CHAPTER IX 
SQUARES 
Fountains and Trees our wearied Pride do please, 
Even in the midst of Gilded Palaces ; 
And in our Towns, that Prospect gives Delight, 
Which opens round the Country to our Sight . 
—Lines in a Letter from Sprat to Sir Christopher 
Wren on the Translation of Horace. 
OTHING is more essentially cha¬ 
racteristic of London than its 
squares. They have no exact 
counterpart in any foreign city. 
The iron railings, the enclosure 
of dusty bushes and lofty trees, 
with wood-pigeons and twittering 
sparrows, have little in common 
with, say for instance, the Place Vendome in Paris, 
or the Grand’ Place in Brussels, or Madison Square, 
New York. The vicissitudes of some of the London 
Squares would fill a volume, but most of them have 
had much the same origin. They have been built 
with residential houses surrounding them, and though 
some have changed to shops, and in others the houses 
are dilapidated and forsaken by the wealthier classes, 
nearly every one has had its day of popularity. 
In some of those now deserted by the world 
of fashion, the gardens have been opened to the 
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