CASTLE OF THE EMPEROR. 
Chac. y. 
Now and then we met or passed a Daimio, or 
official of rank, accompanied by his train of 
retainers, armed with swords, spears, and match- 
locks, and with the usual amount of luggage, 
large umbrellas, led horses, and other signs of his 
rank. 
No foreign visitor to Yedo is allowed to enter 
the sacred precincts of the inner enclosure which 
we were now riding round. A short time before 
this, a portion of the palace of the Emperor had 
been burned down, and it was now being rebuilt. 
Judging from the part of it which came under 
my observation in the distance, it did not seem 
a very imposing structure. Kaempfer writes in 
glowing terms of the palace of his day : “ It had 
a tower many stories high, adorned with roofs and 
other curious ornaments, which make the whole 
castle look, at a distance, magnificent beyond 
expression, amazing the beholders, as do also the 
many other beautiful bended roofs, with gilt 
dragons at the top, which cover the rest of the 
buildings within the castle.” As this work, how- 
ever, professes only to give the reader a descrip- 
tion of what came under my own observation, I 
must leave to others the description of the interior 
of the Tycoon’s castle. 
We had approached the citadel on the south, 
passed round it to the eastward, and were now 
on a rising ground on the north. Here another 
of those splendid views over the city and bay was 
obtained. This point has been named “ Belle 
