PAGODA OF LIN-TSING. 
145 
The Embassy left Sang-yuen before day-light the next morning, 
and entered a country generally swampy, but occasionally relieved 
by small houses surrounded with plots of cultivated ground, on which 
the tobacco began generally to appear. The boats anchored, at night, 
at a village within a short distance of a large lake on the east bank of 
the river. 
On the 19th and 20th, the country assumed a more picturesque 
character from the quantity of a cypress-like tree, Thuja orientalis , 
which surrounded the houses and villages within view from the river. 
Willows of large size also broke the monotony of the scene. 
On the 21st, the Embassy passed the city of Woo-chang-hien, the 
suburbs of which were remarkable for a handsome temple ; and 
halted, on the 22d, at the pagoda of Lin-tsing. This pagoda is situ- 
ated a mile to the north-east of Lin-tsing, and four miles from the 
entrance to the grand canal. It is called, by the Chinese, Shay-le- 
paou-ta*, or “ a precious monument to Shay-le,” or “ the reliques of 
Foo.” This building has been restored since it was visited by Lord 
Macartney’s Embassy. At that period, the gentlemen who endea- 
voured to examine it, “ mounted with some difficulty upon the first of 
its nine stages or roofs (for the little door on a level with the ground 
was walled up with bricks) ; but it contained only the bare walls ; not 
even a staircase remained, nor any possible means of ascending to the 
top ; and the lower part was choked up with rubbish.” f The gen- 
tlemen of Lord Amherst’s Mission ascended it by a winding staircase 
of one hundred and eighty polished stone steps, leading through its 
different stories. Each of these had eight windows, corresponding 
with its eight sides. Their floors projected two or three feet beyond 
the body of the building, forming a platform for walking above, and 
a roof to the compartment beneath. The architraves and angles of 
* “ Les ta , espece de tour sepulchrale ou superstitieuse qui est massive, pour l’ordinaire, 
comme une pyramide.” Memoires des Chin., tom. ii. p. 565. 
f Barrow’s China, p. 503. 
U 
