ON CHINESE GARDENS. 39 



private closets, all of which are magnificently furnished with en- 

 tertaining books, numerous paintings, musical instruments, imple- 

 ments for gaming, writing, drawing, painting and embroidering ; 

 with beds, couches and chairs, of various constructions, for the 

 uses of sitting and lying in different postures. 



The saloons generally open to little enclosed courts set round 

 with beautiful flower pots, of different forms made of porcelain, 

 marble, or copper, filled with the rarest flowers of the season ; 

 at the end of the court there is generally an aviary; an artificial 

 rock with a fountain and bason for gold fish, or blue fishes of 

 Hay Nang, (a little beautiful blue fish, caught near the island of 

 Hay Nang of which the Chinese ladies are very fond), a cascade, 

 an arbor of bamboo or vine, interwoven with flowering shrubs, 

 or some other elegant contrivance of the same nature. 



Besides these separate habitations, in which the ladies are pri- 

 vately visited by their patron, as often as he is disposed to see 

 them, and be particular, there are, in other larger recesses of 

 the thickets, more spacious and splendid buildings, where the 

 women all meet at certain hours of the day, either to eat at the 

 public tables, to drink their tea, to converse, bathe, swim, work, 

 romp, or to play at the mora, and other games known in China, 

 or else to divert the patron with music, singing, lascivious pos- 

 ture-dancing, acting plays or pantomimes, at all which they gene- 

 rally are very expert. 



Some of these structures are entirely open, the roofs being 

 supported on columns of rose wood, or cedar, with bases of Co- 

 rean jasper, and chrystal of Chang-chew-fu ; or upon wooden 

 pillars, made in imitation of bamboo, and plantain trees, sur- 

 rounded with garlands of fruit and flowers, artfully carved, being 

 painted and varnished in proper colours. Others are enclosed, 

 and consist sometimes of many different sized rooms of various 

 forms ; as triangles, squares, hexagons,' octagons, circles, ovals 

 and irregular whimsical shapes, all of them elegantly finished 

 with incrustations of marble, inlaid precious woods, ivory, silver, 

 gold, and mother of pearl, with profusion of ancient porcelain, 

 mirrors, carving, gilding, painting, and laquering of all colours. 



The doors of entrance for these apartments, are circular and 

 polygonal, as well as rectangular ; and the windows by which 

 they are lighted, are made in the shapes of fans, birds, animals, 

 fishes, insects, leaves and flowers ; being filled with painted glass, 



