PORCELAIN TOWER AT NANKIN.
This elegant and commodious building, a very correct idea of which may be formed from the cut on the preceding page, may be regarded as a fine specimen of the oriental pagodas. The tower is about two hundred feet in hight, and derives its name from its having a porcelain coating. The Portuguese were the first to bestow on these superb edifices the title of pagodas, and to attribute them to devotional purposes. There can be little doubt, however, that in many instances they have been rather erected as public memorials or ornaments, like the columns of the Greeks and Romans. Mr. Ellis, in his “Journal of the Embassy to China,” relates that, in company with three gentlemen of the embassy, he succeeded in passing completely through the uninhabited part of the city of Nankin, and in reaching the gateway visible from the Lion hill. The object of the party was to have penetrated through the streets to the porcelain tower, apparently distant two miles. To this, however, the soldiers who accompanied them, and who from their willingness in allowing them to proceed thus far, were entitled to consideration, made so many objections, that they were forced to desist, and to content themselves with proceeding to a temple on a neighboring hill, from which they had a complete view of the city. From this station the porcelain tower presented itself as a most magnificent object.