The Circus is a
pretty bauble, contrived for shew, and looks like Vespasian's
amphitheatre turned outside in. If we consider it in point of
magnificence, the great number of small doors belonging to the
separate houses, the inconsiderable height of the different
orders, the affected ornaments of the architrave, which are both
childish and misplaced, and the areas projecting into the street,
surrounded with iron rails, destroy a good part of its effect
upon the eye; and, perhaps, we shall find it still more
defective, if we view it in the light of convenience. The figure
of each separate dwelling-house, being the segment of a circle,
must spoil the symmetry of the rooms, by contracting them towards
the street windows, and leaving a larger sweep in the space
behind. If, instead of the areas and iron rails, which seem to be
of very little use, there had been a corridore with arcades all
round, as in Covent-garden, the appearance of the whole would
have been more magnificent and striking; those arcades would have
afforded an agreeable covered walk, and sheltered the poor
chairmen and their carriages from the rain, which is here almost
perpetual.
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