Of Tempor-ary Street-Decorations

period, and this increases the difficulty of effect-ive decoration.

A Venetian mast may be in decent scale inrelation to the height of buildings at one part ofthe street, or even on one side of a.street, andquite ridiculous in regard to other buildings onthe same or other side of the same street. Yetthe street decorator clings to the Venetian mastas a chief means of street decoration, even ifonly a spar, with the tenacity of a shipwreckedsailor. The result, too, in such a climate as oursoften is a wreck. Those poles, recently placedin Piccadilly—one of the prettiest of our streetsopposite the Park (perhaps because one side isleft out!)—look too:small, and are rather fussilygarlanded, while the shields—bearing the port-cullis and the rose alternately—-are miserablyundersized, and not of a fine , shape. The bestthing is the connecting garland with its lamps,but. these ought to be thicker in the middle.Then again, the poles face only one way—out-wards to the road, so that they do not tell much inperspective. Something on the. principle of thecross-tree or yard-arm and hanging, sign is moreeffective. At least in one piece of artistic decora-tion attempted for the coronation—I mean thescheme of decoration for Westminster Bridgeby the Royal College of Art under, the directionof Prof. Lanteri and Prof. Moira—this principlewas adopted. Boldly designed banners paintedby the students hung from crossrtrees over thepavement, balanced by lanterns at the other end,while between them busts of heroic size of ourkings and queens under canopies, and backed

194