“London has grownup in a chaotic manner, without any unity of design, and at the chance discretion of any persons who were fortunate enough to own land as it came into demand at successive periods for building operations. Sometimes a great landlord laid out a quarter in a manner to tempt the better class of residents by squares, gardens or retired streets, often cut off from through traffic by gates and bars; but even in these cases London as a whole has not been thought of, and no main arteries have been provided for. In other and more frequent cases of small landowners, the only design of builders has been to crowd upon the land as many streets and houses as possible, regardless of anything around them, and without open spaces or wide approaches. A careful examination of a map of London shows how absolutely wanting in any kind of plan has been its growth, and how little the convenience and wants of the whole population or the considerations of dignity and beauty have been consulted.”

“It is a great pity that the old suggestion of attaching, wherever possible, half-an-acre or so of land to each public elementary school in the country has never been carried out. School gardens might be made the means of giving the young an insight into horticulture, the effect of which they would find pleasant and profitable in after life. The physiology and relative value of food is a much more useful branch of school instruction than many a branch upon which the young have wasted years of their time, and the school garden would be the most valuable of object-lessons.”