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The French found quarters in the fu or palace of the Duke of Chin.
famous for its lovely garden.The Chin family.once rich and powerful.Had
fallen on evil days and the property was half in ruins.When the French
took it over,some of the tumble-down out-buildings were full of crickets
in small earthenware pots.Now in those days fighting crickets,like
fighting quails,was a favourite sport among the Chinese.Champion animalS
often cost large sums.and the last degenerate representative Of this
noble family had squandered the remains of his substance on them.The
Legation was somewhat enlarged after the Siege.part of the site Of
Chamot’S Hotel being added to it.Of the original buildings,the
chancery,formerly the chapel,is the most important which remains.
The
British Legation has an equally picturesque history.Originally given as
a residence by the Emperor K'ang Hsi to his thirty-third son (whose
descendants had the title of Dukes of Liangl this fu was also falling
into decay owing to the poverty of the noble owners.The British leased
it from the Tsungli Yamen(the old Foreign Office)at~~500 per annum.For
forty years the rent was regularly paid,in silver ingots taken in a mule
cart by the Chinese Secretary of the Legation to the Yamen every
Chinese New Year.
Many of the buildings were beyond repair.Part of
the Minister’S house,however,is the original palace of the Dukes of
Liang and the state approaches guarded by stone lions,the open
pavilions(ting’rhs)with thei rred pillars,and the quaint kiosks in the
gardens were restored and preserved as far as possible,thereby greatly
enhancing the picturesqueness of the Legation.
The British always
had the largest ground space of any Legation in Pekinh-an area still
further extended after 1900 when the sites of the Han Lin College and
the Impefial Carriage Park were added to it.For this reason the British
compound was chosen as the refuge for all non-combatants in 1900.T110ugh
the fighting here was never SO severe as in the French Legation (most
of whose buildings were destroyed)there iS,none the less,much within its
walls to remind US of a gallant defe:nee.The Councillor’S garden. for
instance.was turned into a cemetery where hasty funerals were held,
often under a rain of bullets.