rounded by a wall twelve feet high, rather well built with
squared coral: the entrance is by a large gate on the south
side, from which there extends raised gravel walks, with
clipped hedges, the intermediate spaces being laid out in
beds, like a garden. The temple in which we were feasted
on the day of our first visit, occupies one corner of the
inclosure; it is completely shaded by a grove of trees, which
also overhang-the wall. In that part of the garden directly
opposite to the gate, a t the upper end of the walk there is
a smaller temple, nearly hid by the branches of several large
banyan tre e s; and before it, at the distance of ten or twelve
paces, a square awkward looking building, with a raised terrace
round it. The temple first spoken of is divided by means
of shifting partitions into four apartments, and a verandah
running all round, having a row of carved wooden pillars on
its outer edge to support the roof, which extends considerably
beyond it. The floor of the verandah is two feet
from the ground, the roof is sloping and covered with handsome
tiles, those forming the eaves being ornamented with
flowers and various figures in relief; there are also several
out-houses, and a kitchen communicating with them by
covered passages. In one of the inner apartments, at the
upper end, there is a small recess containing a green shrub,
in a high narrow flower-pot, having a Chinese inscription on
a tablet hanging above it on the wall. On another side of
the same room, there hangs the picture of a man rescuing a
bird from the paws of a cat; the bird seems to have been just
taken from a cage, which is tumbling over, with two other
birds fluttering about in the inside: it is merely a sketch,
but is executed in a spirited manner. In one of the back
apartments we find three gilt images, eighteen inches
high, with a flower in a vase before them. The roof of the
temple within is ten feet high, and all the cornices, pillars,
&c. are neatly carved into flowers and the figures of various
animals, t The ground immediately round it is divided into
a number of small beds, planted with different shrubs and
flowers; and on a pedestal of artificial rock, in one of the
walks close to it, is placed a clay vessel of an elegant form,
full of water, with a wooden ladle swimming on the top.
On a frame near one of the out-houses, hangs a large bell,
three feet high, of an inelegant shape, resembling a long
bee-hive; the sides are two inches thick, and richly ornamented
: its tone is uncommonly fine.
I t was determined to appropriate part of the large
temple to the use of the sick and their attendants; the
assistant surgeon of the Alceste taking one room, and the
gunner, who was to have the whole inclosure in his charge,
another. The small temple a t the upper end, being a retired