SIR,—In his Marginal Comment of March 14th Mr. Harold Nicolson
revived the question of the proper display of the beauties of St. Paul's Cathedral. He calls on the Minister of Town and Country Planning to prepare, if he is not already doing so, a setting worthy of " one of the greatest buildings ever designed by the mind of man." He thinks of a vast lawn, of the gracious quality that only our climate can produce, to occupy the area round St. Paul's now so largely encumbered by the ruins of the war. Is so ambitious a project really necessary? To me the most splendid possible view of St. Paul's is that from the Middlesex end of the Thames bridges. I do not see that it could be excelled by any opening up, at whatever expense, of the precincts of the Cathedral. There used to be another view of impressive splendour. I mean that obtained by way of Ivy Lane as you come from Holborn, when the whole majestic building burst suddenly on you from the ground right up to the top of the Golden Cross. The extreme narrowness of Ivy Lane enhanced greatly the view as you emerged at the St. Paul's end
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