Solemnity.

“As horn bleat and dogs bay, as the whole raucous carnival turns and turns, blazing, shimmering; as Big Ben strikes the hours, which fall in leaden circles over the partygoers and the omnibuses, over stone Queen Victoria seated before the Palace on her shelves of geraniums, over the parks that lie sunken in their shadowed solemnity behind black iron fences.”  (Cunningham 168).

This portrayal of London is much more grim than Mrs. Dalloway’s.  It does, however, carry parallels between the two; the “leaden circles” of time, of the hours struck from Big Ben, ringing out and falling over all of London, is discussed in both books.  In Mrs. Dalloway, the parks, such as Regent’s Park, represent youth, happiness and reflection, and are in no way grim or dark.  Here, however, they are described as “sunken in their shadowed solemnity behind black iron fences.”  This portrays them more like death than life, and time as growing nearer to death, not adding to life.