A VISIT TO ENGLAND 325 



Miller knew, besides, plenty of gardeners' Latin, and 

 that first day they do not seem to have squabbled. 



They were proud of their hothouse at Chelsea, 

 though it was no longer the unusual thing that it 

 was when Evelyn spoke of it as so ' very ingenious, 

 that the subterranean heat, conveyed by a stove under 

 the conservatory, all vaulted with brick, so as he 

 has the doores and windowes open in the hardest 

 frost, secluding only the snow.' They were trying 

 ineffectually to grow the Ricotia JEgyptmca : Lin- 

 naeus recommended them to mix Nile mud in the pot. 

 Linnaeus enjoyed his visit so well that he repeated 

 it often not, I suppose, in his bloom-coloured coat, 

 but in thrifty work-a-day dress ; though I dare say he 

 donned the bloom-colour when he went in the evening 

 to Ranelagh Gardens close by, deemed by Dr. Johnson 

 himself * a place of innocent recreation.' It must have 

 been pretty much like the Healtheries ' and succeed- 

 ing amusements have been in our time, or like the 

 evening fetes at the Botanical Gardens : not so low or 

 lively as Cremorne, as they only danced the minuet at 

 Ranelagh. 



Bos well, comparing it with the Pantheon, of which 

 we read so much in ' Evelina,' says, ' The first view of it ' 

 [the Pantheon] ' did not strike us so much as Ranelagh, 

 of which he ' [Johnson] c said the coup d'oeil was the finest 

 thing he had ever seen. The truth is, Ranelagh is of a 

 more beautiful form ; more of it, or rather, indeed, the 

 whole rotunda, appears at once, and it is better lighted.' 



