Page:Album of photographs of Peking and its environs.pdf/26



Ornamental archways are very numerous not only in the cities of China, but also in small villages and country places: These structures are called Pas-lou, and are erected as honorary memorials to the memory of virtuous widows, or virgins; Huc when writing of these arches says. “At Ningpo, a celebrated seaport in the province of Tche-kiang, there is a long street entirely composed of such monuments, all of stone and of a rich and majestic architecture. The beauty of the sculptures has excited the admiration of all Europeans who have seen them; in 1842 when the English took the town, there was some talk of their carrying off these triumphal arches, and making with them a complete Chinese street in London.” Those who bear in mind the history of the “Elgin marbles," will have no hesitation in giving credence to the Abbés sarcastic remarks upon English eccentricity.