I unluckily left behind me in the ship) although indeed the fight was fo naufeous, that it perfectly turned my ftomach.

Befides the large box in which I was ufually 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 fomewhat too large for Glumdalclitch's lap, and cumbersome in the coach; it was made by the fame artift, whom I directed in the whole contrivance. This travelling clofet was an exact square with a window in the middle of three of the fquares, and each window was latticed with iron wire on the outfide, to prevent accidents in long journies. On the fourth fide, 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 waift. This was always the office of fome grave trufty fervant in whom I could confide, whether I attended the King and Queen in their progreffes, or were disposed to fee the gardens, or pay a visit to fome great lady or minister of state in the court, when Glumdalclitch happened to be out of order: For I foon began to be known and esteemed among the greatest officers, I fuppofe more upon account of their Majefties favour than any merit of my own. In journies, when I was weary of the coach, a fervant on horfeback would buckle on my box, and place it upon a cufhion before him; and there I had a full profpect of the country on three fides

from

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 fcrewed to the floor, to prevent being toffed about by the agitation of the horse or the coach. And having been long used to fea-voyages, those motions, although fometimes very violent, did not much difcompofe

me.

Whenever I had a mind to fee the town, it was always in my travelling-clofet, which Glumdalclitch held in her lap in a kind of open fedan, after the fathion 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 croud about the sedan, and the girl was complaifant enough to make the bearers ftop, and to take me in her hand, that I might be more conveniently feen.

I was very defirous to fee the chief temple, and particularly the tower belonging to it, which is reckoned the higheft in the kingdom. Accordingly one day my nurfe carried me thither, but I may truly fay 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 fize of thofe people and us in Europe, is no great matter for admiration, nor at all equal in proportion (if I rightly remember) to Salisbury fteeple. But, not to detract from a nation, to which during my life I fhall acknowledge myfelf extremely obliged, it must be allowed, that what

ever this famous tower wants in height is amply made up in beauty and strength. For the walls are near an hundred feet thick, built of hewn ftone, whereof each is about forty feet fquare, and adorned on all fides with statues of gods and emperors, cut in marble larger than the life, placed in their feveral niches. I measured a little finger which had fallen down from one of those statues, and lay unperceived among fome 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 ufually are.

The King's kitchen is indeed a noble building, vaulted at top, and about fix hundred feet high. The great oven is not fo wide by ten paces as the cupola at St Paul's; for I meafured the latter on purpose after my return. But if I fhould defcribe the kitchen-grate, the prodigious pots and kettles, the joints of meat turning on the fpits, with many other particulars, perhaps I should be hardly believed; at least a fevere critic would be apt to think I enlarged a little, as travellers are often fufpected to do. To avoid which cenfure, I fear I have run too much into the other extreme; and that if this treatise should happen to be tranflated into the language of Brobdingnag, (which is the general name of that kingdom) and tranfmitted thither, the King and his people would have reafon to complain, that I had done

them

them an injury by a falfe and diminutive reprefentation.

His Majefty feldom keeps above fix hundred horfes in his ftables: They are generally from fifty-four to fixty feet high. But, when he goes abroad on folemn days, he is attended for ftate by a militia-guard of five hundred horse, which indeed I thought was the moft fplendid fight that could be ever beheld, till I faw part of his army in battalia, whereof I fhall find another occafion to speak.

CHA P. v.

Several adventures that happened to the author. The execution of a criminal. The author fhews his fkill in navigation.

I

Should have lived happy enough in that country, if my littlenefs had not expofed me to feveral ridiculous and troublesome accidents; fome of which I fhall venture to relate. Glumdalclitch often carried me into the gardens of the court in my finaller box, and would fometimes take me out of it, and hold me in her hand, or fet me down to walk. I remember, before the dwarf left the Queen, he followed us one day into thofe gardens, and my nurse having fet me down, he and I being clofe together, near fome dwarf apple-trees, I muft need fhew my wit by a

། །

Chap. V. A VOYAGE to BROBDINGNAG. 155 filly allufion between him and the trees, which happens to hold in their language, as it doth in ours. Whereupon, the malicious rogue watching his opportunity, when I was walking under one of them, fhook it directly over my head, by which a dozen apples, each of them near as large as a Bristol barrel, came tumbling about my ears; one of them hit me on the back as I chanced to stoop, and knocked me down flat on my face; but I received no other hurt, and the dwarf was pardoned at my defire, because I had given the provocation.

Another day Glumdalclitch left me on a fmooth grafs-plot to divert myfelf, while fhe walked at fome diftance with her governefs. In the mean time there fuddenly fell fuch a violent fhower of hail, that I was immediately by the force of it ftruck to the ground: And when I was down, the hail-ftones gave me fuch cruel bangs all over the body, as if I had been pelted with tennis-balls; however, I made a fhift to creep on all four, and fhelter myfelf by lying flat on my face on the lee-fide of a border of lemon-thyme, but fo bruised from head to foot, that I could not go abroad in ten days. Neither is this at all to be wondered at, because nature in that country obferving the fame proportion through all her operations, a hail-ftone is near eighteen hundred times as large as one in Europe, which I can affert upon experience, having been fo curious to weigh and measure them.

But