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Pagoda in Kew Gardens.
[Illustration: Pagoda in Kew Gardens.]
In one of the wildernesses of Kew Gardens stands the _Great Pagoda_,
erected in the year 1762, from a design in imitation of the Chinese Taa.
The base is a regular octagon, 49 feet in diameter; and the
superstructure is likewise a regular octagon on its plan, and in its
elevation composed of 10 prisms, which form the 10 different stories of
the building. The lowest of these is 26 feet in diameter, exclusive of
the portico which surrounds it, and 18 feet high; the second is 25 feet
in diameter, and 17 feet high; and all the rest diminish in diameter and
height, in the same arithmetical proportion, to the ninth story, which is
18 feet in diameter and 10 feet high. The tenth story is 17 feet in
diameter, and, with the covering, 20 feet high, and the finishing on the
top is 17 feet high; so that the whole structure, from the base to the
top of the fleuron, is 163 feet. Each story finishes with a projecting
roof, after the Chinese manner, covered with plates of varnished iron of
different colours, and round each of them is a gallery enclosed with a
rail. All the angles of the roof are adorned with large dragons, eighty
in number, covered with a kind of thin glass of various colours, which
produces a most dazzling reflection; and the whole ornament at the top is
double gilt. The walls of the building are composed of very hard bricks;
the outside of well-coloured and well-matched greystocks, (bricks,)
neatly laid. The staircase is in the centre of the building. The prospect
opens as you advance in height; and from the top you command a very
extensive view on all sides, and, in some directions, upwards of forty
miles distant, over a rich and variegated country.
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