ENTRANCE HALL. 
A Chinese bell, from a Buddhist temple near Ningpo. The upper 
part of this elegant object is ornamented with an imperial dragon, the 
national emblem of China, crouching down and forming the handle. 
Beneath this is the orifice where the clapper has been placed. The 
upper part of the bell is ornamented with figures of Buddh, cast in 
very salient relief, and is covered with an inscription, also in relief, se¬ 
parated by four broad bands, of large characters, containing sentences 
relative to the Buddhist religion. The smaller inscriptions in a San¬ 
scrit character, are entitled the Prayer of Fuh (Buddh), the supremely 
honourable and excessively to-lo-ne god; with a list of names of believ¬ 
ing doctors and faithful ladies. The inscriptions at the lower part of 
the bell contain a similar list of names, and the names and titles of the 
makers, and of the authorities of the Teer^-she-pe-ling, or Teen-ling-pe 
temple, and civil and military officers of the city of Ningpo, under 
whom the bell was cast, in the 19th regnal year of Taou Kwang, the 
present emperor, the 36th cyclary year, on a felicitous morning of the 
eighth moon (a,d. 1839-40). Presented by Her Majesty , 1844. 
