This, however, has only just begun to be felt, and when Brighton rose like a dream upon the remains of a fishing village, none of these things were thought of. People had certainly discernment enough to see that the rude village style would not do. A visitor of Dr. Russell’s time describes Brighton houses as consisting of one or more stories, and with the door-ways so low that you must stoop to enter, and then probably stumble down a step or two into the sitting room. A person has only to go into the Twittens, the narrow lanes between Middle Street and Black Lion Street, to witness even now such illustrations. The Railway booking office, in Castle Square, is a specimen of the architecture of Brighton after this period; and under George IV. it was beginning its marvellous development. This sort of thing it soon became necessary to alter, and year after year saw the gradual improvement in the streets of the town. But though this resulted in fine streets, and in lofty and commodious houses, the element of beauty was always wanting, simply because there was nothing like a principle in the minds of builders. They had some vague notions of the Palladian oracles, of a bastard Italian, a debased Renaissance, applicable to dwelling-houses; but the results of the application were and have been, up to the present time, deplorable. Brighton is not alone in this matter,—indeed, it rises superior to very many of its compeers; but when its position and infinite diversity of sight are reflected upon, there cannot fail to be regrets upon the Brighton it might have been. Supposing, for example, that an earlier recognition of the claims of Gothic and an English style had taken place. Suppose that the public buildings, instead of being of the packing case order in beauty—hollow cubes with a sham frontage of stuccoed pilasters—had presented the variety in structure and beauty in detail which is found in a minor degree in St. Peter’s Church. Suppose further that the streets, instead of having, as at present, flat, level surfaces, without a line of beauty in themselves, without a curve or an angle to reflect the sunshine or hold the shadow, which is so exquisite, had retained even the quaintness of early times, what a town Brighton would have been! No continental town could, from its very situation and the formation of the ground upon which it stands, have exceeded it in picturesque loveliness. And short of this, even had the purer Italian models been followed, had builders attempted such erections as those of Palmeira Square, or those of the Pavilion Buildings,—and they are the best specimens of that class of street architecture which we possess,—the result would have been a grandeur and a beauty which would have left the visitor no ground for a moment’s doubt that Brighton is indeed the “Queen of Watering Places.”