If men loved Pimlico as mothers love children, arbitarily, because it is _theirs_ Pimlico in a year or two might be fairer than Florence.

Some readers will say that this is a mere fantasy.

I answer that this is the actual history of mankind.

This, as a fact, is how cities did grow great.

Go back to the darkest roots of civilisation and you will find them knotted round some sacred stone or encircling some sacred well.