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48 

Outside of the city we came to the Liu Gardens, public gardens of singular beauty. It seems that there had been a very wealthy family by the name of Liu who through a stroke of misfortune had lost all their possessions, and this villa with its courts, lotus ponds, wooded hills, finely furnished rooms, and all, became the property of the government. It is now open throughout all of its extent to those who wish to come and pay the small admission fee. Here on the edge of a fine artificially natural lake we sat to eat the lunch we had brought with us, and after lunch we spent a long hour wandering around and enjoying it. The fine completeness of the work was noteworthy. The smallest corners of the gardens were finished and right. Should we ever be able to build gardens of our own we have more ideas for them. 

By the time we had finished the gardens, where, curiously enough I met one of my students, we thought it well to take a boat for the rest of the day. Accordingly we went to a bridge where the ricksha boys loudly challenged a boatman, and a shrewish little old woman came up to bargain with us. We finally settled upon a price after much noisy bickering, paid off our rickshas, and went on board. The boat was quite good sized, and fitted with an attractive cabin and a small forward deck on which were small tables and chairs. The crew consisted of the man and his wife and daughter, and they stayed on or below deck in the stern. We felt rather plutocratic as we sat in the boat, but we enjoyed the leisure and the beauty of the trip so much that we forgot other feelings. Slipping through canals, under bridges and the overhanging balconies of houses, past other boats where there was room, it seemed, for only one, we came out to a wider place and the man put down the pole and they depended solely upon the oar. From time to time we had seen the head of the Tiger Hill Pagoda, and soon we came to the landing below it. We alighted and past through the gateway on our way up to the hill. The pagoda, long since stripped of its woodwork, and now inclining to one side like the leaning tower of Pisa, stands on the crest of rocky height that stands by itself to the north west of the city. At its base stands a