"Dit was ´n plek waarin smerigheid, die stank van armoede, die oop riole, die ontbindende verrotting, die malende skare van misrabele armsaliges, die nimmereindige beelde van ´n landskap gestrooi met agterlosig neergesmyte vullis ´n aansig aangeneem het wat noodsaaklik skyn te gewees het om die skoonheid van ´n ander wêreld vol netjiese strate, boomryke lane, en bloeisels teen die groen, singende gras en voëls en huise geskik vir konings en koninginne, en liriese musiek, en liefde te beklemtoon.
“It was a place in which squalor, the stench of poverty, the open sewers, the decaying rot, the milling crowds of wretchedness, the unending images of a landscape strewn with carelessly abandoned refuse, assumed an aspect that seemed necessary to enhance the beauty of another world of tidy streets, and wooded lanes, and flowers’ blossoms offsetting the green and singing grass, and birds and houses fit for kings and queens, and lyrical music, and love.