LONDON REVISITED.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR, Is not Mr. E. V. Lucas incorrect in saying that no other (London) instance of an architect being honoured with a medallion exists except that of Norman Shaw on New Scotland Yard? The existing " London particular " hinders my making an expedition to the Thames Embankment, but if my recollection serves, a handsome tribute of this kind to Sir Joseph William Bazalgette, the architect of this great work, may be seen at Charing Cross, opposite the bottom of Northumberland Avenue. To hold that Bazalgette was a civil engineer, and not an architect, seems hardly fair; he was, in fact, a worthy successor to Wren. The fanciful derivation of terms supplies as many subjects for persons with more ingenuity than knowledge, as the comet did to Washington Irving's savant, in the preface to his inimitable History of New York. Many years ago, passing through the atrium of the British Museum, I stopped to admire a magnificent marble vase, just imported from Hadrian's Villa, and placed in a prominent position, whose sides were adorned with bas-reliefs, one of which represented the operation of the winepress, worked by oxen. An old gentleman, seeing me thus occupied, kindly explained tome that this portrayed the worship of the cow by the early Christians, adding that a confirmation of this might be found in the naming of the City thoroughfare, Cow-Cross Street I was but a youth at the time, and he may have been trying to hoax me, but he
seemed perfectly serious.—I am, Sir, &c., W. J. G.
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