3i6 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



little better, for the garden is pleasanter, and one goes 

 to it by water." Two years later he wrote in a very 

 different strain. " Every night constantly I go to 

 Ranelagh, which has totally beat Vauxhall. Nobody 

 goes anywhere else — everybody goes there. My Lord 

 Chesterfield is so fond of it, that he says he has 

 ordered all his letters to be directed thither." Fanny 

 Burney, in " Evelina," to bring out the character of 

 the " surly, vulgar, and disagreeable man," makes him 

 abuse the place which fascinated polite society. "There's 

 your famous Ranelagh, that you make such a fuss 

 about ; why, what a dull place is that ! " The chief 

 amusement was walking about and looking at each 

 other, as the poem by Bloomfield puts it — 



"We had seen every soul that was in it, 

 Then we went round and saw them again." 



The great attraction was the Rotunda, supposed to 

 be like the Pantheon at Rome. The outside diameter 

 was 185 feet. An arcade ran all round, and above it a 

 gallery, with steps up to it through four Doric porticos. 

 Over the gallery were sixty windows, and the whole was 

 surmounted by a slate roof. In the middle, supporting 

 the roof, was a huge fireplace, on the space at first 

 occupied by the orchestra. " Round the Rotunda," 

 inside, were *' 47 boxes . . . with a table and cloth 

 spread in each ; in these the company " were " regaled, 

 without any further expense, with tea and coffee." The 

 whole was adorned with looking-glasses and paintings, 

 imitation marble, stucco, and gilding. Dr. Arne wrote 

 music for the special performances ; breakfasts were at 

 one time the rage, and at another masquerades were the 

 order of the day ; while fireworks and illuminations 



