Emerging from the building, we walked along by the low wall and carved balustrade bounding the water, towards the side above which stood the Empress‐Dowager’s temple. At the corner of the lake was a gateway, at which stood a guard of Bersagliere, clad in white with cocks’ feathers fluttering gaily in their tropical helmets. The Italians, as I have said, were joined with the English in the charge of the Summer Palace. Returning the sentry’s salute, we passed on and found a roofed and open‐pillared gallery running along beside the lake. Its shelter was grateful in the burning sun; for the breeze was cut off by the hill that rose almost perpendicularly above us. The slender, wooden columns supporting the tiled roof were painted in brightly coloured designs. On the cornices were miniature pictures of conventional Chinese scenery. Here and there the gallery widened out or passed close to pretty little summer‐houses built above the wall of the lake. We reached the square white mass of masonry on which stood the temple. Before it massive gates, guarded by bronze lions, opened on a broad staircase leading to the foot of the substructure. But reserving the sacred edifice, which towered above us at an appalling height, for a later visit after lunch, we passed on around the lake until we reached the strangest construction in the Summer Palace.