,,the ,,augustan ,,reprint ,,society ,,an ,,explanatory ,,discourse ,,by ,,tan ,,chet-,,qua1 of ,,quang-,,chew-,,fu1 ,gent4 ,,sir ,,william ,,chambers 7#aggc7 ,introduction by ,,richard ,e4 ,,quaintance1 ,,jr4 ,,publication ,,number #aia ,,william ,,andrews ,,clark ,,memorial ,,library ,,university ,,of ,,california1 ,,los ,,angeles #aigh ,,general ,,editor ,david ,stuart ,rodes1 ,university of ,california1 ,los ,angeles ,,editors ,charles ,l4 ,batten1 ,university of ,california1 ,los ,angeles ,william ,e4 ,conway1 ,william ,andrews ,clark ,memorial ,library ,george ,robert ,guffey1 ,university of ,california1 ,los ,angeles ,maximillian ,e4 ,novak1 ,university of ,california1 ,los ,angeles ,,advisory ,,editors ,james ,l4 ,clifford1 ,columbia ,university ,ralph ,cohen1 ,university of ,virginia ,vinton ,a4 ,dearing1 ,university of ,california1 ,los ,angeles ,arthur ,friedman1 ,university of ,chicago ,louis ,a4 ,landa1 ,princeton ,university ,earl ,miner1 ,princeton ,university ,samuel ,h4 ,monk1 ,university of ,minnesota ,everett ,t4 ,moore1 ,university of ,california1 ,los ,angeles ,lawrence ,clark ,powell1 ,william ,andrews ,clark ,memorial ,library ,james ,sutherland1 ,university ,college1 ,london ,h4 ,t4 ,swedenberg1 ,jr41 ,university of ,california1 ,los ,angeles ,robert ,vosper1 ,william ,andrews ,clark ,memorial ,library ,,corresponding ,,secretary ,beverly ,j4 ,onley1 ,william ,andrews ,clark ,memorial ,library ,,editorial ,,assistant ,frances ,m4 ,reed1 ,university of ,california1 ,los ,angeles ,,introduction ,this ,explanatory ,discourse first appeared1 in the latter part of ,march #aggc1 annexed to the second and last edition of ,sir ,william ,chambers' ,dissertation on ,oriental ,gardening of the preceding ,may4 ,as an effort1 curiously hedged1 to impersonate a ,chinese spokesman it seeks to exploit the satiric vantage points of philosophic naivety and trenchant candor enjoyed by ,goldsmith's observer ,lien ,chi ,altangi in ,london a dozen years earlier4 ,but ,chambers' ventriloquism is both more defensive and more aggressive than what we find in ,the ,citizen of the ,world2 the ,preface here in his own voice admits sensitivity to the abuse which the ,dissertation had incurred for its scenic fantasy1 its brief opening and closing attacks on ,capability ,brown1 and its pervasive criticism of the blandness of ,brownian landscaping4 ,by assuming the voice of ,tan ,chet-qua ,chambers is able to pretend to more authoritative familiarity with actual ,chinese gardens even as he deplores his readers' misapprehension that his interest lay mainly in masquerade1 entertainment1 or the mere recital of a traveller's observation 7p4 #aac74 ,it was probably a strategic error to entrust the substance of his genuine and quite respectable challenging of ,brownian style1 to what he terms the vehicle of alleged first-hand reports of preferable ,chinese lay-outs4 ,by this date1 some two decades after the chinoiserie fad had crested in ,england1 most of his readers might fairly be termed rather jaded4 ,they preferred to overreact to the frivolity and whimsey they had come to think essentially ,chinese1 rather than to ponder what ,chambers seriously urges from behind his silken screen3 his interest in a variegated emotional response to deliberately variegated landscape4 ,an admirer of ,burke's ,sublime1 ,chambers saw advantage in complicating the suavity of ,brown's gentle contours1 shaven lawns1 free-form reflecting lakes1 and still short tree-clumps1 through a program of landscaped stimulation of contrasting associative moods4 ,this is the essence of that argument which ,chambers cloathed 444 in the garb of fiction1 to secure it a patient hearing 7p4 #aab7 in three publications appearing over sixteen years4 ,there is no evidence that he was better understood through publication of this ,discourse1 the last of the three4#a ,of course1 it is not as a satirist1 an aesthetician of landscape1 or even as a masquerading orientalist that ,sir ,william ,chambers 7#agbc-if7 has been best known in his time and since3 with ,robert ,adam1 he led the ,british architectural profession virtually from the time he undertook his first commissions around #ageg4 ,the two buildings for which he is justly best remembered are the ,chinese ,pagoda at ,kew ,gardens and ,somerset ,house1 between ,london's ,strand and ,waterloo ,bridge4 ,yet from that solid ,palladian structure now housing the ,general ,register ,office it takes more than the dozen miles up ,thames to reach the pagoda which in #agfb reared its eighty bright wing-displaying dragons on ten successive roofs1 and from the height of fifty meters flashed its glazed tiles across suburbia4 ,chambers developed simultaneously and maintained through his career two contrasted sensibilities4 ,the dignified town house he designed for his family in #agfd fronted ,berners ,street with a massive rusticated doorway1 yet had interior chimney-pieces and a rear elevation modelled in fanciful papier-mache which his biographer ,john ,harris supposes was painted and varnished chinoiserie4 ,he made his way to the top of his profession and earned royal recognition through tectonic skills that absorbed him with ,somerset ,house1 for instance1 during the last two decades of his life4 ,but as early as #ageb he had ventured the striking practice--standard by the century's end through his pioneering and ,adam's--of drawing elevations of a building proposed as it would appear if already conditioned by time1 decaying and overgrown by vegetation4#b ,deciding what to make of his three publications on ,chinese gardens will not be eased by polarizing his sources of inspiration or consigning his life into stretches during which the dominant interest was product or process1 structure or affect4 ,here is no schizoid or frustrated ,pre-,romantic--a ,chatterton who somehow survived his suicide attempt to edit copy for the ,gentleman's ,magazine--but a consummate professional4#c ,the mythic ,cina of which this ,discourse was ,chambers' latest account grew and changed with him from his first-hand experience of ,canton at the age of twenty1 through his architectural training in ,paris and ,rome1 and throughout his practice and success as the ,establishment architect of his age in ,england4 ,the recent thorough ,harris biography leaves it appropriate here only to survey the facts most pertinent to his publications on ,chinese gardens and to advance a few speculations4 ,the first son of a well-to-do ,scottish sutler to the armies of ,charles ,,xii of ,sweden1 ,chambers early left his native ,gothenburg for schooling supervised by relatives in ,yorkshire4 ,between the ages of #ag and #bf his cosmopolitan rearing proceeded with his apprenticeship to supercargoes or agents aboard three successive vessels of the ,swedish ,east ,india ,company trading in ports along the ,indian coast and as far east as ,canton4 ,although his eye and sketchbook were thus early busied with oriental sights1 what ,chambers later wrote of ,peking 7or much else ,chinese beyond the docks of ,canton7 was1 as he admitted1 based upon the observations of others4 ,yet it must have been rare and significant enough in those days that when this ,westerner determined to devote his earnings from the final voyage to an education in architecture1 he had seen proportionately so much of non-,european building4 ,even before enrolling in ,j4-,f4 ,blondel's ,ecole des ,arts for the #agdi-ej winter1 ,chambers may have met ,frederick1 ,prince of ,wales1 in ,london1 and been encouraged by ,frederick's exotic interests4#d ,it was during his second of five springs in ,rome1 living with his ,english wife over the shop of ,piranesi1 that ,chambers learned of ,frederick's death in ,march #agea and designed for him a mausoleum based on the ancient and neo-classical shapes before his eyes2 in one of his sections for this project he depicted it decaying like some of them1 with cypress trees beginning to grow out of the rubble that was to have been its roof6 ,though this design was never executed1 ,chambers did meet with royal patronage upon his return to ,london and dedicated to the new ,prince of ,wales--soon his pupil in drawing1 and three years later1 ,george ,,iii--his first book1 ,designs of ,chinese ,buildings1 ,furniture1 ,dresses1 ,machines and ,utensils in #ageg4 ,the opening sentences which ,samuel ,johnson contributed to ,chambers' ,designs scorned the power with which novelty attracts regard#e--;a ground-note directly contrary to ,chambers' sarcastic apology for the monster ,novelty here in his #aggc ,preface4 ,but in #ageg he could expect his crisp text and twenty-one plates to administer a calming dose of authenticity to the chinoiserie fever then raging4 ,in fact1 this large and handsome volume appears to have driven from the market the pattern-books of ,william ,halfpenny and others1 with their ridiculous dragon-finials atop ,georgian hip-roofs and ,venetian windows bordered by crockets--the carpentry trade trying to sustain a mood for renovations waning by the early fifties4 ,chambers hoped to put a stop to the extravagancies that daily appear under the name of ,chinese1 though most of them are mere inventions1 the rest copies from the lame representations found on porcelain and paper-hangings4 ,this sniffy professionalism would broaden by #aggb into mockery of the kitchen gardeners1 well skilled in the culture of sallads1 but little acquainted with the principles of ,ornamental ,gardening#f--which everyone took for a swipe at ,launcelot ,capability ,brown1 yon stately gentleman in the black perriwig 7p4 #aeg below74 ,yet probably a more general and generous motive prompted ,chambers to boost in this public way1 on the last five pages introducing his ,designs1 a landscape-style in which he could hardly expect to exercise his training or build the career just beginning4 ,the lay-outs of ,kent and ,brown took inspired advantage of topography1 plants and climate peculiar to the south of ,england1 but to anyone coming like ,chambers from the gardens in and near ,paris and ,rome it might appear by #ageg that the ,english style risked parochial self-exaggeration to the point where all anecdotal human interest would be suppressed in the name of a ,nature literally isolated4 ,cosmopolitanism1 more enlightened than ever1 befitted a ,britain engaged in ,pitt's ,great ,war for the ,empire which would extend its holdings from ,montreal to ,madras4 ,was there not an earlier empire whose leader had left visible tokens of his eclecticism8 ,h,adrian1 who was himself an architect1 at a time when the ,grecian architecture was in the highest esteem among the ,romans1 erected in his ,villa1 at ,tivoli1 certain buildings after the manner of the ,egyptians and of other nations4#g ,it was timely to identify a pure original example of culture native to quite another organic whole1 and then to transplant it intact to a ,british scene large enough to sustain it4 ,botanically viewed1 this is the principle on which arduous horticultural experiments were being performed at this stage in ,england's imperial history3 the removal to ,kew of ,lebanese cedars1 oriental ,ginkgoes1 persimmons and ,sophoras1 or ,american locusts in the earlier #agejs1 and later1 the infamous ,bounty venture to transplant in ,jamaica breadfruit from the ,south ,seas4 ,architecturally applied1 it would seem to be the principle on which ,chambers developed his designs for a score of buildings after the manner of the ,romans1 ,chinese1 ,moors1 and of other nations1 erected at ,kew ,gardens by the time the ,treaty of ,paris was signed in #agfc4h ,in this concern he seconded but went beyond the hopes of ,horace ,walpole and ,william ,mason that this whole kingdom might soon become one magnificant vast ,garden1 bounded only by the sea 7below1 page #acc74 ,the syntax of ,lewis ,mumford seems apposite3 of ,frederick ,law ,olmsted1 the designer of ,new ,york's ,central ,park just a century later1 ,mumford has remarked that ,by making nature urbane he naturalized the city4#i ,at ,kew1 by making the garden cosmopolitan1 ,chambers helped to globalize the capital of empire and proposed the world as ,enlightened ,eden4 ,it was not1 of course1 such national or global edenic visions which chiefly exercised readers of ,chambers' #ageg essay ,of the ,art of ,laying ,out ,gardens ,among the ,chinese and brought down upon his #aggb ,dissertation the ridicule which prompted the ,explanatory ,discourse4 ,rather1 it was the lurid details through which both accounts maintained that ,the ,chinese artists1 knowing how powerfully contrast operates on the mind1 constantly practise sudden transitions1 and a striking opposition of forms1 coulours1 and shades4 ,though this principle earned sympathetic response from theorists like ,burke and ,karnes at home and ,delille on the ,continent1 ,chambers pressed his luck too far when he described what he claimed to have observed1 or heard from ,chinese observers1 of three different species of scenes1 to which they give the appellations of pleasing1 horrid1 and enchanted4 ,particularly vulnerable were the programmed frissons of their scenes of horror3 some miserable huts dispersed in the mountains serve1 at once to indicate the existence and wretchedness of the inhabitants4#aj ,by #aggb the ,schadenfreude has deepened3 ,their scenes of terrour are composed of gloomy woods1 c4 gibbets1 crosses1 wheels1 and the whole apparatus of torture are seen from the roads4 ,here too they conceal in cavities1 on the summits of the highest mountains1 foundries1 lime-kilns1 and glass-works1 which send forth large volumes of flame1 and continued columns of thick smoke1 that give to these mountains the appearance of volcanos4 ,this was the sort of opening which ,william ,mason exploited in his ,heroic ,epistle to ,sir ,william ,chambers of ,march1 #aggc3 ,now to our lawns of dalliance and delight1 ,join we the groves of horrour and affright2 ,this to achieve no foreign aids we try1 ,thy gibbets1 ,bagshot6 shall our wants supply2 ,hounslow1 whose heath sublimer terrour fills1 ,shall with her gibbets lend her powder mills4#aa ,mason's ,heroic ,epistle was one of the century's most popular poems and1 cheered on by ,walpole1 a viscously successful effort to tar with ,chambers' lavish brush his patron ,george ,bute and other assorted ,scots1 any critic of ,brown1 and the ,tory establishment at large4 ,yet behind ,chambers' oriental screen the novelty1 enduring interest1 and even the practicality of some of his ideas can be observed4 ,that concern to naturalize the smoky mills of industrialization may be developing a hint 7concerning ,middleton ,dale1 in the ,peak ,district7 on page #id of ,thomas ,whately's supremely influential ,observations on ,modern ,gardening 7#aggj74 ,if ,chambers' generation was neither the first nor last to grapple with what progress had done to the land1 the ,english landscaping movement presented a new stage for that encounter4 ,while ,chet-qua's proposal to frame the dreary tracts around a metropolis into scenes of terror seems less than helpful1 how neatly he anticipates ,cezanne's transfer of his easel into the abandoned ,bibemus ,quarry 7pp4 #acj-acb74 ,foreshadowing ,william ,cowper's satire of ,th' omnipotent magician1 ,brown in ,the ,task1 ,chambers had warned that estate-improvement could lead to irreparable devastation of the nation's woodland4 ,several of ,chambers' means to certain effects sound more like a practical landscape architect at work than a ,disneyland impressario parading his promised thrills3 when he urges diversification of material relative to seasonal change or human entertainments1 for instance1 or the use of wire fencing and other substitutes for the ha-ha4 ,his interest in the harmonizing of diverse but massed hues and textures has been recognized as an early glimpse of the ,english effects secured by ,gertrude ,jekyll a century and a quarter later4#ab ,though extravagances of ,chambers' language distracted attention from the liberalism of his views1 such passages of the ,dissertation as pp4 #di-ej read like the ,picturesque identified by ,william ,gilpin1 ,uvedale ,price1 and ,richard ,payne ,knight in the #aghjs and '#ijs4 ,far from the 7,sino-,british7 imperial privity which ,mason tartly mocked are ,chet-qua's suggestions that the country-house owner drop his palings and open his grounds to ,holy-day folks1 as he opens his ,park to his kitchen-garden4 ,more than this1 he should offer meats for every palate1 plan not for his family or honored guests alone1 but for tastes more susceptible to surprise than theirs4 ,likewise the circuit plan would be well replaced by another less coercive4#ac ,points like these reveal in ,chambers a solicitude on behalf of a general public of garden-strollers not at all necessarily landholding1 nor self-conscious as connoisseurs4 ,perhaps this is why1 when the planners grouped around ,nikolaus ,pevsner and his ,architectural ,review surveyed their task in postwar ,england1 they would find fresh applications for the term picturesque and fresh relevance in this ,tory's ,chinese gardens4#ad ,sinologists and landscape-historians have long recognized1 to be sure1 that ,chambers' descriptions 7like most of what the ,west has wrought in the name of ,chinese gardening since ,sir ,william ,temple enunciated his shadowy sharawadgi principle in #afhe71 while they may correctly celebrate specific details1 or the general principles of surprise and variety1 register no sensitivity to the ,taoist or ,buddhist teleology crucial to oriental planning4 ,what ,chet-qua calls supernatural scenery is hence enchanted by the same spirit of diversion animating the ,druid or ,dark ,walk and subterranean ,fairy ,music of ,vauxhall ,gardens1 across the ,thames from ,somerset ,house4#ae ,enlightened secularization of the genuine oriental principles of immanence and affect may1 however1 be exactly what makes a paragraph on page #eb of the #aggc ,dissertation sound so much like a ground-plan for a short story of strollers' interwoven and inconsequential conversations and interior monologues1 ,virginia ,woolf's ,kew ,gardens4 ,if allowances are made for the persistent difficulty of transcribing ,chinese phonemes1 and for ,chambers' dependence upon ,cantonese rather than ,mandarin dialect1 the oriental dress of the ,discourse is less bogus than might be assumed4 ,chambers' varying spellings of the then reigning emperor's name would exemplify the first problem1 my failure to authenticate the poem on pages #aah-aai the second4 7,over #db1jjj unindexed poems in ,mandarin are attributed to this emperor1 now known here as ,ch'ien-lung47 ,proustian though they may seem to ,westerners1 the synesthetic effects of tea-taking and the evocativeness of the scents and hues of ,mei-hoa 7plum-blossom71 fo-cheou 7chrysanthemum71 and pine are indeed celebrated in much ,chinese poetry4#af ,whoever wrote the poem1 it aptly dramatizes the suggestible ethos which ,chambers recommends to ,english artists and their public4 ,this ,discourse is appreciably more puckish in tone than the earlier two-thirds of ,chambers' published ,chinese work4 ,the half-title here1 page #aji of the second edition1 heaps ,chambers' own initialed honors#ag upon the ,canton ,gent4 ,chet-qua1 and with the ironies of his ,preface and elaborate courtesies of the ,introduction1 the fun has begun4 ,identification of a ,chinese alter ego enables ,chambers to claim a kind of diplomatic immunity for both his enthusiasms and his judgments against the ,english style4 ,by half-heartedly ascribing the preceding #ajg pages of ,dissertation also to ,chet-qua1 and receding as mere ,editor of the lovable old gourmet's remarks 7page #adhn71 he trusts to keep one step ahead of his ,whig adversaries4 ,with exemplary tolerance such as had enhanced the ,european stereotype of the ,chinese sage throughout the century1 ,chet-qua finds more to commend in ,french and ,italian gardens1 more to tease disarmingly in the ,dutch1 than ,chambers had earlier4 ,finally1 since an actual ,chinese artist-about-town usually known as ,chitqua had only recently returned to ,canton1 ,chambers may have hoped his masquerade could stir ,british hospitality for his ideas4 ,within weeks of reaching ,london in ,august #agfi1 ,chitqua had had a royal audience4 ,the miniature portrait busts he modelled in clay at ten guineas apiece1 as well as his delicate manners and physique 7the eyelashes almost always in motion7 earned the admiration of ,wedgwood's friend ,thomas ,bentley4 ,one of his busts was shown in the #aggj ,royal ,academy exhibition1 and during that year he visited ,oxford1 met ,chambers and ,bishop ,percy1 and sat down with ,horace ,walpole among others at the first official ,academy dinner4 ,lashes and all1 he figures in ,zoffany's ,life ,school of the ,royal ,academy1 painted in #agga4 ,but what peculiarly recommends ,chitqua to ,chambers' purposes here is perhaps a mob's intervention at the start of his homeward voyage to ,canton that spring1 when xenophobia and the superstitious fears of the mariners forced him to return to ,london for another ship4 ,on page #ada ,chambers differs from the ,gentleman's ,magazine reporter who had ,chitqua accidentally 444 fall overboard at ,gravesend1 but whatever the facts1 the parallel to ,jonah at ,joppa might be as clear to ,chet-qua's adversaries as it was to that reporter and win the ,discourse a more candid hearing than the ,dissertation had enjoyed4#ah ,to an unidentified reader of his first edition ,chambers had justified such artfulness1 and his entire ,chinese myth for the promotion of a change in landscaping-style1 this way3 ,i thought it necessary to move in an exalted sphere4 ,our ,gardeners1 and ,i fear our ,connoisseurs too1 are such tame animals1 that much sparring is necessary to keep them properly on their haunches4#ai ,such quixotic energy even ,mason had to salute1 in the last line of his ,heroic ,epistle4 ,douglass ,college ,rutgers ,university ,,notes ,,to ,,the ,,introduction #a ,the ,explanatory ,discourse is the last of ,chambers' works to be reissued in #bjth-century facsimile4 ,chambers' ,designs of ,chinese ,buildings 7,london1 #ageg71 rpt4 in facsim4 7,new ,york3 ,benjamin ,blom1 #aifh71 concludes its text with his essay ,of the ,art of ,laying ,out ,gardens ,among the ,chinese1 pp4 #ad-ai1 rpt4 in ,john ,dixon ,hunt and ,peter ,willis1 eds41 ,the ,genius of the ,place 7,new ,york3 ,harper ,row1 #aige71 pp4 #bhc-bhh4 ,a ,dissertation on ,oriental ,gardening 7,london1 #aggb71 of which the illus4 title-page reappeared in the #bnd ed4 7,london1 #aggc71 hence here1 was rpt4 in facsim4 ed4 ,john ,harris 7,farnborough1 ,hants43 ,gregg ,international1 #aigb74 ,i quote from pp4 #aaa-aac of ,an ,explanatory ,discourse2 ,chet-qua drops his mask on p4 #aei below4 ,concerning the fad see ,hugh ,honour1 ,chinoiserie3 ,the ,vision of ,cathay 7,london3 ,john ,murray1 #aifa71 esp4 ch4 vi4 #b ,john ,harris1 ,sir ,william ,chambers1 ,knight of the ,polar ,star 7,university ,park3 ,pennsylvania ,state ,univ4 ,press1 #aigj71 p4 #bd and pls4 #g1 #id 7not to be confused with the earlier accepted practice of designing ruins3 pls4 #ca1 #ha74 ,for the fanciful aspects of his town house see pp4 #aa1 #bag4 #c ,for the evidence of correspondence esp4 from #aggj-gd see ,heather ,martienssen1 ,chambers as a ,professional ,man1 ,architectural ,review1 #ace1 #b 7#aifd71 #bgg-bhc4 #d ,harris gathers evidence for the meeting with ,frederick1 pp4 #cc-ce1 and on pp4 #ah-ai1 surmises that ,blondel's teaching may well have been the foundation of ,chambers's eclecticism4444 ,the choice of a ,parisian education underlines ,chambers' ,european character4 #e ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson1 ed4 ,george ,birkbeck ,hill and ,l4 ,f4 ,powell 7,oxford3 ,clarendon ,press1 #aicd71 ,,iv1 #ahh4 #f ,designs1 first page of unpaginated ,preface2 ,dissertation 7#aggc71 p4 iii4 ,cf4 ,william and ,john ,halfpenny ,michael ,hoare1 ,chinese and ,gothic ,architecture ,properly ,ornamented 7,london1 #ageb71 e4g4 pl4 #b4 #g ,designs1 second page of unpaginated ,preface4 #h ,w4 ,j4 ,bean1 ,the ,royal ,botanic ,gardens1 ,kew 7,london3 ,cassell1 #aijh71 pp4 #aid-aie1 following ,sir ,john ,hill1 ,hortus ,kewensis 7,london1 #agfh72 ,chambers1 ,plans1 ,elevations1 ,sections and ,perspective ,views of the ,gardens and ,buildings at ,kew 7,london1 #agfc74 #i ,frederick ,law ,olmsted's ,contribution1 ,roots of ,contemporary ,american ,architecture1 ed4 ,lewis ,mumford 7,new ,york3 ,reinhold1 #aieb71 p4 #aaa4 ,dissertation 7#aggc71 p4 #ajc and cf4 his letter of #ac ,may #aggb in ,harris 7#aigj71 p4 #aib2 ,walpole1 ,on ,modern ,gardening1 ed4 ,w4 ,s4 ,lewis 7,new ,york3 ,young ,books1 #aica71 p4 #ff2 ,mason1 ,the ,english ,garden1 ,book ,i 7#aggb71 final line4 #aj ,designs1 p4 #ae 7ed4 ,hunt and ,willis1 p4 #bhd74 #aa ,chambers' prose is cited ,dunciad-fashion in the ,epistle1 ,minor ,english ,poets1 #affj-aghj3 ,a ,selection from ,alexander ,chalmers' ,the ,english ,poets #ahaj1 ed4 ,david ,p4 ,french 7,new ,york3 ,benjamin ,blom1 #aifg71 ,,viii1 #ajh4 ,see ,isabel ,w4 ,chase1 ,william ,mason and ,sir ,william ,chambers' ,dissertation on ,oriental ,gardening1 ,,jegp1 #ce 7#aicf71 #eag-ecj2 ,r4 ,c4 ,bald1 ,sir ,william ,chambers and the ,chinese ,garden1 ,,jhi1 #aa 7#aiej71 #bhg-cbj4 #ab ,cowper1 ,book ,,iii1 ,the ,garden1 #a4 #gff1 in ,a ,collection of ,english ,poems #affj-ahjj1 ed4 ,ronald ,s4 ,crane 7,new ,york3 ,harper1 #aicb71 p4 #iih2 ,dissertation 7#aggc71 pp4 xi1 #bc-cj1 #cg-ci1 #ia-ii2 cf4 ,derek ,clifford1 ,a ,history of ,garden ,design1 rev4 ed4 7,new ,york3 ,praeger1 #aiff71 pp4 #baa-bab4 #ac ,discourse1 pp4 #abe-abh1 #acc1 #acg-ach1 #adc1 #aee-aef2 ,dissertation 7#aggc71 pp4 vi1 #ec2 ,harris1 p4 #aib4 #ad ,pevsner1 ,the ,other ,chambers1 ,architectural ,review1 #aja 7#aidg71 #aie-aih4 #ae ,temple1 ,upon the ,gardens of ,epicurus1 ed4 ,hunt and ,willis1 p4 #ii2 ,osvald ,siren1 ,china and ,gardens of ,europe of the ,eighteenth ,century 7,new ,york3 ,ronald1 #aiej71 p4 iv2 ,discourse1 pp4 #aee-aef4 #af ,i owe this information to ,prof4 ,ching-,i ,tu of ,livingston ,coll4 and ,dr4 ,nelson ,chou of the ,east ,asian ,lib41 both at ,rutgers ,univ4 ,likewise helpful but in no way blameworthy in my remarks on matters ,chinese were ,prof4 ,king-,lui ,wu and ,mr4 ,antony ,marr of ,yale ,univ4 and ,prof4 ,andrew ,plaks of ,princeton ,univ4 ,though some of the proper names ,chet-qua uses eluded verification1 the worst blunder noted was ,ty1 which means emperor1 at p4 #acin4 ,endowing ,chet-qua with nine whiskers instead of the traditional five beards sorts with the unusually narrow proportions and numerous stories of the ,kew ,pagoda4 ,rhymes and short syntactic groupings in italics1 pp4 #ada1 #aeh1 are not ,confucian2 the #bhth year of ,ch'ien-lung's reign 7p4 #aae7 would be #agfd4 ,yet the idiom in the final n41 p4 #afc1 is authentic4 #ag ,the initials stand for ,fellow of the ,royal ,soc4 of ,sweden2 ,member of the ,royal ,acad4 of ,arts1 ,paris2 ,member of the ,italian ,acad4 of ,arts1 ,florence2 ,treasurer of the ,royal ,acad42 ,comptroller ,general of ,his ,majesty's ,works2 ,architectural ,tutor to the ,queen4 ,chambers' international reputation was assured by his ,treatise on ,civil ,architecture 7#agei74 #ah ,historical ,chronicle1 ,g4,m41 #da 7#agga71 #bcg-bch2 ,william ,t4 ,whitley1 ,artists and their ,friends in ,england1 #agjj-agii 7,boston3 ,medici ,society1 #aibh71 ,i1 #bfi-bgb2 ,johnson1 ,percy1 and ,sir ,william ,chambers1 ,bodleian ,library ,record1 #d 7#aieb-ec71 #bia-bib4 #ai ,harris1 p4 #aic 7,chambers' emphasis74 ,,bibliographical ,,note ,the facsimile of ,an ,explanatory ,discourse is reproduced from a copy 7,shelf ,mark3 ,,pml #ecjbf7 annexed to the second and last edition of ,a ,dissertation on ,oriental ,gardening 7#aggc7 in ,the ,pierpont ,morgan ,library4 ,the total type-page 7p4 #aac7 measures #bjh x #abg mm4 ,a ,,dissertation ,,on ,,oriental ,,gardening2 ,,by ,sr3 ,,william ,,chambers1 ,knt ,comptroller ,general of his ,majesty's ,works4 ,illustration3 ,jacket ,cover ,,london3 ,printed by ,w4 ,,griffin1 ,printer to the ,,royal ,,academy2 sold by ,him in ,catharine-,street3 and by ,t4 ,,davies1 ,bookseller to the ,,royal ,,academy1 in ,russel-,street1 ,covent ,garden3 also by ,j4 ,,dodsley1 ,pall ,mall3 ,,wilson and ,,nicoll1 ,strand3 ,j4 ,,walter1 ,charing ,cross3 and ,p4 ,,elmsley1 ,strand4 #aggb4 ,a ,,dissertation ,,on ,,oriental ,,gardening2 ,,by ,s,r ,,william ,,chambers1 ,,comptroller-,,general ,,of ,,his ,,majesty',s ,,works1 c4 ,,the ,,second ,,edition1 ,,with ,,additions4 ,,to ,,which ,,is ,,annexed1 ,,an ,,explanatory ,,discourse1 ,,by ,,tan ,,chet-,,qua1 of ,,quang-,,chew-,,fu1 ,gent4 ,,london3 ,printed by ,w4 ,,griffin1 ,printer to the ,,royal ,,academy2 sold by ,him in ,catharine-street2 and by ,t4 ,,davies1 ,bookseller to the ,,royal ,,academy1 in ,russel-street1 ,covent-,garden3 also by ,j4 ,,dodsley1 ,pall-,mall2 ,,wilson and ,,nicoll1 ,strand2 ,j4 ,,walter1 ,charing-,cross2 and ,p4 ,,elmsley1 ,strand4 #aggc4 ,,an ,,explanatory ,,discourse1 ,,by ,,tan ,,chet-,,qua1 ,,of ,quang-,chew-fu1 ,gent4 ,,frss1 ,,mraap2 ,,also1 ,,miaaf1 ,,tra1 ,,cghmw and ,,attq4 ,,wherein ,the ,,principles laid down in the ,foregoing ,,dissertation1 are illustrated and applied to ,,practice4 ,,preface4 ,every new system naturally meets with opposition2 when the monster ,novelty appears1 all parties1 alarmed at the danger1 unite to raise a clamour3 each cavils at what it doth not like1 or doth not comprehend1 till the whole project is pulled to pieces1 and the projector stands plumed of every feather2 not only robbed of the praise due to his labour and good intentions1 but1 like a common enemy1 branded with scorn and abuse4 ,in the first hurry of criticism1 every deviation is accounted an error2 every singularity an extravagance2 every difficulty a visionary's dream3 warm with resentment1 biassed by interests and prejudices1 the angry champions of the old1 rarely show mercy to the new2 which is almost always invidiously considered1 and too often unjustly condemned4 ,sensible of these difficulties1 the ,author of the foregoing ,dissertation1 written in direct opposition to the stream of fashion1 harboured no sanguine hopes of fame from his ,publication3 far from expecting at the first1 either applause or encouragement1 he even judged artifice necessary to screen him from resentment2 and cloathed truth in the garb of fiction1 to secure it a patient hearing4 ,the success of his little work1 however1 in one sense1 far exceeded expectation3 at its first appearance here1 it found not only a patient1 but a very indulgent reception2 and it has since been equally fortunate in ,france1 and other parts of ,europe2 where ,monsieur ,delarochette's elegant translation has made it known4 ,yet flattering as this extensive suffrage may seem1 it is in reality rather mortifying to the ,author2 who finds1 from the nature of the encomiums bestowed upon his performance1 that it has been more generally liked than understood2 and that1 whilst a few have honoured it with a deliberate reading1 and separated the substance from the vehicle in which it was contained1 far the greater number have mistaken the mask for the reality1 and considered it simply as a pleasing tale2 as the mere recital of a traveller's observation2 or1 as the luxuriant effusions of a fertile imagination1 a splendid picture of visionary excellence4 ,whether these misapprehensions arose from want of perspicuity in the writer1 or want of attention in the readers1 admits of no dispute2 the former was most probably the case4 ,the ,author therefore1 who wishes to be perfectly understood1 and is more ambitious of being useful than entertaining1 humbly begs leave to offer1 at the end of this second edition1 such reasons and explanations as seem necessary1 either to remove doubts1 or clear obscurities2 he flatters himself they will be found sufficient1 and serve to place the work in its true1 its most advantageous light4 ,of these illustrations he saw the necessity some time ago1 and framed them into a ,discourse supposed to be pronounced by ,chet-qua1 then in ,england2 judging it1 at that time1 a sort of propriety to put in the mouth of a ,chinese1 what farther information was wanted relative to his country4 ,but as there is now no longer any necessity for disguise1 both the ,dissertation and ,explanatory ,discourse ought certainly to appear in their natural dress4 ,to new-model them1 however1 would require more time than the ,author can possibly spare2 he therefore has republished the ,dissertation1 in its original form1 and the ,discourse as it was originally written2 hoping the indulgent reader will pardon these defects1 and gather the fruit1 if there be any to gather1 without minding the trees on which it grows4 ,introduction4 ,all the world knew ,chet-qua1 and how he was born at ,quang-chew-fu1#bj in the fourth moon of the year twenty-eight2 also how he was bred a face-maker1 and had three wives1 two of whom he caressed very much2 the third but seldom1 for she was a virago1 and had large feet4 ,he dressed well1 often in thick sattin2 wore nine whiskers and four long nails1 with silk boots1 callico breeches1 and every other ornament that ,mandarins are wont to wear2 equalling therein the prime macarones1 and scavoir vivres1 not only of ,quang-chew1 but even of ,kyang-ning1 or ,shun-tien-fu4 ,of his size2 he was a well-spoken portly man1 for a ,chinese2 a pretty general scholar2 and1 for a heathen1 a very compleat gentleman4 ,he composed a tieh-tse1 or billet-doux1 at pleasure2 recited verses1 either in ,mantchou or ,chinese1 and sung love-songs in many languages4 ,he likewise danced a fandango1 after the newest taste of ,macao1 played divinely upon the bag-pipe1 and made excellent remarks2 which1 when he lodged at ,mr4 ,marr's1 in the ,strand1 he would repeat to his friends over a pipe1 as often as they pleased2 for he was fond of smoaking1 provided the tobacco was good2 and1 upon these occasions1 was always vastly pleasant1 and very communicative4 ,amongst his favourite topics were painting1 music1 architecture and gardening2 to the last of which he seemed most affected1 often disserting thereon till he was tired1 and the audience fast asleep2 for the tone of his voice was like opium to the hearers2 his method was diffuse1 and the subject1 though a good one1 not generally interesting4 ,one day he launched out into a long description of the ,eastern ,gardens1 especially those of his own country1 to which he was exceedingly partial2 and1 in the conclusion1 compared them to a splendid feast1 at which there were pleasures for every sense1 and food for every fancy2 whilst our ,gardens1 he said1 were like ,spartan broth1 which was disgustful to all but ,spartan palates2 or like the partial niggardly treats of the fable1 adapted only to organs of a peculiar construction3 he advanced many other odd positions1 spoke very freely1 as well of our ,gardeners1 as ,gardens1 and ended recommending the ,chinese taste1 in preference to all others4 ,we were diverted with the discourse1 from its singularity1 and the variety of new ideas in which it abounded2 yet as it ran in direct opposition to the general opinion and usage of ,england1 and recommended a system which appeared to us rather visionary than practicable1 we animadverted upon all its parts with the utmost freedom2 neither sparing the speech nor speaker in any particular4 ,the severity of our criticism at first disconcerted poor ,chet-qua1 who remained silent1 and in apparent confusion2 but1 after a short pause1 he reassumed his usual good humour1 his countenance cleared up1 he arose1 bowed to the company1 and stroking his nine whiskers1 began the following discourse4 ,,discourse1 c4 ,tan lou ty tchan yue#ba ,ko ou1 pou ko choue4 ,ou yun king tai pan ,fou fou teou lo ty ,if1 in the hurry and warmth of speaking1 ,chet-qua has used expressions that seemed disrespectful1 or inadvertently started notions that appeared extravagant1 as you1 ,gentlemen1 are pleased to assert1 it is more than he intended2 his sole aim at this meeting1 has been to point out a style of ,gardening preferable to your's2 and to shew how much more may be done in that ,art1 than has hitherto been thought on1 by your or any other ,european nation3 to enumerate impossibilities1 or amuse an audience with golden dreams and glittering shadows1 would answer no useful purposes2 and could1 therefore1 neither be the business nor intention of ,chet-qua1 who speaks not for the pleasure of speaking1 nor with a desire of tickling the ear1 but with the hope of being serviceable2 he laments his want of perspicuity1 to which alone your misapprehensions must be imputed2 and begs leave to trespass on your patience a few moments longer1 to explain himself more clearly1 and endeavour to remove your prejudices against him4 ,he is sorry to have been under a necessity of censuring1 even in a distant manner1 what seemed to him imperfect amongst you2 but whoever would be instrumental in the advancement of science1 must declare his mind freely1 and sometimes enforce his precepts by examples that exist3 his observations have been as general as the subject would permit2 for it is never his inclination to give offence2 yet where truth is to be investigated1 the truth must necessarily be told2 else little or no progress can ever be made3 where men play the sycophants1 and tacitly suffer1 or meanly applaud1 what they do not approve2 no amendment can ever be expected4 ,it is true1 that dissentions in opinion1 however well meant1 will often bear an invidious aspect1 and always must offend some interested individuals2 yet1 to the community1 they are generally advantageous1 and should always be favourably received1 as they give birth to new discoveries1 and ultimately point out the highest perfection3 had no man ever ventured to dissent from his neighbour1 our age would be as dark as were those of ,fo-hii1 ,shing tong1 or ,whoang-tii2#bb and ,i am firmly persuaded1 that your ,english ,gardening would now have been much more perfect1 had any one ever dared to dispute its excellence3 but to dissent1 is an unthankful business2 a dangerous talk1 that few have spirits to undertake1 particularly where party-rage is violent1 at it now and then seems to be amongst you4--,but ,i come to the point4 ,in ,china1 our large ,gardens are obtained at an almost incredible expence1 and attended with many inconveniencys3 amongst you1 whose policy1 whose manners are totally different from ours1 they might often be had at a moderate charge1 and without much trouble2 for formidable as they may at first appear1 it is certain that most of their scenery is easily executed1 when proper opportunities occur1 which is frequently the case in ,europe1 particularly in ,england2 where your illustrious families have large domains2 where agriculture is neater and more various than in other countries2 and where the face of nature is in general more luxuriant2 as well as better contrasted4 ,it is natural enough for a stranger to be dazzled with the splendor of our ,oriental plantations2 upon a cursory inspection1 to conclude them too vast1 too magnificent1 too expensive for ,european imitation2 and that1 in your part of the world1 the greatest princes should not be indulged with such articles of luxury1 calculated1 as they seem1 to exhaust their treasures1 waste their lands1 rob and oppress their subjects3 but a more attentive examination will probably give birth to more favourable opinions1 and serve to prove1 that not only your princes1 but even your private gentlemen1 may emulate us in this particular very safely2 and that our style of ,gardening may be adopted amongst you1 even in its whole extent1 without being attended with any of the inconveniences just now recited4 ,it is not the fence that constitutes the ,garden2 ,cobham1 ,stourton1 ,blenheim1 would still be what they are1 though the pales or walls by which they are enclosed were taken away3 neither is privacy necessary to the essence of a ,garden2 for ,richmond and ,kew are surely the same1 when open to all the world1 as when they are only accessible to the ,royal ,family2 nor is useful or profitable culture incompatible with the idea1 either of our ,chinese1 or your ,english ,gardening4 ,any tract of land1 therefore1 whose characteristick expressions have been strengthened by art1 and in which the spontaneous arrangements of nature have been corrected1 improved and adorned by the hand of taste1 ought to be considered as a ,garden1 though only fenced with common hedges1 and although the roads or paths passing through it be publick1 and the grounds of which it is composed cultivated to the utmost advantage4 ,there remains then no obstacle to your rivalling the ,chinese1 either in the grandeur or extent of their ,gardens3 in which1 you seem to fix1 the insuperable difficulties of the imitation2 since you have parks1 forests1 manors and royalties1 some even in private hands1 more extensive than is necessary2 and since these may be so improved1 and converted into gardens upon the plan now mentioned1 without waste of land1 without invasion of property1 without annoyance or seclusion of the public1 and certainly with less damage or expence to the owner1 than are usually incurred in the article of your common ,gardening2 as no chargeable keeping or fencing would be necessary1 no grounds unprofitably employed1 no considerable assistance from art wanted3 for the features of real nature1 being in themselves generally more perfect1 as well as greater than the finest imitations1 require very few helps2 seldom any that are expensive4 ,every artist1 therefore1 who has the fortune to meet with patrons of large possessions1 and liberal sentiments1 may give full scope to his imagination1 and boldly apply whatever he has seen1 heard1 or his own fancy may have suggested1 that is great1 extraordinary1 or surprising3 instead of confining his views to a few acres1 to form a trifling composition1 scarcely superior to the desert at a festival2 and which1 insignificant as it would be1 none but the healthful and vigorous could ever see2 he may convert a whole province into a ,garden2 where the spectator1 instead of toiling on foot1 as usual1 to see a few nothings1 and performing more revolutions than a horse in a mill1 may wander over a whole country at his ease1 in ships or in barges1 in carriages or on horse-back1 feasting the sight with scenes of the boldest dimensions1 and contemplating the luxuriant varied productions of ,nature1 improved and nobly enriched by ,art4 ,and permit me to say1 that ,gardens of this sort1 would not only be more magnificent1 but also much more beautiful and perfect in every respect1 than any even amongst the best of your artificial performances4 ,in the great style of ,gardening1 neatness is not only superfluous1 but destructive of the principal intent3 the common roads1 bridleways and paths1 of a country1 however wild1 are always preferable to the stiff1 formal1 made walks of a ,garden2 they are1 in themselves1 grander1 more natural1 and may1 with a very little assistance2 a few accompanyments1 be made as commodious1 as rich1 as varied1 and as pleasant4 ,fields covered with corn1 turneps1 beans1 potatoes1 hemp1 or productions of a similar nature2 meadows1 pasture lands1 hop grounds1 orchards1 and other parts of ,english culture2 interwoven with common hedges1 or blended with accidental plantations1 require little1 if any assistance from ,art1 to be more picturesque than lawns the most curiously dotted with clumps2 and villages1 country churches1 farm-houses or cottages1 when placed with judgement1 and designed with taste1 enrich and adorn a landscape as well as more expensive structures4 ,the rivers of ,nature flow in forms that ,art can never equal3 their natural modifications1 particularly in mountainous places1 are sufficiently numerous2 a little management heightens or diminishes all their expressions1 varies their appearances1 and adapts them to scenes of any character3 their banks are soon adorned1 even in the richest manner2 for roses1 a thousand other shrubs1 and most perennial flowers1 will grow as easily1 and with as little culture1 as primroses and briars do4 ,a few of these1 a little planting properly employed1 and blended with rural buildings1 bridges1 ruins1 monumental urns1 and other trifling decorations1 spread over the whole an appearance that equals1 even surpasses the most elaborate cultivation4 ,in every large tract of land1 there generally are some places abundantly supplied with water1 which often flows through uncouth marshy bottoms of little use or value to the owner3 by raising heads at their extremities1 these are easily overflowed2 and lakes of very considerable dimensions may thus be obtained1 often without much trouble1 always with great advantages1 as well in point of profit as of pleasure2 and wherever it may be necessary to dig1 in order to give a proper depth to the water1 the earth may be raised into islands of various shapes1 which serve to complicate the forms1 to enrich and beautify the scenery4 ,though woods1 from various causes1 are now more rare than heretofore amongst you1 yet are there1 in most parts1 some still remaining2 their natural beauties are many1 and little more is left for art to do in them1 than to form roads1 to thin or thicken them occasionally2 where it may be wanting1 to intersperse1 amongst the plantations1 a few proper shrubs and flowers2 to open recesses1 and to decorate them with objects2 this done1 they will be infinitely superior1 in every respect1 to any of the gaudy trifling confused plantations with which all your ,english-made ,gardens are so crouded4 ,england abounds with commons and wilds1 dreary1 barren1 and serving only to give an uncultivated appearance to the country1 particularly near the metropolis3 to beautify these vast tracts of land1 is next to an impossibility2 but they may easily be framed into scenes of terror1 converted into noble pictures of the sublimest cast1 and1 by an artful contrast1 serve to enforce the effect of gayer and more luxuriant prospects4 ,on some of them are seen gibbets1 with wretches hanging in terrorem upon them2 on others1 forges1 collieries1 mines1 coal tracts1 brick or lime kilns1 glass-works1 and different objects of the horrid kind3 what little vegetation they have1 is dismal2 the animals that feed upon it1 are half-famished to the artist's hands2 and the cottagers1 with the huts in which they dwell1 want no additional touches1 to indicate their misery3 a few uncouth straggling trees1 some ruins1 caverns1 rocks1 torrents1 abandoned villages1 in part consumed by fire1 solitary hermitages1 and other similar objects1 artfully introduced and blended with gloomy plantations1 would compleat the aspect of desolation1 and serve to fill the mind1 where there was no possibility of gratifying the senses4 ,in prosecuting a plan of this extensive nature1 many other opportunities would present themselves to the able artist1 of dignifying nature1 and of heightening his compositions with all the force of novelty and grandeur2 stone quarries1 chalk pits1 mines1 might as easily be framed into vast amphitheatres1 rustic arcades and perystiles1 extensive subterraneous habitations1 grottos1 vaulted roads1 and passages1 as into other shapes2 hills might1 without much difficulty1 be transformed into stupendous rocks1 by partial incrustations of stone1 judiciously mixed with turf1 fern1 wild shrubs and forest trees2 gravel pits1 or other similar excavations1 might be converted into the most romantic scenery imaginable1 by the addition of some planting1 intermixed with ruins1 fragments of sculpture1 inscriptions1 or any other little embellishments2 and1 in short1 there would be no deviation1 however trifling1 from the usual march of nature1 but what would suggest1 to a fruitful imagination1 some extraordinary arrangement1 something to disguise her vulgarity1 to rouse the attention of the spectator1 and to excite in his mind a succession of strong and opposite sensations4 ,it is thus that far the noblest part of our ,chinese ,gardens1 and those which at first sight appear most impracticable1 may be obtained even amongst the common dispositions of ,english nature2 and the great might thus have pleasure-grounds1 extensive and extraordinary as those of the ,east1 without any very considerable expence3 men of less note would naturally imitate their superiors1 by embellishing their possessions in the same manner2 and instead of spending large sums to fence and to lard a little field with twigs1 to give it the name of a ,garden1 they would beautify their whole estate2 which1 by a proper attention to the oeconomical precepts of our ,chinese ,gardeners1 might be done in such a manner as to encrease its value1 as well as improve its appearance4 ,by these means this whole kingdom might soon become one magnificent vast ,garden1 bounded only by the sea2 the many noble seats and villas with which it abounds1 would give uncommon consequence to the scenery2 and it might still be rendered more splendid1 if1 instead of disfiguring your churches with monuments1 our ,chinese manner of erecting mausoleums by the sides of the roads was introduced amongst you2 and if all your public bridges were adorned with triumphal arches1 rostral pillars1 bas-reliefs1 statues1 and other indications of victory1 and glorious atchievements in war3 an empire transformed into a splendid ,garden1 with the imperial mansion towering on an eminence in the center1#bc and the palaces of the nobles scattered like pleasure-pavilions amongst the plantations1 infinitely surpasses any thing that even the ,chinese ever attempted3 yet vast as the design appears1 the execution is certainly within your reach4 ,such1 as far as ,i am able to judge1 continued our ,orator1 is the true application of nature to horticulture2 perhaps the only one that can be attempted with success3 wherever she is made in little1 or introduced upon a confined plan1 the effect is always trifling and bad1 as will appear to any man of real taste1 who inspects the artificial scenery even of your most approved gardens3 ,nature admits of no reduction in her dimensions2 trees will not grow in miniature2 nor are her bold movements to be expressed upon the surface of a few acres3 and not to mention any of your performances1 it is scarcely in the power of the most consummate art1 to imitate nature perfectly2 nor were it possible1 could the most skilful arrangements acquire their true effect1 till after the expiration of many years3 our children may see the perfection of what we plant2 we never can4 ,our eastern artists1 therefore1 seldom attempt to create1 but rather imitate the tonsor1 the habit-maker1 the posture-master1 and all the other polishers of man2 who dispose1 decorate1 cleanse1 clip1 and add grace to what is already formed to their hands3 to make nature1 they say1 is tedious and difficult beyond conception2 but she may soon be embellished1 her redundancys suppressed1 her faults corrected1 her wants supplied1 her beauties improved1 and set to view4 ,the truth of these assertions is1 ,i think1 apparent in many of your famous plantations2 but the beauties of improved natural scenery1 the defects of artificial1 are no where so strongly marked as at ,b----m1 the most magnificent seat ,i have yet seen in ,europe4 ,on our entrance into the ,park1 we were astonished at the sight of a stupendous palace1 surrounded with one of the noblest scenes of nature that can be imagined2 the extent is vast1 the parts uncommonly large1 the grounds naturally well contrasted1 the transitions bold1 the plantations in perfect maturity3 what assistance was necessary from art1 has hitherto been judiciously administered2 the removal of some trees1 has exposed to view beauties that seem before to have been concealed2 the addition of some others1 has enriched parts that were bare2 and the trifling1 though very judicious circumstance of raising a head at the end of a valley1 has obtained a very considerable lake of water1 which enriches and enlivens all the prospects2 and which1 by following the natural bent or windings of the valley1 has taken1 without any assistance from art1 the most picturesque forms that could be desired3 in short1 the whole is now admirable2 and1 when improved to the utmost1 according to the design of the munificent owner1 will yet be more so4 ,ornaments to characterize the ,garden more strongly1 are yet wanting1 and some masterly finishing touches still very necessary3 one only little twining path1 within ten cubits of the fence1 is certainly not in character with the grandeur of the place2 but the fence may be removed2 and there is room1 even now1 on the declivity of the banks1 and by the sides of the lake1 for more considerable walks1 with many recesses1 which1 when made and decorated1 will add variety to grandeur1 and render the whole as entertaining and splendid1 as it is now great4 ,you enjoy the sight of this noble prospect for more than a mile2 when the little path is suddenly turned into a little wood1 whence1 after having advanced a few paces1 you behold a piece of scenery1 all artificial1 which ,i cannot venture to describe in this presence3 some of you1 ,gentlemen1 have seen what it is2 and1 with all your national partiality1 must allow1 either that it proves the impossibility of creating nature with any degree of success2 or1 that the ablest of your countrymen have no talent that way2 to create1 or to improve1 are indeed very different operations2 the former of which requires infinitely the most skill3 it is ten times more difficult to paint a picture1 than to judge1 or suggest improvements1 in one already painted4 ,hitherto ,i have only described of ,b----m1 what strangers usually see2 but the whole park1 above twelve miles in circumference1 and several farms adjoining to it1 are uncommonly beautiful1 rich in old planting1 in water1 and in a great variety of picturesque sites and points of view2 so that1 with a very little dressing1 with some assistance from the sister arts of architecture and sculpture1 the whole might easily be converted into one large magnificent ,garden4 ,and give me leave to observe1 that these advantages are by no means peculiar to ,b----m2 ,england boasts at least a hundred other places1 many as extensive1 most of them as capable of improvement1 in various ways2 which1 under the management of true artists1 might soon be made to rival the ,tse-hiu and ,chang-lin#bd of ancient days1 the ,yven ming1 the ,tchang tchun yven1#be or any of the present splendid pleasure ,gardens of our sublime ,emperor1 ,kieng-long2 the torch of the east1 and true descendant of ,tay-tsoy1 the providence of ,heaven1 whom ,joss#bf preserve in flesh and good spirits4 ,it must1 however1 be confessed1 that there is an inconveniency subsisting amongst you1 which will always retard1 and often prevent the execution of this extensive plan of ,gardening2 it is the licentiousness of your youth and common people1 who delight in destroying every extraordinary thing that comes in their way3 if a great man plants trees to shade and beautify a road1 the people cut them down2 if statues1 or other pieces of sculpture1 are set to adorn places of public resort1 the boys pelt at them with stones1 till all their extremities are demolished3 wherever there are buildings1 or seats1 even in your ,royal ,gardens1 we see them constantly disfigured with scurrilous inscriptions1 or obscene rhimes2 and where there are any uncommon trees1 they are divested of every branch within reach2 the shrubs are robbed of their blossom2 the flowers are trodden under foot2 the birds and animals are destroyed3 in short1 no mischief1 that drunken mirth or deliberate malevolence can suggest1 is left undone4 ,what pity that such destructive brutality should exist in a country so particularly favoured by ,nature1 and so capable of improvement in the highest degree2 whilst1 in every other part of the world1 it is unknown1 almost unheard of6 ,but there is a strong tincture of the rhubarb in all human competitions2 and liberty1 which has so many advantages1 is1 nevertheless1 attended with some inconveniencies1 of a very serious nature2 amongst which1 the ferocity of its lowest votaries is none of the least formidable4 ,since our arrival here last ,july1 ,i have seen at least twenty of their boisterous pranks2 in which1 not to enumerate the broken windows1 the bloody noses1 the kicks1 and the bastinadoes of other gentlemen1 ,i have myself been a melancholy sufferer upon various occasions2 particularly at ,portsmouth1 where ,i was thrown into the sea1 and narrowly escaped drowning1 for the diversion of the company4 ,would to ,heaven6--as ,i say to the mistress ,chet-quas in a morning--would to ,heaven1 my ducks1 we were well at ,quang-chew-fu again1 with all our long nails1 and all our whiskers about us6 ,the rigours of an ,emperor are less frightful to me1 than the frolics of a savage mob1 elevated to madness with songs of freedom1 and tons of strong beer3 it is easier to please a man with one good head1 than a monster with ten thousand1 all bad ones4 ,miao kao faan-quai#bg ,tsat paat quai-tsai ,pardon this digression1 which the terrors of a disturbed imagination have drawn me into2 and permit your servant to re-assume the thread of his ,discourse4 ,wherever the extent is considerable1 and the lands properly formed for the purpose1 the mode of natural ,gardening1 just recommended1 ought certainly to be employed in preference to any other1 as it surpasses all others in perfection1 and is yet most easily executed3 but in or near great cities1 where property is much divided1 on flats1 where nature has no play1 in all tame situations2 the richer and more artificial manner of our ,gardening is preferable3 because it may contain much variety in a small compass1 and corrects the natural defects of the ground more speedily1 more effectually1 with less charge than any other4 ,this manner is also properest for grounds that immediately surround elegant structures1 where order and symmetry are absolutely necessary2 and for many little enclosures1 or resting-places of various kinds1 that must always be dispersed in different parts of extensive plantations2 where nicety of dress1 and excessive decoration are in character2 and where they may be conveniently secured with stronger fences1 to guard them from public intrusion4 ,these choice pieces of cultivation are appropriated to the owner and his select friends2 set aside for convivial pleasures1 and enjoyments that can only be tasted in private3 they may be considered as more spacious apartments1 as habitations adapted to the milder seasons of the year1 in which ,art and ,nature unite to furnish a variety of whatever is beautiful1 elegant1 extraordinary or entertaining2 whilst the larger improvements are suited to the more open amusements of the owner1 contrived upon a bolder system1 for a more distant and cursory inspection3 they are a noble indication of his consequence2 a benevolent1 as well as artful tribute to the community2 which1 whilst it serves to multiply the conveniencys1 or promote the innocent amusements of the public1 secures the popularity of the benefactor1 and marks1 in the strongest colours1 his power1 wealth and munificence4 ,how these considerations operate in ,england1 ,i1 who am a stranger1 cannot determine2 but in the kingdoms of the ,east they have great weight4 ,your connoisseurs will1 ,i know1 object to our artificial scenery2 which they consider as unnatural1 and represent as too expensive for imitation4 ,on the former of these points you have already heard my sentiments2 ,i need not now repeat them3 those who are not yet convinced1 may still feed on crabs1 and leave ananas to better heads4 ,till my arrival in ,england1 ,i never doubted but the appearance of art was admissible1 even necessary to the essence of a splendid ,garden3 and ,i am more firmly of that opinion1 after having seen your ,english ,gardens2 though the contrary is so violently maintained by your countrymen1 in opposition to the rest of the world1 to the practice of all other polished nations1 all enlightened ages2 and1 as far as ,i am able to judge1 in opposition to reason4 ,but your people delight in extremes2 and1 whenever they get upon a new scent1 pursue it with such rage1 that they always overshoot the bounds4 ,we admire ,nature as much as you do2 but being of a more phlegmatick disposition1 our affections are somewhat better regulated3 we consider how she may be employed1 upon every occasion1 to most advantage2 and do not always introduce her in the same garb2 but show her in a variety of forms2 sometimes naked1 as you attempt to do2 sometimes disguised2 sometimes decorated1 or assisted by art2 scrupulously avoiding1 in our most artless dispositions1 all resemblance to the common face of the country1 with which the ,garden is immediately surrounded2 being convinced1 that a removal from one field to another1 of the same appearance1 can never afford any particular pleasure1 nor ever excite powerful sensations of any kind4 ,if ,i must tell you my mind freely1 ,gentlemen1 both your artists and connoisseurs seem to lay too much stress on nature and simplicity2 they are the constant cry of every half-witted dabbler1 the burthen of every song1 the tune by which you are insensibly lulled into dullness and insipidity4 ,if resemblance to nature were the measure of perfection1 the waxen figures in ,fleet-street1 would be superior to all the works of the divine ,buonarotti2 the trouts and wood-cocks of ,elmer1 preferable to the cartoons of ,raphael3 but1 believe me1 too much nature is often as bad as too little1 as may be deduced from many examples1 obvious to every man conversant in polite knowledge4 ,whatever is familiar1 is by no means calculated to excite the strongest feelings2 and though a close resemblance to familiar objects may delight the ignorant1 yet1 to the skilful1 it has but few charms1 never any of the most elevated sort2 and is sometimes even disgusting3 without a little assistance from art1 nature is seldom tolerable2 she may be compared to certain viands1 either tasteless1 or unpleasant in themselves3 which1 nevertheless1 with some seasoning1 become palatable2 or1 when properly prepared1 compose a most exquisite dish4 ,and with respect to simplicity1 wherever more is admitted than may be requisite to constitute grandeur1 or necessary to facilitate conception1 it is always a fault4 ,to the human mind1 some exertion is always necessary3 it must be occupied to be pleased2 and is more satisfied with a treat1 than with a frugal repast3 for though it doth not delight in intricacies1 yet1 without a certain1 even a considerable degree of complication1 no grateful sensations can ever be excited4 ,excessive simplicity can only please the ignorant or weak1 whose comprehensions are slow1 and whose powers of combination are confined4 ,simplicity must therefore be used with discretion1 and the dose be adapted to the constitution of the patients1 amongst savages and ,hottentots2 where arts are unknown1 refinements unheard of1 an abundant portion may be necessary2 but wherever civilization has improved the mental faculties1 a little1 with proper management1 will go a very great way3 need ,i prove what the music1 poetry1 language1 arts and manners1 of every nation demonstrate1 beyond the possibility of a doubt4 ,another favourite word of your virtuosi1 is purity2 a word of which1 being a stranger1 ,i do not perhaps know the full value2 nor exactly in what sense it is applied to the art in question4 ,we are told1 that in the purity of ,gardening1 you were never equalled by any nation2 even that this boasted purity never appeared in any country but ,england3 it may be so2 your ,gardens have certainly been purged to the quick1 freed of every encumberance1 and cleansed of every extrinsick redundancy2 so that nothing now remains but the genuine carcass1 in its native purity3 yet whether this quality1 which ,i apprehend is the only one that can positively be implied1 is a perfection or a blemish1 will always be disputed2 for though pure wine#bh is1 without doubt1 a delicious beverage1 and preferable to that which is mixed1 yet pure water is very insipid1 and may be much mended1 by the additions of arrack1 lemon and sugar1 to turn it into punch2 and ninety-nine persons in a hundred will maintain1 that your pure ,gardens might be much improved by the addition of embellishments proper to produce variety1 and set off the vegetation to advantage3 for vary your trees and shrubs as much as possible1 combine them in every imaginable arrangement1 they are still but trees and shrubs2 they can impress but a very few images upon the mind of the spectator1 and only affect his senses with very slight perceptions4 ,that our artificial stile of ,gardening is expensive1 is doubtless true2 yet certainly not ruinously so4 ,in my former voyage1 ,i knew an unfortunate prince1 who1 on a very moderate allowance from his relations1 supported a court in splendour2 and1 with the surplus1 formed one of the most extraordinary1 as well as magnificent artificial ,gardens ,i ever saw4 ,it is surprizing what good management will do1 where management is necessary2 but you are too rich ever to need it in any thing4 ,i have seen more money expended here1 in digging an ugly pond1 than would have compleated a whole ,garden elsewhere2 yet1 after all1 the pond would never hold water4 ,but1 to proceed--,you have all seen what the ,french have done at ,versailles1 ,marli1 ,trianon1 ,saint ,cloud1 ,liancourt1 and ,chanilly2 the ,italians near ,rome1 at ,tivoli1 at ,frescati1 and in many other parts of ,italy3 ,i do not here enter into the merit of these works2 but they are certainly as costly1 perhaps more so1 than any of ours2 yet these were done by foreigners1 of different denominations2 all without the least help of magick3 you are richer than they2 you may1 with some trouble1 acquire their skill2 it is hoped you have already more than their spirit3 be not1 therefore1 afraid to attempt1 what they have already long since accomplished4 ,i have formerly told you what sort of art we employ in our ,chinese ,gardening2 ,i now recommend it to your imitation2 and though in general your ,european artificial manner appears not to me perfect1 yet doth it contain many things highly deserving notice1 which you have imprudently laid aside1 without substituting any equivalent4 ,to instance the ,gardens of ,france2 they are1 ,i will allow1 sufficiently extravagant3 you hear of nothing but islands of love1 or halls of festivity2 every recess is the retreat of a ,god1 every prospect a scene of enchantment3 like their petit maitres1 they are all out of nature1 all affectation2 yet it is an affectation often delightful1 and absurdity generally overflowing with taste and fancy3 in their best works there is such a mysterious1 pleasing intricacy in the disposition1 such variety in the objects1 so much splendour and animation in the scenery1 and so much skill apparent in the execution of every part1 that the attention of the spectator never flags2 the succession is so rapid1 that he is hurried on from one exhibition to another1 with his mind constantly upon the stretch3 he has only time to be pleased2 there is no leisure to reflect1 none to be disgusted with the extravagance of what he sees4 ,if their ,gardens are less rational than yours1 they are certainly much more entertaining2 and though1 upon the whole1 they can by no means be proposed as models for imitation1 yet are there many things to be borrowed from them1 which might be adopted by you with considerable advantage4 ,i may say the same with regard to the ,italian ,gardens1 of which the style is less affected1 less extravagant than in those of ,france3 the heat of the climate obliges the inhabitants to seek for shade2 the walks are sheltered1 the plantations close1 whence their compositions have a gloom1 and an air of solitude that are exceedingly awful4 ,there is a grandeur of manner in all their works1 seldom to be met with elsewhere2 which1 about ,rome1 and in some other parts of ,italy1 is greatly heightened by the majestick face of ,nature1 framed upon a larger scale1 and broken into nobler forms1 than in most other countries4 ,their vegetation too is uncommonly picturesque2 the abundance of water with which they are every where supplied1 enables them to form a thousand pleasing combinations2 and the venerable vestiges of ancient structures1 which rear their decaying heads above the plantations1 add surprizingly to the dignity of the scenery4 ,at every step1 the admiration of the spectator is excited by statues1 therms1 bas-reliefs1 sarcophagi urns1 vases1 and other remains of ancient splendour2 or he is delighted with the productions of modern artists1 ingeniously imagined1 well executed1 and skilfully disposed4 ,it is not easy to conceive any thing more entertaining1 to a man of taste1 than an ,italian ,garden2 in which1 amidst a profusion of pleasing objects1 the same elegance of choice1 the same elevation of style so conspicuous in the sculpture and painting of the great ,italian schools1 is every where prevalent4 ,to branch out into farther descriptions of your continental ,gardens1 is perhaps superfluous1 and may be thought foreign to the present purpose2 as some of them differ very little from those just mentioned2 and others are too trifling1 or imperfect1 to deserve any notice3 yet permit me1 before ,i finish1 to give a slight sketch of the ,dutch ,gardening2 from which ,i am apt to believe your ideas of the artificial style are chiefly collected1 and your extraordinary aversion to it principally owing4 ,in ,holland1 parterres1 embroidered in box1 brick-dust1 sea-coal1 and broken porcelain1 are every where admired4 ,no ,garden is perfect1 that is not surrounded with a wet ditch1 and many lusthouses hanging over it1 for smoking tobacco2 nor is there any elegance1 without some tons of lead1 transformed into skating ,dutchmen1 ,harlequins1 and fluting ,shepherdesses1 all richly painted1 in proper colours3 azure flower-pots1 with gilt handles1 are seen in every corner2 and golden mercury are perched1 like birds1 upon every pinnacle3 every pass is guarded by pasteboard ,grenadiers2 and ,fame1 straddling over the entrance1 displays a ,dutch label to the passenger1 telling the name and beauties of the place1 the virtues and moral opinions of the proprietor4 ,these particularities1 with all the formal absurd parts of the ,french ,gardening1 make an ,eden in ,holland2 a thing too ridiculous to be out of humour with any where2 'tis a pity it has had so serious an effect upon you4 ,you are a wise people2 yet1 in the reformation of ,gardening1 you have followed the beaten road of ignorance3 to avoid one fault1 you have run headlong into another1 its opposite3 because1 in the ,old ,gardening1 art1 order and variety1 were carried to an extravagant excess1 you have1 in the ,new1 almost totally excluded them all three3 to mend an exuberant1 fantastick dress1 you have stripped stark naked3 and1 to heal a distempered limb1 you have1 like some famous surgeons of our day1 chopped it entirely off4 ,all connoisseurs amongst you1 and even amongst us1 agree in despising our enchanted1 or supernatural scenery2 which1 they say1 is trifling1 absurd1 extravagant1 abounding in conceits and boyish tricks2 that operating chiefly by surprize1 it has little or no effect1 after a first or second inspection1 and consequently can afford no pleasure to the owner3 yet our best ,artists1 who have no excessive reverence for the decrees of connoisseurs#bi1 and who think the owner is not the only person to be entertained1 often introduce it2 either where the plan is extensive1 and admits of many changes2 or1 where the ground is barren of natural varieties3 saying1 in their vindication1 that it serves as an interlude between more serious expositions2 that1 at a treat1 there should be meats for every palate2 in a shop of general resort1 goods for every fancy2 in a ,garden1 designed for publick inspection1 exhibitions of every kind2 that all may find something to their liking1 and none go away disappointed or dissatisfied3 and1 as at a feast1 men eat of what they best relish1 without mumbling the rest of the dishes1 but leave them untainted for others to feed upon1 so1 in a ,garden1 if a man be too wise to laugh1 or be pleased with trifles1 he may pass them over unnoticed3 amongst the multitude1 there are many fancies to gratify2 children1 old women1 eunuchs1 and pleasure-misses1 ought to be diverted1 as well as sages1 mandarines1 or connoisseurs4 ,it is not every one1 say they1 that enjoys the force or fierceness of grand compositions2 to some they are even terrifying3 weak minds delight in little objects1 which are easiest adapted to their confined comprehensions2 as children are better pleased with a puppet-show1 than with more serious or noble performances4 ,thus they reason2 and say moreover1 that1 as the principal parts of this supernatural ,gardening consists in a display of many surprizing phenomena1 and extraordinary effects1 produced by air1 fire1 water1 motion1 light1 and gravitation1 they may be considered at a collection of philosophical experiments1 exhibited in a better manner1 upon a larger scale1 and more forcibly than is common3 in that light they think1 even men of sense may venture to look at them1 without impeachment of their understanding2 to admire what is ingenious1 new or extraordinary2 and stare at what they do not comprehend4 ,whether the connoisseurs or the artists are most in the wrong1 ,i will not decide2 you1 ,gentlemen1 must determine for yourselves4 ,some free expressions1 relative to your ,gardeners1 constitute a heavy part of the charge exhibited against me3 it seems therefore necessary1 in alleviation of this high offence1 to declare1 that whatever has been said on that subject1 was with an eye to the general character of the fraternity2 and by no means levelled at yon stately gentleman in the black perriwig1 as he has been pleased to maintain4 ,it could not be my business to mark out individuals1 either by excessive praise1 which was perhaps expected1 or by more poignant censure3 such conduct must have been fawning in one in instance1 invidious in both2 for there is no exalting one phoenomenon1 without proportionably degrading the rest3 as in a draw-well1 one bucket can never rise1 but when the other sinks4 ,if a man far outstrips his brothers1 he will of course be distinguished2 if only a little1 his safest station is in the croud4 ,and really it is odd that any one should officiously have stepped out of the ranks1 insisting1 like master ,dogberry in the play1 upon his exclusive title2 where nothing partial was even distantly hinted at1 no names mentioned1 nor any thing said1 that was not full as applicable to the brotherhood in general1 as to the sagacious claimant in particular3 but ,man lup jao kai ,tai kup tao bai4 ,there is reason to believe1 from various hints which have been dropped by ,gentlemen here present1 that the veracity of ,chet-qua's description is doubted2 nay1 that the ,gardens described1 are supposed to have no existence but in ,chet-qua's brain3 be it so1 my friends2 ,i shall not seek to refute what you seem so strongly disposed to believe2 it is not at present material3 for the end of all that ,i have said1 was rather as an ,artist1 to set before you a new style of ,gardening2 than as a ,traveller1 to relate what ,i have really seen3 and1 notwithstanding your strictures1 you all seemed satisfied1 even entertained with the description3 there is no doubt1 but the reality1 like all other realities1 would affect you still more strongly than the picture4 ,i have endeavoured to shew1 how that may be obtained3 the rest is left to those it most concerns2 the ingenious1 the wealthy1 and the great2 who have power and inclinations to execute what ,i attempt to plan3 my part is done1 as far as ,i am able to do it2 theirs may begin when they think fit4 ,and although they may at first be embarrassed in the execution of a system so much more complicated and dependant on genius1 on skill1 and on nice judgement1 than that which has hitherto been pursued2 yet there is no doubt1 but practice and perseverance will1 by degrees1 dispel every difficulty3 it is at least glorious to hazard arduous attempts2 and more honourable even to fail in manly pursuits1 than to succeed in trifling1 childish enterprizes4 ,let the timid or the feeble meanly creep upon the earth1 with uniform1 sluggard pace2 but the towering spirit must attempt a nobler flight1 and climb the paths that lead to fame3 now gayly sporting on the slippery surface1 as doth the gentle1 graceful lizard2 now thundering up the precipice1 with the tremendous dragon's stride2 now soaring to the top1 stately and splendid as the imperial bird2#cj when1 with his glittering crest and twelve irradiant wings1 he comes upon the morning's light1 while myriads of the warbling tribes1 at awful distance1 crowd the vaulted air1 adore their ,king1 and1 with loud songs of frantick joy1 shake the firm earth1 and all yon starry heaven4 ,from the whole tenour of this ,discourse1 and indeed from the substance of the first ,dissertation1 it is evident1 ,gentlemen1 that your servant ,chet-qua has no aversion to natural ,gardening2 but is1 on the contrary1 a zealous advocate in its favour1 wherever there is room to expand1 and work upon a great scale1 or where it can conveniently1 and with propriety be introduced4 ,the style which in ,england has been adopted1 preferable to others1 is not what appears to him reprehensible2 but he laments the little use you have made of your adoption1 and apprehends your partiality is too excessive1 while you obstinately refuse the assistance of almost every extraneous embellishment1 and persist in an indiscriminate application of the same manner1 upon all occasions1 however opposite1 or ill adapted2 and often where no probability of success appears4 ,natural ,gardening1 when treated upon an extensive plan1 when employed with judgement1 and conducted with art1 is perhaps as superior to all other sorts of culture1 as heroick verse is to every other species of writing2 but there are many occasions1 where neither the one nor the other can1 with the least propriety1 be employed2 where they would only serve to give a ridicule to the whole composition2 and where different or less elevated modes of expression are1 on all accounts1 preferable4 ,artists of other professions1 vary their manners of applying to the human affections2 suiting them to the circumstances or nature of the subjects before them2 and they are oftenest indebted to these variations for their success2 why then should ,gardeners always confine themselves to the same tract1 and torture all dispositions to adapt them to the same method1 like that tyrant of old1 who stretched or mutilated every guest1 till he fitted a particular bed8 ,can they hope to succeed by means1 which others have found ineffectual2 or is it reasonable to suppose1 that ,nature will change her course to please their fancy8 ,variety is a powerful agent1 without the assistance of which1 little can be effected2 it captivates even with trifles2 and1 when united to perfection1 has charms which nothing can resist3 the most exquisite pictures of nature1 receive additional beauties from a judicious opposition of art2 and the confined1 uniform1 tasteless walk of imitation1 which you have unfortunately fallen into1 must have many helps to make it even tolerable2 a thousand enlivening additions1 to animate its native dulness4 ,thus ,i have considered every part of my first ,discourse1 and offered in its vindication1 what immediately occurs to me3 perhaps1 with more leisure1 ,i might have contrived a better ,speech1 and a stronger ,defence2 but the hurry of ,face-making#ca is such1 that there is scarcely time to eat rice1 or drink brandy1#cb much less to think3 ,i never frequent my wives but by night2 ,i have only heard one of them scold1 and seen the others by twilight1 these six months3 judge then1 what can be expected from ,chet-qua2 the little knowledge he has1 or thinks he has1 is freely communicated to his neighbours2 he wishes it were more and better2 yet such as it is1 he flatters himself it will be kindly received2 and that his neighbours will use what may be useful1 without kicking too violently at the rest4 ,,finis4 ,,footnotes3 #bj ,quang-chew-fu--,canton4 ,for she was a virago1 and had large feet--,both which are accounted great defects in ,china4 ,nine whiskers1 c4--,all beaus wear whiskers in ,china2 and all gentlemen long nails1 to shew that they are idle4 ,kyang-ning1 or ,nang-king--,capital of ,kyang-nang4 ,shun-tien-fu--,peking4 #ba ,tan lou ty tchan yue1 c4--,the motto which ,chet-qua has made choice of1 is part of a poem written by ,kien-long1 reigning emperor of ,china1 in praise of drinking tea3 and published1 by his imperial edict1 bearing date the twelfth day1 of the ninth moon1 of the thirteenth year of his reign2 in thirty-two different types1 or characters2 under the inspection of ,yun-lou1 and ,houng-yen1 princes1 by the title of ,tsin-ouang2 ,fouheng1 grandee1 by the title of ,taypao2 ,count1 by the title of ,valiant2 and first president of almost all the great tribunals of the empire3 whose deputies were ,akdoun and ,tsing-pou1 grandees1 by the title of ,tay-tsee ,chaopao2 and these were again assisted by ,isan1 ,fouki1 ,elguingue1 ,tetchi1 ,mingte1 ,tsoungmin1 ,tchangyu1 ,tounmin1 and about a dozen other mandarines of rank and reputation2 so that there is no doubt but the work is perfectly correct4 ,here follows the exact copy of it1 with an ,english translation1 for the entertainment and instruction of the curious in poetry4 ,there is a ,french translation of the same work1 by ,father ,amiot1 published at ,paris1 in #aggj1 from which the present ,publication is in a great measure taken2 the ,editor having found it easier to translate from the ,french copy1 than from the ,chinese original4 ,mei-hoa che pou yao ,fo-cheou hiang tsie kie1 ,soung-che ouei fang ny2 ,san pin tchou tsing kue2 ,pong y tche kio tang1 ,ou tche tcheng koang hiue ,houo heou pien yu hie1 ,ting yen y cheng mie4 ,yue ngueou po sien jou1 ,tan lou ty tchan yue1 ,ou yun king tai pan ,ko ou1 pou ko choue4 ,fou fou teou lo ty ,ho ho yun kiang tche ,ou-tsuen y ko tsan ,lin-fou chang che pie4 ,lan ku ,tchao-tcheou ngan ,po siao ,yu-tchouan kiu ,han siao ting sing leou ,kou yue kan hiuen tsue1 ,joan pao tchen ki yu ,tsiao king sing ou kie1 ,kien-long ping-yn ,siao1 tchun yu ty4 ,,translation ,the colours of the ,mei hoa are never brilliant1 yet is the flower always pleasing3 in fragrance or neatness the fo-cheou has no equal3 the fruit of the pine is aromatick1 its odour inviting4 ,in gratifying at once the sight1 the smell and the taste1 nothing exceeds these three things3 and if1 at the same time1 you put1 upon a gentle fire1 an old pot1 with three legs1 grown black and battered with length of service1 after having first filled it with the limpid water of melted snow2 and if1 when the water is heated to a degree that will boil a fish1 or redden a lobster1 you pour it directly into a cup made of the earth of yue1 upon the tender leaves of superfine tea2 and if you let it rest there1 till the vapours which rises at first in great abundance1 forming thick clouds1 dissipate by degrees1 and at last appear merely as a slight mist upon the surface2 and if then you gently sip this delicious beverage1 it is labouring effectually to remove the five causes of discontent which usually disturb our quiet3 you may feel1 you may taste1 but it is impossible to describe the sweet tranquillity which a liquor1 thus prepared1 procures4 ,retired1 for some space of time1 from the tumults of business1 ,i sit alone in my tent1 at liberty to enjoy myself unmolested3 in one hand holding a fo-cheou1 which ,i bring nearer to my nose1 or put it farther off1 at pleasure2 in the other hand holding my dish of tea1 upon which some pretty curling vapours still appear3 ,i taste1 by intervals the liquor2 by intervals1 ,i consider the mei-hoa--,i give a fillip to my imagination1 and my thoughts are naturally turned towards the sages of antiquity4--,i figure to myself the famous ,ou-tsuen1 whose only nourishment was the fruit of the pine2 he enjoyed himself in quiet1 amidst this rigid frugality6 ,i envy1 and wish to imitate him4--,i put a few of the kernels into my mouth2 ,i find them delicious4 ,sometimes1 methinks1 ,i see the virtuous ,lin-fou1 bending into form1 with his own hands1 the branches of the mei-hoa-chou4 ,it was thus1 say ,i to myself1 that he relieved his mind1 after the fatigues of profound meditation1 on the most interesting subjects4 ,then ,i take a look at my shrub1 and it seems as if ,i were assisting ,lin-fou1 in bending its branches into a new form4--,i skip from ,lin-fou to ,tchao-tcheon1 or to ,yu-tchouan2 and see the first in the middle of a vast many tea-cups1 filled with all kinds of tea1 of which he sometimes tastes one1 sometimes another2 thus varying incessantly his potation3 while the second drinks1 with the profoundest indifference1 the best tea1 and scarcely distinguishes it from the vilest stuff4--,my taste is not their's2 why should ,i attempt to imitate them8---- ,but ,i hear the sound of the evening bell2 the freshness of the night is augmented2 already the rays of the moon strike through the windows of my tent1 and with their lustre brighten the few moveables with which it is adorned4 ,i find myself neither uneasy nor fatigued2 my stomach is empty1 and ,i may1 without fear1 go to rest4----,it is thus that1 with my poor abilities1 ,i have made these verses1 in the little spring of the tenth moon of the year ,ping-yn1 of my reign ,kien-long4 #bb ,fo-hii1 ,shing-tong1 or ,whoang-tii--,some of the first emperors of ,china2 who invented the eight qua's1 together with the kay-tse1 and created colsus4 #bc ,an eminence in the center--,meaning ,windsor1 probably4 #bd ,tse-hiu and ,chang-lin--,two celebrated parks1 which belonged to the emperors of the ,ty4 #be ,yven-ming-yven1 and ,tchang-tchun-yven--,are ,gardens near ,pe-king1 belonging to the present ,emperors of ,china4 #bf ,joss--,a corruption of ,dios1 ,god4 #bg ,miao kao1 etc4--,muttering expressions from ,hoang-fou-tse1 or ,confucius4 #bh ,for though pure wine1 etc4--,it is remarkable1 that our ,orator draws most of his similes and allusions either from the kitchen or the cellar2 whether this particularity proceeded from any skill of his in the culenary art1 from his affection for good living1 or from any other hidden motive2 or whether it was merely accidental1 the ,editor never could learn with any degree of certainty4 #bi ,in ,china they have an innumerable multitude of connoisseurs and criticks2 who1 with a very superficial knowledge1 a few general maxims1 and some hard words1 boldly decide on subjects they do not understand3 hence the whole fraternity is fallen into disrepute4 ,they have1 indeed1 like us1 some real connoisseurs amongst them2 but these are very rare in ,china4 #cj ,the imperial bird1 or foung hoang1 is a fabulous being1 of the nature of the phoenix1 by the ,chinese poets1 accounted the emperor of birds1 as the dragon is of all the scaly tribe3 he is said never to appear1 but in great pomp1 attended by a numerous train of all the most brilliant and extraordinary of the volatile race4 #ca ,hurry of face-making--,the ,chinese call portrait painting1 or modelling portraits in coloured clay1 which was ,chet-qua's particular profession1 face-making4 #cb ,eat rice or drink brandy--,the ,chinese call dining1 eating rice2 and their common liquors1 at meals1 are spirits1 of various sorts4 4444 ,transcriber's note3 ,in this etext the indicates superscript4 4444