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tinadoed, or banished; according to the Heinoufness of the Crime, and the Nature of the Theft. If they steal cleverly they have the Laugh on their Side; they are applauded, and the Sufferer is without Redrefs. However, at the End of the Fair, every thing of this Kind is reftored to the proper Owner.

This Fair (as I told you before) is kept only for the Entertainment of the Emperor, the Emprefs, and his Miftreffes. 'Tis very unufual for any of the Princes, or Grandees, to be admitted to fee it; and when any have that Favour, it is not till after the Women are all retired to their feveral Apartments. The Goods which are expofed and fold here, belong chiefly to the Merchants of Pekin; who put them into the Hands of the Eunuchs, to be fold in reality; fo that the Bargains here are far from being all pretended ones. In particular, the Emperor himself always buys a great many Things; and you may be fure they ask him enough for them. Several of the Ladies too make their Bargains; and fo do fome of the Eunuchs. All this trafficking, if there was nothing of real mixt with it, would want a great deal of that Earneftness and Life, which now make the Buftle the more active, and the Diverfion it gives the greater.

To this Scene of Commerce, fometimes fucceeds a very different one; that of Agriculture. There is a Quarter within the fame Inclosure, which is set apart for this Purpose. There you fee Fields, Meadows, Farm-houses, and little fcattered Cottages;

with Oxen, Ploughs, and all the Neceffaries for Hufbandry. There they fow Wheat, Rice, Pulse, and all other Sorts of Grain. They make their Harvest, and carry in the Produce of their Grounds. In a Word, they here imitate every thing that is done in the Country; and in every thing express a rural Simplicity, and all the plain Manners of a Country Life, as nearly as they poffibly can.

Doubtless you have read of the famous Feast in China, called the Feaft of the Lanthorns. It is always celebrated on the 15th Day of the firft Month. There is no Chinese so poor, but that upon this Day he lights up his Lanthorn. They have of them of all Sorts, Figures, Sizes, and Prices. On that Day all China is illuminated; but the fineft Illuminations of all are in the Emperor's Palaces; and particularly in these Pleasure-grounds, which I have been defcribing to you. There is not a Chamber, Hall, or Portico, in them, which has not feveral of these Lanthorns hanging from the Ceilings. There are feveral upon all the Rivulets, Rivers, and Lakes; made in the Shape of little Boats, which the Waters carry backward and forward. There are fome upon all the Hills and Bridges, and almost upon all the Trees. These are wrought mighty prettily, in the Shapes of different Fishes, Birds, and Beafts; Vases, Fruits, Flowers; and Boats of different Sorts and Sizes. Some are made of Silk; fome of Horn, Glafs, Mother of Pearl, and a Thoufand other Materials. Some of them are painted; others embroidered; and of very different Prices. I have feen fome of them which

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which could never have been made for a Thousand Crowns. It would be an endless Thing to endeavour to give you a particular Account of all their Forms, Materials, and Ornaments. It is in these, and in the great Variety which the Chinese fhew in their Buildings, that I admire the Fruitfulness of their Invention; and am almoft tempted to own, that we are quite poor and barren in Comparison of them.

Their Eyes are fo accuftomed to their own Architecture, that they have very little Tafte for ours. May I tell you what they say when they speak of it, or when they are looking over the Prints of fome of our most celebrated Buildings? The Height and Thickness of our Palaces amazes them. They look upon our Streets as fo many Ways hollowed into terrible Mountains; and upon our Houfes, as Rocks pointing up in the Air, and full of Holes like Dens of Bears and other wild Beafts. Above all, our different Stories, piled up fo high one above another, feem quite intolerable to them; and they cannot conceive how we can bear to run the Risk of breaking our Necks, fo commonly, in going up fuch a Number of Steps as is neceffary to climb up to the Fourth and Fifth Floors. "Undoubtedly, (faid the "Emperor Cang-by, whilft he was looking over fome "Plans of our European Houses,) this Europe must "be a very small and pitiful Country; fince the In"habitants cannot find Ground enough to fpread out "their Towns, but are obliged to live up thus in the "Air." As for us, we think otherwise; and have Reafon to do fo.

VOL. I.

G

However,

However, I must own to you, without pretending to decide which of the two ought to have the Preference, that the Manner of Building in this Country pleases me very much. Since my Refidence in China, my Eyes and Tafte are grown a little Chinese. And, between Friends, is not the Duchefs of Bourbon's Houfe oppofite to the Tuilleries, extremely pretty? Yet that is only one Story, and a good deal in the Chinese Manner. Every Country has its Tafte and Customs. The Beauty of our Architecture cannot be disputed; nothing is more grand and majeftic. I own too that our Houfes are well difpofed. We follow the Rules of Uniformity, and Symmetry, in all the Parts of them. There is nothing in them unmatched, or difplaced; every Part answers its oppofite; and there's an exact Agreement in the whole. But then there is this Symmetry, this beautiful Order and Difpofition too in China; and particularly in the Emperor's Palace at Pekin, that I was speaking of in the Beginning of this Letter. The Palaces of the Princes and great Men, the Courts of Justice, and the Houses of the better Sort of People, are generally in the fame Tafte.

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But in their Pleasure-houses, they rather choose [g] a beautiful Disorder, and a wandering as far as poffible from all the Rules of Art. They go entirely

[g] The Author of this Letter feems here to have formed his Opinion only from the Garden in which he was employed; for this is not univerfally the cafe in the Pleasure-houses of the Emperor of China. I have lately feen fome Prints of another of his Gardens, (brought from

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on this Principle, "That what they are to reprefent "there, is a natural and wild View of the Country; "a rural Retirement, and not a Palace formed ac"cording to all the Rules of Art." Agreeably to which, I have not yet obferved any Two of the little Palaces in all the grand Inclosure which are alike, though fome of them are placed at such confiderable Distances from one another. You would think that they were formed upon the Ideas of fo many different foreign Countries; or that they were all built at random, and made up of Parts not meant for one another. When you read this, you will be apt to imagine fuch Works very ridiculous; and that they must have a very bad Effect on the Eye; but was you to fee them, you would find it quite otherwise; and would admire the Art with which all this Irregularity is conducted. All is in good Tafte; and fo managed, that its Beauties appear gradually one after another. To enjoy them as one ought, you should view every Piece by itself; and you would find enough to amuse you for a long while, and to fatisfy all your Curiofity.

Befide the Palaces themselves (though I have called them little, in comparison of the whole) are very far from being inconfiderable Things. I faw them building one in the fame Inclosure, laft Year, for

that Kingdom, and which will very foon be published here,) in which the Difpofition of the Ground, Water, and Plantations, is indeed quite irregular; but the Houses, Bridges, and Fences, are all of a regular Kind. Thofe Prints will give the trueft Idea we can have of the Chinefe Manner of laying out Pleasure-grounds.

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