INTRODUCTION. 



xxiii 



could not make tliem beautiful and grateful to the eye of 

 taste by the use of hardy materials which require no costly 

 annual attention after planting, they should be considered 

 unworthy of their posts. Where space could not be afforded 

 for a little expanse of the ever- welcome turf, even a spot of 

 gravelled earth with trees overhead, and a few seats around, 

 would be a real improvement. The Parisian system of 

 managing squares, described in Chapter VI., is infinitely 

 superior to ours, and must sooner or later be adopted with us. 

 Of course its adoption need not necessarily interfere with 

 the private squares, but it should be tried on a small scale at 

 the earliest opportunity. 



In connexion with small squares, we may consider the 

 city graveyards; and nothing can be more ill-considered 

 than the mutilations that have in several cases been con- 

 sidered necessary before making gardens of them. Every 

 churchyard can be embellished, without uprooting bones^ 

 removing headstones, or anything of the kind. 



In the creation of tree-planted streets in the more 

 crowded parts both of London proper and the suburbs, 

 they should not as a rule be formed on the site of old 

 and much frequented streets, but, so far as possible, pierced 

 between them, leaving the largest and mostpopulous thorough- 

 fares of the present day to become the secondary ones of the 

 future. As is pointed out in the chapter on trees suitable 

 for cities, properly selected kinds grow perfectly well in all 

 parts of London. Indeed I know of no city where I could 

 find finer examples of old trees, chiefly in ancient private 

 gardens and half-hidden squares, where they never received 

 any attention after planting. The excellent system of plant- 

 ing trees on every available spot practised to such a great 

 extent in Paris, should be commenced and carried out as far 

 as possible in our cities. It must be long before we can 

 attempt anything like the magnificent boulevards of our neigh- 

 bours, but let us insert the thin end of the wedge here and 

 there, and perhaps some day we shall have streets to be proud 

 of. In beginning, it is of the highest importance that we 

 avoid as far as possible the meanness and narrowness charac- 

 teristic of our style of making street, road, and footway. 



