great room or saloon is generally from 18 to 20 feet in length, and about 20 feet in width. The side which is next the court is open, and provided with a screen of canes, which is occasionally let down. The pavement is composed of squares of stone or marble of various co lours. The walls arc covered with mats to about four feet from the ground. The upper part is covered with white, or crimson, or gilt paper. Instead of pictures, as in Europe, the Chinese hang up large pieces of satin or paper in frames, and painted to imitate marble or bam boo, whereon are written, in characters of azure blue, moral distiches and proverbs, extracted from the works of Chinese philosophers. Besides these, some persons have certain large characters, traced by a masterly hand in Indian ink on glazed white paper. This ornament is in high estimation. The farther end of the saloon con sists of folding-doors, the lower parts of which are lat ticed, and covered with painted gauze to admit light into the bed-chamber. The doors, which are of wood, are neatly executed, ornamented with a variety of characters and figures, and sometimes highly varnished, and paint ed red, blue, yellow, Ste. The doors are left open dur ing the night to admit fresh air. The chamber is very small, and is only furnished with the bed, and some var nished trunks for holding apparel. The beds are some• times of greater magnificence. The bedsteads, which resemble those of Europe, are made of carved rosewood, or of lacquered work. At the side of the chamber is a passage leading to the closet, inclosed by walls, and light ed by a window. The walls are decorated like those of the saloon, with moral sentences, Sze. The furniture consists of elbow chairs, sophas, tables, shelves, and books. On a table near the window are pencils for writ ing and drawing, and instruments used by the Chinese in calculations.
Besides these apartments, there is on the ground floor the dining-room, the kitchen, servants' room, bath, privy, and counting-house. Towards the street is the shop.
The Icon, or upper story, consists of large halls, which occupy the whole breadth of the buildings. These are occasionally converted into chambers for visitors. This is accomplished by means of a number of pieces of fram ed wainscotting two or three feet in width, and ten or twelve feet long. With these, in the course of a few hours, the space is divided into as many small rooms as the circumstances require. Some of the partitioning pieces are cut down to within four feet of the floor, and the apertures filled up with very thin oyster shells, be ing sufficient to admit light into the apartments. Of this sort of shell all the windows of the Chinese houses are constructed.
One of the large halls, nearest the entrance, contains the image and altar of the household deity, placed so as to be seen by every person in entering. The remainder of the upper story is divided into apartments for the fa mily; and over the shops into rooms for the shopkeep ers. The facaaes next the street, are either quite plain or occupied brthops; there is no other opening but the door, and that is smelted by a mat to prevent passengers looking in. From the tkerrthe facades, consisting of pil lars and galleries, havran airy and pleasant appearance.
Their buildiA• materials are chiefly bricks and wood ; thaormer arc either merely dried in the sun, or baked in an oven or kiln. The walls are usually about 18 inches thick. The bricks, which arc about the size of those in England, are worked in the, following manner : Three or four courses next the foundation, arc laid quite solid through the breadth of the *all. Upon these, the next course is laid header and stretcher alternately in both faces of the wall. The headers being laid opposite each other, meet in the middle of the wall, and there is a void space left between them equal to the length of the stretchers, and nearly of the same breadth. The suc ceeding course is laig, stretchers only through the whole breadth of the by -which the joints of the cross bricks or headers in the course beneath arc covered with a whole brick. This mode saves time and expence. The tiles for covering the roofs are either flat or semi-cylin drical, the latter being laid upon the joints of the former. The Chinese always leave the timbers of the interior of the ceiling or roof exposed; they are sometimes made of costly wood, and sometimes inlaid with ikory, copper, or mother-of-pearl.
The columns used to support the roofs are usually of wood, upon stone or marble bases. They are without capitals, the ends of the beams being morticed through the heads of the shafts. The height varies from 8 to 12 diameters; the diminution is gradual from the bottom to the top ; the bottom of the shaft terminates with an ovolo; the bases have a diversity of profiles. 1. In the colonnade to the pagoda of Cochinchina, the columns are nine, and the bases one diameter in height. 2. In one of the temples of the same pagoda, the columns are nine, and the bases are two diameters in height. '3. In the colonnade of the great court of the pagoda of Ho nang, the height of the columns is nine diameters, and that of the bases one. The projecting ends of the beams at the top are decorated with monstrous heads terminat ing in foliage, and the consols which support them issue from the mouths of grotesque,masks, carved in bas relief upon the columns. 4. In a small pagoda, in the eastern suburb of Canton, the columns are eight diameters and a half high, and the bases only three quarters of a diame ter; the ends of the beams are carved, to represent dra gons heads, and all the timber of the roof is ornamented with inlaid work of copper, ebony, ivory, and mother-of pearl, representing monsters, foliage, Stc. 5. The column most usually met with in Chinese houses, is from eight to twelve diameters, and sometimes more ; and the base from one half to two-thirds of a diameter. The profile is like the Tuscan of Palladio. 6. In a small pagoda, in the street of the European factories, the columns are or stone, and of an octagonal figure. Their height is eight diameters, of a circumscribing circle, and they have no diminution. The bases in the profile resemble the attic. Their height is equal to twice the breadth of one of the sides of the column. This kind of column, with some trifling shades of variation, is to be met with in almost all the pagodas.