neatness; the windows are of unsullied brightness; every thing has a shining air of freshness; and the stranger looks in vain for a grain of dirt, or a particle of dust, for these are scarcely to be found upon the ground.

The houses which form the town are small, low, and detached buildings, in perfect Dutch style; and the streets (if streets they can be called, for the houses are generally built on one side of the road only,) run in serpentine lines, and are paved in mosaic work, with variouscoloured bricks, small round pebbles, or pounded shells, so that the whole effect is the most exquisitely neat that can be imagined.

Along one side of most of these little streets runs a small stream, in a channel neatly lined with brick on both sides, and supplied with clear water from the lake. The numerous little bridges, consequently required, afford plenty of opportunities to these natty people for exhibiting their taste in fanciful devices, and in the intermixture of bright colours.

There is also a little spot of a few yards square, which, I suppose, may be called the public garden, and where the inhabitants of this little colony have exercised their taste and ingenuity over nature, by turning every small tree and shrub into some green monster of earth, air, or water.

Observing that the shutters to the front windows of most of the better sort of houses were generally closed, I endeavoured to ascertain the cause; but I could learn no other reason, than that it was a practice in general use, for the purpose of excluding dust and dirt. These shutters, however, although in the open air, are kept in a high state of polish, and, I observed in some cases, are richly ornamented. On gay occasions they are thrown open.

But there is another custom here, which, for its singularity, deserves particular notice. Almost every house in the village has two entrance doors; one is the common and usual entrance, the other is opened only on two occasions-one to let in the bride and bridegroom after the celebration of the marriage ceremony, the other to let them out on their way to their last home. This door, opening to mark the two most important incidents to which human life is subject, is generally of a black colour, suitable to the solemnity of the purpose; and from the glossy brightness which it presents, is no doubt an object of the

housewife's daily and peculiar care. This door is also carved with ornamental designs, apparently according to the wealth or consequence of the owner, but it is placed high from the ground, without any step, and without either of those usual appendages of handle or knocker.— A Tour through Parts of the Netherlands, &c.

THE DWELLINGS OF THE CHINESE.

IN describing the dwellings of the Chinese, we may observe that, in their ordinary plan, they bear a curious resemblance to the remains of the Roman habitations disinterred from the scoriæ and ashes of Pompeii. They consist usually of a ground floor, divided into several apartments within the dead wall that fronts the street, and lit only by windows looking into the internal court-yard, The principal room, next to the entrance, serves to receive visitors as well as for eating; and within are the more private apartments, the doorways of which are screened by pendent curtains of silk or cotton. Near Peking, the embassies found most of the apartments furnished with a couch or bed-place of brickwork, having a furnace below to warm it during the winter. This was usually covered with a felt rug or mat, which, with the assistance of the warmth, gave perpetual lodging to swarms of vermin, and rendered the bed-places quite unavailable to the English travellers. These flues, however, are very necessary during the severe winters, when the fires in the better houses are lit on the outside; but in poorer ones, the furnace is within, and serves the double purpose of cooking and warmth, the whole family huddling round it.

All houses of consequence are entered by a triple gateway, consisting of one large folding-door in the centre, and of a smaller one on either side. These last serve for ordinary occasions, while the first is thrown open for the reception of distinguished guests. Large lanterns, of a cylindrical shape, are hung at the sides, on which are inscribed the name and titles of the inhabitant of the mansion, so as to be read either by day, or at night, when the lanterns are lit. Just within the gates is the covered court, where the sedan-chair stands, surrounded by red

varnished label-boards, having inscribed in gilt characters the full titles of any person of rank and consequence. We cannot better describe one of their larger mansions than in the words of Sir George Staunton :*—“ This palace was built on the general model of the dwellings of great mandarins. The whole enclosure was in the form of a parallelogram, and surrounded by a high brick wall, the outside of which exhibited a plain blank surface, except near one of its angles, where the gateway opened into a narrow street, little promising the handsome structures withinside. The wall in its whole length supported the upper ridge of the roof, whose lower edges, resting upon an interior wall parallel to the other, formed a long range of buildings divided into apartments for servants, and offices. The rest of the enclosure was subdivided into several quadrangular courts of different sizes. In each quadrangle were buildings upon platforms of granite, and surrounded by a colonnade. The columns were of wood, nearly sixteen feet in height, and as many inches in diameter at the lower end, decreasing to the upper extremity about one-sixth. They had neither capital nor base, according to the strict meaning of those terms, in the orders of Grecian architecture, nor any divisions of the space called the entablature, being plain to the very top, which supports the cornice; and were without any swell at the lower end, where they were let into hollows cut into stones for their reception, and which formed a circular ring round each, somewhat in the Tuscan manner. Between the columns, for about one-fourth of the length of the shaft from the cornice downwards, was carved and ornamented wood-work, which might be termed the entablature, and was of a different colour from the columns, which were universally red. This colonnade served to support that part of the roof which projected beyond the wall-plate in a curve, turning up at the angles. By means of such roofed colonnades, every part of those extensive buildings might be visited under cover. The number of pillars throughout the whole was not fewer than six hundred.

"Annexed to the principal apartment, now destined for the ambassador, was an elevated building, intended for the purposes of a private theatre and concert-room, with Embassy, vol. ii. p. 139.

retiring apartments behind, and a gallery for spectators round it. None of the buildings were above one story, except that which comprised the ladies' apartments during the residence of the owner: it was situated in the inmost quadrangle. The front consisted of one long and lofty hall, with windows of Corea paper, through which no object could be distinguished on the other side. On the back of this hall was carried a gallery, at the height of about ten feet, which led to several small rooms, lighted only from the hall. Those inner windows were of silk gauze, stretched on frames of wood, and worked with the needle in flowers, fruit, birds, and insects, and others painted in watercolours. This apartment was fitted in a neater style, though upon a smaller scale, than most of the others. To this part of the building was attached a small back court with offices: the whole calculated for privacy.

"In one of the outer quadrangles was a piece of water, in the midst of which a stone room was built, exactly in the shape of one of the covered barges of the country. In others of the quadrangles were planted trees, and, in the largest, a huge heap of rocks rudely piled, but firmly fixed upon each other, and at one end was a spot laid out for a garden in miniature; but it did not appear to have been finished."

In the best Chinese mansions there are seldom any stairs beyond the few stone steps by which they are raised above the general level of the ground. The stonework of the foundation is extremely solid and handsome, and in the neighbourhood of Canton it is always of granite. The walls are of blue brick, frequently with an artificial facing or pointing, by which strangers are apt to be deceived as to the fineness of their brickwork. They work in stucco with great skill, representing animals, flowers, and fruits, which are sometimes coloured to imitate nature; and the cheapness of this ornament makes it very common. The partition-walls of the inner courts are frequently broken into compartments, which are filled with an open work of green varnished tile, or coarse porcelain. The mode in which they tile their roofs is evidently derived from the use of split bamboos for the same purpose, as it is practised to this day by the Malays, and described by Marsden. The transverse section of these tiles being something of a semicircle, they are laid down the roof with their concave

sides uppermost, to serve as gutters, the upturned edges of every range being contiguous. But, as these would admit the rain at the lines of contact, other tiles are laid in a contrary position over them, and the whole secured in their places by mortar.

In towns, where space is of consequence, the houses and shops of the greater number of the inhabitants have a story above the ground floor, and on the roof is often erected a wooden stage or platform for drying goods, or for taking the air in hot evenings. This custom contributes to make their houses very liable to catch and to spread fires during a conflagration. Nothing surprises the Chinese more than the representations or descriptions of the five and six storied houses of European cities; and the emperor is said to have inquired if it was the smallness of the territory that compelled the inhabitants to build their dwellings so near the clouds. They have the most absurd superstition in regard to the ill-luck that attends the elevation of dwellings above a certain height; and the erection of a gable end (which they denominate by their character for metal, approaching to the same shape) will fill a whole family with consternation, until certain ceremonies have been performed to dispel the "evil influence." These remedies are about as well founded in common sense as the evils which they are employed to remove, and resemble exactly the charms and exorcisms used in our olden time against witches, ghosts, and devils. In the same way that a horse-shoe, with us, nailed against the door, was an infallible protection from a witch, the figure of a dragon, with its mouth wide open, opposite to the unlucky roof, swallows up all the ngo-ky, "the bad air, or influence." The Chinese, however, never seem to have reached that height of judicial acumen by which, in former times with us, many a helpless old woman was thrown into the water, to be drowned if she sank, or burnt if she floated.

The magnificence of Chinese mansions is estimated in some measure by the ground which they cover, and by the number and size of the courts and buildings. The real space is often eked out by winding and complicated passages or galleries, decorated with carving and trellis-work in very good taste. The walks are often paved with figured tiles. Large tanks or ponds, with the nelumbium,