“ In many places immenfe woods, chiefly oaks, pines, and
“ chefnuts, grow upon almoft perpendicular fteeps, and force
“ their fturdy roots through every refiftance o f furface and o f
“ foil, where vegetation would feem almoft impoflible. Thefe
“ woods often clamber over the loftieft pinnacles o f the ftony
“ hills, or gathering on the ikirts o f them, defcend with a rapid
“ fweep, and bury themfelves in the deepeft.vallies. There, at
“ proper diftances, you find palaces, banquetting houfes, and
“ monafteries, (but without bonzes) adapted to the fituation
i and peculiar circumft'ances o f the place, fometimes with a
1 rivulet on one hand, gently ftealing through the glade, at
“ other with a cataradt tumbling from above, raging with
il foam, and rebounding with a thouiand echoes from below,
“ or filently engulphed in a gloomy pool, o f yawning
“ chafm.
“ The roads by which we approached thefe romantic fcenes
“ are often hewn out o f the living rock, and condudted round
“ the hills in a kind o f rugged ftair-cafe, and yet no. ac-
“ cident occurred in our progrefs, not a falfe Hep difturbed.
I the regularity o f our cavalcade, though the horfes are fpirited
“ and all o f them unihod. From the great irregularity o f
“ the ground, and the various heights to which we afcended,
“ we had opportunities o f catching many magnificent points o f
“ view by detached glances, but after wandering for feveral
P hours (and yet never wearied with wandering) we at laft
“ reached a covered pavilion open on all fides, and fituated on
“ a fummit fo elevated as perfectly to command the whole
“ furrounding country to a vaft extent. The radius o f the ho-
“ rizon,
“ rizon I ihould fuppofe to be at leaft twenty miles from the
X central fpot where we - flood; and certainly fo rich, fo
“ various, fo beautiful, fo fublime a profpedi my eyes had
ft never beheld. I faw every thing before me as on an illumin-
( ated map, palaces, pagodas, towns, villages, farm-houfes,
“ plains, and vallies, watered by innumerable ftreams, hills
“ waving with woods, and meadows covered with cattle o f the
“ moft beautiful marks and colours. All feemed to be nearly at
“ my feet, and that a ftep would convey me w ithin reach o f them.
“ I obferved here a vaft number o f what we call in England
“ Jheet cows, alfo iheet horfes, many pyeballs, dappled, mottled
“ and fpotted, the latter chiefly ftrawberry.
“ From hence was pointed out to us b y the minifter a vaft
$ enclofure below, which, he faid, was not more acceflible to
“ him than to us, being never entered but by the Emperor, his
“ women, or his Eunuchs. It includes within its bounds,
“ though on a fmaller fcale, moft o f the beauties which dif-
“ tinguilh the eaftern and the weftern gardens which we have
“ already feen ; but from every thing I can learn it falls very
“ fhort o f the fanciful deferiptions which father Attiret and
“ Sir William Chambers have intruded upon us as realities.
“ That within thefe private retreats, various entertainments
“ o f the moft novel and expenfive nature are prepared
“ and exhibited by the Eunuchs, who are very numerous
“ (perhaps fome thoufands) to amufe the Emperor and his
“ ladies, I have no doubt; but that they are carried to ali
f the lengths o f extravagance and improbability thofe gentle-
“ men