A. Panizzi.
B. M., May 18, 1858.
[S]. The name of Mr. Hosking occurs repeatedly in the printed document here referred to as that of the author of the plan therein put forth.
Previously to the issue of this statement, Panizzi had asked for, and obtained, from the architect his opinion on the dissimilarity between the two plans.
“Grosvenor Street,
April 8th, 1858.
“Dear Sir,
I feel no hesitation in complying with your request, and stating that the idea of a circular Reading-Room with surrounding Library, and with the divisions formed wholly of book-cases, was perfectly original and entirely your own, and totally unlike the solid masonic structure devised by Mr. Hosking for the exhibition of sculpture. The two plans neither did, nor do, strike me as having any resemblance to each other, and that is what I meant to express in my note of last July. The architectural features of the present dome I am answerable for, not you, and it is obviously as unlike the Pantheon as any two domes can be. It was Michael Angelo’s cupola of St. Peter which suggested the present lines of yours.