Gulliver's Travels
A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG.
He desired I would stand like a Colossus, with my legs as far asunder as I conveniently could. He then commanded his general (who was an old experienced leader, and a great patron of mine) to draw up the troops in close order, and march them under me; the foot by twenty-four abreast, and the horse by sixteen, with drums beating, colours flying, and pikes advanced.
by Jonathan Swift
Illustrated By J. J. Grandville
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PART II.
A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG.
CHAPTER I.
[A great storm described; the long boat sent to fetch water; the
author goes with it to discover the country. He is left on
shore, is seized by one of the natives, and carried to a farmer's
house. His reception, with several accidents that happened there.
A description of the inhabitants.]
Having been condemned, by nature and fortune, to active and
restless life, in two months after my return, I again left my
native country, and took shipping in the Downs, on the 20th day
of June, 1702, in the Adventure, Captain John Nicholas, a Cornish
man, commander, bound for Surat. We had a very prosperous gale,
till we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for
fresh water; but discovering a leak, we unshipped our goods and
wintered there; for the captain falling sick of an ague, we could
not leave the Cape till the end of March. We then set sail, and
had a good voyage till we passed the Straits of Madagascar; but
having got northward of that island, and to about five degrees
south latitude, the winds, which in those seas are observed to
blow a constant equal gale between the north and west, from the
beginning of December to the beginning of May, on the 19th of
April began to blow with much greater violence, and more westerly
than usual, continuing so for twenty days together: during which
time, we were driven a little to the east of the Molucca Islands,
and about three degrees northward of the line, as our captain
found by an observation he took the 2nd of May, at which time the
wind ceased, and it was a perfect calm, whereat I was not a
little rejoiced. But he, being a man well experienced in the
navigation of those seas, bid us all prepare against a storm,
which accordingly happened the day following: for the southern
wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set in.
Finding it was likely to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and
stood by to hand the fore-sail; but making foul weather, we
looked the guns were all fast, and handed the mizen. The ship
lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the
sea, than trying or hulling. We reefed the fore-sail and set
him, and hauled aft the fore-sheet; the helm was hard a-weather.
The ship wore bravely. We belayed the fore down-haul; but the
sail was split, and we hauled down the yard, and got the sail
into the ship, and unbound all the things clear of it. It was a
very fierce storm; the sea broke strange and dangerous. We
hauled off upon the laniard of the whip-staff, and helped the man
at the helm. We would not get down our topmast, but let all
stand, because she scudded before the sea very well, and we knew
that the top-mast being aloft, the ship was the wholesomer, and
made better way through the sea, seeing we had sea-room. When
the storm was over, we set fore-sail and main-sail, and brought
the ship to. Then we set the mizen, main-top-sail, and the
fore-top-sail. Our course was east-north-east, the wind was at
south-west. We got the starboard tacks aboard, we cast off our
weather-braces and lifts; we set in the lee-braces, and hauled
forward by the weather-bowlings, and hauled them tight, and
belayed them, and hauled over the mizen tack to windward, and
kept her full and by as near as she would lie.
During this storm, which was followed by a strong wind
west-south-west, we were carried, by my computation, about five
hundred leagues to the east, so that the oldest sailor on board
could not tell in what part of the world we were. Our provisions
held out well, our ship was staunch, and our crew all in good
health; but we lay in the utmost distress for water. We thought
it best to hold on the same course, rather than turn more
northerly, which might have brought us to the north-west part of
Great Tartary, and into the Frozen Sea.
On the 16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the top-mast discovered
land. On the 17th, we came in full view of a great island, or
continent (for we knew not whether;) on the south side whereof
was a small neck of land jutting out into the sea, and a creek
too shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons. We cast
anchor within a league of this creek, and our captain sent a
dozen of his men well armed in the long-boat, with vessels for
water, if any could be found. I desired his leave to go with
them, that I might see the country, and make what discoveries I
could. When we came to land we saw no river or spring, nor any
sign of inhabitants. Our men therefore wandered on the shore to
find out some fresh water near the sea, and I walked alone about
a mile on the other side, where I observed the country all barren
and rocky. I now began to be weary, and seeing nothing to
entertain my curiosity, I returned gently down towards the creek;
and the sea being full in my view, I saw our men already got into
the boat, and rowing for life to the ship. I was going to halloo
after them, although it had been to little purpose, when I
observed a huge creature walking after them in the sea, as fast
as he could: he waded not much deeper than his knees, and took
prodigious strides: but our men had the start of him half a
league, and, the sea thereabouts being full of sharp-pointed
rocks, the monster was not able to overtake the boat. This I was
afterwards told, for I durst not stay to see the issue of the
adventure; but ran as fast as I could the way I first went, and
then climbed up a steep hill, which gave me some prospect of the
country. I found it fully cultivated; but that which first
surprised me was the length of the grass, which, in those grounds
that seemed to be kept for hay, was about twenty feet high.
I fell into a high road, for so I took it to be, though it served
to the inhabitants only as a foot-path through a field of barley.
Here I walked on for some time, but could see little on either
side, it being now near harvest, and the corn rising at least
forty feet. I was an hour walking to the end of this field,
which was fenced in with a hedge of at least one hundred and
twenty feet high, and the trees so lofty that I could make no
computation of their altitude. There was a stile to pass from
this field into the next. It had four steps, and a stone to
cross over when you came to the uppermost. It was impossible for
me to climb this stile, because every step was six-feet high, and
the upper stone about twenty. I was endeavouring to find some
gap in the hedge, when I discovered one of the inhabitants in the
next field, advancing towards the stile, of the same size with
him whom I saw in the sea pursuing our boat. He appeared as tall
as an ordinary spire steeple, and took about ten yards at every
stride, as near as I could guess. I was struck with the utmost
fear and astonishment, and ran to hide myself in the corn, whence
I saw him at the top of the stile looking back into the next
field on the right hand, and heard him call in a voice many
degrees louder than a speaking-trumpet: but the noise was so
high in the air, that at first I certainly thought it was
thunder. Whereupon seven monsters, like himself, came towards
him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about the
largeness of six scythes. These people were not so well clad as
the first, whose servants or labourers they seemed to be; for,
upon some words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field
where I lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I could,
but was forced to move with extreme difficulty, for the stalks of
the corn were sometimes not above a foot distant, so that I could
hardly squeeze my body betwixt them. However, I made a shift to
go forward, till I came to a part of the field where the corn had
been laid by the rain and wind. Here it was impossible for me to
advance a step; for the stalks were so interwoven, that I could
not creep through, and the beards of the fallen ears so strong
and pointed, that they pierced through my clothes into my flesh.
At the same time I heard the reapers not a hundred yards behind
me. Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly overcome by
grief and dispair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily
wished I might there end my days. I bemoaned my desolate widow
and fatherless children. I lamented my own folly and wilfulness,
in attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my
friends and relations. In this terrible agitation of mind, I
could not forbear thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants looked
upon me as the greatest prodigy that ever appeared in the world;
where I was able to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and
perform those other actions, which will be recorded for ever in
the chronicles of that empire, while posterity shall hardly
believe them, although attested by millions. I reflected what a
mortification it must prove to me, to appear as inconsiderable in
this nation, as one single Lilliputian would be among us. But
this I conceived was to be the least of my misfortunes; for, as
human creatures are observed to be more savage and cruel in
proportion to their bulk, what could I expect but to be a morsel
in the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians that
should happen to seize me? Undoubtedly philosophers are in the
right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little
otherwise than by comparison. It might have pleased fortune, to
have let the Lilliputians find some nation, where the people were
as diminutive with respect to them, as they were to me. And who
knows but that even this prodigious race of mortals might be
equally overmatched in some distant part of the world, whereof we
have yet no discovery.
Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with
these reflections, when one of the reapers, approaching within
ten yards of the ridge where I lay, made me apprehend that with
the next step I should be squashed to death under his foot, or
cut in two with his reaping-hook. And therefore, when he was
again about to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make me:
whereupon the huge creature trod short, and, looking round about
under him for some time, at last espied me as I lay on the
ground. He considered awhile, with the caution of one who
endeavours to lay hold on a small dangerous animal in such a
manner that it shall not be able either to scratch or bite him,
as I myself have sometimes done with a weasel in England. At
length he ventured to take me behind, by the middle, between his
fore-finger and thumb, and brought me within three yards of his
eyes, that he might behold my shape more perfectly. I guessed
his meaning, and my good fortune gave me so much presence of
mind, that I resolved not to struggle in the least as he held me
in the air above sixty feet from the ground, although he
grievously pinched my sides, for fear I should slip through his
fingers. All I ventured was to raise mine eyes towards the sun,
and place my hands together in a supplicating posture, and to
speak some words in a humble melancholy tone, suitable to the
condition I then was in: for I apprehended every moment that he
would dash me against the ground, as we usually do any little
hateful animal, which we have a mind to destroy. But my good
star would have it, that he appeared pleased with my voice and
gestures, and began to look upon me as a curiosity, much
wondering to hear me pronounce articulate words, although he
could not understand them. In the mean time I was not able to
forbear groaning and shedding tears, and turning my head towards
my sides; letting him know, as well as I could, how cruelly I was
hurt by the pressure of his thumb and finger. He seemed to
apprehend my meaning; for, lifting up the lappet of his coat, he
put me gently into it, and immediately ran along with me to his
master, who was a substantial farmer, and the same person I had
first seen in the field.
The farmer having (as I suppose by their talk) received such an
account of me as his servant could give him, took a piece of a
small straw, about the size of a walking-staff, and therewith
lifted up the lappets of my coat; which it seems he thought to be
some kind of covering that nature had given me. He blew my hairs
aside to take a better view of my face. He called his hinds
about him, and asked them, as I afterwards learned, whether they
had ever seen in the fields any little creature that resembled
me. He then placed me softly on the ground upon all fours, but I
got immediately up, and walked slowly backward and forward, to
let those people see I had no intent to run away. They all sat
down in a circle about me, the better to observe my motions. I
pulled off my hat, and made a low bow towards the farmer. I fell
on my knees, and lifted up my hands and eyes, and spoke several
words as loud as I could: I took a purse of gold out of my
pocket, and humbly presented it to him. He received it on the
palm of his hand, then applied it close to his eye to see what it
was, and afterwards turned it several times with the point of a
pin (which he took out of his sleeve,) but could make nothing of
it. Whereupon I made a sign that he should place his hand on the
ground. I then took the purse, and, opening it, poured all the
gold into his palm. There were six Spanish pieces of four
pistoles each, beside twenty or thirty smaller coins. I saw him
wet the tip of his little finger upon his tongue, and take up one
of my largest pieces, and then another; but he seemed to be
wholly ignorant what they were. He made me a sign to put them
again into my purse, and the purse again into my pocket, which,
after offering it to him several times, I thought it best to do.
The farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational
creature. He spoke often to me; but the sound of his voice
pierced my ears like that of a water-mill, yet his words were
articulate enough. I answered as loud as I could in several
languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me: but
all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other. He
then sent his servants to their work, and taking his handkerchief
out of his pocket, he doubled and spread it on his left hand,
which he placed flat on the ground with the palm upward, making
me a sign to step into it, as I could easily do, for it was not
above a foot in thickness. I thought it my part to obey, and,
for fear of falling, laid myself at full length upon the
handkerchief, with the remainder of which he lapped me up to the
head for further security, and in this manner carried me home to
his house. There he called his wife, and showed me to her; but
she screamed and ran back, as women in England do at the sight of
a toad or a spider. However, when she had a while seen my
behaviour, and how well I observed the signs her husband made,
she was soon reconciled, and by degrees grew extremely tender of
me.
It was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in dinner. It
was only one substantial dish of meat (fit for the plain
condition of a husbandman,) in a dish of about four-and-twenty
feet diameter. The company were, the farmer and his wife, three
children, and an old grandmother. When they were sat down, the
farmer placed me at some distance from him on the table, which
was thirty feet high from the floor. I was in a terrible fright,
and kept as far as I could from the edge, for fear of falling.
The wife minced a bit of meat, then crumbled some bread on a
trencher, and placed it before me. I made her a low bow, took
out my knife and fork, and fell to eat, which gave them exceeding
delight. The mistress sent her maid for a small dram cup, which
held about two gallons, and filled it with drink; I took up the
vessel with much difficulty in both hands, and in a most
respectful manner drank to her ladyship's health, expressing the
words as loud as I could in English, which made the company laugh
so heartily, that I was almost deafened with the noise. This
liquor tasted like a small cider, and was not unpleasant. Then
the master made me a sign to come to his trencher side; but as I
walked on the table, being in great surprise all the time, as the
indulgent reader will easily conceive and excuse, I happened to
stumble against a crust, and fell flat on my face, but received
no hurt. I got up immediately, and observing the good people to
be in much concern, I took my hat (which I held under my arm out
of good manners,) and waving it over my head, made three huzzas,
to show I had got no mischief by my fall. But advancing forward
towards my master (as I shall henceforth call him,) his youngest
son, who sat next to him, an arch boy of about ten years old,
took me up by the legs, and held me so high in the air, that I
trembled every limb: but his father snatched me from him, and at
the same time gave him such a box on the left ear, as would have
felled an European troop of horse to the earth, ordering him to
be taken from the table. But being afraid the boy might owe me a
spite, and well remembering how mischievous all children among us
naturally are to sparrows, rabbits, young kittens, and puppy
dogs, I fell on my knees, and pointing to the boy, made my master
to understand, as well as I could, that I desired his son might
be pardoned. The father complied, and the lad took his seat
again, whereupon I went to him, and kissed his hand, which my
master took, and made him stroke me gently with it.
In the midst of dinner, my mistress's favourite cat leaped into
her lap. I heard a noise behind me like that of a dozen
stocking-weavers at work; and turning my head, I found it
proceeded from the purring of that animal, who seemed to be three
times larger than an ox, as I computed by the view of her head,
and one of her paws, while her mistress was feeding and stroking
her. The fierceness of this creature's countenance altogether
discomposed me; though I stood at the farther end of the table,
above fifty feet off; and although my mistress held her fast, for
fear she might give a spring, and seize me in her talons. But it
happened there was no danger, for the cat took not the least
notice of me when my master placed me within three yards of her.
And as I have been always told, and found true by experience in
my travels, that flying or discovering fear before a fierce
animal, is a certain way to make it pursue or attack you, so I
resolved, in this dangerous juncture, to show no manner of
concern. I walked with intrepidity five or six times before the
very head of the cat, and came within half a yard of her;
whereupon she drew herself back, as if she were more afraid of
me: I had less apprehension concerning the dogs, whereof three
or four came into the room, as it is usual in farmers' houses;
one of which was a mastiff, equal in bulk to four elephants, and
another a greyhound, somewhat taller than the mastiff, but not so
large.
When dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a
year old in her arms, who immediately spied me, and began a
squall that you might have heard from London-Bridge to Chelsea,
after the usual oratory of infants, to get me for a plaything.
The mother, out of pure indulgence, took me up, and put me
towards the child, who presently seized me by the middle, and got
my head into his mouth, where I roared so loud that the urchin
was frighted, and let me drop, and I should infallibly have broke
my neck, if the mother had not held her apron under me. The
nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a rattle which was a kind
of hollow vessel filled with great stones, and fastened by a
cable to the child's waist: but all in vain; so that she was
forced to apply the last remedy by giving it suck. I must
confess no object ever disgusted me so much as the sight of her
monstrous breast, which I cannot tell what to compare with, so as
to give the curious reader an idea of its bulk, shape, and
colour. It stood prominent six feet, and could not be less than
sixteen in circumference. The nipple was about half the bigness
of my head, and the hue both of that and the dug, so varied with
spots, pimples, and freckles, that nothing could appear more
nauseous: for I had a near sight of her, she sitting down, the
more conveniently to give suck, and I standing on the table.
This made me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies,
who appear so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own
size, and their defects not to be seen but through a magnifying
glass; where we find by experiment that the smoothest and whitest
skins look rough, and coarse, and ill-coloured.
I remember when I was at Lilliput, the complexion of those
diminutive people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and
talking upon this subject with a person of learning there, who
was an intimate friend of mine, he said that my face appeared
much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the ground,
than it did upon a nearer view, when I took him up in my hand,
and brought him close, which he confessed was at first a very
shocking sight. He said, "he could discover great holes in my
skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten times stronger than
the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up of several
colours altogether disagreeable:" although I must beg leave to
say for myself, that I am as fair as most of my sex and country,
and very little sunburnt by all my travels. On the other side,
discoursing of the ladies in that emperor's court, he used to
tell me, "one had freckles; another too wide a mouth; a third too
large a nose;" nothing of which I was able to distinguish. I
confess this reflection was obvious enough; which, however, I
could not forbear, lest the reader might think those vast
creatures were actually deformed: for I must do them the justice
to say, they are a comely race of people, and particularly the
features of my master's countenance, although he was but a
farmer, when I beheld him from the height of sixty feet, appeared
very well proportioned.
When dinner was done, my master went out to his labourers, and,
as I could discover by his voice and gesture, gave his wife
strict charge to take care of me. I was very much tired, and
disposed to sleep, which my mistress perceiving, she put me on
her own bed, and covered me with a clean white handkerchief, but
larger and coarser than the mainsail of a man-of-war.
I slept about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife
and children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked, and
found myself alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred
feet wide, and above two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty
yards wide. My mistress was gone about her household affairs, and
had locked me in. The bed was eight yards from the floor. Some
natural necessities required me to get down; I durst not presume
to call; and if I had, it would have been in vain, with such a
voice as mine, at so great a distance from the room where I lay
to the kitchen where the family kept. While I was under these
circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling
back-wards and forwards on the bed. One of them came up almost
to my face, whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger
to defend myself. These horrible animals had the boldness to
attack me on both sides, and one of them held his fore-feet at my
collar; but I had the good fortune to rip up his belly before he
could do me any mischief. He fell down at my feet; and the
other, seeing the fate of his comrade, made his escape, but not
without one good wound on the back, which I gave him as he fled,
and made the blood run trickling from him. After this exploit, I
walked gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my breath and
loss of spirits. These creatures were of the size of a large
mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had
taken off my belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly
been torn to pieces and devoured. I measured the tail of the dead
rat, and found it to be two yards long, wanting an inch; but it
went against my stomach to drag the carcass off the bed, where it
lay still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life, but with a
strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly despatched it.
Soon after my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all
bloody, ran and took me up in her hand. I pointed to the dead
rat, smiling, and making other signs to show I was not hurt;
whereat she was extremely rejoiced, calling the maid to take up
the dead rat with a pair of tongs, and throw it out of the
window. Then she set me on a table, where I showed her my hanger
all bloody, and wiping it on the lappet of my coat, returned it
to the scabbard. I was pressed to do more than one thing which
another could not do for me, and therefore endeavoured to make my
mistress understand, that I desired to be set down on the floor;
which after she had done, my bashfulness would not suffer me to
express myself farther, than by pointing to the door, and bowing
several times. The good woman, with much difficulty, at last
perceived what I would be at, and taking me up again in her hand,
walked into the garden, where she set me down. I went on one
side about two hundred yards, and beckoning to her not to look or
to follow me, I hid myself between two leaves of sorrel, and
there discharged the necessities of nature.
I hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and
the like particulars, which, however insignificant they may
appear to groveling vulgar minds, yet will certainly help a
philosopher to enlarge his thoughts and imagination, and apply
them to the benefit of public as well as private life, which was
my sole design in presenting this and other accounts of my
travels to the world; wherein I have been chiefly studious of
truth, without affecting any ornaments of learning or of style.
But the whole scene of this voyage made so strong an impression
on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that, in
committing it to paper I did not omit one material circumstance:
however, upon a strict review, I blotted out several passages.
Of less moment which were in my first copy, for fear of being
censured as tedious and trifling, whereof travellers are often,
perhaps not without justice, accused.
CHAPTER II.
[A description of the farmer's daughter. The author carried to a
market-town, and then to the metropolis. The particulars of his
journey.]
My mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a child of towardly
parts for her age, very dexterous at her needle, and skilful in
dressing her baby. Her mother and she contrived to fit up the
baby's cradle for me against night: the cradle was put into a
small drawer of a cabinet, and the drawer placed upon a hanging
shelf for fear of the rats. This was my bed all the time I staid
with those people, though made more convenient by degrees, as I
began to learn their language and make my wants known. This
young girl was so handy, that after I had once or twice pulled
off my clothes before her, she was able to dress and undress me,
though I never gave her that trouble when she would let me do
either myself. She made me seven shirts, and some other linen, of
as fine cloth as could be got, which indeed was coarser than
sackcloth; and these she constantly washed for me with her own
hands. She was likewise my school-mistress, to teach me the
language: when I pointed to any thing, she told me the name of
it in her own tongue, so that in a few days I was able to call
for whatever I had a mind to. She was very good-natured, and not
above forty feet high, being little for her age. She gave me the
name of GRILDRIG, which the family took up, and afterwards the
whole kingdom. The word imports what the Latins call NANUNCULUS,
the Italians HOMUNCELETINO, and the English MANNIKIN. To her I
chiefly owe my preservation in that country: we never parted
while I was there; I called her my GLUMDALCLITCH, or little
nurse; and should be guilty of great ingratitude, if I omitted
this honourable mention of her care and affection towards me,
which I heartily wish it lay in my power to requite as she
deserves, instead of being the innocent, but unhappy instrument
of her disgrace, as I have too much reason to fear.
It now began to be known and talked of in the neighbourhood, that
my master had found a strange animal in the field, about the
bigness of a SPLACNUCK, but exactly shaped in every part like a
human creature; which it likewise imitated in all its actions;
seemed to speak in a little language of its own, had already
learned several words of theirs, went erect upon two legs, was
tame and gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it
was bid, had the finest limbs in the world, and a complexion
fairer than a nobleman's daughter of three years old. Another
farmer, who lived hard by, and was a particular friend of my
master, came on a visit on purpose to inquire into the truth of
this story. I was immediately produced, and placed upon a table,
where I walked as I was commanded, drew my hanger, put it up
again, made my reverence to my master's guest, asked him in his
own language how he did, and told him HE WAS WELCOME, just as my
little nurse had instructed me. This man, who was old and
dim-sighted, put on his spectacles to behold me better; at which
I could not forbear laughing very heartily, for his eyes appeared
like the full moon shining into a chamber at two windows. Our
people, who discovered the cause of my mirth, bore me company in
laughing, at which the old fellow was fool enough to be angry and
out of countenance. He had the character of a great miser; and,
to my misfortune, he well deserved it, by the cursed advice he
gave my master, to show me as a sight upon a market-day in the
next town, which was half an hour's riding, about two-and-twenty
miles from our house. I guessed there was some mischief when I
observed my master and his friend whispering together, sometimes
pointing at me; and my fears made me fancy that I overheard and
understood some of their words. But the next morning
Glumdalclitch, my little nurse, told me the whole matter, which
she had cunningly picked out from her mother. The poor girl laid
me on her bosom, and fell a weeping with shame and grief. She
apprehended some mischief would happen to me from rude vulgar
folks, who might squeeze me to death, or break one of my limbs by
taking me in their hands. She had also observed how modest I was
in my nature, how nicely I regarded my honour, and what an
indignity I should conceive it, to be exposed for money as a
public spectacle, to the meanest of the people. She said, her
papa and mamma had promised that Grildrig should be hers; but now
she found they meant to serve her as they did last year, when
they pretended to give her a lamb, and yet, as soon as it was
fat, sold it to a butcher. For my own part, I may truly affirm,
that I was less concerned than my nurse. I had a strong hope,
which never left me, that I should one day recover my liberty:
and as to the ignominy of being carried about for a monster, I
considered myself to be a perfect stranger in the country, and
that such a misfortune could never be charged upon me as a
reproach, if ever I should return to England, since the king of
Great Britain himself, in my condition, must have undergone the
same distress.
My master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a
box the next market-day to the neighbouring town, and took along
with him his little daughter, my nurse, upon a pillion behind
him. The box was close on every side, with a little door for me
to go in and out, and a few gimlet holes to let in air. The girl
had been so careful as to put the quilt of her baby's bed into
it, for me to lie down on. However, I was terribly shaken and
discomposed in this journey, though it was but of half an hour:
for the horse went about forty feet at every step and trotted so
high, that the agitation was equal to the rising and falling of a
ship in a great storm, but much more frequent. Our journey was
somewhat farther than from London to St. Alban's. My master
alighted at an inn which he used to frequent; and after
consulting awhile with the inn-keeper, and making some necessary
preparations, he hired the GRULTRUD, or crier, to give notice
through the town of a strange creature to be seen at the sign of
the Green Eagle, not so big as a SPLACNUCK (an animal in that
country very finely shaped, about six feet long,) and in every
part of the body resembling a human creature, could speak several
words, and perform a hundred diverting tricks.
I was placed upon a table in the largest room of the inn, which
might be near three hundred feet square. My little nurse stood
on a low stool close to the table, to take care of me, and direct
what I should do. My master, to avoid a crowd, would suffer only
thirty people at a time to see me. I walked about on the table
as the girl commanded; she asked me questions, as far as she knew
my understanding of the language reached, and I answered them as
loud as I could. I turned about several times to the company,
paid my humble respects, said THEY WERE WELCOME, and used some
other speeches I had been taught. I took up a thimble filled
with liquor, which Glumdalclitch had given me for a cup, and
drank their health, I drew out my hanger, and flourished with it
after the manner of fencers in England. My nurse gave me a part
of a straw, which I exercised as a pike, having learnt the art in
my youth. I was that day shown to twelve sets of company, and as
often forced to act over again the same fopperies, till I was
half dead with weariness and vexation; for those who had seen me
made such wonderful reports, that the people were ready to break
down the doors to come in. My master, for his own interest,
would not suffer any one to touch me except my nurse; and to
prevent danger, benches were set round the table at such a
distance as to put me out of every body's reach. However, an
unlucky school-boy aimed a hazel nut directly at my head, which
very narrowly missed me; otherwise it came with so much violence,
that it would have infallibly knocked out my brains, for it was
almost as large as a small pumpkin, but I had the satisfaction to
see the young rogue well beaten, and turned out of the room.
My master gave public notice that he would show me again the next
market-day; and in the meantime he prepared a convenient vehicle
for me, which he had reason enough to do; for I was so tired with
my first journey, and with entertaining company for eight hours
together, that I could hardly stand upon my legs, or speak a
word. It was at least three days before I recovered my strength;
and that I might have no rest at home, all the neighbouring
gentlemen from a hundred miles round, hearing of my fame, came to
see me at my master's own house. There could not be fewer than
thirty persons with their wives and children (for the country is
very populous;) and my master demanded the rate of a full room
whenever he showed me at home, although it were only to a single
family; so that for some time I had but little ease every day of
the week (except Wednesday, which is their Sabbath,) although I
were not carried to the town.
My master, finding how profitable I was likely to be, resolved to
carry me to the most considerable cities of the kingdom. Having
therefore provided himself with all things necessary for a long
journey, and settled his affairs at home, he took leave of his
wife, and upon the 17th of August, 1703, about two months after
my arrival, we set out for the metropolis, situate near the
middle of that empire, and about three thousand miles distance
from our house. My master made his daughter Glumdalclitch ride
behind him. She carried me on her lap, in a box tied about her
waist. The girl had lined it on all sides with the softest cloth
she could get, well quilted underneath, furnished it with her
baby's bed, provided me with linen and other necessaries, and
made everything as convenient as she could. We had no other
company but a boy of the house, who rode after us with the
luggage.
My master's design was to show me in all the towns by the way,
and to step out of the road for fifty or a hundred miles, to any
village, or person of quality's house, where he might expect
custom. We made easy journeys, of not above seven or eight score
miles a-day; for Glumdalclitch, on purpose to spare me,
complained she was tired with the trotting of the horse. She
often took me out of my box, at my own desire, to give me air,
and show me the country, but always held me fast by a
leading-string. We passed over five or six rivers, many degrees
broader and deeper than the Nile or the Ganges: and there was
hardly a rivulet so small as the Thames at London-bridge. We
were ten weeks in our journey, and I was shown in eighteen large
towns, besides many villages, and private families.
On the 26th day of October we arrived at the metropolis, called
in their language LORBRULGRUD, or Pride of the Universe. My
master took a lodging in the principal street of the city, not
far from the royal palace, and put out bills in the usual form,
containing an exact description of my person and parts. He hired
a large room between three and four hundred feet wide. He
provided a table sixty feet in diameter, upon which I was to act
my part, and pallisadoed it round three feet from the edge, and
as many high, to prevent my falling over. I was shown ten times
a-day, to the wonder and satisfaction of all people. I could now
speak the language tolerably well, and perfectly understood every
word, that was spoken to me. Besides, I had learnt their
alphabet, and could make a shift to explain a sentence here and
there; for Glumdalclitch had been my instructor while we were at
home, and at leisure hours during our journey. She carried a
little book in her pocket, not much larger than a Sanson's Atlas;
it was a common treatise for the use of young girls, giving a
short account of their religion: out of this she taught me my
letters, and interpreted the words.
CHAPTER III.
[The author sent for to court. The queen buys him of his master
the farmer, and presents him to the king. He disputes with his
majesty's great scholars. An apartment at court provided for the
author. He is in high favour with the queen. He stands up for
the honour of his own country. His quarrels with the queen's
dwarf.]
The frequent labours I underwent every day, made, in a few weeks,
a very considerable change in my health: the more my master got
by me, the more insatiable he grew. I had quite lost my stomach,
and was almost reduced to a skeleton. The farmer observed it,
and concluding I must soon die, resolved to make as good a hand
of me as he could. While he was thus reasoning and resolving
with himself, a SARDRAL, or gentleman-usher, came from court,
commanding my master to carry me immediately thither for the
diversion of the queen and her ladies. Some of the latter had
already been to see me, and reported strange things of my beauty,
behaviour, and good sense. Her majesty, and those who attended
her, were beyond measure delighted with my demeanour. I fell on
my knees, and begged the honour of kissing her imperial foot; but
this gracious princess held out her little finger towards me,
after I was set on the table, which I embraced in both my arms,
and put the tip of it with the utmost respect to my lip. She
made me some general questions about my country and my travels,
which I answered as distinctly, and in as few words as I could.
She asked, "whether I could be content to live at court?" I
bowed down to the board of the table, and humbly answered "that I
was my master's slave: but, if I were at my own disposal, I
should be proud to devote my life to her majesty's service." She
then asked my master, "whether he was willing to sell me at a
good price?" He, who apprehended I could not live a month, was
ready enough to part with me, and demanded a thousand pieces of
gold, which were ordered him on the spot, each piece being about
the bigness of eight hundred moidores; but allowing for the
proportion of all things between that country and Europe, and the
high price of gold among them, was hardly so great a sum as a
thousand guineas would be in England. I then said to the queen,
"since I was now her majesty's most humble creature and vassal, I
must beg the favour, that Glumdalclitch, who had always tended me
with so much care and kindness, and understood to do it so well,
might be admitted into her service, and continue to be my nurse
and instructor."
Her majesty agreed to my petition, and easily got the farmer's
consent, who was glad enough to have his daughter preferred at
court, and the poor girl herself was not able to hide her joy.
My late master withdrew, bidding me farewell, and saying he had
left me in a good service; to which I replied not a word, only
making him a slight bow.
The queen observed my coldness; and, when the farmer was gone out
of the apartment, asked me the reason. I made bold to tell her
majesty, "that I owed no other obligation to my late master, than
his not dashing out the brains of a poor harmless creature, found
by chance in his fields: which obligation was amply recompensed,
by the gain he had made in showing me through half the kingdom,
and the price he had now sold me for. That the life I had since
led was laborious enough to kill an animal of ten times my
strength. That my health was much impaired, by the continual
drudgery of entertaining the rabble every hour of the day; and
that, if my master had not thought my life in danger, her majesty
would not have got so cheap a bargain. But as I was out of all
fear of being ill-treated under the protection of so great and
good an empress, the ornament of nature, the darling of the
world, the delight of her subjects, the phoenix of the creation,
so I hoped my late master's apprehensions would appear to be
groundless; for I already found my spirits revive, by the
influence of her most august presence."
This was the sum of my speech, delivered with great improprieties
and hesitation. The latter part was altogether framed in the
style peculiar to that people, whereof I learned some phrases
from Glumdalclitch, while she was carrying me to court.
The queen, giving great allowance for my defectiveness in
speaking, was, however, surprised at so much wit and good sense
in so diminutive an animal. She took me in her own hand, and
carried me to the king, who was then retired to his cabinet. His
majesty, a prince of much gravity and austere countenance, not
well observing my shape at first view, asked the queen after a
cold manner "how long it was since she grew fond of a SPLACNUCK?"
for such it seems he took me to be, as I lay upon my breast in
her majesty's right hand. But this princess, who has an infinite
deal of wit and humour, set me gently on my feet upon the
scrutoire, and commanded me to give his majesty an account of
myself, which I did in a very few words: and Glumdalclitch who
attended at the cabinet door, and could not endure I should be
out of her sight, being admitted, confirmed all that had passed
from my arrival at her father's house.
The king, although he be as learned a person as any in his
dominions, had been educated in the study of philosophy, and
particularly mathematics; yet when he observed my shape exactly,
and saw me walk erect, before I began to speak, conceived I might
be a piece of clock-work (which is in that country arrived to a
very great perfection) contrived by some ingenious artist. But
when he heard my voice, and found what I delivered to be regular
and rational, he could not conceal his astonishment. He was by
no means satisfied with the relation I gave him of the manner I
came into his kingdom, but thought it a story concerted between
Glumdalclitch and her father, who had taught me a set of words to
make me sell at a better price. Upon this imagination, he put
several other questions to me, and still received rational
answers: no otherwise defective than by a foreign accent, and an
imperfect knowledge in the language, with some rustic phrases
which I had learned at the farmer's house, and did not suit the
polite style of a court.
His majesty sent for three great scholars, who were then in their
weekly waiting, according to the custom in that country. These
gentlemen, after they had a while examined my shape with much
nicety, were of different opinions concerning me. They all
agreed that I could not be produced according to the regular laws
of nature, because I was not framed with a capacity of preserving
my life, either by swiftness, or climbing of trees, or digging
holes in the earth. They observed by my teeth, which they viewed
with great exactness, that I was a carnivorous animal; yet most
quadrupeds being an overmatch for me, and field mice, with some
others, too nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able
to support myself, unless I fed upon snails and other insects,
which they offered, by many learned arguments, to evince that I
could not possibly do. One of these virtuosi seemed to think
that I might be an embryo, or abortive birth. But this opinion
was rejected by the other two, who observed my limbs to be
perfect and finished; and that I had lived several years, as it
was manifest from my beard, the stumps whereof they plainly
discovered through a magnifying glass. They would not allow me
to be a dwarf, because my littleness was beyond all degrees of
comparison; for the queen's favourite dwarf, the smallest ever
known in that kingdom, was near thirty feet high. After much
debate, they concluded unanimously, that I was only RELPLUM
SCALCATH, which is interpreted literally LUSUS NATURAE; a
determination exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of
Europe, whose professors, disdaining the old evasion of occult
causes, whereby the followers of Aristotle endeavoured in vain to
disguise their ignorance, have invented this wonderful solution
of all difficulties, to the unspeakable advancement of human
knowledge.
After this decisive conclusion, I entreated to be heard a word or
two. I applied myself to the king, and assured his majesty,
"that I came from a country which abounded with several millions
of both sexes, and of my own stature; where the animals, trees,
and houses, were all in proportion, and where, by consequence, I
might be as able to defend myself, and to find sustenance, as any
of his majesty's subjects could do here; which I took for a full
answer to those gentlemen's arguments." To this they only
replied with a smile of contempt, saying, "that the farmer had
instructed me very well in my lesson." The king, who had a much
better understanding, dismissing his learned men, sent for the
farmer, who by good fortune was not yet gone out of town. Having
therefore first examined him privately, and then confronted him
with me and the young girl, his majesty began to think that what
we told him might possibly be true. He desired the queen to order
that a particular care should be taken of me; and was of opinion
that Glumdalclitch should still continue in her office of tending
me, because he observed we had a great affection for each other.
A convenient apartment was provided for her at court: she had a
sort of governess appointed to take care of her education, a maid
to dress her, and two other servants for menial offices; but the
care of me was wholly appropriated to herself. The queen
commanded her own cabinet-maker to contrive a box, that might
serve me for a bedchamber, after the model that Glumdalclitch and
I should agree upon. This man was a most ingenious artist, and
according to my direction, in three weeks finished for me a
wooden chamber of sixteen feet square, and twelve high, with
sash-windows, a door, and two closets, like a London bed-chamber.
The board, that made the ceiling, was to be lifted up and down by
two hinges, to put in a bed ready furnished by her majesty's
upholsterer, which Glumdalclitch took out every day to air, made
it with her own hands, and letting it down at night, locked up
the roof over me. A nice workman, who was famous for little
curiosities, undertook to make me two chairs, with backs and
frames, of a substance not unlike ivory, and two tables, with a
cabinet to put my things in. The room was quilted on all sides,
as well as the floor and the ceiling, to prevent any accident
from the carelessness of those who carried me, and to break the
force of a jolt, when I went in a coach. I desired a lock for my
door, to prevent rats and mice from coming in. The smith, after
several attempts, made the smallest that ever was seen among
them, for I have known a larger at the gate of a gentleman's
house in England. I made a shift to keep the key in a pocket of
my own, fearing Glumdalclitch might lose it. The queen likewise
ordered the thinnest silks that could be gotten, to make me
clothes, not much thicker than an English blanket, very
cumbersome till I was accustomed to them. They were after the
fashion of the kingdom, partly resembling the Persian, and partly
the Chinese, and are a very grave and decent habit.
The queen became so fond of my company, that she could not dine
without me. I had a table placed upon the same at which her
majesty ate, just at her left elbow, and a chair to sit on.
Glumdalclitch stood on a stool on the floor near my table, to
assist and take care of me. I had an entire set of silver dishes
and plates, and other necessaries, which, in proportion to those
of the queen, were not much bigger than what I have seen in a
London toy-shop for the furniture of a baby-house: these my
little nurse kept in her pocket in a silver box, and gave me at
meals as I wanted them, always cleaning them herself. No person
dined with the queen but the two princesses royal, the eldest
sixteen years old, and the younger at that time thirteen and a
month. Her majesty used to put a bit of meat upon one of my
dishes, out of which I carved for myself, and her diversion was
to see me eat in miniature: for the queen (who had indeed but a
weak stomach) took up, at one mouthful, as much as a dozen
English farmers could eat at a meal, which to me was for some
time a very nauseous sight. She would craunch the wing of a lark,
bones and all, between her teeth, although it were nine times as
large as that of a full-grown turkey; and put a bit of bread into
her mouth as big as two twelve-penny loaves. She drank out of a
golden cup, above a hogshead at a draught. Her knives were twice
as long as a scythe, set straight upon the handle. The spoons,
forks, and other instruments, were all in the same proportion. I
remember when Glumdalclitch carried me, out of curiosity, to see
some of the tables at court, where ten or a dozen of those
enormous knives and forks were lifted up together, I thought I
had never till then beheld so terrible a sight.
It is the custom, that every Wednesday (which, as I have
observed, is their Sabbath) the king and queen, with the royal
issue of both sexes, dine together in the apartment of his
majesty, to whom I was now become a great favourite; and at these
times, my little chair and table were placed at his left hand,
before one of the salt-cellars. This prince took a pleasure in
conversing with me, inquiring into the manners, religion, laws,
government, and learning of Europe; wherein I gave him the best
account I was able. His apprehension was so clear, and his
judgment so exact, that he made very wise reflections and
observations upon all I said. But I confess, that, after I had
been a little too copious in talking of my own beloved country,
of our trade and wars by sea and land, of our schisms in
religion, and parties in the state; the prejudices of his
education prevailed so far, that he could not forbear taking me
up in his right hand, and stroking me gently with the other,
after a hearty fit of laughing, asked me, "whether I was a whig
or tory?" Then turning to his first minister, who waited behind
him with a white staff, near as tall as the mainmast of the Royal
Sovereign, he observed "how contemptible a thing was human
grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as
I: and yet," says he, "I dare engage these creatures have their
titles and distinctions of honour; they contrive little nests and
burrows, that they call houses and cities; they make a figure in
dress and equipage; they love, they fight, they dispute, they
cheat, they betray!" And thus he continued on, while my colour
came and went several times, with indignation, to hear our noble
country, the mistress of arts and arms, the scourge of France,
the arbitress of Europe, the seat of virtue, piety, honour, and
truth, the pride and envy of the world, so contemptuously
treated.
But as I was not in a condition to resent injuries, so upon
mature thoughts I began to doubt whether I was injured or no.
For, after having been accustomed several months to the sight and
converse of this people, and observed every object upon which I
cast mine eyes to be of proportionable magnitude, the horror I
had at first conceived from their bulk and aspect was so far worn
off, that if I had then beheld a company of English lords and
ladies in their finery and birth-day clothes, acting their
several parts in the most courtly manner of strutting, and
bowing, and prating, to say the truth, I should have been
strongly tempted to laugh as much at them as the king and his
grandees did at me. Neither, indeed, could I forbear smiling at
myself, when the queen used to place me upon her hand towards a
looking-glass, by which both our persons appeared before me in
full view together; and there could be nothing more ridiculous
than the comparison; so that I really began to imagine myself
dwindled many degrees below my usual size.
Nothing angered and mortified me so much as the queen's dwarf;
who being of the lowest stature that was ever in that country
(for I verily think he was not full thirty feet high), became so
insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath him, that he would
always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me in the
queen's antechamber, while I was standing on some table talking
with the lords or ladies of the court, and he seldom failed of a
smart word or two upon my littleness; against which I could only
revenge myself by calling him brother, challenging him to
wrestle, and such repartees as are usually in the mouths of court
pages. One day, at dinner, this malicious little cub was so
nettled with something I had said to him, that, raising himself
upon the frame of her majesty's chair, he took me up by the
middle, as I was sitting down, not thinking any harm, and let me
drop into a large silver bowl of cream, and then ran away as fast
as he could. I fell over head and ears, and, if I had not been a
good swimmer, it might have gone very hard with me; for
Glumdalclitch in that instant happened to be at the other end of
the room, and the queen was in such a fright, that she wanted
presence of mind to assist me. But my little nurse ran to my
relief, and took me out, after I had swallowed above a quart of
cream. I was put to bed: however, I received no other damage
than the loss of a suit of clothes, which was utterly spoiled.
The dwarf was soundly whipt, and as a farther punishment, forced
to drink up the bowl of cream into which he had thrown me:
neither was he ever restored to favour; for soon after the queen
bestowed him on a lady of high quality, so that I saw him no
more, to my very great satisfaction; for I could not tell to what
extremities such a malicious urchin might have carried his
resentment.
He had before served me a scurvy trick, which set the queen
a-laughing, although at the same time she was heartily vexed, and
would have immediately cashiered him, if I had not been so
generous as to intercede. Her majesty had taken a marrow-bone
upon her plate, and, after knocking out the marrow, placed the
bone again in the dish erect, as it stood before; the dwarf,
watching his opportunity, while Glumdalclitch was gone to the
side-board, mounted the stool that she stood on to take care of
me at meals, took me up in both hands, and squeezing my legs
together, wedged them into the marrow bone above my waist, where
I stuck for some time, and made a very ridiculous figure. I
believe it was near a minute before any one knew what was become
of me; for I thought it below me to cry out. But, as princes
seldom get their meat hot, my legs were not scalded, only my
stockings and breeches in a sad condition. The dwarf, at my
entreaty, had no other punishment than a sound whipping.
I was frequently rallied by the queen upon account of my
fearfulness; and she used to ask me whether the people of my
country were as great cowards as myself? The occasion was this:
the kingdom is much pestered with flies in summer; and these
odious insects, each of them as big as a Dunstable lark, hardly
gave me any rest while I sat at dinner, with their continual
humming and buzzing about mine ears. They would sometimes alight
upon my victuals, and leave their loathsome excrement, or spawn
behind, which to me was very visible, though not to the natives
of that country, whose large optics were not so acute as mine, in
viewing smaller objects. Sometimes they would fix upon my nose,
or forehead, where they stung me to the quick, smelling very
offensively; and I could easily trace that viscous matter, which,
our naturalists tell us, enables those creatures to walk with
their feet upwards upon a ceiling. I had much ado to defend
myself against these detestable animals, and could not forbear
starting when they came on my face. It was the common practice
of the dwarf, to catch a number of these insects in his hand, as
schoolboys do among us, and let them out suddenly under my nose,
on purpose to frighten me, and divert the queen. My remedy was
to cut them in pieces with my knife, as they flew in the air,
wherein my dexterity was much admired.
I remember, one morning, when Glumdalclitch had set me in a box
upon a window, as she usually did in fair days to give me air
(for I durst not venture to let the box be hung on a nail out of
the window, as we do with cages in England), after I had lifted
up one of my sashes, and sat down at my table to eat a piece of
sweet cake for my breakfast, above twenty wasps, allured by the
smell, came flying into the room, humming louder than the drones
of as many bagpipes. Some of them seized my cake, and carried it
piecemeal away; others flew about my head and face, confounding
me with the noise, and putting me in the utmost terror of their
stings. However, I had the courage to rise and draw my hanger,
and attack them in the air. I dispatched four of them, but the
rest got away, and I presently shut my window. These insects
were as large as partridges: I took out their stings, found them
an inch and a half long, and as sharp as needles. I carefully
preserved them all; and having since shown them, with some other
curiosities, in several parts of Europe, upon my return to
England I gave three of them to Gresham College, and kept the
fourth for myself.
CHAPTER IV.
[The country described. A proposal for correcting modern maps.
The king's palace; and some account of the metropolis. The
author's way of travelling. The chief temple described.]
I now intend to give the reader a short description of this
country, as far as I travelled in it, which was not above two
thousand miles round Lorbrulgrud, the metropolis. For the queen,
whom I always attended, never went farther when she accompanied
the king in his progresses, and there staid till his majesty
returned from viewing his frontiers. The whole extent of this
prince's dominions reaches about six thousand miles in length,
and from three to five in breadth: whence I cannot but conclude,
that our geographers of Europe are in a great error, by supposing
nothing but sea between Japan and California; for it was ever my
opinion, that there must be a balance of earth to counterpoise
the great continent of Tartary; and therefore they ought to
correct their maps and charts, by joining this vast tract of land
to the north-west parts of America, wherein I shall be ready to
lend them my assistance.
The kingdom is a peninsula, terminated to the north-east by a
ridge of mountains thirty miles high, which are altogether
impassable, by reason of the volcanoes upon the tops: neither do
the most learned know what sort of mortals inhabit beyond those
mountains, or whether they be inhabited at all. On the three
other sides, it is bounded by the ocean. There is not one
sea-port in the whole kingdom: and those parts of the coasts
into which the rivers issue, are so full of pointed rocks, and
the sea generally so rough, that there is no venturing with the
smallest of their boats; so that these people are wholly excluded
from any commerce with the rest of the world. But the large
rivers are full of vessels, and abound with excellent fish; for
they seldom get any from the sea, because the sea fish are of the
same size with those in Europe, and consequently not worth
catching; whereby it is manifest, that nature, in the production
of plants and animals of so extraordinary a bulk, is wholly
confined to this continent, of which I leave the reasons to be
determined by philosophers. However, now and then they take a
whale that happens to be dashed against the rocks, which the
common people feed on heartily. These whales I have known so
large, that a man could hardly carry one upon his shoulders; and
sometimes, for curiosity, they are brought in hampers to
Lorbrulgrud; I saw one of them in a dish at the king's table,
which passed for a rarity, but I did not observe he was fond of
it; for I think, indeed, the bigness disgusted him, although I
have seen one somewhat larger in Greenland.
The country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty-one cities,
near a hundred walled towns, and a great number of villages. To
satisfy my curious reader, it may be sufficient to describe
Lorbrulgrud. This city stands upon almost two equal parts, on
each side the river that passes through. It contains above
eighty thousand houses, and about six hundred thousand
inhabitants. It is in length three GLOMGLUNGS (which make about
fifty-four English miles,) and two and a half in breadth; as I
measured it myself in the royal map made by the king's order,
which was laid on the ground on purpose for me, and extended a
hundred feet: I paced the diameter and circumference several
times barefoot, and, computing by the scale, measured it pretty
exactly.
The king's palace is no regular edifice, but a heap of buildings,
about seven miles round: the chief rooms are generally two
hundred and forty feet high, and broad and long in proportion. A
coach was allowed to Glumdalclitch and me, wherein her governess
frequently took her out to see the town, or go among the shops;
and I was always of the party, carried in my box; although the
girl, at my own desire, would often take me out, and hold me in
her hand, that I might more conveniently view the houses and the
people, as we passed along the streets. I reckoned our coach to
be about a square of Westminster-hall, but not altogether so
high: however, I cannot be very exact. One day the governess
ordered our coachman to stop at several shops, where the beggars,
watching their opportunity, crowded to the sides of the coach,
and gave me the most horrible spectacle that ever a European eye
beheld. There was a woman with a cancer in her breast, swelled
to a monstrous size, full of holes, in two or three of which I
could have easily crept, and covered my whole body. There was a
fellow with a wen in his neck, larger than five wool-packs; and
another, with a couple of wooden legs, each about twenty feet
high. But the most hateful sight of all, was the lice crawling
on their clothes. I could see distinctly the limbs of these
vermin with my naked eye, much better than those of a European
louse through a microscope, and their snouts with which they
rooted like swine. They were the first I had ever beheld, and I
should have been curious enough to dissect one of them, if I had
had proper instruments, which I unluckily left behind me in the
ship, although, indeed, the sight was so nauseous, that it
perfectly turned my stomach.
Besides the large box in which I was usually carried, the queen
ordered a smaller one to be made for me, of about twelve feet
square, and ten high, for the convenience of travelling; because
the other was somewhat too large for Glumdalclitch's lap, and
cumbersome in the coach; it was made by the same artist, whom I
directed in the whole contrivance. This travelling-closet was an
exact square, with a window in the middle of three of the
squares, and each window was latticed with iron wire on the
outside, to prevent accidents in long journeys. On the fourth
side, which had no window, two strong staples were fixed, through
which the person that carried me, when I had a mind to be on
horseback, put a leathern belt, and buckled it about his waist.
This was always the office of some grave trusty servant, in whom
I could confide, whether I attended the king and queen in their
progresses, or were disposed to see the gardens, or pay a visit
to some great lady or minister of state in the court, when
Glumdalclitch happened to be out of order; for I soon began to be
known and esteemed among the greatest officers, I suppose more
upon account of their majesties' favour, than any merit of my
own. In journeys, when I was weary of the coach, a servant on
horseback would buckle on my box, and place it upon a cushion
before him; and there I had a full prospect of the country on
three sides, from my three windows. I had, in this closet, a
field-bed and a hammock, hung from the ceiling, two chairs and a
table, neatly screwed to the floor, to prevent being tossed about
by the agitation of the horse or the coach. And having been long
used to sea-voyages, those motions, although sometimes very
violent, did not much discompose me.
Whenever I had a mind to see the town, it was always in my
travelling-closet; which Glumdalclitch held in her lap in a kind
of open sedan, after the fashion of the country, borne by four
men, and attended by two others in the queen's livery. The
people, who had often heard of me, were very curious to crowd
about the sedan, and the girl was complaisant enough to make the
bearers stop, and to take me in her hand, that I might be more
conveniently seen.
I was very desirous to see the chief temple, and particularly the
tower belonging to it, which is reckoned the highest in the
kingdom. Accordingly one day my nurse carried me thither, but I
may truly say I came back disappointed; for the height is not
above three thousand feet, reckoning from the ground to the
highest pinnacle top; which, allowing for the difference between
the size of those people and us in Europe, is no great matter for
admiration, nor at all equal in proportion (if I rightly
remember) to Salisbury steeple. But, not to detract from a
nation, to which, during my life, I shall acknowledge myself
extremely obliged, it must be allowed, that whatever this famous
tower wants in height, is amply made up in beauty and strength:
for the walls are near a hundred feet thick, built of hewn stone,
whereof each is about forty feet square, and adorned on all sides
with statues of gods and emperors, cut in marble, larger than the
life, placed in their several 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 usually are.
The king's kitchen is indeed a noble building, vaulted at top,
and about six hundred feet high. The great oven is not so wide,
by ten paces, as the cupola at St. Paul's: for I measured the
latter on purpose, after my return. But if I should describe the
kitchen grate, the prodigious pots and kettles, the joints of
meat turning on the spits, with many other particulars, perhaps I
should be hardly believed; at least a severe critic would be apt
to think I enlarged a little, as travellers are often suspected
to do. To avoid which censure I fear I have run too much into
the other extreme; and that if this treatise should happen to be
translated into the language of Brobdingnag (which is the general
name of that kingdom,) and transmitted thither, the king and his
people would have reason to complain that I had done them an
injury, by a false and diminutive representation.
His majesty seldom keeps above six hundred horses in his stables:
they are generally from fifty-four to sixty feet high. But, when
he goes abroad on solemn days, he is attended, for state, by a
military guard of five hundred horse, which, indeed, I thought
was the most splendid sight that could be ever beheld, till I saw
part of his army in battalia, whereof I shall find another
occasion to speak.
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The text for "Gulliver's Travels", by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was first published in London in 1726, this book is based on The Authoritative text, of the 1735 edition published by George Faulkner in Dublin.
The illustrations are by J.J Grandville(1767-1854) which where first published in 1838 by Henri Fournier in Paris.
The Color Frontpiece is by C.E Brock