LONDON. 181 



tion of the owner, and not for that of casual passers-by.* The house, nevertheless, 

 is a hospitable one. If its outer walls are blackened with soot, the steps leading 

 up to the door are irreproachably clean, and it is the pride and ambition of London 

 housewives to keep them so. 



Farther west, in the district of Marylebone, the houses are higher, the areas 

 wider and deeper, and open squares planted with trees more numerous, for we 

 there already find ourselves in a quarter largely inhabited by the wealthier middle 

 class. During last century Marylebone was the aristocratic quarter, which has 

 now moved westward, to the neighbourhood of Hyde Park and Kensington 

 Gardens, Belgravia being looked upon as its centre. In this part of the town 

 every square or street presents itself architectually as a whole. There are streets 

 lined uninterruptedly for half a mile and more with porticoed houses, all apparently 

 forming part of one huge building. Elsewhere the residences are detached, but 

 they still resemble each other in size and architectural accessories, such as balconies 

 and conservatories. The genius of the architects is only occasionally allowed to 

 reveal itself in tome separate building. Acres, nay, square miles, are covered with 

 houses designed on the same pattern, as if they had come out of the hands of the 

 same artisan, like the chalets in a Swiss toy-box. Their stairs and fireplaces 

 occupy similar positions ; their mouldings and decorations have been supplied in 

 thousands by the same manufacturer. On entering such a house, Ihere is no need 

 for a searching examination ; its internal arrangements are rigidly determined in 

 advance, and their regularity is greater than that of the cells in a beehive. Such is 

 the inevitable result of tho employment of large capital in the simultaneous 

 construction of hundreds of houses. An exploration of the new quarters, which 

 cover so considerable a portion of the county of Middlesex to the west of older 

 London, makes us marvel at the large number of men rich enough to live in such 

 luxurious dwellings. Broad flights of steps, carefully kept front gardens, rare 

 flowers, marble terraces, and plate-glass windows enable us to judge of the wealth 

 of the interiors ; and certes, if we enter one of these houses, we find that carpets, 

 curtains, and every article of furniture is of the most substantial quality. 



Several of the palatial residences in the older parts of the town were left 

 behind when the aristocracy efiected their exodus to the westward, and they now 

 rise like islands in the midst of the quarters invaded by commercial London. 

 Even Buckingham Palace and the royal palace of St. James lie to the eastward 

 of Belgravia, but the latter of these is merely used on rare occasions of state, 

 whilst Buckingham Palace is perfectly isolated, being surrounded by parks and 

 royal private gardens. As to the club-houses, which on account of their noble 

 proportions and architectural merits are undoubtedly amongst the great ornaments 

 of London, they have naturally been built in that part of the town where parlia- 

 mentary, aristocratic, and commercial London approach nearest to each other. 

 St. James's Park bounds this " London of the Clubs " in the south. Regent Street 

 in the east, and Piccadilly, one of the great scats of the retail trade, in the north. 



* We fancy windows in London ai-c kept closed to prevent the entrance of dust, and prized flowers are 

 not exposed on the window-sill because the London atmosphere does not usually agree with them. Id. 



