îffflI
embassy TQ china.
njgi^iojfted in theiltMchap tea- ,te he growing in Pekin;
cptirt. and, which,» tho in a more northern situation, and at a
<jndJcr isdjd adorned the lakh- with its
spreading leayes and fragrant flowers,.
The party;! stopped at a number of small palaces, near
the water’s edge* there. being no. one very considerable
edifice. There were other buildings esreeted on the pin-
rtacle§ of the. liighest hills., and some, buried in the-, dark
recces; of the deepest v a lli^ They, differed injeonstruO-*
tion and ornament from each otheE, almost every one
having something, in the plan of it, analogous to the situation
and surrounding objects; but* withinyaoE, was
generally a public ball, haying in the midst a#throne
and a, few side rooms.: the whole, furnished with .works
of art from Europe, and rare or curious productions of
nature found in Tartary. Among, die later was- an
agate, of extraordinary size Sad beauty, supported on a
marble, pedestal, and standing in one of die pavilions
upon the lake. This, agate, of which there is an engraving
op. the opposite pagey is. four feet it' length,' carved
into a landscape, and bears, a, copy of verses cut into it,
which?were written by the Emperor. The-best works
of art, by natives of the country were .carvings-in wood,
dejseriptive o f natural objects, grouped;^togethW- with
tasfi|, and executed with truth and delicacy; Some of the
walls* were coyered.|with, paintings, representing the
pleasures of the chase in Tartary. In.these the Emperor
EMBASSÿïTO CHINA, 243
is-always seen at full gallop', shooting/-wild ..beasts with yu&t to the
arrows. These painting! cannot stand the test,of Euro- .«”»*. '
pean criticism. The tree#j1t^;birds, some part qf the
landscape,*'and even the animals, were drawn with accuracy;
butthey failed in the human flgure, with which
the spectator Being' better5 aelnimted’' cah ,|hore‘i^ i j y
p^rceiye wherêf the imitation of it* i | JL|fecjhfe> T h S t
Tröporïions, the .perspectivej^plire mpt jj^W v e d ; and
the Chinese, thq théy^süèçèed in à c o ff^ i.a n d sam^fhnes
lively'delineation of individual dty^to&d^|.p#typBbperly
be said, in the-present state’of their;ar-t.s,, to ^S ;é,<|jxàl to
the design and composition of a picture. One European