The Colour of London Author:William John Loftie Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: OF LONDON CHAPTER I Of the Colour of London Its Antiquity—Its Size—The Street Names—Records—Inhabitants— Boundaries—Roads—Architecture—The Gothic Revival—... more »Taste at the Present Day WE talk much in the present day of the value of " local colour:" we look for it equally in pictures and in writings. If a little village is represented, we say " the local colour is corredt," or it is "deficient," or it is "exaggerated." When it comes to writing or sketching scenes in the largest city in the world, who shall define for us its local colouring, the Colour of London? It is easy to take refuge in generalities and long words, but they will not bring us the thing we want. Nor is it possible to mention one single characteristic as peculiar to London. We might name half a dozen, yet fail to convey a definite impression. We may try to unite several tones or tints in a harmony, but when we come to mention them separately, there is nothing in any of them which strikes us as peculiar to London. It is only futile to fall back, as some have lately done, on a pervading sense of an " I am in London!" kind. That is only postponingthe question. We have a very complicated picture to draw. If we draw it correctly, not trying to include too much, and seldom endeavouring to penetrate below the surface, but being content if we can depict what we see, and catch the colour in such proportions as to enable us to reproduce a truthful impression, our task will have been at least partly fulfilled. To obtain even a slight impression with the local colour is not easy. I was looking the other day at a faint shadow on a silver plate. I was told that this was a portrait, my own portrait, in a daguerreotype taken in 1843. To the eyes of that day such a picture, in its unflinching accuracy, what Landseer abo...« less