London Squares

Some of these are quaint and charming enough, being mostly laid out in the Dntch fashion. Golden square, near Regent street ; Red Lion and Queen squares, in Bloomsbury, are capital specimens. The flrst, though so close to Regent street, rnight be a dozen miles away. There is a welcome unkemptness ; the grass is rank and wild ; there are old trees ranged round its border in a symmetrical way. The houses round are pictnresque, because each is distinct. It is given over to commission agents, merchants and trade generally, yet within but a few years it was a place of genteel residence, like a usual square, and we flnd the late Cardinal Wiseman living in a substantial mansión here. Dickens, it will be remembered, placed Ralph Nickleby's house here, which is described on the occasion of the party to Sir Frederick and Sir Mulberry as having alinost palatial apartments and the richest furniture. As we wander round, we are struck with the melancholy tone of the inolosure, yet everything seems brisk enough, but it belongs to the old world. The square itself is very attractive and original, with a sort of Dutch or foreign air. We-note the fine trees which shelter it all round in symmetrical lines and the Roman warrior sort of Btatue in the center, arrayed in fnll armor and representing George II The grass and walks are laid out with a certain free and easy carelessness that is very acceptable and contrasta with the trim, shaven, soulless treatment of mod ern squares. Altogether a visit to Golden square will interest. Berkeley square every one knows. Yet it has an extraordinary sympathetic attraction f rom its grass and ñne shad ing old trees. No one, we may be sure, has noted that these leafy patriarchs seein to range in two rows down the middle, like an avenue. The fact is, it was the demesne of the lawn in front of the old Berkeley House, which stood at the back of Devonshire House. The mansions round are very fine, and the iron work, railings, etc, are alladmired and to be admired. There are some queer things to be told about squares, for instance, that there was a General Strode Nvho had a inania for setting up statues in squares at his own expense. We have seen equestrian statues in Leicester square propped up with a broomstick, with portions broken away.