This house was situated on a height, and occupied the site of an ancient palace. It consisted of a suite of buildings, surrounded on one side by a pretty garden, and on the other by a park, in which deer grazed. Both Sybil and Leonard thought the deer very pretty; and quite near to the Yamen was a pagoda of nine storeys, which the Emperor Wong-Ti, who reigned about the middle of the sixteenth century, is supposed first to have constructed.
"How little," Sybil and Leonard said to one another, "we ever thought, when we examined our little ornamental pagodas at home, that we should ever live quite near to a real one!"
A story relating to this pagoda, being told to Leonard, interested him a good deal.
THE ENGLISH CONSULATE AT CANTON.
In 1859 some English sailors climbed up the old building, which was then in so tottering a condition that it was a really perilous ascent, and when they reached the top the Chinese were dreadfully angry, for two reasons: first, because they looked upon it as sacrilege; and secondly, because from the height the sailors could look down upon their houses, and the Chinese dislike very much indeed to be overlooked, especially by "barbarians."
The consul and Leonard were soon very good friends, and the elder friend very kindly did not weary of answering questions put to him by the little boy.
"Why is your house called a yamen?"
"This word means the same as does consulate, the official residence of the consul."
"What are you here for?"