CHAPTER IV.

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.

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.

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.

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 _glomglungs_ (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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.