ON CHINESE GARDENS. 



133 



But the largest and most surprising work of the sort, that yet 

 has been heard of, is the bridge of Lo-yang, in the province of 

 Fokien- it is composed of three hundred piers of black marble, 

 joined to each other by vast blocks of the same material, forming 

 the road which is enclosed with a marble balustrade, whose 

 pedestals' are adorned with lions, and other works of sculpture. 

 The whole length of the bridge is sixteen thousand two hundred 

 feet, or upwards of three miles; its width is forty-two feet; and 

 the blocks of which it is composed, are each fifty four feet long, 

 and six feet diameter. 



The Cientao, or Way of Pillars, is a communication between 

 many precipices, built to shorten a road to Pe-king. It is near 

 four miles long, of a considerable width, and supported over the 

 vallies upon arches and stone piers of a terrifying height, 



In the mountains, on each side of these imperial roads, are 

 erected a great number of buildings, surrounded with cypress 

 groves, and adorned with works of sculpture, which afford con- 

 stant entertainment to the passengers : these are the monuments 

 of their wise men, their saints, and their warriors, erected at the 

 expence of the state, and furnished with nervous incriptions, in 

 the Chinese language, giving an account of the lives and actions 

 of those they commemorate : some of these buildings are dis- 

 tributed into many spacious courts and stately apartments being 

 little inferior to palaces, either in magnificence or extent : they 

 are furnished with all kinds of movables and utensils, much 

 larger than the common size ; and a great number of Colossal 

 figures are every where seen, representing officers, soldiers, 

 eunuchs, saddle-horses, camels, lions and dogs, all placed in 

 melancholy attitudes, with countenances expressive of the deepest 



sorrow. 



Instead of roads, the center avenues are sometimes formed into 

 navigable canals, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet 

 wide, being sufficiently deep to admit gallies and other small 

 vessels ; with horse- ways on each side of the canals, for the con- 

 venience of towing them, either against the wind or the stream. 

 On these the emperor, and Chinese mandarines, are frequently 

 conveyed, in large magnificent sampans or barges, divided into 

 many splendid rooms : being sometimes attended by a consider- 

 able train of smaller vessels, of different constructions, adorned 

 with dragons, streamers, lanterns of painted silk, and various 



