoy the advantage of 

 having quarries of limestone and gypsum in its neighbourhood. Hence most of 

 its houses are built of brick, and the stone for the more monumental buildino-s 

 has to be brought from quarries situated at an immense distance. The rocks of 

 Yorkshire furnished the limestone required for the construction of the Houses 

 of Parliament ; Portland supplied the materials for St. Paul's and many other 

 buildings. The Tower of London is built of Caen stone, for it was in their duchy 

 of Xormandy that the early Kings of England sought the materials required for 

 raising their palaces and fortresses. Even now a considerable number of vessels 

 annually leave the basin of the Orne laden with stone for London builders. But 

 the granite and limestone of the monumental buildings are covered with the same 

 coating of grime which disfigures the meaner houses. The showers of soot 

 discolour even the leaves of trees, the lawns and garden flowers, and a few years 

 suffice to blacken the walls of buildings. It is matter for surprise that rich 

 Englishmen, so scrupulously careful of the cleanliness of their persons and homes, 

 should not have adopted more extensively the Portuguese and Brazilian fashion of 

 covering their houses with glazed bricks, which can be washed. In the finer 

 quarters of the ^Vest-end, however, such bricks are gradually coming into vogue. 



London, like most other European towns, expands principally towards the 

 west, for it is from that direction that the purifying westerly winds blow 

 during the greater part of the year. There are, however, other circumstances 

 which have caused London to grow in the direction of the setting sun. The soil 

 on that side is solid, whilst swampy lowlands stretch out towards the east ; the 

 Thames above London Bridge can be crossed more easily than below it; and houses 

 have been built in preference in localities where the communication between bank 



