Along the whole face of the rock, bounding the streets and the circle, there are archways; those in the circle, and the four cross streets, for the gentry and better people; and those in the outer streets, for the meaner; and it is as easy to know as by a sign where a great man lives, by the grandeur of his entrance, and lavish distribution of the pillars, carving, and statues about his portico, within and without: for as they have no doors, you may look in, and are not forbid entrance; and though it should look odd to an English reader, that an Englishman should speak with pleasure of a land of darkness, as that almost was, yet I am satisfied whoever shall see it after me will be persuaded, that for the real grandeur of their entrances, and for the magnificence of the apartments and sculpture, no part of the universe can produce the like; and though within doors there is no other manner of light than the sweecoes, yet that, when you are once used to it, is so agreeable and free from all noisome savour, that I never once regretted the loss of the sun within doors, though I often have when abroad; but then that would be injurious to the proper inhabitants, though they can no more see in total darkness than myself.
I have been over some of these private houses, which contain, it may be, thirty rooms, great and small, some higher, some lower, full of sweecoe-lights, and extremely well proportioned and beautiful.
The king's palace, with all the apartments, stands in, and takes up, one full fourth part of the square of the whole city; and is, indeed, of itself a perfect city.
There is no great man's house without one or more long galleries for the ladies to divert themselves at divers sports in, particularly at one like our bowls on a bowling-green, and at somewhat like nine-holes, at which they play for wines, and drink a great deal, for none of them will intoxicate.
In my walk and survey of the city, one of the colambs being making a house to reside in when at Brandleguarp, I had the curiosity to go in. I saw there abundance of botts stand filled with a greenish liquor, and asked Quilly what that was. He said it was what the stone-men used in making houses. I proceeded farther in, where I saw several men at work, and stayed a good while to observe them. Each man had a bott of this liquor in his left hand, and stood before a large bank of stone, it may be 30 feet high, reaching forward up to the ceiling of the place, and ascending by steps from bottom to top; the workmen standing some on one step, some on another, pouring on this liquor with their left hands, and with their right holding a wooden tool, shaped like a little spade. I observed wherever they poured on this water, a smoke arose for a little space of time, and then the place turned white, which was scraped off like fine powder with the spade-handle; and then pouring new liquor, he scraped again, working all the while by sweecoe-lights.
Having my watch in my pocket, I measured a spot of a yard long, about a foot high, and a foot and a half on the upper flat, to see how long he would be fetching down that piece; and he got it away in little above two hours. By this means I came to know how they made their houses; for I had neither seen any tool I thought proper, nor even iron itself, except my own, since I came into the country. Upon inquiry, I found that the scrapings of this stone, and a portion of common earth, mixed with a water they have, will cement like plaster; and they use it in the small ornamental work of their buildings. I then went farther into this house, where I saw one making the figure of a glumm by the same method; but it standing upright in the solid rock against the wall, the workman held his liquor in an open shell, and dipping such stuff as my bed was made of, bound up in short rolls, some larger, some less, into the liquor, he touched the figure, and then scraped till he had reduced it into a perfect piece.
It is impossible to imagine how this work rids away; for in ten months' time after I saw it, this house was completed, having a great number of fine, large, and lofty rooms in it, exquisitely carved to all appearance.
My wonder ceased as to the palace, when I saw how easily this work was done; but sure there is no other such room in the world as Begsurbeck's, that I described above.
The palace, as I said before, taking up one quarter of the city, opens into four streets by four different arches; and before one of the sides, which I call the front, is a large triangle, formed by the entrance out of one of the cross streets, and the two ends of the front of the palace. Along the lower front of it, all the way runs a piazza of considerable height, supported by vast round columns, which seemed to bear up the whole front of the rock, over which was a gallery of equal length, with balustrades along it, supported with pillars of a yet finer make, and over that a pediment with divers figures, and other work, to the top of the rock, which being there quite even for its whole length, was enclosed with balustrades between pedestals all the way, on which stood the statues of their ancient kings, so large as to appear equal to the life. The other two sides of the triangle were dwellings for divers officers belonging to the palace. Under the middle arch of the piazza was the way into the palace, through a long, spacious arched passage, whose farther end opened into a large square; on each side of this passage were large staircases, if I may so call them, by which you ascend gradually, and without steps, into the upper apartments.
The next morning we took another walk, for I told Quilly I had a mind to take a prospect of the country. We then went out at the back arch of the palace, as we had the day before at one of the sides, there being a like passage through the rock from that we went out at, to an opposite arch leading into the garden. I say, we went out at the back arch, and after passing a large quadrangle with lodgings all round it, we ascended through a cut in the rock to a large flat, where we plainly saw the Black Mountain with its top in the very sky, the sides of which afforded numberless trees, though the ground within view afforded very little verdure, or even shrubs. But the most beautiful sight from the rock was to see the people come home loaded from the mountain, and from the woods, with, it may be, forty pound weight each on their backs; and mounting over the rock, to see them dart along the streets to their several dwellings, over the heads of thousands of others walking in all parts of the streets, while others were flying other ways. It was very pleasant to see a man walking gravely in one street, and as quick as thought to see him over the rock, settled in another, perhaps two miles distant.