CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



591 



Practice. 



Houses 

 built of 

 brick ba- 

 ked in the 

 (un. 



Different 

 torts of 

 brick). 



VUbges. 



Walls 

 mostly of 



mud. 



Hoofs 

 thatched 

 with straw. 



Court 

 formed by 

 wattles. 



Habita- 

 tions regu- 

 lated by 

 law. 



Manner of 

 building. 



Larch fir. 



Windows 

 f paptr. 



Floors of 

 marble or 

 earth. 



allenes. 



Distribu- 

 tion of a- 

 partmeuts. 



were found to be of bricks baked in the sun, which, as 

 well as the tiles on the roofs, were afterwards plastered 

 with a substance like mud. There is no lime except 

 from sea shells or stones, to be had at any great distance 

 from the river, and a pebble is accounted a rarity." P. 

 217. 



" The houses were mostly built of a lead coloured 

 brick ; those of the meanest habitations svere of pale 

 brown, and very few were red. 



These different colours have probably arisen from 

 the method of making the bricks. The brown had only 

 been exposed to the solar heat ; the blue to a wood 

 fire in kilns, without being affected by the flames ; 

 while the red had sustained the force of the flame. On 

 moulding the clay into its proper form, it is the eastern 

 custom to lay the bricks in regular rows upon one ano- 

 ther, having layers of straw between each range. Many 

 houses here have two stories, contrary to the Chinese 

 mode in general." P. 277- S. 



" The houses in most villages were enclosed with a 

 fence made of the stems of the Kow-leang. Some of 

 these villages are as large as European cities, but none 

 are reckoned of note here, except such as are walled 

 round. 



" During this slow progress, hardly half an hour 

 passed without bringing a town or village to view. The 

 walls of the houses in the last were mostly of mud, ba- 

 ked in the sun, or moulded between planks, and bound 

 with them till it was hard enough to bear a roof; or of 

 wicker work, coated with clay. The roofs were, in few 

 instances, covered with green turf, but more generally 

 with straw. The rooms were divided with lattice work, 

 hung with broad paper, ornamented with images or mo- 

 ral sentences. Each house has a court round it, enclosed 

 with wattles, or the stem of the kow-leang. Neatness 

 and order characterised the whole. The walls that sur- 

 rounded the towns were usually higher than the roofs of 

 the houses within, tnd generally formed a square, facing 

 the four cardinal points, with a gate in each. The streets 

 were mostly narrow. The few large buildings were ei- 

 ther for public uses, or the dwellings of men in office. 

 The habitations, as well as the dress of the great, are 

 regulated by particular laws, and with an especial regard 

 to the convenience of the poor. The houses were ge- 

 nerally plain, and of one story, the foundations being 

 of freestone or granite, brought from the adjacent moun- 

 tains. The walls were mostly of brick, and the roofs co- 

 vered with rows of tiles, alternately concave and convex, 

 cemented by clay. The larch fir is chiefly used in build- 

 ing. The windows are small, and made of paper. So 

 little is iron used, that hardly a nail is to be seen in any 

 houses. The floors are of marble or indurated earth. 

 In more elegant buildings, a range of pillars, made of 

 the trunks of firs, ran parallel to the outer walls, and 

 formed a gallery. Thus the body of the roof rests on 

 the walls, and the projecting part on the pillars. In some 

 structures are double or treble roofs, a few feet above 

 each other. The chief doors and windows of public 

 buildings look to the south. These are, chiefly, a hall 

 of audience for the administration of justice, college 

 for students, temples, granaries to hold supplies against 

 scarcity, and a public library. Common houses have no 

 columns, but the shops have two poles crossed with boards, 

 on which are inscriptions and representation* of what are 

 sold within. 



" The furniture is simple, and the ornaments are few. 

 Whatever is made of wood is painted red and varnished. 

 These towns all exhibited the bustle of commerce. Trad- 



Practice. 



ing vessels were constantly passing on the river." P. 390, 



391. * ' *"*" 



In Plate CLVI. we have given a view of the vice- PLAT* 

 roy's palace at Canton, which Patrick Begbie, Esq. of CLVI. 

 Castlehill, has been so obliging as to permit us to copy, 

 from a drawing he had made by a Chinese upon the spot. 

 This, though very deficient in the perspective, appears to 

 have been performed with the minute attention peculiar 

 to that people. The architecture is in a meaner style than 

 thatof the pagodas shewn in PlateCLV. ; butEuropeans PIATB 

 not being admitted into these places, this view is vain- CLV. 

 able, as exhibiting the disposition of their paltry sheds 

 and ridiculous decorations ; and likewise of the dress and 

 positions assumed during some of their processions. 



The impressions from these descriptions are certainly General re- 

 very different ; but, from the whole, we may conclude, marks, 

 that a time has been when the whole of China was 

 modelled by a people previously accustomed to live in 

 tents ; and that if any other mode ever did prevail, it 

 has been completely annihilated. The Chinese cities 

 have not, as in most other countries, that irregularity 

 which is the result of rising from small beginnings, and 

 under varying circumstances ; on the contrary, they have 

 precisely the same formality of character as if their plans 

 had been previously arranged, and carried into effect un- 

 der the controul of despotism j the tent having been 

 rendered a fixed habitation, the patriarchal government 

 directing every operation by fixed rules, and never per- 

 mitting their notions to be disturbed by foreign inter- 

 course. Chinese skill has been limited to dexterity and 

 neatness in the whimsical decoration of the trifling mem- 

 bers of tent architecture ; instead, therefore, of rousing p 

 genius by public estimation and rewards, it has been re- 

 pressed by custom and arbitrary enactments. The ut- 

 most of their exertions in architecture appears in their city 

 gateways, which having no prototype in tent encamp- 

 ments, were, in some measure, left for genius to invent ; 

 but the system of precedent was too powerfully root- 

 ed to suffer even this to proceed beyond the demands 

 of absolute necessity, and a system of gateways was al- 

 so established. The same unpropitious regulations per- 

 vades all ranks, from the mandarin to the peasant ; the 

 former barely enjoying a precarious comfort, and the lat- 

 ter too generally existing in wretchedness, justify, we 

 suspect too frequently, Mr Barrow's remarks. With the 

 feelings which such reflections must unavoidably excite, 

 he has possibly been led to notice and describe, rather tin- 

 favourable traits of the Chinese ; but if we refer to the 

 evidently partial descriptions of Duhalde, Le Compte, 

 and Chambers, they present only gaudy, superficial, and 

 trifling operations, adapted to the early stages of civili- 

 zation, or the childish years of more advanced society. 

 Although this style is totally unfit for producing im- 

 pressions of dignity, sublimity, or strength, yet some of 

 its features are admirably calculated for scenes of gaiety 

 and festivity. Nothing can be more airy and elegant than 

 a slender colonnaded building, raised upon a properly con- 

 structed basement, surrounded by slight curved roofs of 

 varnished tyles, light latticed galleries, and crowned with 

 a small open cupola, with a pierced globe and flower at 

 the top ; it seems scarcely attached to the earth ; and, 

 in country habitations, for the middle ranks of society, 

 instead of aping the gigantic members of Greek and Ro- 

 man temples, the Chinese mode of arrangement in two 

 stories only, with their simple and unassuming members, 

 seem deserving of attention. This climate will not admit 

 of the precise forms or distribution being adopted, but 

 the ingenious architect will be at no loss to preserve the 



