Chap. IX.] AVENUES AND BOULEVARDS. 137 



them, but to prevent them from staring forth nakedly in the 

 midst of the quiet of the garden. These buildings are chiefly for 

 concerts, cafes, etc., and are wholly out of place in such a position ; 

 this noble avenue is in fact blighted by a crowd of petty theatres, 

 etc., which should have no place therein. Were the avenue at 

 some distance from the streets, there might be some reason to 

 give place in it to a number of insignificant buildings, but as 

 matters are there is none whatever. This system of introducing 

 paltry structures, statues, fountain-basins and water-spouting 

 apparatus in the public gardens and parks ought to be jealously 

 watched by those who care more for the garden than for stones 

 or slates. It would be easy to point out places already much 

 defaced in this way. 



It was only in 1860 that the garden of the Champs Elysees 

 was laid out, and yet it looks long-established, has many good 

 specimens of Conifers, Magnolias, etc., numerous large and well- 

 made banks and beds of Ehododendrons, Azaleas, Hollies, and the 

 best shrubs and trees generally, with abundant room for planting 

 summer-flowers, chiefly, however, as margins to the clumps of 

 shrubs. The gardens finish at the Eond Point, a circular open 

 space, in which there are large beds for flowers, fountains, etc., 

 disfigured, however, by the undulations which some poor little 

 bits of grass are made to assume. Useless and unnatural 

 diversification of the ground in some small spaces, and the 

 grouping together of too many things in one mass, are weak 

 points in the gardening of Paris. 



The Place de I'Etoile, with its surroundings, is precisely the 

 reverse of our own efforts in like positions— its breadth, dignity, 

 and airiness contrasting strikingly with the narrowness, mean- 

 ness, and closeness of the arrangements in our so very much 

 larger and busier London. 



In contrast to this remarkable city-avenue garden that in the 

 Eegent's Park deserves notice, the site being even better than 

 that in Paris. No such opportunity for noble improvement of 

 this kind exists in any city of Europe as in London. And there 

 is not even any such expense required as would be the case if 

 the space were covered with houses. Portland Place is broad 

 enough to allow of planting a line of trees on either side of the 

 roadway, which would give it almost the aspect of a Parisian 



