The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Volume 2 (of 2)Paltock, Robert
Science
The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Volume 2 (of 2)
Paltock, Robert
Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction
Along the whole face of the rock, bounding the streets and the circle,
there are archways; those in the circle, and the four cross streets, for
the gentry and better people; and those in the outer streets, for the
meaner; and it is as easy to know as by a sign where a great man lives,
by the grandeur of his entrance, and lavish distribution of the pillars,
carving, and statues about his portico, within and without: for as they
have no doors, you may look in, and are not forbid entrance; and though
it should look odd to an English reader, that an Englishman should
speak with pleasure of a land of darkness, as that almost was, yet I am
satisfied whoever shall see it after me will be persuaded, that for
the real grandeur of their entrances, and for the magnificence of the
apartments and sculpture, no part of the universe can produce the like;
and though within doors there is no other manner of light than the
sweecoes, yet that, when you are once used to it, is so agreeable and
free from all noisome savour, that I never once regretted the loss of
the sun within doors, though I often have when abroad; but then that
would be injurious to the proper inhabitants, though they can no more
see in total darkness than myself.
I have been over some of these private houses, which contain, it may
be, thirty rooms, great and small, some higher, some lower, full of
sweecoe-lights, and extremely well proportioned and beautiful.
The king's palace, with all the apartments, stands in, and takes up,
one full fourth part of the square of the whole city; and is, indeed, of
itself a perfect city.
There is no great man's house without one or more long galleries for
the ladies to divert themselves at divers sports in, particularly at one
like our bowls on a bowling-green, and at somewhat like nine-holes, at
which they play for wines, and drink a great deal, for none of them will
intoxicate.
In my walk and survey of the city, one of the colambs being making a
house to reside in when at Brandleguarp, I had the curiosity to go in.
I saw there abundance of botts stand filled with a greenish liquor, and
asked Quilly what that was. He said it was what the stone-men used in
making houses. I proceeded farther in, where I saw several men at work,
and stayed a good while to observe them. Each man had a bott of this
liquor in his left hand, and stood before a large bank of stone, it may
be 30 feet high, reaching forward up to the ceiling of the place, and
ascending by steps from bottom to top; the workmen standing some on one
step, some on another, pouring on this liquor with their left hands, and
with their right holding a wooden tool, shaped like a little spade. I
observed wherever they poured on this water, a smoke arose for a little
space of time, and then the place turned white, which was scraped off
like fine powder with the spade-handle; and then pouring new liquor, he
scraped again, working all the while by sweecoe-lights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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