4 MAY 1934, Page 6

One of the bygone features of London life on which

I look back with the wistful pathos of middle-age is the window-box. Why has it gone, and when did it go ? Perhaps the War killed it. Perhaps it is that in days when the great families lived mainly in the country, and came to London only for the season, they felt more need than they do now to bring a suggestion of the country with them. May in the Mayfair squares, and a good many others, used to be a blaze of colours. Now the squares are as drab as Whitechapel, except for the grass and a few planes or sycamores in the middle. Yet, it was an excellent custom, well worth reviving.