The building is solidly built of stone, the first story crenellated, and on this is more masonry with very beautiful double roofs of Imperial-yellow tiles, with wide eaves showing fine woodwork, carved and decorated.

A fitting guard-house to the tomb of an emperor! We rested a while in the quietness of this courtyard, and drank tea and took refreshment we had brought with us; then prepared for our ride back to Nankow, some twelve or more miles.

As we left the tomb evening was drawing on, and away over the plain we could see those giant stone monsters marking our way, and beyond, catching the gleams of the setting sun, I could discern that beautiful pailau. Perhaps it was the poetry of evening which made our return journey so delightful. Passing over those ruined bridges and wending our way silently and slowly between the ranks of those weird monuments of the past impressed me very much, and, as the light fell, it grew more and more weird. The stillness was intense and almost nerve-trying; but soon we left the "holy way," and turned off to find a nearer pathway to Nankow. As the sun set the moon rose to light us on our way; and by that light we continued our journey on our sturdy little steeds, in single file along narrow tracks, fording streams. At the end of a long day's work came the welcome from our Chinese host at the inn. What wonders I had seen that day! I felt I had lived for something!

THE PORCELAIN PAGODA

LEWIS LE COMTE

HERE is without the city (and not within as some

ΤΗ

have written) a house named by the Chinese the "Temple of Gratitude" (paou-gan sze) built about 300 years ago. It is raised on a massive basis, built with brick and surrounded with a rail of unpolished marble; there are ten or twelve steps all round it, by which you ascend to the lowermost hall, the floor of which stands one foot higher than the basis, leaving a little walk two feet wide all round it.

The front of this hall or temple is adorned with a gallery and some pillars. The roofs (for in China there are usually two, one next to the top of the wall, and a narrower one over that) are covered with green varnished shining tiles; and the ceiling within is painted and made up of several little pieces differently wrought one within the other, which with the Chinese is no small ornament. I confess that medley of beams, joists, rafters and pinions is a singularity which surprises us because we must needs judge that such a work was not done without great expense; but to speak truth, it proceeds only from the ignorance of their workmen, who never could find out that noble simplicity, in which consists both the strength and beauty of our buildings.

This hall has no light but what comes in at the doors, of which there are three very large ones that give admittance into the tower I speak of, which is part of this temple. It is of an octangular figure, about forty feet broad, so that each side is fifteen feet wide. A wall in the like form is built round it, at two fathoms and a half distance, and, being moderately high, supports the one side of the penthouse, which issues from the tower, and thus makes a pretty kind of gallery. The tower is nine stories high, each story being adorned with a cornice three feet wide at the bottom of windows, and distinguished by little penthouses like the former, but narrower, and (like the tower itself) decreasing in breadth as they increase in height.

The wall is at the bottom at least twelve feet thick, and above eight and a half at the top, cased with Chinaware laid flat-wise; for though the weather has somewhat impaired its beauty, there is yet enough remaining to show that it is real Chinaware, though of the coarser sort, since it is impossible that bricks could have retained that lustre above 300 years. The staircase within is narrow and troublesome, the steps being very high. Each story is made up of thick pieces of timber laid crosswise, and on them a floor, the ceiling of each room being beautified with paintings, if such paintings can be called beautiful. The walls of the upper rooms have several small niches full of carved idols, which make a pretty kind of checker. The whole work is gilt and looks like carved stone or marble; but I believe it to be only brick, for the Chinese