CiiAr. XII. 
ASCENT OF THE HILL 
189 
subject to in this unhealthy climate. We reached the top 
of the hill at last, and our eyes were gladdened with the 
sight of a rich luxuriant spot, which I knew at once to 
be near a Buddhist temple. Being a considerable way 
in advance of my chairbearers and coolies, I sat down 
under the shade of a tree to rest and get cool before I 
entered its sacred precincts. In a few minutes my 
people arrived with smiling countenances, for they had 
got a glimpse of the temple through the trees, and knew 
that rest and refreshment awaited them. 
The Buddhist priesthood seem always to have se- 
lected the most beautiful spots for the erection of their 
temples and dwellings. Many of these places owe their 
chief beauty to the protection and cultivation of trees. 
The wood near a Buddhist temple in China is carefully 
protected, and hence a traveller can always distinguish 
their situation, even when some miles distant. In this 
respect these priests resemble the enlightened monks 
and abbots of the olden time, to whose taste and care 
we owe some of the richest and most beautiful sylvan 
scenery in Europe. 
The temple, or collection of temples, which we now 
approached, was situated on the sloping side of a small 
valley, or basin, on the top of Woo-e-shan, which seemed 
as if it had been scooped out for the purpose. At the 
bottom of this basin a small lake was seen glistening 
through the trees, and covered with the famous lien-wha, 
or Nelumhium — a plant held in high esteem and venera- 1 
tion by the Chinese, and always met with in the vicinity 
of Buddhist temples. All the ground from the lake 
to the temples was covered with the tea shrub, which 
