amphitheatre turned outside in. If we consider it in point of
magnificence, the great number of small doors belonging to the
separate houses, the inconsiderable height of the different
orders, the affected ornaments of the architrave, which are both
childish and misplaced, and the areas projecting into the street,
surrounded with iron rails, destroy a good part of its effect
upon the eye; and, perhaps, we shall find it still more
defective, if we view it in the light of convenience. The figure
of each separate dwelling-house, being the segment of a circle,
must spoil the symmetry of the rooms, by contracting them towards
the street windows, and leaving a larger sweep in the space
behind. If, instead of the areas and iron rails, which seem to be
of very little use, there had been a corridore with arcades all
round, as in Covent-garden, the appearance of the whole would
have been more magnificent and striking; those arcades would have
afforded an agreeable covered walk, and sheltered the poor
chairmen and their carriages from the rain, which is here almost
perpetual. At present, the chairs stand soaking in the open
street, from morning to night, till they become so many boxes of
wet leather, for the benefit of the gouty and rheumatic, who are
transported in them from place to place. Indeed this is a
shocking inconvenience that extends over the whole city; and, I
am persuaded, it produces infinite mischief to the delicate and
infirm; even the close chairs, contrived for the sick, by
standing in the open air, have their frize linings impregnated
like so many spunges, with the moisture of the atmosphere, and
those cases of cold vapour must give a charming check to the
perspiration of a patient, piping hot from the Bath, with all his
pores wide open.