Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-10-13

wards and the buildings are dark
and grimy.
Inartistie Bridges.
Not that there is anything bright
or merely pretty about the Thames
at London. Il is cry different from
the Seine. II has none OF the artifi-
ciality Of the French river. None Of
the bridges glis.ens with gilt. 10
statues adorn them; their architec-
ture is unfortunate. The river they
span is too narrow for them to have
the grandeur of the bridges over the
East river and they were not built by
or for a nation which has always
been too artistic to tolerate even an
unlovely postage stamp. The Tower
Br dge, which is the last toward the
sea, was, moreover, deliberately made
a thing of offence. 1t is big and origi-
nal enough to be impressive, but as
an ar :hitectura! expert has pointed
out, it looks in its Gothic dress, which
apes the mediaeval castle, about az
ridiculous as a Navy in top hat
and frock coat.
London seems to have been
ashamed of these bridges, to have tried
rather to disguise than to decorate
them. Hence it is not bridges that
one goes ont on the swirl of yellow
eddies and traffic of the tidal Thames
to see. The old London Bridge,
which, like the Ponte Vecchio in
Florence, was disguised in the only
way in which a bridge can be effec-
lively disguised-by having a street of
houses built upon it--perished genera
tons ago. What the Thames gives
one is Whit of salt air and sight
of strange, unexpected beauties. No
where can one feel so well the atmos.
phere or hear the voice of London,
her two most distinctive features.
Nowhere are better views obtainable
of many of London's most striking
sights-of Westminster Abbey, of the
Houses of Parliament. of ST. Pauls, OF
the Tower, of Greenwich hospital.
Approach by Sea.
1t was said above that one ought to
follow the ebb Of the tide; but let ii
be added only as far as Greenwich
The lower reaches of the fifty miles
of river between London and the sea
ought to be seen in the other sense.
They are the gate to the city. One OF
the penalties the modern traveller
has to pay for the comforts of the
big liner is that he has to go ashore
at Tilbury if he tries to approach
London by water He leaves his
ship to spend an hour in what is
surely the dreariest railroad journey
on earth, over the Essex marshes and
through the eastern Sums" He is
brought into the city blind-folded
with his ears covered, through back
door, as it were, and he has wrong i'm
pressions imprinted upon his mind
during his confused moments in the
strange land spent in stations more
cept possibly those in Paris-and in
passing through monotonous, unknown
streets, impressions which he never
gets chance of removing. Whereas
were he to travel to London Bridge
by water, he would gradually be intro
duced to much Of what makes London
what it is.
After leaving Tilbury, II the vino
were in the east he would see what
/, George Meredith called London's "un
rivalled mezzotint" in the making, for
at Tilbury one first meets the murki
ness that for many days in the year
hangs over East London, even when
the streets of the West End are as
clear as those of New York on fine
autumn day. Then gradually come
tall chimneys, factories, docks, and in
the background rows and rows OF
streets of small monotonous houses
and the indescribable noise of all other
cities as French is from Dutch-the
sullen roar of much traffic on wood
pavements and upon the cobblestones
near the river.
London loses enormously from the
aesthetic point of view by being one
of the few seaports that one enters by
land. 1t loses, from the strangers
viewpoint, almost as much as New
York would were it suddenly thrust
upon him at Forty-second street, in
stead of being gradually unfolded to
him as he comes up from the sea
New York, Naples, Sydney, or san
Francisco, all have what is denied to
London-the chance of making a first
impression that will survive the mis-
cries of custom house and water side
Stun. Only in London is the first i'm.
preston absolutely the worst. I'm
fortunately 1t must remain so, but il
these resuscitated steamers can be
made 10 pay-they are to ply between
Chelsea above and Greenwich below
the fol- eiglIer will have a chance oil
correcting it. The "cockney'' had II
all put before him when the feet was
here a few weeks go. Even he was
surprised by the Ueauty of the river,
and the magnitude Of what it stands
fora. ". in New York Evening
Post
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