H ouse and Garden 
AN OLD STREET OF ALCESTER, ENGLAND 
remembrance that the picturesqueness, which 
is so strong a factor in it, must have been 
largely accidental—as picturesqueness is wont 
to be—and that the homogeneity of archi¬ 
tecture was a result that did not have here 
to be strived for, will not dissipate the im¬ 
pression. 
In an old street of Alcester there is so 
little of the element of consciously sought 
beauty that, if we shut our eyes to romantic 
picturesqueness, we may imagine ourselves 
in quite a primitive street, as 
far as street evolution in Eng¬ 
land goes. There is the con¬ 
struction of walk, road and 
sewer, that is considered es¬ 
sential for the modern street; 
but it is all rudimentary. The 
w j alks are very narrow and are 
of brick. The curb is simply 
a row ot bricks differentlv ar¬ 
ranged. The roadway seems 
to have no more ambitious 
pavement than well-packed 
gravel. The one street light 
projects from a house. But 
the thoroughfare has that de¬ 
lightful curve of which we 
Americans were so much afraid 
in our early plotting of streets. 
I he street of Salford seems 
yet more primitive, for “here 
there is no pretense of pave¬ 
ment and the walk is but a 
path at the road’s side, distin¬ 
guished from it because at a 
little higher level. But the 
vegetation, which is rich and 
green in England’s moisture, 
crowds upon the way, and 
there appears none of the 
early notion, which with us had 
so laboriously to be overcome, 
that to make a street there 
must be made a desert. In 
the views through the pictur¬ 
esque arch of Evesham this 
example is reenforced, for 
though the street is very urban, 
with its solid pavement and 
close building, there is room 
for the soft drapery of the vine 
and for the beauty of the tree. 
It would seem as if, in the national devel¬ 
opment of streets, something of the national 
temperament had entered. With us the 
course of progress lies through directness, 
practicalness, convenience. There is care¬ 
lessness of appearance, if the ends of travel 
be met; and it is not until the better accom¬ 
modation of these demands requires, first 
ease, and then pleasantness in the way of 
going, that the street’s aspect is given serious 
attention. In older England, with its less 
AN OLD STREET AT SALFORD, ENGLAND 
