ugly and pretentious, which was very far from being the case. Each
house stood in a garden carefully cultivated, and running over with
flowers. The blackbirds were singing their best amidst the garden-
trees, which, except for a bay here and there, and occasional groups
of limes, seemed to be all fruit-trees: there were a great many
cherry-trees, now all laden with fruit; and several times as we
passed by a garden we were offered baskets of fine fruit by children
and young girls. Amidst all these gardens and houses it was of
course impossible to trace the sites of the old streets: but it
seemed to me that the main roadways were the same as of old.

We came presently into a large open space, sloping somewhat toward
the south, the sunny site of which had been taken advantage of for
planting an orchard, mainly, as I could see, of apricot-trees, in the
midst of which was a pretty gay little structure of wood, painted and
gilded, that looked like a refreshment-stall. From the southern side
of the said orchard ran a long road, chequered over with the shadow
of tall old pear trees, at the end of which showed the high tower of
the Parliament House, or Dung Market.

A strange sensation came over me; I shut my eyes to keep out the
sight of the sun glittering on this fair abode of gardens, and for a
moment there passed before them a phantasmagoria of another day. A
great space surrounded by tall ugly houses, with an ugly church at
the corner and a nondescript ugly cupolaed building at my back; the
roadway thronged with a sweltering and excited crowd, dominated by
omnibuses crowded with spectators. In the midst a paved be-
fountained square, populated only by a few men dressed in blue, and a
good many singularly ugly bronze images (one on the top of a tall
column). The said square guarded up to the edge of the roadway by a