_Canaletto_ (Venetian: 1697-1768). _See 127._
The interior of the Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens (at Chelsea), which
were opened as a rival to Vauxhall in 1742, and at once became the
rage. "Ranelagh has totally beat Vauxhall," wrote Walpole in 1744;
"nobody goes anywhere else." "When I first entered Ranelagh," said Dr.
Johnson, "it gave me an expansion and gay sensation in my mind such as
I never experienced anywhere else." Smollett describes it in his novels
as an "enchanted palace." "Ranelagh," said Rogers ("Table-Talk"), "was
a very pleasant place of amusement. There persons of inferior rank
mingled with the highest nobility of Britain. All was so orderly and
still that you could hear the _whisking_ sound of the ladies' trains as
the immense assembly walked round and round the room. If you chose, you
might have tea, which was served up in the neatest equipage possible."
The dining boxes under the arcade on the ground level are shown in the
picture, as well as the orchestra, the musicians, and the numerous
gaily-dressed promenaders. On the back of the original canvas was an
inscription by the artist, recording that the picture was painted in
London in 1754.