Telegram-herald., 1888-11-05
THE PARKS or LONDON.
Ugliness and Du.lusss of All ThinE'
Arouna-Wha Might lie Done

UeIiness and Du,lurss of All Things
Around-what Might lie Done.
It is not wonderful that the great people Of
London, doing 80 little for themselves 10 the
way Of decorative beauty, do nothing what
ever for the popuiace An ugly cucumber
frame like the Battersea Park hall, gaudily
colored, wagon drawn by poor suffering
horses and laden with shrieking children go
ing 10 Epping Forest; open air preachers
ranting hideousy Of hell and the devil; gin
palaces, music halls and the nariug gas jets
ON barrows Of rotten fruit, are all that Lon
don provides in the way Of enjoyment or dec
Grafton for its multitudes. To drive through
London anywhere is 10 feel ones eyes liter
ally ache with tho cruel ugliness and dullness
OF all things around, from the staring tbeatri-
cal posters on the walls TO the helmet OF the
burly policeman who takes half an hour 70
beat out dogs brains.
Yet so much might be done TO make Lon
don more picturesque at no very great cost.
The trees which make the Paris boulevards
such a glory Of green leaves IN May might
have their hkenesses in London streets
What an establishment would an avenue be
TO Pail Mall, TO Portland place, TO Regent
street, 70 Buckingham Palace road, To I've
hundred places Quantities Of trees planted
all about the houses of parliament would
take away that squalid and vulgar look which
disigures all the precincts Of those houses
and Of the noble abbey itself IL the many
old gardens Of the great houses which have
been pulled down had been preserved they
would have lent freshness verduro and dig
nifty to many thoroughfares OF London.
Hyde Park requires many more trees than it
is planted with, and all the roads south and
north OF it might with advantage have
avenues. Trees alone would remove the
awful newnes, nakedneSs and weight Of
bricks and stucco which lie like lead on the
soul as one drives through Cromwell road,
Ennismore Gardens and all the rest Of the
stony Wilderness OF South Kensington.
Then music, again, might easily be heard
in the open air much oftener than it is If the
military bands Of the Household brigade, in
stead Of being allowed 10 play for hire at
pigeon shooting and horticultural fetes, and
balls, private and public, and those various
other innumerable engagements that take
them here, there and everywhere were made
u play for the public in the metropolis every
day in different quarters. To cite ones more
the example of Munich how delightful the
frequent bursts OF military music at al hours
make that pleasant city, what gsyety IT
lends 70 civic life, what d pleasure II gives to
the very pooresti And how easy and how
wise it would be 70 give the same gsyety. the
same pleasure to the jaded London crovdsi
When saw tho London people watching
and waiting so good hnu1osedly for n small
platoon of Life Guards aud few close car
ringes containing the royal family to pass on
their way TO a railway station, ! thought
what pity il was not 10 give that unseiish
and good nstured crowd more out Of door
cautious enjoyment: not the sentimental
trash Of peoples palaces, which only NEW
thom up under q roof and make Pecksnif-
| Pasteurs out of them, but such enjoyment rs
one sees in the crowds of Paris, OF Vienna, Of
Brussels, or 500 smaller cities all over Eu-
rope Some ladies in bonnsts, some gentle
men in tall hats, with a detachment OF two
Of heavy cavalry, is all that the London
multItgdes see ia the way Of royal progress.
! That they look out for this il an instance Of
that exceeding good nature and faculty for
being amused BY small things which are two
| qualities in them most unwisely. but most
continually, neglected by their rulers v O.
mans World