JUNE 343 



to all those they employ; so my sympathy to a certain 

 extent goes with the difficulties of the Italian Govern- 

 ment, who have to consider the material benefit to the 

 city and its people that may come from wider streets and 

 bridges. When I see protests such as have appeared 

 lately in the columns of our newspapers,' a feeling of 

 shame always comes over me at the wholesale destruction 

 that has gone on within my memory in our own poor 

 old London, and which few people think about, — for 

 instance, the destruction of Temple Bar, because it was 

 thought too expensive to make a road each side of it. 

 Also the clearing away of sixteen or eighteen of Wren's 

 beautiful churches. I would far rather see them used in 

 some way for the people's good than destroyed. I can- 

 not see why they should not be put to some useful 

 service, as the monasteries and convents have been in 

 France and Italy. If this is sacrilege, surely it is much 

 more so wantonly to destroy ! At least, we might still 

 have the beautiful spires of the kind which Mr. Watson 

 describes : 



It soars like hearts of hapless men who dare 

 To sue for gifts the gods refuse to allot ; 



Who climb forever toward they know not where, 

 Bafled forever by they know not what. 



Not to speak of the hideous spoiling of the Thames 

 by the railway and other bridges, narrow streets and old 

 houses are constantly pulled down. Only the other day 

 the picturesque almshouses of Westminster ceased to 

 exist. Last, but not least, Wren's work is being disfig- 

 ured, as most people feel, by the modern decorations in 

 St. Paul's. I often wish a deputation of infiuential 

 Italians, with a petition signed by hundreds of non- 

 influential names, would come here and protest against 

 this destruction of old buildings and our many other 



