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
We passed through the gallery, at the farther end of which was a very
beautiful arch, even with the staircase, through which Quilly led me
into a large guard-room, wherein were above a hundred glumms, posted in
ranks, with their pikes in hand, some headed with sharp-pointed stone,
others with multangular stone, and others with stone globes. Passing
through these, we entered another gallery as long as that to my
apartment; then under another arch we came into a small square room,
carved exceeding fine; on the right and left of which were two other
archways, leading into most noble rooms. But we only saw them, passing
quite cross the little room, through an arch that fronted us into a
small gallery of prodigious height; at the farther end of which Quilly,
turning aside a mat, introduced and left me in the most beautiful place
in the universe, where, neither seeing nor hearing anybody stir, I
employed myself in examining the magnificence of the place, and could,
as I then thought, have feasted my eye with variety for a twelvemonth.
I paced it over one hundred and thirty of my paces long, and ninety-six
broad. There were arches in the middle of each side, and in the middle
of each end; the arch ceiling could not be less than the breadth of the
room, and covered with the most delightful carvings, from whence hung
globe-lights innumerable, but seemingly without order, which I thought
appeared the more beautiful on that account. In the centre of the
room hung a prodigious cluster of the same lights, so disposed as to
represent one vast light; and there were several rows of the same lights
hung round the room, one row above another, at proper distances. These
lights represented to me the stars, with the moon in the middle of them;
and after I came to be better acquainted with the country, I perceived
the lights were to represent the southern constellations. The archways
were carved with the finest devices imaginable, gigantic glumms
supporting on each side the pediments.
At every ten paces all along the sides and ends, arose columns, each
upon a broad square base, admirably carved; these reached to the cornice
or base of the arched ceiling quite round the room. On the panels
between each column were carved the different battles and most
remarkable achievements of Begsurbeck himself. Over the arch I entered
at, was the statue of Begsurbeck, and over the opposite arch the old
prophetic ragan. In the middle of the room stood a long stone table
lengthwise, most exquisitely carved, almost the length of the room,
except where it was divided in the middle about the breadth of the
archways, in order for a passage from one arch to the other. In short,
to describe this one room particularly would make a volume of itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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