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terials, 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 accustomed to their own Architecture, that they have very little Taste for ours. May I tell you what they fay 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 Streetsas fo many Ways hollowed into terrible Mountains; and upon our Houses, 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 necessary to climb up to the fourth and fifth Floors. "Undoubted"ly, (faid the Emperor Cang-by, whilft he was "looking over fome Plans of our European "Houses,) this Europe must be a very fmall and "pitiful Country; fince the Inhabitants cannot "find Ground enough to spread out their Towns, "but are obliged to live up thus in the Air.". As for us, we think otherwife; and have Reason to do fo.

However, I must own to you, without pretending to decide which of the two ought to have

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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 Dutchefs of Bourbon's Houfe opposite to the Tuilleries, extremely pretty? Yet that is only one Story, and a good deal in the Chinefe Manner. Every Country has its Tafte and Customs. The Beauty of our Architecture cannot be difputed; nothing is more grand and majeftic. I own too that our Houses 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 Houfes of the better Sort of People, are generally in the fame Taste. But in their Pleasure-houses, they rather choose [g] a beautiful Disorder, and a wandering as far

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[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 Pleafure-houfes of the Emperor of China. I have lately. feen fome Prints of another of his Gardens, (brought from that Kingdom, and which will very foon be pubJifhed here,) in which the Difpofition of the Ground, Water, and Plantations, is indeed quite irregular; but the Houfes, Bridges, and Fences, are all of a regular Kind.

as poffible from all the Rules of Art. They go, entirely on this Principle, "That what they are "to represent there, is a natural and wild View "of the Country; a rural Retirement, and not

a Palace formed according to all the Rules of "Art." Agreeably to which, I have not yet ob ferved any Two of the little Palaces in all the grand. Inclofure which are alike, though fome of them. are placed at fuch 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 were you' to see them, you would find it quite otherwife; 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 itfelf; and you would find enough to amufe 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 one of the Princes of the Blood; which

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Kind. Thofe Prints will give the trueft Idea we can have of the Chinese Manner of laying out! Pleasuregrounds.

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coft him near [b] Two Hundred Thoufand Pounds; without reckoning any thing for the Furniture and Ornaments of the Infide; for they were a Present to him from the Emperor.

I must add one Word more, in relation to the Variety which reigns in these Pleasure-houses. It is not only to be found in their Situations, Views, Difpofitions, Sizes, Heights, and all the other general Points; but alfo in their lefler Parts, that go to the compofing of them. Thus, for instance, there is no People in the World who can fhew, fuch a Variety of Shapes and Forms, in their Doors and Windows, as the Chinese. They have fome round, oval, fquare, and all Sorts of angled Figures; fome, in the Shape of Fans; others in thofe of Flowers, Vafes, Birds, Beafts, and Fishes; in fhort, of all Forms whether regular or irregular.

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It is only here too, I believe, that one can fee fuch Porticos, as I am going to describe to you. They ferve to join fuch Parts of the Buildings in the fame Palace, as lie pretty wide from one another. These are fometimes raifed on Columns only, on the Side toward the Houfe; and have Openings, of different Shapes, through the Walls on the other Side; and fometimes have only CoAumns on both Sides; as in all fuch as lead from

[6] The Original fays, Soixante Ouanes; and adds in Note, that one Ouane is worth Ten Thousand Faëls; and each faël is worth Seven Livres and a Half; fo that Sixty Ouanes makes Four Million, and a Half of Livres which is equal to 196,875 Pounds Sterling.

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any of the Palaces, to their open Pavilions for taking the fresh Air. But what is fo fingular in thefe Porticos, or Colonnades, is, that they feldom run on in ftrait Lines; but make an Hundred Turns and Windings; Sometimes by the Side of a Grove, at others, behind a Rock, and at others again along the Banks of their Rivers or Lakes. Nothing can be conceived more delightful; they have fuch a rural Air as is quite ravish-ing and inchanting.

You will certainly conclude from all I have told you, that this Pleasure-place must have coft immenfe Sums of Money; and indeed there is no Prince, but fuch a one as is Mafter of fo vaft a State as the Emperor of China is, who could either afford fo prodigious an Expence, or accom plish fuch a Number of great Works in fo little Time; for all this was done in the Compass of Twenty Years. It was the Father of the present Emperor who began it; and his Son now only adds Conveniences and Ornaments to it, here and there..!

But there is nothing fo furprising or incredible, in this; for befides that the Buildings are most commonly but of one Story, they employ fuch prodigious Numbers of Workmen, that every thing is carried on very fast. Above Half the Dif ficulty is over, when they have got their Materi als upon the Spot. They fall immediately to dif pofing them in Order; and, in a few Months the Work is finished. They look almost like those fabulous Palaces, which are faid to be raised by

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