The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-07-02
london NOT BEAUTIFUL.
o,ba Extertors Gloomy, DuC tne
Interiors Lovely ana
| CHEEKY.
Detroit Free Press.l

detroit Free AAoH"i
London is not a DeautI!u, iuolopo
1;s in The sense in which many o
I'M continental cities are beautiful
the great business th0roughfares anc
centers are sOmbre and dark, anC
even dismal. The buildings, whethel
If store. brick or stuccO, nave q
~veneering of SCOT, IL a ciouu y
smoke hangs v the city Tor !onp
weeks and EVEN months at y tlihe'
One must 90 into the suburbs OF Lon.
d0n-fiye miles out from these great
business centers and thoroughfares,
wnere the houses stand in their own
prounds-befOre one gets away from
these gloomy and, 10 the eye, out
wardIy inhospitable homes. Even In
| the fashionable and arlstocfatlc May
| fair the houses are built IN long,
| monotonous rows, and for the most
| part of black bricks, or of bricks that
nave grown black with the smoke
and togs of 4 hundred years..
London, on the outside, ls not at
first pleasing to the stranger. as Paris
or Vienna is pleasing. One must
know the associations and'traditlons
of its many historic localities, and
must also know 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 the London home is
usually as lovely and CHEEKY as the
exterior is unlovely and gloomy. Go
out five mi es 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 ofstree,s
of great, tall, old. fashioned black
brick mansions, one would have no
of the beauty, and, Of course,
the splendor of those homes.
Fifteen years ago the aristocratic |
of England were much more
conservative in all things than they
are at the present time. And i'll no
one matter were they more 50 than
in the appointments and furnishings
Of their homes. When I Was first a
guest in English hou~es the inside
was as heavy and formal as was the
outside. Ten years ago the furniture
was usually of very dark mahogany
OF black oak. Some, of course,
was very old, and all of it was cum
Drous and inartistic. Many of the
Did 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 tie lumber room.
But yen ~aristocratic England is not
10 conservative as it used to be. Eng
aid does change. London does
move. Science, art and cunning
workmanship have all united tomake
he London home as beautiful on the
inside as it is ugly On the outside.
decoration has been ear
led about as far in London as wealth
nd taste could ever we'll demand or
uggest. So far has it been carried
hat l opine a distinct reaction must
SET in. There will never be a
eturn to ugliness and deformity, but
us hope to greater simplicity and
which will also be a return to
Christian economy.