remember,) to Salisbury fteeple. But, not to detract from a nation to which, during my life, I fhall acknowledge myself extremely obliged, it must be allowed, that whatever this famous tower wants in height is amply made up in beauty and ftrength. 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 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 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 fhould happen to be tranflated into tha 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 an injury by a falfe and diminunutive representation.

His Majefty feldom keeps above fix hundred borfes in his ftables: they are generally from fiftyfour to fixty feet high. But, when he goes abroad on folemn days, he is attended for state by a militia

guard

guard of five hundred horfe, which indeed I thought was the most fplendid fight that could be ever beheld, till I faw part of his army in battalia, whereof I fhall find another occafion to fpeak.

CHAP. V.

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

SHOULD have lived happy enough in that country, if my littleness had not expofed me to feveral ridiculous and troublesome accidents: fome of which I fhall venture to relate. Glumdalelitch often carried me into the gardens of the court in my fmaller box, and would sometimes take me out of it, or 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 nurfe having fet me down, he and I being close together, near fome dwarf apple-trees, I muft need fhew my wit by a 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 ftoop, 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 provo

cation.

Another day Glumdalclitch left me on a fmooth grafs-plot to divert myself, while fhe walked at fome

D 2

distance

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 fhift to creep on all four, and fhelter myself by ly. ing flat on my face on the lee-fide of a border of lemon-thyme, but fo bruifed from head to foot, that I could not go abroad in ten days. Neither is this at all to be wondered at, becaufe 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 as to weigh and measure them.

But a more dangerous accident happened to me in the fame garden, when my little nurfe believing fhe had put me in a fecure place, which I often intreated her to do, that I might enjoy my own thoughts, and having left my box at home to avoid the trouble of carrying it, went to another part of the garden with her governefs, and fome ladies of her aquaintance. While fhe was abfent, and out of hearing, a fmall white spaniel belonging to one of the chief gardeners, having got by accident into the garden, happened to range near the place where I lay the dog, following the fcent, came directly up, and, taking me in his mouth, ran ftrait to his inafter, wagging his tail, and fet me gently on the ground. By good fortune he had been fo well. taught, that I was carried between his teeth without the leaft hurt, or even tearing my cloaths. But the poor gardener, who knew me well, and had a great kindness for me, was in a terrible fright: he gently took me up in both his hands, and asked me how I did; but I was fo amazed and out of breath, that I could not speak a word. In a few minutes I came to myself, and he carried me fafe to my little nurse, who

who by this time had returned to the place where the left me, and was in cruel agonies when I did not appear, nor anfwer when the called: She feverely reprimanded the gardener on account of his dog. But the thing was hufhed up, and never known at court; for the girl was afraid of the Queen's anger, and truly, as to myfelf, I thought it would not be for my reputation that such a story fhould go about.

This accident abfolutely determined Glumdalclitch never to truft me abroad for the future out of her fight. I had been long afraid of this refolution, and therefore concealed from her fome little unlucky adventures, that happened in thofe times when I was left by myself. Once a kite, hovering over the garden, made a ftoop at me, and, if I had not refolutely drawn my hanger, and run under a thick efpalier, he would have certainly carried me away in his talons. Another time, walking to the top of a fresh mole-hill, I fell to my neck in the hole, throTM“ which that animal had caft up the earth, and coined fome lye, not worth remembering, to excufe myfelf for fpoiling my cloaths. I likewife broke my right fhin against the fhell of a fnail, which I hap-pened to stumble over, as I was walking alone, and. thinking on poor England.

I: I cannot tell, whether I were more pleafed or mortified to obferve, in thofe folitary walks, that the fmaller birds did not appear to be at all afraid of me, but would hop about within a yard's distance, looking for worms and other food, with as much indifference and fecurity, as if no creature at all were near them. I remember, a thrush had the confidence to fnatch out of my hand, with his bill, a piece of cake that Glumdalclitch had juft given me for my breakfast. When I attempted to catch any of thefe birds, they would boldly turn against me, endeavouring to pick my fingers. which I durft. not venture within their reach; and then they would

hop back unconcerned to hunt for worms or fnails, as they did before. But one day I took a thick cudgel, and threw it with all my strength fo luckily at a linnet, that I knocked him down, and, feizing him by the neck with both my hands, ran with him in triumph to my nurfe However the bird, who had only been ftunned, recovering himfelf, gave me fo many boxes with his wings on both fides of my head and body, though I held him at arms length, and was out of the reach of his claws, that I was twenty times thinking to let him go. But I was foon relieved by one of our fervants, who wrung off the bird's neck, and I had him next day for dinner by the Queen's command. This linnet, as near as I can remember, feemed to be fomewhat larger than an England fwan.

The maids of honour often invited Glumdalclitch to their apartments, and defired fhe would bring me along with her, on purpose to have the pleasure of feeing and touching me. They would often strip me naked from top to toe, and lay me at full length in their bofoms, wherewith I was much difgufted; becaufe, to fay the truth, a very offenfive smell came from their fkins; which I do not mention, or intend to the difadvantage of thofe excellent ladies, for whom I have all manner of respect; but I conceive that my fenfe was more acute, in proportion to my littleness, and that thofe illuftrious perfons were no more difagreeable to their lovers, or to each other, than people of the fame quality are with us in England. And, after all, I found their natural fmell was much more fupportable than when they ufed perfumes, under which I immediately fwooned away. I cannot forget, that an intimate friend of mine in Lilliput took the freedom in a warm day, when I had used a good deal of exercise, to complain of a strong smell about me, although I am as little faulty that way, as moft of my fex: but I fuppofe his faculty of fmelling was as nice with regard

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