When I reached Peking there was one much thumbed and tattered copy of Medhurst’s dictionary for the use of the whole Legation. Naturally it was wanted for the student interpreters: Morrison’s dictionary was out of print, and Giles, whose great work is now the authority, had himself, so far as China was concerned, not yet been invented. My teacher, a quaint little man, so transparently thin that I felt almost able to see the garlic which otherwise so richly asserted itself, knew no syllable of any tongue save his own, so it was a hard matter to come to terms. Substantives—a table, a chair, a cupboard—it was easy enough to acquire; some verbs are capable of being denoted by signs. But adjectives! How explain that you wish to know the difference between a good table and a bad? Great was my joy when, one fine day, Wade produced the first page of his book in MS. Then matters began to go swimmingly, and by the end of the summer I began to babble—very childishly—but we must totter before we can walk. Students have an easier time of it now, Wade, Giles, Hillier and others have beaten a golden road for them and there are plenty of books. Soon, moreover, we hope to see a properly equipped school of Oriental languages established in London, so that a young man may start his work abroad with some previous equipment, however slight, to help him in overcoming the first difficulties, saving him much vexation and disheartening delay. We passed the days of our cloistered life in calm and peaceful contemplation as beseemed sojourners sheltered by a Buddhist monastery. The studious mornings were relieved by afternoon excursions as varied as they were delightful. There were many interesting temples to be visited—among others a fane of great sanctity called Wo Fo Ssŭ, the temple of the Sleeping Buddha, a gigantic figure lying down with a pair of soft velvet boots by the couch ready to be put on when it should please the Wise One to awaken from the slumber of centuries. Some shrines were perched up like eagles’ nests upon almost inaccessible crags, others were easily reached. The monks and the poor peasants who lived around us were always kind, civil, and ever welcoming to the red-haired devils.