To an impartial observer the public, philanthropic, and municipal
attempts to honour the memory of the great and good, if sometimes
mistaken, Earl of SHAFTESBURY, appear to have been singularly
unfortunate. The West-End Avenue that bears his name is more full
of music-halls, theatres, pot-houses, and curious property, than
any street of equal length and breadth in the whole Metropolis. Lord
SHAFTESBURY may not have been a Puritan, but he was essentially a
serious man, and his sympathies were more with Exeter Hall than with
the Argyle Rooms; and yet, in the street which is honoured by his
name, it has been found impossible to remove the old title of this
historic place from the stone _facade_ of the Trocadero.
The fountain at Piccadilly Circus, which has been unveiled as the
second of the SHAFTESBURY memorials, is surmounted by--what? Some
writers have called it a girl, some have called it a boy; many of the
public, no doubt, regard it as a mythological bird, and it certainly
looks like the Bolognese Mercury flying away with the wings of St.
Michael. We are told, on authority, that it represents Eros, the Greek
god of love, and his shaft is directed to a part of London that, more
than any other part, at night, requires the bull's-eye and the besom
of authority. The "Top of the Gaymarket" is in just as bad a condition
as it was when _Punch_ directed attention to it more than ten years
ago, and the _virus_ since then has extended as far eastward as St.
Martin's Lane. Moll Flanders' Parade now begins at St. James's Church
and ends with Cranbourne Street. It is unfortunate, to say the least
of it, that Eros has been selected to point at this London Pestiduct,
and the sooner it is thoroughly cleansed and the neighbourhood made
worthy of the Shaftesbury Fountain, the better.
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[Illustration: AWFUL MOMENT!
"CONF----! I'VE FORGOTTEN MY DRESS COAT!!"]
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DELENDA EST DRUBILANA!--The Drury Lane Committee, headed by the
dauntless JAMES O'DOWD, have decided upon approaching the Duke of
BEDFORD with a protest against his Grace's present expressed intention
of pulling down the Old Theatre within the next two years. Probably
the result of this, the latest incident in the interesting annals of
Old Drury, will simply be to make another addition to the well-known
collection of "Rejected Addresses."
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