Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-07-23
LONDON NOT BEAUTIFUL.


1
| London Cor. Boston Herald
London Is not . beautiful metropolis in the
sense in which many Of the continental cities
are beautiful. The great business centers
and thoroughfares are somber and dark, and
even dismal The buildings whether Of
stone, brick or stucco, have a veneering Of
SCOT, and q cloud Of smoke hangs over the
city for long weeks and even months at a
time. One must go into the suburbs Of Lon
don-fve miles out from these great
buspess centcrs and thoroughfares, where
the houses stand in their own grounds
before one gets away from these gloomy
| and, to the eye, outwardly inhospit-
able homes. Even in the fashionable and
cristocratic Mayfair the houses are built in
long, monotonous rows, and for the most
part Of black bricks, or Of bricks that have
grown black with the smoke and fogs Of
hundred years.
London, on the outside, is not at first pleas
ing to the stranger, as Paris or Vienna is
pleasing One must know the associations
and traditions Of its many historic localities,
and must also know OF its treasures in every
department OF art and literature, to fan in
love with this dear old grimy, frowning Lon.
dom But the interior OF the London home
Is usually Is lovely and CHEEKY as the exterior
is unlovely and gloomy. Go out FIVE miles
in almost any direction from Charing Cross,
and you will come upon villas and mansions,
standing in their own exquistely kept grounds,
and here in the surburbs you get the
love!iest home on earth. The outside is
lovely, and the inside lovelier still. But in
London proper-the London that the casual
traveller sees and knows-is, for the most
RI and ,,r1., all.
the most fashionable quarters Of Belgravia,
through miles and miles Of streets Of great
tall, old-fashioned black, brick mansions. one
would have no notion of the beauty, and, of
course, in cases, the splsndor of those homes
Fifteen years ago the aristocratic families
Of England we're much more conservative
in all things than they are at the present
time. And in no one matter were they more
so than in the appointments and furnishings
Of their homes When l was first guest in
English houses, the inside was as heavy and
formal as was the outside. Ten years ago
the furniture was usually of very dark
mahogany or Of black oak Some of
course. was very old, and all of
it was cumbrous and inartistic Many OF
the old families still cling to this style of
house furnishing, and lovingly treat every
table and chair as an heirloom, and would
hardly for their lives sake remand these TO
the lumber-room. But even aristocratic
England h not 80 conservative as it used to
be. England does change. London does
move. Science, art and cunning workman
ship have all united to make the London
home as beautiful on the inside as it is ugly
on the outside. Household decoration has
been carried about as far in London as |
wealth and taste could ever well demand or |
suggest So far has it been carried that |
opine distinct reaction must soon set in. |
There will never be return to ugliness and |
deformity, but let US hope, to greater sim |
plicity and fitness, which will also be q re- |
turn to q Christian economy