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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Ranelagh Gardens
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(London SW3) The site of the annual Chelsea Flower Show, running down to the Thames beside *Chelsea Hospital. The name survives from the pleasure gardens which opened here in 1742. They were the height of fashion for the rest of the 18C, competing successfully with the earlier *Vauxhall Gardens. A boating canal with a Chinese pavilion in it led to the great centrepiece, the domed Rotunda in which people promenaded and listened to music (the 9-year-old Mozart performed there in 1765). Canaletto painted both the gardens and the interior of the Rotunda, which was demolished in 1805.
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