["long unlovely" comes from section VII of Tennyson's In Memoriam. — George P. Landow.]
T is not so sad a thing after all, to contemplate ruins as it is to contemplate new work
very badly done. What ruins can make one
feel so melancholy as seeing "long unlovely,"
newly-built, gardenless streets of ill-arranged
houses, rising up and deforming the suburbs of
great towns? In looking at new buildings of this
kind, the sense comes over one of a decadence,
rather than an increase, of power in mankind.
And this is very disheartening. Besides, one
foresees that in a few years, these buildings will
have a squalldity wholly unrelieved by the
softening and beautifying effects of age. They
will still be new, and yet will be decayed.
[177-78]
Bibliography
[Helps, Sir Arthur]. Brevia: Short Essays and Aphorisms by the Author of “Friends in Council”. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1871. The reverse of the title page has the following: “Chiswick Press: — printed by Whittingham and Wilkins, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane [London].”
Last modified 5 December 2011