Chap. XIV. 



ANCIENT PORCELAIN VASE. 



295 



object in view. As all the details concerning tea- 

 plants, implements, and manufactures, may not 

 have the same interest to the reader as they had 

 to myself I shall skip a few pages of my journal 

 and go on to where the narrative is more in- 

 teresting. 



In the month of April, 1855, I paid another 

 visit to the old city of Tse-kee. My boat was 

 moored in a canal near the north gate of the city, 

 and I had been a prisoner for several days on 

 account of a heavy and continuous fall of rain. 

 One morning, soon after daylight, and before the 

 boatmen or my servants were out of bed, a Chinese 

 merchant, who made a living by selling old books 

 and curiosities, paid me a visit, and informed me 

 he had an ancient porcelain vase for sale which 

 was well worthy of my attention. The heavy rain 

 was beating on the roof of the boat, which pre- 

 vented me from having the politeness to open it 

 and ask the man inside. I therefore opened the 

 little sliding window and called out that I would 

 pay him a visit when fine weather came. This 

 proceeding, however, would not satisfy him, and 

 he insisted that I should go with him at once. To 

 encourage me he pointed to his large Chinese boots 

 studded with heavy nails, and said if I had a pair 

 of them to put on they would protect me from the 

 wet and mud in the streets. I had nothing of the 

 kind, but as I had been making from time to time 

 large collections of ancient porcelain vases and 

 other works of art of an early period, I felt a 



