Unless the reproductions of the models and drawings are extremely
unfair to the originals, we cannot look for- ward to any increase in the architectural beauties of the Metropolis from the Queen's Memorial. The total effect may be grandiose; it will certainly be very nu-English and very Continental. Masses of stonemason's work and pompous arcades somehow seem out of place in London. The only prospect which can be hailed with unmixed satis- faction is that of an opening from the Mall into Charing Cross. That will be a real public improvement. Would it not be possible to let the rest of the Mall and the front of Buckingham Palace alone, the one in its simplicity and charm and the other in its dreary ugliness, and concentrate the efforts of the architects and sculptors on a great Victorian Arch leading into Trafalgar Square? If there were any money over, it might be spent in putting a simple memorial statue in each of the London parks. The idea of a pro- cessional road does not, we confess, sound likely to be really successful in the English capital.
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