<p class="gutsumm">The country described. A proposal for
correcting modern maps. The king’s palace; and some
account of the metropolis. The author’s way of
travelling. The chief temple described.</p>
<p>I now intend to give the reader a short description of this
country, as far as I travelled in it, which was not above two
thousand miles round Lorbrulgrud, the metropolis. For the
queen, whom I always attended, never went farther when she
accompanied the king in his progresses, and there staid till his
majesty returned from viewing his frontiers. The whole
extent of this prince’s dominions reaches about six
thousand miles in length, and from three to five in breadth:
whence I cannot but conclude, that our geographers of Europe are
in a great error, by supposing nothing but sea between Japan and
California; for it was ever my opinion, that there must be a
balance of earth to counterpoise the great continent of Tartary;
and therefore they ought to correct their maps and charts, by
joining this vast tract of land to the north-west parts of
America, wherein I shall be ready to lend them my assistance.</p>
<p>The kingdom is a peninsula, terminated to the north-east by a
ridge of mountains thirty miles high, which are altogether
impassable, by reason of the volcanoes upon the tops: neither do
the most learned know what sort of mortals inhabit beyond those
mountains, or whether they be inhabited at all. On the
three other sides, it is bounded by the ocean. There is not
one seaport in the whole kingdom: and those parts of the coasts
into which the rivers issue, are so full of pointed rocks, and
the sea generally so rough, that there is no venturing with the
smallest of their boats; so that these people are wholly excluded
from any commerce with the rest of the world. But the large
rivers are full of vessels, and abound with excellent fish; for
they seldom get any from the sea, because the sea fish are of the
same size with those in Europe, and consequently not worth
catching; whereby it is manifest, that nature, in the production
of plants and animals of so extraordinary a bulk, is wholly
confined to this continent, of which I leave the reasons to be
determined by philosophers. However, now and then they take
a whale that happens to be dashed against the rocks, which the
common people feed on heartily. These whales I have known
so large, that a man could hardly carry one upon his shoulders;
and sometimes, for curiosity, they are brought in hampers to
Lorbrulgrud; I saw one of them in a dish at the king’s
table, which passed for a rarity, but I did not observe he was
fond of it; for I think, indeed, the bigness disgusted him,
although I have seen one somewhat larger in Greenland.</p>
<p>The country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty-one
cities, near a hundred walled towns, and a great number of
villages. To satisfy my curious reader, it may be
sufficient to describe Lorbrulgrud. This city stands upon
almost two equal parts, on each side the river that passes
through. It contains above eighty thousand houses, and
about six hundred thousand inhabitants. It is in length
three <i>glomglungs</i> (which make about fifty-four English
miles,) and two and a half in breadth; as I measured it myself in
the royal map made by the king’s order, which was laid on
the ground on purpose for me, and extended a hundred feet: I
paced the diameter and circumference several times barefoot, and,
computing by the scale, measured it pretty exactly.</p>
<p>The king’s palace is no regular edifice, but a heap of
buildings, about seven miles round: the chief rooms are generally
two hundred and forty feet high, and broad and long in
proportion. A coach was allowed to Glumdalclitch and me,
wherein her governess frequently took her out to see the town, or
go among the shops; and I was always of the party, carried in my
box; although the girl, at my own desire, would often take me
out, and hold me in her hand, that I might more conveniently view
the houses and the people, as we passed along the streets.
I reckoned our coach to be about a square of Westminster-hall,
but not altogether so high: however, I cannot be very
exact. One day the governess ordered our coachman to stop
at several shops, where the beggars, watching their opportunity,
crowded to the sides of the coach, and gave me the most horrible
spectacle that ever a European eye beheld. There was a
woman with a cancer in her breast, swelled to a monstrous size,
full of holes, in two or three of which I could have easily
crept, and covered my whole body. There was a fellow with a
wen in his neck, larger than five wool-packs; and another, with a
couple of wooden legs, each about twenty feet high. But the
most hateful sight of all, was the lice crawling on their
clothes. I could see distinctly the limbs of these vermin
with my naked eye, much better than those of a European louse
through a microscope, and their snouts with which they rooted
like swine. They were the first I had ever beheld, and I
should have been curious enough to dissect one of them, if I had
had proper instruments, which I unluckily left behind me in the
ship, although, indeed, the sight was so nauseous, that it
perfectly turned my stomach.</p>
<p>Besides the large box in which I was usually carried, the
queen ordered a smaller one to be made for me, of about twelve
feet square, and ten high, for the convenience of travelling;
because the other was somewhat too large for
Glumdalclitch’s lap, and cumbersome in the coach; it was
made by the same artist, whom I directed in the whole
contrivance. This travelling-closet was an exact square,
with a window in the middle of three of the squares, and each
window was latticed with iron wire on the outside, to prevent
accidents in long journeys. On the fourth side, which had
no window, two strong staples were fixed, through which the
person that carried me, when I had a mind to be on horseback, put
a leathern belt, and buckled it about his waist. This was
always the office of some grave trusty servant, in whom I could
confide, whether I attended the king and queen in their
progresses, or were disposed to see the gardens, or pay a visit
to some great lady or minister of state in the court, when
Glumdalclitch happened to be out of order; for I soon began to be
known and esteemed among the greatest officers, I suppose more
upon account of their majesties’ favour, than any merit of
my own. In journeys, when I was weary of the coach, a
servant on horseback would buckle on my box, and place it upon a
cushion before him; and there I had a full prospect of the
country on three sides, from my three windows. I had, in
this closet, a field-bed and a hammock, hung from the ceiling,
two chairs and a table, neatly screwed to the floor, to prevent
being tossed about by the agitation of the horse or the
coach. And having been long used to sea-voyages, those
motions, although sometimes very violent, did not much discompose
me.</p>
<p>Whenever I had a mind to see the town, it was always in my
travelling-closet; which Glumdalclitch held in her lap in a kind
of open sedan, after the fashion of the country, borne by four
men, and attended by two others in the queen’s
livery. The people, who had often heard of me, were very
curious to crowd about the sedan, and the girl was complaisant
enough to make the bearers stop, and to take me in her hand, that
I might be more conveniently seen.</p>
<p>I was very desirous to see the chief temple, and particularly
the tower belonging to it, which is reckoned the highest in the
kingdom. Accordingly one day my nurse carried me thither,
but I may truly say I came back disappointed; for the height is
not above three thousand feet, reckoning from the ground to the
highest pinnacle top; which, allowing for the difference between
the size of those people and us in Europe, is no great matter for
admiration, nor at all equal in proportion (if I rightly
remember) to Salisbury steeple. But, not to detract from a
nation, to which, during my life, I shall acknowledge myself
extremely obliged, it must be allowed, that whatever this famous
tower wants in height, is amply made up in beauty and strength:
for the walls are near a hundred feet thick, built of hewn stone,
whereof each is about forty feet square, and adorned on all sides
with statues of gods and emperors, cut in marble, larger than the
life, placed in their several niches. I measured a little
finger which had fallen down from one of these statues, and lay
unperceived among some rubbish, and found it exactly four feet
and an inch in length. Glumdalclitch wrapped it up in her
handkerchief, and carried it home in her pocket, to keep among
other trinkets, of which the girl was very fond, as children at
her age usually are.</p>
<p>The king’s kitchen is indeed a noble building, vaulted
at top, and about six hundred feet high. The great oven is
not so wide, by ten paces, as the cupola at St. Paul’s: for
I measured the latter on purpose, after my return. But if I
should describe the kitchen grate, the prodigious pots and
kettles, the joints of meat turning on the spits, with many other
particulars, perhaps I should be hardly believed; at least a
severe critic would be apt to think I enlarged a little, as
travellers are often suspected to do. To avoid which
censure I fear I have run too much into the other extreme; and
that if this treatise should happen to be translated into the
language of Brobdingnag (which is the general name of that
kingdom,) and transmitted thither, the king and his people would
have reason to complain that I had done them an injury, by a
false and diminutive representation.</p>
<p>His majesty seldom keeps above six hundred horses in his
stables: they are generally from fifty-four to sixty feet
high. But, when he goes abroad on solemn days, he is
attended, for state, by a military guard of five hundred horse,
which, indeed, I thought was the most splendid sight that could
be ever beheld, till I saw part of his army in battalia, whereof
I shall find another occasion to speak.</p>
<h3>II - CHAPTER V.</h3>
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