“ Xhe architecture o f tlie Chrnefe,” fays one o f their enco-
miafls, “ though it bears no relation to that o f Europe ; though
“ it has borrowed nothing from that o f the Greeks, has a cer-
“ tain beauty peculiar to itfelf.” I.t is'indeed peculiar to itfelf,
and the miiTionaries may be aflured they are the only perfons who
will ever difcover “ real palates in the manfions o f the Em-
“ peror,” or to whom, “ their immenfity, fymmetry, and
“ magnificence, will announce the grandeur o f the mailer who
“ inhabits them.”
The houfe o f a prince, or a great officer o f ftate, in the capital,
is not much diflinguifhed from that o f a. tradefman, except by the
greater fpace o f ground on which it Hands, and by being fur-
rounded b y a high wall. Our lodgings in Pekin were in a
houfe o f this defcription. The ground plot was four hundred
by three hundred feet, and it was laid out into ten or twelve
courts, fome having two, fome three, and others four, tent-
ihaped houfes, Handing on Hone terraces raifed about three
feet above the court, which was paved with tiles. Galleries o f
communication, forming colonnades o f red wooden pillars,
were .carried from each building and from one court to another,
fo that every part o f the houfe might be vifited without
expofure to the fun or the rain. The number o f wooden pillars
o f which the colonnades were formed was about 900. MoH
o f the rooms were open to the rafters o f the ro o f ; but fome
had a flight ceiling o f bamboo laths covered with plafler; and
the ladies apartments confifled o f two flories; the upper however
had no light, and was not fo good as our common attics. The
floors were laid with bricks or clay. The windows had no
glafs; oiled paper, or filk gauze, or pearl ihell, or horn^ were
ufed as fubflitutes for this article. In the corners o f fome o f
the rooms were holes in the ground, covered over with Hones
or wood, intended for fire-places, from whence the heat is
conveyed, as in the houfes o f ancient Rome, through flues in
the floor, or in the walls, the latter o f which are generally
whitened with lime made from ihells and imported from the
lea coafl. One room was pointed out to us as the theatre. The
Hage was in the middle, and a fort o f gallery was ere&ed in
front o f it. A Hone room was built in the midfl o f a piece o f
water, in imitation o f a paflage yacht, and one o f the courts
was roughened with rocks, with points and precipices and
excavations, as a reprefentation o f nature in miniature. On
the ledges o f thefe were meant to be placed their favourite
flowers and Hunted trees, for which they are famous.
There is not a water-clofet, nor a decent place o f retirement.
in all China. Sometimes a flick is placed over a hole in a corner,
but in general they make ufe o f large earthen jars with,
narrow tops. In the great houfe we occupied was a walled
•inclofure, with a row o f fmall fquare holes o f brickwork funk
in the ground.
Next to the pagodas, the moH confpicuous objects are the
gates o f cities. Thefe are generally fquare buildings, carried
feveral flories above the arched gateway and, like the temples, are
covered with one or more large proje&ing roofs. Butthemofl
Hupendous work o f this country is the great wall that divides
it from northern Tartary. It is built exa<flly upon the fame
plan as the wall o f Pekin, being a mound o f earth cafed on
each