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Promoting Natural & Cultural History
TYPE: | Image |
DATE: | 13th May 1748 |
ARTIST: | Robert Sayer, Fleet Street, London, 1750. |
AUTHOR: | Pehr Kalm (1716-1779) |
COLLECTION(S): | Wellcome Library, London. V0012915. |
REFERENCE(S): | • Kalm, Pehr, Pehr Kalms Amerikanska reseräkning, published by Svenska Litteratursällskapet in Finland, Helsingfors 1956 (p. 30). |
ADDED: | 15/12/2020 |
iFELLOW: | Viveka Hansen |
JOURNALS ETC: | Linnaeus Apostles Global Science & Adventure, Volume 3, Book 1, Page 240 |
CONTENT: | Pehr Kalm’s detailed travelling account reveals the entrance price two days prior to his actual visit to Ranelagh gardens and rotunda: ‘At Ranelagh, to be able to see it, 1Sh’ (11 May, 1748). This public pleasure garden had opened only six years earlier and was immensely popular in mid-18th century. On the day for the visit, he introduced with these enlightening words in his journal: ‘In the evening I viewed Ranelagh House, which lies a little way from Chelsea, in the direction of London, where the youth of both sexes and also older people go to amuse themselves. Ranelagh House is reckoned to contain one of the largest halls in Europe, of an almost circular construction and with only pillars in the middle: here music and song are performed in the summer almost every evening and now and then in the mornings; whoever wishes to enter it must pay a shilling…’ Furthermore, a few days later (16 June) he mentioned the Chelsea Hospital, also illustrated on this coloured engraving: ‘In Chelsea Hospital are 500 old soldiers; but a large number of old soldiers live where they wish, having 7 pounds sterling, 12 shillings and one pence a year in maintenance.’ |
GEO-LOCATION: | WGS84(51.48525, -0.1546) |