The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

178 THE BEITISH ISLES.
quarters, all differing in aspect and population. London, unlike Paris in this
respect, has no collective personality. It is not, strictly .speaking, a town at all,
possessed of a well-defined indi^•iduality, and differing in any marked way from
the towns in any other parts of Great Britain. Its growth has been too rapid to
enable it to develop a well-defined character of its own. Like a plant whose sap
rises too quickly, it has not displayed the firmness of contour and special phy-
siognomy which are the characteristics of organisms of slower growth. London,
very unlike Paris and most of the great cities of the continent, has not grown
around a kernel, but is an agglomeration of distinct towns, amongst which the
City of London, "Westminster, and Greenwich were the most considerable. The
vast metropolis is the outcome of a combination of numerous towns and villages
placed in contiguity to each other. This mode of growth prevented London from
acquiring a distinct personality. It is, above all, an assemblage of distinct worlds
—worlds of warehouses, banks, factories, princely residences and villas—each world
having its proper physiognomy and history. It is an organism with several centres of
life, such as are typified by the Houses of Parliament, Charing Cross, the Bank
of England, and the Docks. But nevertheless nearly all its quarters agree in this
that their houses are constructed of the same material and covered with the same
layer of grime resulting from the smoke-laden fogs. Though London occupies
a geological basin similar to that of Paris, it does not enjoy the advantage of
having quarries of limestone and gypsum in its neighbourhood. Hence most of
its houses are built of brick, and the stone for the more monumental buildings
has to be brought from qiiarries situated at an immense distance. The rocks of
Yorkshire furnished the limestone required for the construction of the Houses
of Parliament ; Portland supplied the materials for St. Paul's and many other
buildings. The Tower of London is built of Caen stone, for it was in their duchy
of Normandy that the early Kings of England sought the materials required for
raising their palaces and fortresses. Even now a considerable nimiber of vessels
annually leave the basin of the Orne laden with stone for London builders. But
the granite and limestone of the monumental buildings are covered with the same
coating of grime which disfigures the meaner houses. The showers of soot
discolour even the leaves of trees, the lawns and garden flowers, and a few years
suffice to blacken the walls of buildings. It is matter for surprise that rich
Englishmen, so scrupulously careful of the cleanliness of their persons and homes,
should not have adopted more extensivelj' the Portuguese and Brazilian fashion of
covering their houses with glazed bricks, which can be washed. In the finer
quarters of the West-end, however, such bricks are gradually coming into vogue.
London, like most other European towns, expands principally towards the
west, for it is from that direction that the purifying westerly winds blow
during the greater part of the year. There are, however, other circumstances
which have caused London to grow in the direction of the setting sun. The soil
on that side is solid, whilst swampy lowlands stretch out towards the east ; the
Thames above London Bridge can be crossed more easily than below it ; and houses
have been built in preference in localities where the communication between bank
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