Of These Latter We Must Also Say Something, For They Afford One Mode Of
Recreation To The Citizens In Going About The Town, As The Boats Afford
Another In Going About The Lake.
In the main street of the city you meet
an infinite succession of these carriages passing to and fro.
They are
long covered vehicles, fitted with curtains and cushions, and affording
room for six persons; and they are in constant request for ladies and
gentlemen going on parties of pleasure. In these they drive to certain
gardens, where they are entertained by the owners in pavilions erected on
purpose, and there they divert themselves the livelong day, with their
ladies, returning home in the evening in those same carriages.[NOTE 10]
(FURTHER PARTICULARS OF THE PALACE OF THE KING FACFUR.)
The whole enclosure of the Palace was divided into three parts. The middle
one was entered by a very lofty gate, on each side of which there stood on
the ground-level vast pavilions, the roofs of which were sustained by
columns painted and wrought in gold and the finest azure. Opposite the
gate stood the chief Pavilion, larger than the rest, and painted in like
style, with gilded columns, and a ceiling wrought in splendid gilded
sculpture, whilst the walls were artfully painted with the stories of
departed kings.
On certain days, sacred to his gods, the King Facfur[1] used to hold a
great court and give a feast to his chief lords, dignitaries, and rich
manufacturers of the city of Kinsay. On such occasions those pavilions
used to give ample accommodation for 10,000 persons sitting at table. This
court lasted for ten or twelve days, and exhibited an astonishing and
incredible spectacle in the magnificence of the guests, all clothed in
silk and gold, with a profusion of precious stones; for they tried to
outdo each other in the splendour and richness of their appointments.
Behind this great Pavilion that faced the great gate, there was a wall
with a passage in it shutting off the inner part of the Palace. On
entering this you found another great edifice in the form of a cloister
surrounded by a portico with columns, from which opened a variety of
apartments for the King and the Queen, adorned like the outer walls with
such elaborate work as we have mentioned. From the cloister again you
passed into a covered corridor, six paces in width, of great length, and
extending to the margin of the lake. On either side of this corridor were
ten courts, in the form of oblong cloisters surrounded by colonnades; and
in each cloister or court were fifty chambers with gardens to each. In
these chambers were quartered one thousand young ladies in the service of
the King. The King would sometimes go with the Queen and some of these
maidens to take his diversion on the Lake, or to visit the Idol-temples,
in boats all canopied with silk.
The other two parts of the enclosure were distributed in groves, and
lakes, and charming gardens planted with fruit-trees, and preserves for
all sorts of animals, such as roe, red-deer, fallow-deer, hares, and
rabbits.
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