inflicted on him a heavy financial loss), when the first wave of enthusiasm had long been dissipated, stated that the Pantheon "was built by Mr. James Wyatt, and regarded both by natives and foreigners, as the most elegant structure in Europe, if not on the globe… . No person of taste in architecture or music, who remembers the Pantheon, its exhibitions, its numerous, splendid, and elegant assemblies, can hear it mentioned without a sigh!" Contemporary reports of the cost of the building were greatly exaggerated. Writing to Sir Horace Mann in May 1770 Horace Walpole asked "What do you think of a winter Ranelagh erecting in Oxford Road, at the expense of sixty thousand pounds?". The courts later determined that the actual cost was £36,965 19s. 5½d: £27,407 2s. 11½d for the main construction work, £2,500 for the entrance from Poland Street and £7,058 16s. 6d for furniture, paintings, statues, the organ, and Wyatt's five per cent commission as architect. History The Pantheon opened on Monday, 27 January 1772. Up to fifty pounds was paid for tickets for the first night which attracted over seventeen hundred members of high society including all the foreign ambassadors and eight dukes and duchesses. Initially the social tone was very high (though a policy that patrons should only be admitted on the recommendation of a peeress was soon dropped), and good profits were made. During the first winter there were assemblies only, without dancing or music, three times a week. In subsequent seasons the entertainments included a mixture of assemblies, masquerades (masked balls) and subscription concerts. For a while the shares commanded high prices and James Wyatt claimed to have sold his two shares for £900 each. In the 1780s the popularity of the Pantheon declined; however, one of the commemoration concerts celebrating the music of the German composer, Handel, was held in the Pantheon in 1784. After the destruction of the King's Theatre in The Haymarket by fire in 1789, it was converted into an opera house on a twelve-year lease at £3,000 per annum. James Wyatt was once again the architect. After only one complete season of opera the Pantheon was burnt to the ground in 1792. Tate Britain holds a watercolour entitled The Pantheon, the Morning after the Fire, which is attributed (although not without dispute) to the 16-year-old J. M. W. Turner. By 1795 the structure had been rebuilt in