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Ill K

MAJ E ST Y

I) I

L O- N I) O N

Edea.

EDWIN Dl-. 1,1S1. l£

TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD JOHN MANNERS,
G.C.B., P.C, D.C.L.,
FIRST MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR MELTON,
SOMETIME CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF WORKS AND PARKS,
HER MAJESTY'S
POSTMASTER-GENERAL ;
SINCE 1 841 AT THE HUSTINGS AND IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
TORY, AND TRUE
TO THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL PROGRESS,
UNION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE,
FOR LIBERTY AT HOME, AND DOMINION ABROAD ;
DURING ONE QUARTER OF THE CENTURY
MEMBER FOR NORTH LEICESTERSHIRE;
NOW FOR THE FIFTH TIME A CABINET MINISTER ;
THIS ENDEAVOUR TO STIMULATE THE PRIDE AND INTEREST
OF THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM IN
THE MAJESTY OF LONDON,
THE CONVENIENCE OF TRAFFIC,
AND THE RECREATION OF THE PEOPLE,
IS HUMBLY INSCRIBED BY HIS LORDSHIP's
MOST FAITHFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,
EDWIN DE LISLE.

Cl)e jS^ajestp of JLontion.

En hujus, nate, auspiciis ilia inclyta Roma
Imperium terris, animos aequabit Olympo,
Septemque una sibi muro circumdabit arces
Felix prole virum. — yEneid, vi.
Never since the world began hath so vast a city
covered the earth with 700,000 contiguous houses, as
doth the metropolitan area of London to-day. Within a
circle,, described by a fifteen-mile radius drawn from
Charing Cross, a space of some 700 square miles, the
capital of the British Empire, there dwell together
nearly five millions of men ; and it is computed that no
less than 800,000 persons, engaged in business, each day
enter and leave the 632 acres, which, like Rome of old,
boast the name of Ciiy. Here every inch of land pos
sesses a marketable value ; and I am told this value would
be adequately expressed if the ground were covered with
sovereigns sterling. It is no light thing, therefore, to
propose street improvements in any part of London,
still less so in the neighbourhood of the stately dome,
which crowns with majesty the highest point of the
queen-city of the earth. But the surroundings of the
metropolitan cathedral are a standing reproach to the
City and to England. Mean beyond words are the

8 The Majesty of London,
narrow streets, grimy passages, overcrowded thorough
fares, wretched buildings, which cluster round a spot
which might well become the most splendid in the
empire ; and painful is the contrast between them and the
solemn stateliness, the lofty repose, the classic beauty of
Sir Christopher Wren's unequalled fane. Justly dear to
every Englishman, the monument of the Restoration,
the witness of our personal freedom, a proof of Anglican
piety, St. Paul's Cathedral affords testimony to that noble
spirit of self-reliance, which has been no small factor
in the making of England. Moreover, St. Paul's is
the tombstone of Tudor tyranny, of Puritanism, and
persecuting fanaticism ; for since the day when Old
St. Paul's fell in the great fire of London, in the year of
the great plague 1666, to combine the perfection of civil
and religious liberty at home with a policy of Imperial
dominion abroad, ever fostering the growth and expan
sion of a world-wide and beneficent colonial system, has
been the study and achievement of Ministers of the
Crown, acting in unison with the chosen Representatives
of the people.
During the last five months of peaceful progress and
consistent political purpose, it has been my pleasure to
walk every day from Piccadilly to the Post Office. It
has been impossible not to notice certain defects in the
very heart of London, which cry out for immediate re
moval. I do not touch upon the question of the better
housing of the poor, for that is already in wise and sym
pathetic hands ; but I venture to call attention to certain
opportunities for the development of the London road
system which may never recur in our generation. And
if it be urged that schemes such as I propose are ex-

The Majesty of London. 9
travagant and inopportune, I reply that it is a principle
of true economy that improvements tend to beget further
improvements, and that the experience of the purchase
of the site of Northumberland House, which has now
been turned to such magnificent and remunerative ad
vantage, confirms the belief that every local improvement
soon becomes a universal gain.
I propose, therefore, to sketch out a few improve
ments, which would enhance the safety and rapidity of
public traffic no less than the beauty and convenience of
the more splendid buildings in our midst. I shall con
fine myself to seven salient spots which are most easily
susceptible of amelioration —
" Septemque una sibi muro circumdabit arces,"
" Seven citadels of beauty, in one enclosure bound," —
ever bearing in mind the necessity of effecting the
maximum of advantage, combined with a minimum of
change and expenditure. The subject is one, however,
to be treated with the depth and breadth and generosity
of a mind, which has grasped something of what is due
to the dignity and power of the English name ; for when
men build cities, these cities react upon the national
character, and help to mould their boldest and freest
aspirations. The capital — Felix prole virum — should
therefore be in all respects worthy of an Imperial, and, so
long as it remains Tory, an imperishable race.
Much has been done of late to improve London. If
public opinion be only constant and unanimous upon this
noble object of local emulation, we shall not cease to
make progress, until London is so famous for beauty,
symmetry, variety, and convenience, as it is overwhelming B 3

lo The Majesty of London.
in the number of its inhabitants, the vastness of its ex
tent, and the opulence of its citizens — ¦
" Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma."
I have already to acknowledge the sound judgment
of the editor of the Times newspaper, for allowing me to
mention this important subject in his columns during the
month of August last, under the signature Peregrinus,
and I must not forget to express my best thanks to the
writer in the pages of the Daily Telegraph, who pleaded
so earnestly for " Justice to St. Paul's." I have also to
acknowledge with sincere gratitude the kind sympathy of
Lord John Manners, at whose instance the late Lord
Mayor, Sir Robert Fowler, was graciously pleased to
present my petition to rescue from the builder the
necessary part of the site of St. Paul's schools.- The
petition was most favourably received by the Lord
Mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London,
in common council assembled, at the Guildhall, on
the third day of December, 1885. To deal, however,
adequately and efficiently, with so great an undertaking,
will demand the labours and authority of Parliament.

The Precincts of St. Paul's.
Those whose daily walk and work lead them into St.
Paul's Churchyard, will have noticed that on the east side
of the churchyard, just opposite to the cathedral apse,
where the road is so narrow, that there is actually on one
side of it no causeway for foot passengers, the old school
buildings have been pulled down, leaving an open space
between the further wall of the Old Change and the east

ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL - PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS.

Proposed improvement shewn thus
Scale oi <¦ '

aoo

Stanford's Geogf Estab* London.
Feet

ST. Paul's cathedral- proposed improvements

Stan-fords Seogr. Etabl. London
Feet

The Majesty of London. 1 1
end of the cathedral, of about lOO feet in width. At
the corner of Watling Street and Old Change stands the
church dedicated under the title of St. Faith and St.
Augustine. Let a line be drawn from this point (marked
in red on the map) to the south-westerly angle of Messrs.
Goodyear's premises, No. 42 St. Paul's Churchyard, and
let no fresh buildings obstruct the Queen's highway
between this line and the present thoroughfare. It will
entail the sacrifice of a triangle of building ground with
abase some 50 feet in width, and two sides some 150 feet
in length. The line which I propose will be recognised
as the line of necessity : draw it farther back, another
20 feet eastward, parallel to the former all the way, and
raise a palatial building from Cheapside to Cannon
Street, not too high, on the model of the faultless walls
of Bridgwater House, and this line might justly be con
sidered the line of magnificence ; but if you take the line
of the Old Change, too far east at the north, and too
near west at the south angle of the churchyard, I dare
to call this line, the line of extravagance. I do not
purpose to reckon the exact cost of such a purchase, but
I confidently assert that the public gain would be com
mensurate with the necessary outlay.
I also venture to maintain that it will be a cause of
everlasting regret to those in authority even more than
to the public, if this long-hoped-for opportunity be thrown
away ; and I trust, with the assistance of a sympathetic
press, at least to see this, the primary object of my humble
publication, attained. For consider the possibilities
which this beginning, in a sense already completed, will
open up. Clear away the semicircular pile of building
which stands at the junction of Watling Street, Cannon
B 4

12 The Majesty of London.
Street, and the churchyard, and a fine thoroughfare, at
right angles to St. Paul's, is ready made between Cheap-
side and Cannon Street corner, by the simple adjustment
of the churchyard railing, now, we will suppose, made to
lie parallel with the transepts of the cathedral. Then
produce this wide and worthy thoroughfare northwards,
right into St. Martin's-le-Grand. Cut off" the hideous
dingy-looking houses that project between the church
yard and Newgate Street, eastward of a right line pro
duced south from the east wall of the Post Office West,
and at once a " Place " is opened up, one of the grandest,
as well as of the very busiest, in all Europe. From the
portico of the Post Office East a magnificent view of the
dome and transepts of St. Paul's will be revealed ; whilst
the choir of the cathedral will be visible a long way down
Aldersgate Street, coming towards St. Martin's-le-Grand.
In this way something of the dignity of St. Paul's will be
thrown, in shadow at least, over the Post Office ; and
this remarkable spot, the centre of traffic and the centre
of news, will be invested with an outward splendour, not
unworthy of the mvsterious place, where throbs most
palpably the pulse of mankind. For here, by night and
by day, are collected together and committed to writing
the sayings and doings of the children of Adam, tele
graphed without delay from the uttermost bounds of the
earth. If the requisite work of destruction were once com
pleted, and Sir Robert Peel's statue placed in the middle
of a wide refuge for foot passengers, now would come the
time to erect a fine pile of buildings between Newgate
Street and Paternoster Row, a continuation of St. Martin's,
then really le Grand, as it would have become. Panyer

The Majesty of London. 13
Alley would of course disappear, but the old stone and
the withered urchin might be placed with their face
towards the rising sun, in sight of all men as they pass,
for— " When ye have sought the citty round.
Yet still this is the highest ground."
Our next object must be to give a fine termination
to Newgate Street. An archway leading into the Post
Office yard, modelled after the beautiful Arch of Titus
in Rome, would effect this at once, without cutting off"
the view of the picturesque steeple of St. Vedast's Church.
And whilst we are in Newgate Street, I cannot refrain
from expressing a hope that some day we shall see the
battlemented parapet, suggested by the porch, carried
round the aisles of St. Sepulchre's Church, judiciously
broken by the pinnacled buttresses, which shall support the
new clerestory walls, terminating in a sparkling green
and golden roof like that which adorns the Stephan's
Dom in Vienna.
Having joined St. Martin's-le-Grand and St. Paul's
Churchyard in the bonds of unity and mutual admiration,
it remains to open up three grand approaches, one of
which is all but made already. The Chapter House
shall be our point of departure, and shall determine the
limits, within which I propose to give the hand of the
reformer free scope. Let the buildings which project
beyond the south front of the Chapter House be cut
back, so as to make a continuous line, parallel with the
nave of St. Paul's. This will run into the western boun
dary of the square at the corner of London House Yard.
Do the same on the opposite side, starting from the north
west corner of Paul's Chain, and the Dean of St. Paul'^

14 The Majesty of London.
will be able to look with delight upon the matchless
facade of the cathedral, without leaving the secluded
shelter of his "Deanery yard. These two corners would
be admirably suited to receive the statues of our two last
Sovereign Ladies — of Queen Anne, and Queen Victoria,
happily reigning. No statue, be it never so perfect, can
possibly look in place, or aspire to gain the admiration of
the multitude, standing in defiant attitude, with its "back
to the church," unwomanly, in haughty isolation. I do not,
as at present informed, see any sufficient reason why
the widening of Ludgate Hill, which is already half done,
and the rectification of St. Paul's Churchyard, should
not both be completed in time to add dignity, and a
lasting memorial, to the joyous event, which a grateful
nation will celebrate, when our most gracious Sovereign
comes in state to St. Paul's Cathedral, to hear them
chaunt her jubilee Te Dcuni.
When Ludgate Hill shall have been made a wide and
handsome thoroughfare, no sane man, who wishes to
hasten to St. Martin's-le-Grand or Cheapside, will be
satisfiedif he cannot go there direct. It is high time that
the extreme pressure at the Post Office corner be relieved,
and this can be easily done by opening up the road past
the Chapter House. The unsightly houses to the east of
it, of course, must come down ; a wide passage opposite
the lovely north porch of the cathedral must be opened
into Paternoster Row ; and the intervening triangular
space, between it and the Churchyard, might then be
adorned with buildings, lofty and elegant, so that in reality
little or no room would be lost to those engaged in
business. I should also like to suggest how gay and
beautiful this square might be made, if every house-

The Majesty of London. 15
holder adorned his windows with banks of flowers and
grasses, as they do in some of our humbler market towns.
The unused garden space on the north side of the church
should also be laid out for the enjoyment of the public,
and its railing placed parallel to the nave, in a line with
the transept north front. Let this be done too on the
south side, and let the addition, which is shown on the
map, be made to the gardens at the south-east angle of
the choir — then who shall deny that London is honoured
by increasing the delights of her people ?
I come now to the consideration of an improvement,
of which the necessity has long been felt : indeed, I
believe I am right in saying, that Lord John Manners
first drew attention to this point, when he was engaged
in the City as Postmaster-General for the first time. It
is the widening of Paul's Chain and Godliman Street, to
the same width as Bennett's Hill. Paul's Chain is so
narrow that carriages cannot pass each other, and I have
repeatedly seen over twenty waggons huddled together
in this disgraceful, obstructive little passage. Now that
Queen Victoria Street has been made so splendid, and to
be the continuation of the great highway along the Em
bankment, from the West End to the City, it is absolutely
necessary that, at the very least, one good approach shall
be made from Queen Victoria Street to St. Paul's Church
yard. If Godliman Street and Paul's Chain were widened,
as suggested in the map (sketched in red), a lovely view
of the graceful and towering south-western campanile
would be revealed from Victoria Street ; and at one
glance the College of Arms and the cathedral clock-tower
could be enjoyed by the lover of architectural splendour.
There remains the Old Change to be dealt with.

1 6 The Majesty of London.
Cut a grand boulevard thoroughfare, with trees on either
side, straight from Queen Victoria Street to St. Martin's-
le-Grand. We will suppose it completed from the
Post Office down to Cannon Street ; it ought not then to
be impossible to complete the remaining distance, which
is only 120 yards. It would involve the sacrifice
of St. Mary Magdalen's Church, it is true ; but such a
wretched building could readily be dispensed with, for
St. Nicholas's Church is close by, and might easily be
improved, and, if necessary, enlarged. A few ware
houses and offices would also be disturbed ; but the value
of this property would be enormously enhanced, for
Aldersgate, St. Martin's-le-Grand, Old Change, and
Lambeth Hill would then have become joined into one
more splendid artery for the ceaseless circulation of that
mighty traffic, which is the life of the City, and the
certain harbinger of increased business. Besides, con
sidering London from a statesman's point of view, if
business and locomotion are congested in the labyrinth
which encircles St. Paul's, there is plenty of room for a
new city between St. Bride's Church and the Thames
Embankment ; and an incentive to increased activity
in this direction is by no means to be deprecated.

The Strand and the Law Courts.
In treating of the question, how to perfect the Strand,
there is not room for much discussion. The whole block
of buildings between the two churches and Holywell
Street must be swept away, and speedily. When the
Law Courts were located where they are, that question

The Majesty of London. 17
was finally settled. With regard to the churches, we
must reconcile the conflicting interests of the churchman,
of the antiquarian, of the artist, as well as of the man of
business habits or ideas. St. Clement Danes is a useful
church. It has a history ; it has a beautiful tower, which
would be seen far westward of Wellington Street, if the
intervening buildings were removed. It also possesses a
useless ugly railing and a disused burial-ground for the
dead, round about its base, which might well be sacrificed
to the convenience of the living, and the improvement of
the external appearance of the church. These gone, the
Strand would present a noble appearance from the Law
Courts to Somerset House. But St. Mary-le-Strand is
a beautiful little church, unique of its kind in England.
Two courses are open : one is to leave it alone, and to
widen the street on the north side ; the other is to remove
it, bodily, to a more convenient spot. I incline to the
latter alternative.
Now, concerning the Palace of Justice, these words.
The Courts have been severely criticised ; but they are
beautiful. The south entrance, flanked by octagon
towers, overshadowed by a massive fretted parapet,
leading the eye upward to admire the noble gable, and
resting at last upon the quaintly wrought and gilded
cross, which surmounts the graceful fleche, high in mid
air aloft, can never be justly appreciated so long as it
is to be viewed only from a crowded street, passing close
under its walls, and giving the spacious portal, as it
were, a contemptuous go-by. Open a boulevard right
opposite, as wide as Whitehall Place, straight away
down to the Temple Pier. Look back again from the
water, between the London School Board and Temple

1 8 The Majesty of London.
Library, and behold a sight to make Augustus Welby
Pugin almost wish himself once more amongst the living.
You see the true glory of the Law Courts revealed.
This street would entail the sacrifice of some few fine
houses adjoining the Strand at the corner of Devereux
Court ; it would pass along, and, diagonally, across Essex
Street ; it would sweep away some unsightly works
which still frown upon the Embankment Gardens ; but
what a glorious halting-place you will have rnade, mid
way between gothic Westminster and classic St. Paul's,
as you steam down the placid river ! The distance from
the Strand to Woodfall and Kinder's printing house is
less than 250 yards. The opportunity is not yet gone for
ever. Let the lawyers and law interests combine, and
give a proof of public spirit, coloured with imperial mag
nificence ; then let this beauty- valve be known by the
name of Majesty Street, with three splendid figures at
the Temple landing — Religion in the centre, rejoicing
between Liberty and Law.

Lincoln's Inn Fields and the People.
In these days, when most men are agreed that the
monotony of town life, relieved only by artificial amuse
ments, leaves unsatisfied and uncultivated the best side
of human nature, the word Fields at once suggests the
repose and peace of our sweet English meadows, now
removed for ever from the heart of busy London. But a
noble movement has been silently working for years, under
the public-spirited direction of Lord Brabazon, redeeming
the few open spaces still left, and dedicating them to the

The Majesty of London. 19
recreation of the people. Lincoln's Inn Fields is the
largest of London squares. It is in the midst of a vast
and crowded population, whilst the houses which surround
it are untenanted, except during the hours of business.
Morning early and evening late, this beautiful oasis,
amidst the wilderness of houses, is empty and deserted.
Some few children are allowed to play about the grounds,
it is true ; but the time has come when the poor of Holborn
must be allowed to rest beneath the shade of the trees of
this once fashionable quarter. Not another summer
ought to be allowed to pass before this grand popular
boon shall have been made ; and there is no reason,
that I know of, why a kiosk should not be erected in one
of the corners, and a band be provided at the public
expense to discourse soft music in the evenings of the
summer months, when neither wind nor rain keep men
and women, and their children, confined within doors.
A reform such as this would go far to empty the taverns
and gin-shops, and to remind a jaded population that if
man made the town, God made the country. I will now
venture the hazardous opinion that the best place for St.
Mary-le-Strand would be in the centre of these gardens.
The beautiful little church would not occupy more than
a space of 100 feet by 40; its exterior niches might
be filled with the statues of our good men and great, and
its nave be open to the people all day long. There
are many, I doubt not, who take to drink and disso
lute habits, because there is no place where they may
pray.

20 The Majesty of London.

The British Museum.
To the curious searcher of the past, to the lover of
the artistic conceptions and creations of all ages and
nations, to the earnest disciples of Tradition, who love
to find in historic remains the vestiges of " the antient
faithful thoughts," there is no place in London to equal
in interest and fascination, the stately halls of the British
Museum. Here we have unique collections from ancient
Egypt, Assyria and Greece ; and a library second to none
in the civilised world. The beautiful building too, is
venerable, and though severe, full of human sympathy.
But it is hidden from view, and the sightseer and the
student must pass through the slums of humiliation,
before they can enter the palace of antiquity. It is
a shame that so splendid an institution, in so splendid
a city, should have such mean and contemptible
approaches. Is it not opportune, therefore, at this moment, to map
out the alterations, which will enhance the beauty and
prestige of this splendid witness to our national spirit of
enterprise and conservatism ? for the new street which
is being made from Piccadilly Circus to the junction of
Oxford Street and Hart Street, besides connecting these
convenient thoroughfares, suggests a worthy termination
in front of the solemn porticos of the great museum.
I submit a plan which I think will serve this desirable
purpose. St. George's Bloomsbury stands ready to act
as sentinel to the new square. The symbolism of the
thing is perfect — the Church, the custodian of antiquity,
the guardian of the Revealed Traditions. The Patron

BRITISH MUSEUM - PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS

The Majesty of London. 21
of England's beautiful portico tunes the mind at once
to the contemplation of classic memorials, whilst this
curious steeple would stand out with imposing dimen
sions, if the whole space between the church and
Museum Street were cleared of buildings. I would
carry a colonnade all round the church, and sweep
away whatsoever houses intervene between it and the
Museum, thus opening up a grand approach, flanked by
refreshing gardens, to be adorned in due time with ever-
flowing fountains ; so that the rush of water, and the
graceful forms of playful mermaids and romping dol
phins, should delight the eye as they do in the piazzas
of eternal Rome. This is not asking too much of the
municipality, reformed or unreformed, of the capital of
the British Empire.

Trafalgar Square and Westminster,
Nelson's noble monument justly stands in the centre
of England's most splendid square. Now since the
erection of the gigantic hotels, which line each side of
Northumberland Avenue, the symmetry of the whole
has been destroyed. It can only be restored by giving
height to the National Picture Gallery. Whether this
is to be done by raising the walls of the present building,
which would be effectively done, if only a stately frieze and
massive cornice were reared above the present cornice,
and stretched from end to end of the building ; or by
erecting a new Gallery more worthy of the nation, to
include also the National Portrait Gallery ; certain it is,
that the pigmy domes of the existing Gallery are utterly

22 The Majesty of London.
out of place and scale, and that ere long some crowning
feature will be desired to complete the great sweep of
official buildings, which are to stretch from Whitehall
to Trafalgar Square. The widening of Parliament Street
is of course only a question of time ; but it seems to me
to be strange that no one has yet urged the claims of
Westminster Abbey to be completed, or rather restored
to the perfection of its ancient outline. It has been found
possible to take down and put up again the central tower
of Peterborough Cathedral. It ought not to be thought
barbarous or chimerical to wish to do the same with St.
Peter's, Westminster. There are two only really fine
churches in the whole of London — St. Peter's Abbey and
St. Paul's Cathedral ; unless we are willing to except the
Irvingite Church in Gordon Square, the Oratory in
Brompton, and St. George's, Southwark. There must be
many wealthy churchmen who would be glad to make
the most of what there is, and to begin by raising up
once more the central tower and spire of Westminster,
according to the designs which Abbot Islip made in the
sixteenth century. Or if it be thought sacrilege to hint
at disturbing the stones of the central vault and columns
of good King Edward's honoured sanctuary, the purpose
I have in view might perhaps be attained by erecting
upon the present external platform, a tower and spire in
the same materials and of similar construction to the
lofty Dachreiter, which crowns the heights of the choir of
Cologne Cathedral.

The Majesty of London. 23

The Mall and Constitution Hill.
I come at length to the burning question of archi
tectural London. Plans for the new Admiralty and
War Office have been made. They have been sub
mitted to criticism, both parliamentary and popular ; they
have received the sanction of the late Administration,
and of Parliament ; and yet, in their present shape, they
are an utter and absolute failure. If the plans are ever
carried out, they will be an emblem of national decadence
and pettyfogging parsimony, rather than of that glorious
future, which the braver sons of Britain still believe
to be in store for our army and our navy, whensoever,
and wheresoever they are called upon to defend our ubi
quitous interests, or the national honour. The question
whether the Admiralty and War Office should share the
same roof is not so important ; although it would seem
that a building overlooking the river, like Somerset
House, or a fine site by the water, like as that beyond
Victoria Tower, would be more appropriate for the offi
cial head-quarters of that vast system of marine defence
and offence, which enables Britannia yet to rule the
waves ; but this much ought to be free from conflicting
opinion, that the War Office, like the Houses of Parliament
at Westminster and Her Majesty's castle of Windsor, be
erected in a style which is national, and peculiar to our
island. In the Record Office we have a splendid ex
ample of the kind of bastion-like architecture, simple,
bold, and stately, which is worthy to symbolise the
manliness, the courage, and the endurance of the British
army. But whatsoever be the style of the architecture.

24 The Majesty of London.
the new buildings ought to be so arranged, that no meaner
houses shall dive into the regularity and symmetry of their
ground plan ; nor ought they to be placed where they
will for ever obstruct the least debatable of London im
provements — the opening wide of the Mall into Trafalgar
Square. Sweep down Spring Gardens from the Union
Bank to Drummond's ; build upon the useless ground
again, by all means ; but never let the uninterrupted
thoroughfare from the Strand to the West End be
closed again. From Charing Cross to Buckingham
Palace, from Buckingham Palace northward to Kensing
ton and southward to Chelsea, let one unbroken thorough
fare remain supreme. Piccadilly would be relieved ; Con
stitution Hill would be turned to really useful purpose ;
the overflowing stream of motley carriages which torment
Hyde-park Corner would be diverted into various and
pleasant channels. Those who enjoy an empty privilege
would not really lose it, because it was shared with the
crowd \ the privilege, as such, might be gone, but a
public boon would be created. Things which seem to
day to be the day-dream of the idealist, become to-morrow
the stern requirements of necessity.
General Gordon's Monument.
There is one spot in London, which seems to me
to have been designed by nature and prepared by art to
hand down to future generations the remembrance and
the moral of the Khartoum tragedy. It is difficult, when
these sad and humiliating events are still so fresh in all
men's minds, to refer to them without kindling again
something of that passionate feeling, which dictated the

The Majesty of London. 25
just reproach : " I have endeavoured to maintain the
honour of my country— ^Good-bye." Until too late, this
feeling was not shared by those who were responsible
for the right information and execution of the mind and
will of the people. The day may come again when the
feeble extremities of the kingdom shall numb the quicker
intelligence and more generous heart of the great
metropolis, the capital of the British Empire, the centre
also of the world's commerce, and the home of the most
perfect freedom hitherto known upon earth. Now is the
time, therefore, if ever, to erect a monument to those
heroic sailors and soldiers, men, officers, and generals,
whose lives were sacrificed in the desert, in the vain
endeavour to retrieve in five months a whole lustrum of
Liberal tomfoolery, and to save the faithful garrisons of
the Khedive, which a wise and humane government
could never have abandoned to their fate.
In the centre of the sweeping curve which the
Thames describes as it noiselessly glides from the Palace
at Westminster to St. Paul's, there stands the most
ancient stone in London, quarried in Egypt about the
time of the Exodus, and placed upon the Embankment
when the destiny and duty of England in that land,
from the days of the Pharaohs, even until now, "a house
of bondage," began to be made manifest to all far-seeing
men. There it stands, the obelisk of Thothmes, erected in
1500 B.C., dedicated to Cleopatra in 23 e.g., and sacred to
General Gordon since January 26, 1885. But the
Needle has the appearance of being pushed on one side,
with only two sphinxes to contemplate its forlorn posi
tion. Make an entrance into the gardens right opposite.

26 TJie Majesty of London.
with two more sphinxes in deep contemplation, regardant,
on either side the gates ; lay out a walk and an avenue
of trees, straight up to the mouth of Salisbury Street ;
build a pompous double staircase to join the high level of
the street with the low-lying gardens ; place in marble
statuary the likenesses of those brave generals and ofificers,
at least the chiefest, in group around the noble central
figure — the dauntless soldier, the wise administrator,
the consistent Christian hero, whom, too late, they were
despatched to save ; then leave it to the noble and illus
trious owner of the houses between Adam Street and
Cecil Street so to arrange and improve them as to form
a worthy back-ground. Into the terrace wall, between
the sweeping flights of steps, hew out a tomb of Egyptian
temple form. Close up the doors, for never more on
sinful earth shall Gordon's mortal body be to find.
" And whiles the honourable captain there
Drops bloody sweat from his war-wearied limbs
And in advantage ling'ring, looks for rescue,
You his false hopes, the trust of England's honour.
Keep off aloof with worthless emulation.
Let not your private discord keep away
The levied succours that should lend him aid.
While he, renownfed noble gentleman,
Yields up his life unto a world of odds :
**¦***#
Never to England shall he bear his life ;
But dies, betray'd to fortune by your strife."
Henry VI., Part I., act iv. sc. 4.
As time goes on, let this sacred spot be honoured with
increasing trophies, until the day when the crowning event
of England's greatness shall have been accomplished,
the salvation of the Soudan, the redemption of Central
Africa ; the establishment of law, liberty, and order,

The Majesty of London. 27
with advancing trade and easy intercommunication from
Alexandria to Khartoum by means of roads, railways,
and steamboats, the cataracts having been blown to
atoms ; up to the sources of the Nile, across to the
Congo basin, and down that mighty river to the shores
of the Atlantic Ocean. And upon Gordon's empty tomb
engrave these words in letters of gold, for they recall his
spirit, and sound the dominant note which shall not die
away so long as his name is breathed amongst English
men : " For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the
last day I shall rise again from the earth ; and again
shall I be clothed with skin, and in my flesh I shall see
God." — Job xix. 25.

^oli 2Deo dBloria.

( 29 )

APPENDIX.

To the Editor of " The Times."
Sir, — It is only of late that my daily avocations bring me to
the immediate neighbourhood of London's matchless cathedral
church. Every day the beauty, the symmetry, the stateliness
of Wren's most perfect of classic temples grows upon me. Every
day the meanness, the poverty, the incongruity of the approaches
to St. Paul's unequalled fane become more evident. I hope I
am not too late in asking you to call attention to an opportunity
which may never come again in our lifetime. St. Paul's School,
at the east end of the Churchyard, is being pulled down, and so
are some of the houses adjoining. About five more houses,
besides those in actual process of demolition, and the whole
block of buildings between Ye Old Change and St. Paul's
Churchyard will be accounted for. Now, Ye Old Change runs
parallel to the present inadequate narrow street, that loses even
its causeway for foot passengers as it passes the cathedral apse ;
it is flanked at the south end by the Church of St. Augustine
and St. Faith, at the north end it commands an oblique view of
the new palatial Post Offices. Would it not be possible to buy
up this intervening block, to throw it into a wide street or boule
vard, thus opening a commodious thoroughfare between Cheap-
side and Cannon Street, and possibly adding a few hundred
square yards to the pleasant gardens which the enlightened
Dean and Chapter have laid out beneath the shadow of the
metropolitan church? I venture to say that in no part of
London could so grand and imposing an improvement be made
at so small a cost. Later on this wide and airy street might be
prolonged by removing one or two other blocks of buildings into

30 Appendix.
Knightrider Street, and then into Upper Thames Street, which
runs into the Embankment at Blackfriars. We might then hope
that ultimately Paternoster Row would form the north side of
St. Paul's Square and Carter Lane the south side, which things
being accomplished, St. Paul's in London would bear more than
ever a favourable comparison with St. Peter's in Rome ; while
the toiling classes would learn to venerate the magnificence of
the Church of England when they rested in the gardens round
about the base of that temple, the noblest monument of the
Constitutional Monarchy, which arose simultaneously out of the
civil wars, when modern London arose from out the wreck left
by the great fire and plague of 1666. So many great and useful
measures, both of a practical, sanitary, and aesthetic kind, in the
improvement of the metropolis owe their origin to a stray letter
in the Times newspaper, that I venture to hope you will give
my feeble words a hearing in your columns.
Your obedient servant,
Peregrinus.
August 19, 1885.

To the Editor of " The Daily Telegraph."
Sir, — Your two articles, "Justice to St. Paul's," and "St.
Paul's to the Mall," have given me very great pleasure. I think
no greater service could at this moment be rendered to the
English people generally than a hearty co-operation in favour of
opening up a few more grand thoroughfares in London. As
you well point out, what a magnificent vista would be gained by
opening what is now termed, and what might then be. Spring
Gardens, with a road straight from the Strand to Buckingham
Palace ; and think what a lovely ride you might have from the
Albert Memorial to the Thames Embankment, and on to St.
Paul's, to look at the bright flowers and the happy faces of the
City toilers, basking in the autumn sunshine in the new gardens
that might stretch out as far as Carter Lane and the Old Deanery,
on the south side of the stately temple of British liberty and

Appendix- 31
Christian self-reliance. At present there is no approach to St.
Paul's from the West End. Join the parks to the Embankment
by opening the Mall into Trafalgar Square, and then join St.
Martin's-k-Grand to Queen Victoria Street by cutting off the
mean houses that project between the Post Office and St. Paul's
Churchyard, on the north side, and the old schools (now being
pulled down) on the east, and make the Old Change a new
entrance down Lambeth Hill — wide, airy, and direct to the
Thames highway. Your obedient servant,

Peregrinus.

September 5, 1885.

NOTE.

Since these pages were written, the movement in favour of
redeeming the east end of St. Paul's Churchyard has taken hold
of the public mind to a degree beyond my most sanguine
expectations. Mr. Penrose the Cathedral Surveyor's letter to the
Times of November 30, was the signal for action ; a petition was
hastily got up by the householders and ratepayers of St. Paul's
Churchyard, and tacked on to mine, advocating a clean sweep
of all the buildings between Old Change and the churchyard.
There is now scarcely a leading organ of London opinion, which
has not devoted at least one article to this interesting subject ;
and the City Commissioners of Sewers, the City Lands Com
mittee, the Metropolitan Board of Works, and lastly the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners, have taken the matter into con
sideration. The final impetus, which was required to float the
idea upon the sea of public opinion, was given by the telling
letters to the Lord Mayor, of Mr. Blackwood, C.B., the Permanent
Secretary of the Post Office, and of his Lordship the Bishop of
London, which both appeared in the newspapers on December 4,
1885.

LONDON:
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