( •I 3* . )
deur, and the adtiVe labour employed in conftm&ing itj' in thefhort
s«ptember. fpace o f a few years, is not eafily grafped by thé ftrongeft imagination.
Where it climbs the heights-, the afcent is aided by large flights oF
fteps, fo that the paflage along it is at onee -eafy, fecurè/1 attd’Uninterrupted.
ïn (hort, it formed a fine military "way, by1which the armies,
-o f China, éniployed to defend its frontier againft the Tartars*
could march from one end o f the kingdom to. the. other.. There are
alifb, at proper diftaneesy ftrong Jdwetsy from whence, ‘by certain
fignals, an alarm could' be cbhmiumcatéd; in a very fllOrf
ïS ié , acrofs the whole Umpire; and wherever the walk attains the
fommit o f an hill, or mountain; there- is a- ftrong fort defigHed' to
watch the-e^curfibns and movem^ts o f ^ e enemy.
The part o f this wall, on which I ftood, commahdfed'kvöy extern-
five yiew o f it, with all the romantic Jceneiy^conneéled with it. _?From<
hence I law the amazing fabric take its courfö fbrrhany hiilbs óver a.
beautiful plain, watered, by a large iiver, which It-"èröifed in ‘ the
form oF a bridge.. 'A little to the-wéftward it "adfcehds_;ia
mountain, which,. on,that-fide, completes the profpedfc" J
But the moftffupendous works of man mnft at length moulder away;;
and fince.Tarlary and„China are become one nation, and, confequently*.
fhbjeét to' the fame government; the wait has toft its* importance t.
Ü being noJonger aeceflary for defence or fecurity, no attention is now.
paid to its preferyation i & that, the time is. approaching when this
ftugéitdouse monument o f perfevering labour j. when this Unparalleled*
effort o f national policy,, will become an enormous lëngth.of-fuifts;
and an awful example o f decay.: many parts o f it are ^Iréady fallen
down, and others threaten to encumber the plain that 'they were,
seared to defend..
One.
( m )
One o f the mandarins informed me, as we were walking together on
the wall, that;- according to the hiftories o f his country, it had been
finifoed upwards o f t^d mbufend yeats^b’e andr confequently, two-
hundred years before the Chriftian Sera,
I muff, however, acknowledge that, after ally fliis renowned barrier
o f China-ffid hot, altogether, fatisfy my expectations. The Wonder
o f it confifts in its extent, o f which a fmall part is to be feen, and the
fhort time in which it was eredted, may equally aftonifh b y reading.an
account of it f When I flood on the top o f if, I was ftiU-obliged to-
exereife my imaginatioa tis to the aftonifhing circumftances1 connected
with it,, and faw it.ahb.in.a» comparative view with natural objiafts infinitely
fuperior, at kafiyto any partial, appearance o f it^
. When we had:paffed the wall, there was* an immediate change inr
the appearance o f the country, as well as • the temperature o f the feafon.
*Inftead of a. level range o f various and unceafing cultivation, o f the
habitations o f wealthy the crowd* o f population, and the exertion o f
kiduftry j we beheld a wide and barren wafte, finking into vallies, and
xifing.into mountains; where no harveft waved, no villages poured
forth: bs inhabitants, or fplendid manfions enriched the feene. The
traveller,' however,, is amply compenfated' by the variety o f natural
objedts which prefent themfeIvesto-jfim*i- and-the lover o f pidturefque*
beauty finds^ amidft all-the increafing ineonveniencies o f his journey, a1
fourCe-off enchantment which makes him forget them all.
A t the diftance o f about -feven miles foom the great wall, we came
to the foot o f a very high- mountain, which the carts could not af-
eend without an additional number-of horles. ■’ The paflage through
this mountain is another proof of the genius and indefatigable fpirit'
o f the Chinefe people in aU works that relate to public utility» i It is-
thirty feet in breadth,, cut. through a folid rock j . and,, which is the
more extraordinary part of this undertaking, the incifion made from,
the-top of the mountain to the fuiface o f the road, is, at. leaft, one:
hundred!