Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-11-03
THE PARKS or LONDON.
ugliness and Dizziness of All Thing

ugliness and Dizziness of All Things
Around-what Might Be Done.
It Is not wonderful that the great people Of
London doing.s little for themselves in tile
wy Of decorative hearty, do nothing what
a. or for the populace. An ugly cucumber
+, snle like the Battersea Park hall, gaudiiy
c, lored; q wagon drawn by poor suffering
horses and laden with shrieking children go
iIg to Epping Forest; open air preachers
r,.nting hideously Of hell and tho devil; gin
palaces, music halls and the haring gas jets
on barrows of rotten fruit ore all that Lon
don provides in the way of enjoyment or dec
grafton for its multitudes. To drive through
London anywhere Is to feel ones. eyes liter
ally ache with the cruel ugliness and dullness
Of all things around, from the staring theatre
cul posters ON the walls to tho helmet of tic
burly policeman who takes half an hour to
beat out dogs brains
Yet 50 much might be done TO mako Lon
don more picturesque at no very great cost.
Tho trees which mako tho Paris boulevar6s
such glory OF gree;i leaves in May might
hove their likeliesses in London streeta
What OH establishment would an avenue DO
to Pail Mall, to Portland place, to Regent
street, to Buckingham Palace road, to five
hundred places Quantities of trees planted
al about the houses Of parliament would
to ke away that squalid and vulgar look which
30 disflgures all tho precincts OF those houses
aud OF tho noble abbey itself. If the mary
old gardens OF tho great houses which have
been pulled down had been preserved they
would have lent freshness, verdure and dig
zity to many thoroughfares of London
HYDE Park requires mduy more trees than it
Is planted with, and all the roods south and
north or it might with advantage have
avenues Trees alone would remoyo tho
awful ncwiicss, nakedness and weight Of
bricks and srucco which lie lilio lead on the
soul as one drives through Cromwell road,
Ennislnore Gardens and all tho rast of tie
stony wilderness Of South Kensington.
Then music, asaih, might easily bo heard
IN tho open air much ortener than it Is II tho
military bands Of the Houschoid brigade, in
stead Of being allowed to play for hire at
pigeon Shooting and Horticultural fetes, and
balls, private and public, and those various
ether innumerabe engagements that tnko
then, hero, there and everywhere, wcro made
To play for tho public in tue metropolis every
day In different quarters. To cito oncc moro
the example of Munich, how delightful tho
frequent bursts of military music at all hours
make TINT pleasant city, what goycty it
lends to civic lifc what a pleasure it gives TO
tie very poorcst And how easy end how
wise it would DO to give the amo gnycfy, TIE
sarno pleasure to tho iadcd London crowds!
When SOW tho London pcope watching
and wairing so good hnnoredly for small
p!atoon Of Life Guards and fer close car
riages containing the royal family to PASS on
their. way to II railway station, thought
what pity it wis not to give tl:at unscfis.i
and good nntui;ed crowd more cut OF door
gatuitous enjoyment: not the sentimental
trash Of peoples palaces, which only new
them up under roof and mako Pec!;snlf-
Pasteuls out Of them, but such enjoyment as
one sees In tho crowds of Paris, of Vienna, Of
Brussels, or 500 smaller cities all over En-
rope Some Indies in bonnets some Gcntle-
men in tall hats with detachment or two
of heavy cavalry: is all that the London
multitudcs SEQ III the way of royal progress
That they lool, out for this is nm instance OF
shat exceeding good nature and faculty for
being amused by small things which are two
qualities in them most unwisoly, but most
continually, neglected by their rulers-Wo-
mans World