th and plaster, but all the plastering was really
China ware, that is to say, it was plastered with the earth that makes
China ware.

The outside, which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed, and looked very
well, perfectly white, and painted with blue figures, as the large China
ware in England is painted, and hard, as if it had been burnt. As to the
inside, all the walls, instead of wainscot, were lined with hardened and
painted tiles, like the little square tiles we call gally tiles in
England, all made of the finest china, and the figures exceeding fine
indeed, with extraordinary variety of colours, mixed with gold, many
tiles making but one figure, but joined so artificially with mortar,
being made of the same earth, that it was very hard to see where the
tiles met. The floors of the rooms were of the same composition, and as
hard as the earthen floors we have in use in several parts of England,
especially Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, &c. as hard as
stone, and smooth, but not burnt and painted, except some smaller rooms,
like closets, which were all, as it were, paved with the same tile: the
ceilings, and, in a word, all the plastering work in the whole house,
were of the same earth; and, after all, the roof was covered with tiles
of the same, but of a deep shining black.

This was a china warehouse indeed, truly and lite rally to be called so;
and had I not been upon the journey, I could have staid some days to see
and examine the particulars of it. They told me there were fountains and
fish-ponds in the garden, all paved at the bottom and sides with the
same, and fine statues set up in rows on the walks, entirely formed of
the porcelain earth, and burnt whole.

As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may be allowed to
excel in it; but I am very sure they _excel_ in their accounts of it;
for they told me such incredible things of their performance in
crockery-ware, for such it is, that I care not to relate, as knowing it
could not be true.--One told me, in particular, of a workman that made a
ship, with all its tackle, and masts, and sails, in earthenware, big
enough to carry fifty men. If he had told me he launched it, and made a
voyage to Japan in it, I might have said something to it indeed; but as
it was, I knew the whole story, which was, in short, asking pardon for
the word, that the fellow lied; so I smiled, and said nothing to it.

This odd sight kept me two hours behind the