222 Gardens of the Colosseum. 



Mr. Phillips's Vauxhall American apple, of an immense size : the trees 

 were brought to the north by Robert Charlton, gardener. Wall. {New- 

 castle Courant, Nov. 22.) 



Art. VII. The Gardens of the Pantheon, or Colosseum^ 

 Regent's Park. 



In a former Volume (I. p. 551.) we noticed the extraordinary exertions, 

 in the way of transplanting large shrubs, then going on at this undertaking, 

 and we would have continued our notices from time to time, if we could have 

 done so without offending an amiable and most ingenious individual, and 

 affecting his pecuniary interests and those of other parties concerned. As 

 the whole is now in the hands of the public creditors, we do not feel the 

 same delicacy in stating our opinion, the more especially because we think 

 the facts of this case are calculated to convey a useful lesson to the public. 



The radical cause of failure is easily traced to what may be called the 

 besetting sin of English schemers, that of overdoing the means — studying 

 the machinery more than the manufacture; and a second cause, to the un- 

 governable fancy and want of fixed plan in the director or direction. How 

 any class of men could advance money to be thrown away in the manner 

 it has been at this Colosseum during the last two years, in doing and undo- 

 ing, can only be accounted for from the circumstance of the public having 

 been carefully excluded, and thus opinions as to what was going on pre- 

 vented from being disseminated by the press. Puffs at great length, evi- 

 dently written by interested parties, were also from time to time sent to 

 the newspapers, and published, which tended" to keep up the delusion. 



The idea of building a structure at the expense of say forty or fifty 

 thousand pounds, for the purpose of exhibiting a painting which could be 

 produced for say five or seven thousand pounds, could not be considered 

 as originated with a view to profit, by any reflecting person ; because it was 

 open to the competition of a similar panoramic view which might be painted 

 for a similar amount, and exhibited in a wooden building, in all respects 

 but that of durabilit}', as fitting for the purpose as the Colosseum, which 

 might have been erected for say three thousand pounds. This application 

 of the common principles of trade, to what, at most, can only be called a 

 rather uncommon manufacture, would immediately have directed the pru- 

 dent and profitable course. With respect to the value of a durable build- 

 ing for this and similar purposes, the great fluctuations of fashion in this 

 rich commercial country show that value not to be great ; it is at any rate 

 never of much value in shops and manufactories. 



The idea of forming "gardens round the Colosseum may be good or bad ; 

 we shall not stop to enquire ; but the design and taste of such a garden as 

 has been erected there, we do not hesitate to say, have scarcely any thing to 

 do with good sense ; and the notion that such plants as have been planted 

 could be maintained in health for more than two or three years, we 

 will venture to say, never entered into the mind of a practical gardener. In 

 this garden, of not more than an acre in extent, a part of the design was to 

 shut out the surrounding houses, and another part was to assemble all the 

 botanical rarities and remarkable plants, to be purchased in the neighbour- 

 hood of London. The first object, though attempted by planting trees in 

 boxes, elevated on posts 20 and 30 ft. high, by artificial trees painted green, 

 and by other contrivances more unsightly than the objects to be shut out, 

 was found be impracticable ; the second object has been attempted at a cost 

 at which no probable receipts will ever pay half the interest, not to mention 



