[
    {
        "id": 204603,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1963",
        "page_number": 84,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "BRITISH LEGATION AT PEKING\n\n73\n\nthe western side, is a bare space occupied in winter by Mongol traders, and known in consequence as the \"Mongol Market\". On the south side, a congeries of little Chinese shops. The whole is surrounded by a massive wall, which on the west, as being the wall of the Carriage Park and enclosing Imperial ground, is topped with yellow tiles. The principal gate of the Legation is in the centre of the eastern side, facing the canal. The gate-house has an upper storey surmounted by a flag-staff, and carrying the royal arms. ...\n\nNorth of the doctor's house is the Fives Court. From this, under the wall of the Carriage Park, runs the Bowling Alley. Opposite the Fives Court, again, is a converted Chinese building, now divided into a billiard-room, a reading-room, and a small stage. North of this are the garden and buildings of the Students' Quarters.\n\nThe Quarters consist of a long row facing south, having an upper storey, and containing ten sets of rooms, five above and five below. The whole block is in the common style of foreign architecture out here, with verandah and balcony. Each set consists of a sitting-room about fourteen feet by ten, with a small store-closet, a bed-room, say ten feet square, and a bathroom. In the upper rooms the store-closet becomes a cupboard, the bathroom being lengthened to allow the door to open on the stair-head. There is a stern disregard of ornament in the interiors at any rate, but they were comfortable enough on the whole.\"7\n\n+\n\nThe only furniture supplied to the incoming student was a bed, a chest of drawers with a looking-glass, a wash-stand, and three cane-bottomed office chairs for his sitting-room. Wilkinson mentions mess fees. \"On first joining the mess the student pays an entrance fee of $25. We contracted with the cook to supply us with breakfast, tiffin, and dinner at 50 cents 1s. 10d. a day. All stores, such as condiments, jellies, tea, coffee, we provided ourselves in regard to wine, each man had a separate account with the cellar.\" From time to time they gave a mess dinner, the largest one being for forty men, students and guests included.\n\n17 Ibid., 24-5; 27-8. For a plan of the buildings see over.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204604,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1963",
        "page_number": 85,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "74\n\nChinese Imperial Carnage Sheds and enclosure\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nRed Temple\n\nBowling Alley\n\nStudents Kitchen Mess\n\nHan Lin Library HALL\n\nKrosk Essay Hall Kosk\n\n  \n    [brar]\n    Servants Store Room\n  \n  \n    Teachers\"\n    QVYI Students' O'tri\n  \n  \n    Theatre\n    \n  \n\nMinister's House\n\nFives Court\n\nLarge Pavilion\n\n2 Chinese Doctor's O't'es a't'rs Chupet\n\n2 Wall 7\" thick 12\" high\n\nEscort QI'm Small Pavilion\n\nConstable's Bell Tower Chapt Minister's Stables\n\nStone Trans Gateway\n\nAssistant Chinese Secretary\n\n  \n    £ 22 22 2\n    Accountant Stables Surgery Escort Otrs Stabler, Simbler.\n  \n  \n    G D G D OF OF\n    Tennis Courts 2nd Sect Chancery Chancery Assistant\n  \n\nOpen space of Mongolian Market\n\nN Servants\n\nSCALE\n\n0 100 150 200 Ft phonepa 400\n\nSecretary of Legation Cemetery\n\nPlan of British Legation at Peking in 1900.\n\nCanal Wall 2′′ x 12′′\n\n12 Adapted from a plan in \"China in Convulsion\" by A H. Smuth, published by Fleming H Revell Company, NY 1901",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204605,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1963",
        "page_number": 86,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "BRITISH LEGATION AT PEKING\n\n75\n\nWilkinson's book is a gay account of student life with work and play nicely balanced. He mentions many things which must have been familiar to generations of inmates of the Foreign Legations at Peking, such as paying calls on the European residents, buying a pony, choosing a reliable 'boy', the continual battle against 'squeeze', the danger of theft and so on. For pleasure not only was there the bowling alley, which provided the chief amusement inside the Legation during the winter, there was also skating on an improvised rink nearby. Three of the students once skated down the canal to Tungchow, a distance of about twelve miles. There was also the usual entertaining. \"Balls and concerts were given at some of the Legations and at the Inspectorate-General of Customs (where a number of young European men were employed). Dinners everywhere. But the pleasantest of all, perhaps, were the carpet dances (with the carpet up) at two or three houses. We shared the misfortune of most European communities in the East: an undue preponderance of the male. Dancing men were at a discount.\" At Chinese New Year the students generally put on a pantomime or a Christy Minstrel Concert. By this time there was a weekly arrival of mail throughout the summer, and a monthly one during the winter. In the spring and autumn the Peking race meetings were held at a place a mile or so from the western wall of the city. The race-course boasted a tiny grand-stand but Wilkinson is careful to state that these were pretty amateur races; they were picnics first and race meetings second. In summer there was tennis on the Legation lawn, and in the grounds of the residence of the young European employees of the China Maritime Customs, as well as garden parties at the American Legation. The courts in the British Legation lay east and west, and since it was too hot to play until sundown one of the players had to perform with the sun full in his eyes which made play somewhat erratic. For summer dress the students wore a patrol jacket of white drill with trousers to match. In July and August they usually moved to a temple in the Western Hills where they could go for rambles. The main disadvantage of this life came from rain and rats. One summer it rained prodigiously and they were almost washed out of their temple. As for rats an ingenious student subdued them by training four owls which he had bought. They spent the day roosting one on each post of his bed, but at night went into action",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v",
        "rank": 0
    }
]