"By the side of the bed-chamber is a passage, leading to the cabinet, which is always enclosed by walls, and lighted by windows. The walls are ornamented, like those of the saloon, with moral sentences and antique pictures ; the fur niture consists of arm-chairs, settees, and tables. The books are disposed on shelves, and on a table near the window, lie the pencils, and other things necessary for writing, the instruments used for arithmetical calculations, and some select books, all laid out in great order.
Besides these apartments, there are also the dining-room, the kitchen, the apartment for the domestics, the bath, the privy, the office, or counting-house, and, towards the street, the shop.
"Such is the distribution of the houses of all the mer chants at Canton. Those of other people only differ in having their general plan accommodated to the ground on which they are built fur the apartments, the courts, and other conveniences, have everywhere the order just described.
"The leou, or upper-story, consists of many great halls, occupying all the breadth of the house, above the apartments of the ground-floor. They are used occasionally as charm hers, fin. lodging strangers. In every house there is a number of shutters, two or three fiet broad, and ten or twelve feet high, When they wish to make chambers, they fix these shutters to the floor and ceiling, and in a few hours make as many apartments as they wish. Some of these shutters are cut from the top to within four feet of the ground, and the openings filled with very thin oyster-shells, which are suffi ciently transparent to admit daylight. All the windows in China are made of these shells.
" In one of these great halls, and commonly in that next the door, the image and altar of the domestic idol are placed, so that all who enter may see it. The rest of the second story is divided into apartments for the family ; and over the shops are the rooms for the shopkeepers.
"The sides of the Chinese houses next the street, are altogether plain, or employed as shops. There is no opening except the door. before which a mat is hung, or a screen is placed to prevent passengers from looking in. The houses of the merchants of Canton have a very gay and handsome appearance towards the river.
"The materials used for building arc wood and brick. The hitter are either simply dried in the sun, or baked in an oven. The walls of the houses are commonly about eighteen inches thick, and the bricks, which are about the size of our own, are used in the following manner : the masons place three or titr beds at the fifundation, entirely solid; after which they dispose their bricks alternately length and breadthwise, along the two sides of the wall, so that those laid across touch one another. and occupy the whole breadth, bit those placed lengthwise have a space between them ; on this layer, or bed, a second is laid, with all the bricks length wise, and the joinings of the cross-bricks, in the first layer, are covered with a whole brick in this. The work is thus continued, alternately, to the top; and by this means, the expense of work and time, as well as the weight of the wall, are very much diminished.
The tiles that cover the roofs, are plain and semi-cylin drical ; the latter are laid on the joinings of the former. and the manner in which they are supported. is represented in Plate III. The Chinese, like the Goths, always let the wood appear withinside the ceiling; fifr \\I'M' reason, the beams and columns are frequently made of precious wood, and sometimes they arc richly inlaid with ivory, copper, and mother-of pearl.
l'arious kinds of colamns used by the Chinese.—Colunins are at least as common in Chinese edifices as in those of the Europeans. They support the roof. and are commonly made of wood, with bases of stone, or marble, having no capitals; but, instead, the top or the shall is crossed by the beams.
Their height is from S to 12 diameters, diminishing gradually towards the top, while the lower part of the shaft terminates in an ovule', producing an effect just the reverse of the terminations of the ancient columns. This peculiarity is observab;e in the drawings of the Antiquities of Egypt, pub lished by Captain Norden some time ago. The bases show a great diversity of profile; none of them are very hand some, hut the most regular that I have seen, arc the six represented in Plate Ill." See Chambers' Work.
l'igure 2, No. 1,'' is taken from the that sm.• rounds the court of the pagoda of Coehinchina: the column is about seven diameters in height, and the base one. This profile is very Figure 2, No. '2, "is taken from one of the temples of the same pagoda, represented in Plate I. It is the only place where 1 have seen this kind of column. They are about nine diameters high. and their base two." Figure 8, is taken from the colonnade of the great court of the pagoda of Ilonane.. The height of the column is nine and that, of the base one. The ends of the beams are ornamented with heads of monsters, terminating in foliage, and the brackets that support them come out of the mouths of grotesque heads, cut in half-relief on the columns." Figure 4, " is taken from a little pagoda in the eastern suburb of Canton. The height of the column is eight dia meters and a half, and that of the base three-finfrths of' the diameter. The ends of the beams represent heads of dragons, and all the wood-work of the ceiling is ornamented with mon sters and fidiage, in inlaid work of copper, ebony, ivory, and inother-of-pearl." Figures 5 and 6, " the transverse elevation of Figures 3 and 4." '7, "is seen in almost all the houses of the Chinese. Their height is from S to 12 diameters, and sometimes more; that of the base is from one-half to two-thirds of the diameter. The profile resembles one of the Tuscan bases of Palladio." .Figt/•e 8, "is found in almost all the pagodas, with some little varieties. The model from which I have taken my drawing, is in a little pagoda, in the street where are the European factories. The columns are octagonal, and of stone. Eight diameters of the circumscribed circle make the height ; and they have no diminution toward the base. The bases are the most regular that I have seen in China, and much resemble the attic base of the ancients. Their height is to double one of the sides of the column.
" The particular divisions of all these profiles are marked at the side of each drawing.
"The insides of the temples, represented in Plates 1. and II. (see Chamhers), are quite plain ; having no orna ments beside the idols. The buildings represented in Plate II. Figures 3 and 4, have no ceilings; the beams which support the rtabfs are seen; and their joinings are to the principles of that in Plate III. The intelior of the tower in Plate III. is also quite plain." Wc must not omit to mention the Great Wall: it consists of an earthen mound supported on each side by walls of brick and masonry, the thickness of the whole being twenty five feet at the base, diminishilur to fifteen at a height of fifteen feet, which is the level of the. platform ; but this platform is defended on either side by a parapet live feet in height, thus making the total height of the wall twenty feet. At intervals of about two hundred paces are towers, rising to a height of thirty-seven feet, and measuring forty feet square at the base. and thirty feet at the top; there are however some lare-er towers, which consist of two stories, and are about forty-eight feet in height. This wall is carried round a great portion of the empire, passing over in its way mountains, valleys, and rivers, and is altogether fifteen hundred miles in length.