148 ARCHITECTURE. , BOOK I. 



an inferior scale at Musselburgh and Prestonpans; the latter 

 two being sea-port towns on a broken irregular shore. Some- 

 times different circumstances may first point out the propriety 

 of making them straight, as on a level plain of limited extent 

 which is to be covered with buildings. This is exemplified in 

 the new town of Edinburgh ; or on the side of a regularly 

 sloped hill, as in the new town of Glasgow, where the streets 

 run parallel to each other, and horizontally across the slope of 

 the hill. When the streets are straight, they may always be 

 varied by projections either of private houses or public edifices, 

 as in the High-street of Edinburgh, and Holborn, in London ; 

 and whatever may be the form of the street, its beauty will 

 always be heightened by the occurrences of such buildings as 

 present themselves to view in the High-street of Oxford. 



In cases of straight streets crossing each other at right 

 angles, where breaks might not be advisable on account of 

 what is now become general, sunk areas, porches should be 

 placed in front of each door, reaching from the wall of the 

 house to the pavement. The roofs of these porches should be 

 supported either by columns or solid walls of masonry, which 

 last would in general be more suitable with the houses of private 

 individuals in the middling classes, and would even have an 

 excellent effect in the best houses and streets. Porches of this 

 kind should have a Jarge door towards the street, and a window 



