similar ones on a teapot at home.' 'Pray walk in, sir,'
said the young fellow, extending his mouth till it reached nearly from
ear to ear; 'pray walk in, and I shall be happy to give you any
information respecting the manners and customs of the Chinese in my
power.' Thereupon I followed him into his shop, where he began to
harangue on the manners, customs, and peculiarities of the Chinese,
especially their manner of preparing tea, not forgetting to tell me that
the only genuine Chinese tea ever imported into England was to be found
in his shop. 'With respect to those marks,' said he, 'on the bowl and
chests, they are nothing more nor less than Chinese writing expressing
something, though what I can't exactly tell you. Allow me to sell you
this pound of tea,' he added, showing me a paper parcel. 'On the
envelope there is a printed account of the Chinese system of writing,
extracted from authors of the most established reputation. These things
I print, principally with the hope of, in some degree, removing the worse
than Gothic ignorance prevalent amongst natives of these parts. I am
from London myself. With respect to all that relates to the Chinese real
imperial tea, I assure you sir, that--' Well, to make short of what you
doubtless consider a very tiresome story, I purchased the tea and carried
it home. The tea proved imperially bad, but the paper envelope really
contained some information on the Chinese language and writing, amounting
to about as much as you gained from me the other day. On learning that
the marks on the teapot expressed words, I felt my interest with respect
to them considerably increased, and returned to the task of inspecting
them with greater zeal than before, hoping, by continually looking at
them, to be able eventually to understand their meaning, in which hope
you may easily believe I was disappointed, though my desire to understand
what they represented continued on the increase. In this dilemma I
determined to apply again to the shopkeeper from whom I bought the tea. I
found him in rather low spirits, his shirt-sleeves were soiled, and his
hair was out of curl. On my inquiring how he got on, he informed me that
he intended speedily to leave, having received little or no
encouragement, the people, in their Gothic ignorance, preferring to deal
with an old-fashioned shopkeeper over the way, who, so far from
possessing any acquaintance with the polity and institutions of the
Chinese