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12 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift · Adventure Books Collection

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