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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
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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 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]