Chap. IX.] AVENUES AND BOULEVARDS. 135 



wide as an avenue, before some ptiblic-house ; but the^moment he 

 arrives at a densely-populated part, the dead rabbits, sheep, &c., 

 thrust out from the shops into the few feet of crowded footway, 

 oblige him to dodge so often among the manure-carts and 

 omnibuses of the narrow crowded street that, if he has ever 

 seen anything like a decently-arranged city, he will be forced to 

 admit that suburbs of London, miles in extent, have received less 

 attention as to design than a cottager bestows upon his little 

 garden, or a designer of wall-paper on his rudest patterns. From 

 a like, or even a worse, condition our neighbours have by spirited 

 improvements been delivered, and in a very short time. 



The boulevards of Paris are, generally speaking, so very much 

 alike that to describe them in detail is needless. From house to 

 house they are usually, in the most-frequented parts, over 100 

 feet wide, occasionally reaching between 130 and 140 feet, and 

 even much wider than this in the outer boulevards, which are 

 sometimes large enough for half a dozen lines of trees, in addition 

 to very wide footways, and perhaps two minor side roads, besides a 

 broad central one, as in the Avenue de la Grande Armee. The 

 footways of the most-frequented .boulevards are about twenty-six 

 feet wide on each side, and sometimes more. But, notwith- 

 standing their general similarity, there are a few distinctive 

 enough for special mention, and among these none more so than 

 the Boulevard Eichard Lenoir, which runs from the Place de la 

 Bastille to the Eue du Faubourg du Temple. This often escapes 

 observation from visitors, as the Boulevard Beaumarchais drains 

 most of the traffic from the Bastille to the fashionable boulevards ; 

 but it is one of the most remarkable in Paris, and more than 

 usually ornamental. It is nearly 2000 yards long, and is in 

 great part built over a canal. It was thought desirable to cover 

 a large portion of the canal, and to make a wide boulevard over 

 this huge bridge, in order to facilitate the traffic and improve the 

 appearance of the district. It became necessary to have venti- 

 lating and lighting shafts for the canal, and eighteen pairs of these 

 openings occur in the course of its length. These have been 

 ingeniously and tastefully hidden by eighteen little railed-in 

 parterres. In these the openings, which are wired over, are 

 surrounded by a thick low hedge of Euonymus or some close 

 evergreen, so that no opening of any kind is exposed to the 



