Disfigured from the Abbey to St. Paul's,

And far beyond where'er a vacant space

Allowed Boeotian Commerce to displace

Scant Urban Beauty from its last frail hold,

On a Metropolis given up to Gold.

But till of late our sky at least was clear

(Such sky as coal-reek leaves the civic year)

If not of smoke at least of flaming lies,

And florid vaunts of quacks who advertise.

Not these sky-horrors, huge and noisy-hinged,