There are signs, too, that at least three
living sculptors might in favourable conditions prove worthy
competitors of Stevens. At least one literary memorial in the British
Isles, the Scott monument in Edinburgh, which cost no more than
L16,000, satisfies a nation's commemorative aspiration. There the
natural environment and an architectural setting of impressive design
reinforce the effect of sculpture. The whole typifies with fitting
dignity the admiring affection which gathers about Scott's name. This
successful realisation of a commemorative aim--not wholly dissimilar
from that which should inspire a Shakespeare memorial--must check
forebodings of despair.
There are obviously greater difficulties in erecting a monument to
Shakespeare in London than in erecting a monument to Scott in
Edinburgh. There is no site in London that will compare with the
gardens of Princes Street in Edinburgh. It is essential that a
Shakespeare memorial should occupy the best site that London can
offer. Ideally the best site for any great monument is the summit of a
gently rising eminence, with a roadway directly approaching it and
circling round it. In 1864, when the question of a fit site for a
Shakespeare memorial in London was warmly debated, a too ambitious
scheme recommended the formation of an avenue on the model of the
Champs-Elysees from the top of Portland Place across Primrose Hill;
and at the end of the avenue, on the summit of Primrose Hill, at an
elevation of 207 feet above the river Thames, the Shakespeare monument
was to stand.
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