172 Voyage of the Novara. 



form of door-way into our European residences and country- 

 seats, and it is assuredly not the only improvement in the 

 decorative art wliich we could borrow with advantage from 

 the Chinese. Whampoa's own favourite habitation is about 

 four miles outside the town, and presents a curious admixture 

 of European comfort and taste with Chinese notions of orna- 

 ment. In the saloons, adorned with a quantity of neat fancy 

 ornaments, are suspended from the walls verses and pro- 

 verbs of the most renowned Chinese poets, all vn^itten on 

 long elegantly illustrated rolls of paper. Our host also 

 showed us a variety of objects which had been presented to 

 him by foreign ship-captains, officers of the navy, and even 

 singers, as the late Mrs. Catherine Hayes Bushnell, whom he 

 had shown much attention to. A banquet, to which we 

 were invited by this hospitable Chinese to meet a number of 

 the most prominent commercial magnates of the colony, was 

 served entirely in the European style. The viands were 

 cooked by a Chinese cook, in the English and French styles, 

 only the dessert came part from Japan, part from China, and 

 consisted of a variety of fruits, which were utterly unknown 

 to the eye and the palate of the European guests. Our 

 Chinese host seemed quite at home in doing the honours. 

 Although outwardly a Chinese of the most orthodox stamp, 

 with shaven head, (except the long tail reaching almost to the 

 earth,) and his body robed in a black silken stuff, he drank to 

 each of his guests in good old English style, and seemed as 



