THE SQUARES, PLAGES, CHURCH GARDENS, ETC. 83 



labyrinths^ if we saw them crowded on summer evenings with 

 the tradespeople and mechanics from the neighbouring 

 streets, and if the poor children who now grow up amid the 

 filth and impurities of the alleys and courts, were allowed to 

 run about these playgrounds, so much healthier both for the 

 body and the mind ! We have them all ready, a word may 

 open them. At present the gardens in our squares are 

 painful mementoes of aristocratic exclusiveness. They who 

 1 need them the least monopolize them. All the fences and 

 walls by which this exclusiveness bars itself out from the 

 sympathies of common humanity must be cast down.^-* The 

 aspect of this square with its wide walks lined with chairs, 

 on which hundreds of people sit and enjoy the scene at all 

 hours, but particularly in the evenings, would have well 

 realized this writer's ideal of what a square should be. Nor 

 have the richest potentates more beautiful or diverse 

 objects in their gardens than are here spread out for all who 

 will enjoy them. It is almost as attractive to the passer-by in 

 the street as to those inside, for instead of a clump of shrubs 

 of commonplace character, cutting it off from the view of the 

 passer-by, there is a belt of grass of varying width, kept 

 perfectly fresh and green, and on it here and there large • 

 beds and masses, usually distinct from each other. Now it 

 is a fine bed of the dwarf fan-palm, edged with Carludovica, 

 as much exposed to the street as to the square; now a 

 group of shade-giving hardy trees, furnished beneath with 

 neat evergreens, and finished off with a line or two of 

 flowers, next, a mixed bed of variegated Dahlias and other 

 tall autumn flowers, and so on. On the carpets of fresh 

 grass between these various clumps there are here and 

 there isolated trees — chestnuts, and the like, to give the 

 necessary shade and dignity, and to flower in their season. 

 In nearly every case the stems of these are neatly clothed 

 with climbers, generally ivy, occasionally Aristolochia and 

 Clematis. Very pretty effects may be worked out by using 

 the best climbers. But the grassy carpet is also ornamented 

 by smaller, though no less noble, things than the large 

 trees just mentioned. It is sparsely dotted with plants 

 having fine leaves, or distinct character. On one sweep we 



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