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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FINE ARTS

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MR. HAYDON’S PICTURE OF “CHAIRING THE MEMBERS.”

In our last volume we were induced to appropriate nearly six of our columns to a description of Mr. Haydon’s Picture of the Mock Election in the King’s Bench Prison—­or rather the first of a series of pictures to illustrate the Election, the subject of the present notice being the Second, or the Chairing of the Members, which was intended for the concluding scene of the burlesque.  It will, therefore, be unnecessary for us here to give any additional explanation of the real life of these paintings, except so far as may be necessary to the explanation of the present picture.

The “Chairing” was acted on a water butt one evening, but was to have been again performed in more magnificent costume the next day; just, however, as all the actors in this eccentric masquerade, High Sheriff, Lord Mayor, Head Constable, Assessor, Poll Clerks, and Members, were ready dressed, and preparing to start, the marshal interfered, stopped the procession, and, after some parley, was advised to send for the guards.