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 wished that I had left my shoes at the doorway, in my fear of soiling the white straw mats. I was also most favourably impress- ed with the spotless purity of their garments, which were almost entirely of white. It was with great difficulty, however, that 1 secured an illustration, but it was on that account all the more prized.

After my return from the Ming tombs, H. B. M.'s Minister, the late Sir Thomas Wall, kindly invited me to stay at the Legation, but I had promised Thomas to remain in his house, and although unfortunate in some respects, he proved thor- oughly honest, and did his best to make me comfortable.

I bought a Mongolian pony to save me time in exploring the city, and a saddle and bridle were kindly lent to me by a friend ; but the brute was a large-boned, large-headed animal with a great round belly, over which, for want of a crupper, the saddle- girths were always sliding. It had, too, an enormous appetite, at least, so said the groom whom I employed. The first night it consumed its bed, and when I examined it in the morning it seemed to be hungry still, for it had barked the tree to which it was tethered, and had, besides this, devoured about five shil- lings' worth of millet-bran, and so forth. I soon found out that I was being fleeced by the stable-boy, who had a pony of his own in the next house, and had determined to feed it at my expense.

The Pekingese have a strange mode of shoeing their horses. They pull three feet together with cords, and leave the hoof that is to be shod, free. Then they sling the animal bodily up between two posts, and so complete the task in comfort and safety.

In the plan of the city of Peking there is every evidence of careful design, and this has been carried out minutely, from the