from the cieling, two chairs and a table, neatly fcrewed to the floor, to prevent being toffed about by the agitation of the horfe or the coach. And having been long ufed to fea-voyages, thofe motions, although fometimes very violent, did not much difcompofe me.

Whenever I had a mind to fee the town, it was always in my travelling-clofet, which Glumdalclitch held in her lap in a kind of open fedan, after the fashion of the country, borne by four men, and attended by two others in the queen's livery. The people, who had often heard of me, were very curious to croud about the fedan, and the girl was complaifant enough to make the bearers ftop, and to take me in her hand that I might be more conveniently feen.

I was very defirous to fee the chief temple, and particularly the tower belonging to it, which is reckoned the highest in the kingdom. Accordingly one day my nurfe carried me thither, but I may truly fay I came back disappointed; for the heighth is not above three thousand feet, reckoning from the ground to the highest pinnacle top; which, allowing for the difference between the size of those people and us in Europe, is no great matter for admitation, nor at all equal in proportion (if I tightly remember) to Salisbury fteeple. But, not to detract from a nation to which during my life I fhall acknowledge myself extremely obliged, it must be allowed that whatever this famous tower wants in heighth is amply made

up

up in beauty and strength. For the walls are near an hundred feet thick, built of hewn ftone, whereof each is about forty feet fquare, and adorned on all fides with ftatues of gods. and emperors cut in marble larger than the life, placed in their feveral niches. I measured a little finger which had fallen down from one of these statues, and lay unperceived among fome rubbish, and found it exactly four feet and an inch in length. Glumdalclitch wrapped up in her handkerchief; and carried it home in her pocket to keep among other trinkets, of which the girl was very fond, as children at her age usually are.

it

The king's kitchen is indeed a noble building, vaulted at top, and about fix hundred feet high. The great oven is not fo wide by ten paces as the cupola at St. Paul's: for I meafured the latter on purpofe after my return. But if I fhould defcribe the kitchen-grate, the prodigious pots and kettles, the joints of meat turning on the fpits, with many other particu lars, perhaps I fhould be hardly believed; at least a fevere critic would be apt to think I enlarged a little, as travellers are often fufpected to do. To avoid which cenfure, I fear I have run too much into the other extream; and that if this treatise fhould happen to be tranflated into the language of Brobdingnag, (which is the general name of that kingdom) and tranfmitted thither, the king and his people would have reafon to complain, that I had

done

done them an injury by a falfe and diminutive representation.

His majefty feldom keeps above fix hundred horses in his ftables: they are generally from fifty-four to fixty feet high. But, when he goes abroad on folemn days, he is attended for ftate by a militia guard of five hundred horse, which indeed I thought was the most fplendid fight that could be ever beheld, till I faw part of his army in battalia, whereof I fhall find another occasion to speak.

CHA P. V.

Several adventures that happened to the author. The execution of a criminal. The author fhews bis fkill in navigation.

Should have lived happy enough in that country, if my littlenefs had not expofed me to feveral ridiculous and troublefome accidents fome of which I fhall venture to relate. Glumdalclitch often carried me into the gardens of the court in my fmaller box, and would fometimes take me out of it, and hold me in her hand, or fet me down to walk. I remember, before the dwarf left the queen, he followed us one day into thofe gardens, and my nurse having fet me down, he and I being clofe together, near fome dwarf apple-trees, I muft need fhew my wit by a filly allufion between him and the trees, which happens to hold in their language as it doth in ours. Whereupon,

the

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the malicious rogue watching his opportunity, when I was walking under one of them, shook it directly over my head, by which a dozen apples, each of them near as large as a Bristol barrel, came tumbling about my ears; one of them hit me on the back as I chanced to ftoop, and knocked me down flat on my face; but I received no other hurt, and the dwarf was pardoned at my defire, because I had given the provocation.

Another day Glumdalclitch left me on a smooth grafs-plot to divert myself, while she walked at fome distance with her governess. In the mean time there fuddenly fell fuch a violent fhower of hail, that I was immediately by the force of it ftruck to the ground: and when I was down, the hail-ftones gave me such cruel bangs all over the body, as if I had been pelted with tennis-balls; however, I made a fhift to creep on all four, and fhelter myself by lying flat on my face on the lee-fide of a border of lemon-thyme, but fo bruifed from head to foot, that I could not go abroad in ten days. Neither is this at all to be wondered at, because nature in that country obferving the same proportion through all her operations, a hailftone is near eighteen hundred times as large as one in Europe, which I can affert upon experience, having been fo curious to weigh and measure them.

But a more dangerous accident happened to to me in the fame garden, when my little nurse believing the had put me in a fecure place, VOL. II.

L

which

which I often entreated her to do, that I might enjoy my own thoughts, and having left my box at home to avoid the trouble of carrying it, went to another part of the garden with her governefs, and fome ladies of her acquaintance. While fhe was abfent, and out of hearing, a small white spaniel belonging to one of the chief gardeners, having got by accident into the garden, happened to range near the place where I lay: the dog, following the fcent, came directly up, and taking me in his mouth ran ftrait to his mafter, wagging his tail, and set me gently on the ground. By good fortune he had been fo well taught, that I was carried between his teeth without the leaft hurt, or even tearing my cloaths. But the poor gardener who knew me well, and had a great kindness for me, was in a terrible fright he gently took me up in both his hands, and afked me how I did; but I was fo amazed and out of breath, that I could not speak a word. In a few minutes I came to myself, and he carried me fafe to my little nurse, who by this time had returned to the place where the left me, and was in cruel agonies when I did not appear, nor anfwer when fhe called: the feverely reprimanded the gardener on account of his dog. But the thing was hushed up, and never known at court; for the girl was afraid of the queen's anger, and truly, as to myself, I thought it would not be for my reputation that such a story should go about.