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of design, best understood by the term "the picturesque of architecture."

The expensiveness of stone for building in London, and the preference given to stone-like buildings over those of brick, added to other considerations of a more technical character—increased the reputation which stucco had acquired, and brought it into general use. This circumstance in itself has created a new feature in street-building; not that it was never so used, but that it was heretofore used so sparingly, and in such detached parts, that it rather gave a piebald appearance to our old streets than assisted in producing a broad and harmonious general effect.

The amazing advancement of our manufactures in cast-iron has also assisted in forming some distinguishing features in these improvements. Columns are now cast as cannons are, and one pattern will produce some thousands of them. Hence they abound in some parts of the street, in which they would not have been introduced, were it not that a great architectural embellishment was thus obtained, and at a comparatively moderate expense.

The Quadrant, as it is called, which forms a portion of the view in the accompanying plate, is entirely a new feature in the metropolis, and has afforded the opportunity of employing columns in the formation of circular colonnades