OLD RANELAGH GARDENS.
Adjoining the Royal Hospital, on the eastern side, stood the mansion of Richard, Earl of Ranelagh. This nobleman, about the year 1690, obtained from the Crown a large grant of land; he built a house thereon, and made it his principal residence till his death in 1712. In 1730 an Act was passed vesting this estate in trustees, and three years after the house and premises were sold in lots. About this period, Lacy, the patentee of Drury Lane Theatre, projected a plan for establishing a place of public entertainment on a large and splendid scale; and, in pursuance of this scheme, he took a lease of these premises. But it appears he soon gave up the undertaking, as in 1741, when the Rotunda was built, there were two other lessees, one of whom became a bankrupt. The property was then divided into 36 shares of £1000 each, the greater number of which were held by Sir Thomas Robinson, who built for himself a house adjoining to Ranelagh Gardens. Several of his friends took shares in the concern, and it became for a time prosperous.
The Rotunda was opened with a public breakfast, &c., in 1742. It was an imitation of the Pantheon at Rome. The external diameter was 185 ft., the internal 150 ft. The entrances were by four Doric porticos opposite each other, and the first story was rustic; round the whole, on the outside, was an arcade, and over it a gallery, the stairs to which were at the porticos. The interior was fitted up with great taste, and from the ceiling descended 28 chandeliers, in two circles. Music and dancing were the principal attractions. From the branches of the trees that shaded every walk festoons of coloured lamps hung down. Royalty, nobility, and gentry visited it.