on the Site of Smithfield Market. 3201 



covered with noxious factories or dense rows of an inferior kind of 

 houses. No one will build good houses there, simply because in 

 such a situation they would not pay. Thus the mass of brick and 

 mortar would become yet more prodigious, the locality still more con- 

 fined, the atmosphere still more unwholesome, the neighbourhood, if 

 possible, still more degraded. On the other hand, this vast garden, 

 frequented as it would be by a superior class of people, would im- 

 prove the condition of the neighbourhood; gin-shops and beer-shops 

 and thieves' kitchens, all of which may now be said to have their me- 

 tropolis in the Smithfield district, would disappear, and the neigh- 

 bourhood would improve until it became on a level with other parts 

 of the metropolis. Support therefore may be expected from all the 

 better class of inhabitants; they will welcome the new comer, and 

 bid bon voyage to the departing disreputable dependents on drunken- 

 ness, filth, and theft. 



Objections. — The first objection, and the only one that can be made 

 by the public, is this, — " Your scheme is very fine on paper, but it 

 can't be carried out : no plants would grow in such an atmosphere." 

 Leaving the ulterior difficulties of obtaining the site and the money 

 open for future consideration, I will address myself solely to the prac- 

 ticability of growing plants on such a site. I, then, unhesitatingly 

 pronounce that I would grow the most delicate plants without any 

 difficulty in the centre of Smithfield Market, amidst all its filth and 

 traffic, with the assistance of glass only. The most delicate and ten- 

 der plant with which I am acquainted grew luxuriantly for four years 

 in the room in which I am now writing, in a dark, narrow, close, and 

 dirty street in one of the worst localities in London. But I am well 

 aware that a projector is too ready to paint everything couleur de rose, 

 and therefore I have fortified my cause with the highest opinion ob- 

 tainable on such a subject, that of Mr. Ward, so well known as the 

 inventor of the method of growing plants in closed cases, and who 

 succeeded so wonderfully at his late residence in Wellclose Square. 

 Here is Mr. Ward's reply to my inquiry, accompanying a proof of 

 the foregoing, as to whether the locality presented any obstacle to my 

 plan : — 



" My dear Mr. Newman, — I received with much pleasure your note 

 respecting your intended plan of converting one of the greatest nui- 

 sances of London into a closed garden, a regular oasis in the desert. 

 It would be difficult to point out any situation where such a scheme 

 would be of so much utility as on the site you have chosen. I cannot 

 IX. 2 F 



