The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-07-05
LONDON NoT BEAUTIFUL.
The Exteriors Gloomy, but the In
teriors Lovely aud CHEEKY.

London is not q beautiful metropo.
lis, in the sense in which many OF
the continental cities are beautiful.
The great business thorOughfares and
centtrs are sombre and dark, and
even dismal. The buildings, whether
| of stone, brick OF sfuccO, have .
yeueeriDg of SCOT, and a cloud OF
smoke hangs over the city for long
weeks and ever months at q time
One must 60 into the suburbs OF
don-fve miles out from these great
| business centers and thorOughfares,
where the houses stand in their own
| grounds before cne gets away from
these gloomy and, 10 the eye, out
, wardls inhospitatle homes. Even In
| the fashionable and arl>rOcfatlc May
| fair the houses are butt III long,
monolUnous rowe, aud for The mos
part of black bricks, or Of bricks that
nave grown black with the smoke
aud toys of q hundred years.
London, on the outside, is not at
first pleasing to the stranger as Paris
or Vienna is pleasing. Ole must
know the associations and traditions
of its many historic localities, and
must also knew of its treasures in
every department of art and litera-
ture, to fall in love with this dear
old, grimy, ~frowning London. But
the interior OF tae London home is
usually as lovely and CHEEKY AZ the
exterior is unlovely and gloomy. 60
out five mics in almost any direction
from Charing Cross, and you will
come upon villas and mansions,
standing in their own ex-
quisitely kept grounds, and here
in the suburbs you get the
loveliest homes on earth. The out
side is lovely, and the inside lovelier
still. But in London proper. the
London that the casual traveller sees
and knows, is, for the most part, dis
NAL and ugly. Walking through the
most fashionable quarters of Belgra-
via, through miles and miles Of DISTRICTS
of great, tall, old. fashioned black
brick mansions, n would have no
notion of the beauty, and, Of course,
the splendor of those homes.
Fifteen years ago the aristocratic
families of England were much more
conservative in all things than they
dlC al LuC plCSCAV INV &uN -
one matter were they more so than
in the appointments and furnishings
of their homes. When / was first a
guest in English houses the inside
was as heavy and formal as vas 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 cum
brous and inartistic. Many Of the
old families still cling to this kind of
house furnishing. and lovingly treat
every table and chair as an heirloom,
and would hardly for their lives sake
these to the lumber room.
But even aristocratic England is not
o conservative as it used to he. Eng
and does change. London does
move. Science, art and cunning
have all united t0make
he London home as beautiful on the
inside as it is ugly on the outside.
decoration has been car
led about as far in London al wealth
md taste could ever we'll demand or
uggest. So far has it been carried
nat | 0pine a distinct reaction must
DON set in. There will never be a
eturn to ugliness and deformity, but
ct us hope to greater simplicity and
illness, which will also be a return to
Christian economy.