COLOUR IN OUR STREETS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Would you let me say a few words on colour in our streets? It would take too long to speak of all that might be done to make things brighter and bring a little more joy into our lives; but take, for example, a common everyday monstrosity which might be made, by a little paint, a thing of beauty. It is our lamp-post, which will always be with us. Its figure is not evil, but its clothes are vile. Surely the way to light is by the path of beauty; so why your eye should have to travel from a base of either chocolate brown or bilious green up a shaft of leprous white (commonly known and dear to the heart of the painter as " broken white ") before you come to the light, a symbol of God, I cannot imagine. I alternated from Richmond to London last week between these dreary blots. At the Victory celebrations we saw what might be done. There was nothing in London more charming than the lamps of the Italian Embassy, painted in their country's colours— red, white, and green. They made a beautiful and interesting affect. Why shouldn't all the Embassies do the same? It would make them feel more at home, and we should know where they are. And why should not the districts and boroughs have their own colours? I believe they have in a sort of way now; but as apparently the paint is never burnt off before a new coat is given, all line disappears and they become more and more dropsical. With a little more care and brighter paint you would have something charming to look at as you walk along. I. don't pretend to know more about velour than other people; but I do know that colour so attracts me that I cross a crowded street to see what that blue is in the shop window across the way, and I would go any distance up a backwater on the Thames to get another flash of that blue that has no rival, the blue of the kingfisher. I am only one of the thousands who love colour and long to see more around us. Why cannot there be a committee in every district or borough to decide a matter of this sort and see it married out? It would cost no more, and would be educational as well as a joy.—I am, Sir, &e., ESTELLA CAVE. $ichmond.
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