[ { "id": 205105, "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-1966", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "56\n\nHERBERT FRANKE\n\nThese Northern European traders, then, were the first Europeans that ever came to China, or so it seems. They left very little, if any, impression on the Chinese. Not even the annalistic chapters of the Yüan-shih recorded their arrival, and but for the court diary kept by a Chinese official in Kublai's residence we would never have known about them at all. The same is true for the Polos, who are, as indicated above, not recorded in any Chinese source. But this applies not only to the Venetian travellers. The many missionaries, mostly Franciscan friars, who came to China have left no traces in Chinese records and we would not know about their visit if Western sources had not preserved their accounts.\n\nGiovanni da Montecorvino, who was dispatched to the Great Khan in 1289 by Pope Nicholas IV, went to Peking (Khanbaliq) and we have in a medieval chronicle his letters dated from Khanbaliq 1305 and 1306 respectively. There he reports on the progress of his evangelistic work, on baptisms, and he asks to have sent to him an antiphonarium, a collection of legends, a psalter and a graduale. He pretends to have learned the Tatar language; that is, either Mongolian or Turkish. Otherwise nothing in his letters indicates things Chinese. They could have been written anywhere where the \"Tartar\" language was spoken and that was almost everywhere between the Black Sea and the Yellow Sea. He did not notice that the majority of the Peking inhabitants did not speak Tatar but Chinese.\n\nA similar impression is given by most of the other letters written by Franciscan friars residing in China all of which points to a singular lack of contact between China and representatives of Occidental civilization. There are, on the other hand, a few remains of an archaeological nature proving that Latin Christianity reached China after all. The most famous relic is the \"Latin Tombstone\" in Yang-chou, which has been called, not inappropriately, by the author of a study of the monument, “a landmark of Medieval Christianity in China.\" This stone was discovered in 1951 and has a Latin inscription saying that \"In the Name of the Lord Amen here lies Catherine, Daughter of the Late Sir Dominic de Viglione, who died in the Year of the Lord One Thousand Three Hundred Forty-Two in the Month of June.\"\n\nAbove the inscription there are several finely chiseled drawings of Mary with the Child and scenes of the martyrdom of St. Catherine, the patron-saint of the girl. These representations of Christian art show an impressive combination of Western motifs", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207039, "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-1974", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "104\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nhome of the Lao royal family and the small royal palace at the foot of the Phu Si or central hill sets the modest tone of the town. Its temples are so numerous that it would be impossible to detail each one, and unrewarding, for many are extremely simple, testimonies to the faith of an unaffected and devout people.\n\nThe most splendid is undoubtedly Vat Xieng Tong, originally approached from the Mekong river up a broad stairway. It is the largest temple in area and the compound has a number of interesting buildings; the vihara has high curving roofs coming down very low to the sides and surmounted by an elegant dort xoi fa (flowers pointing to heaven), the many-pronged symbol of the universe, each point tipped with a tiered parasol, that is to be found on nearly every Lao temple roof. The carved portico is striking and the inside of sober simplicity; the altar has a large antique Lao Buddha statue and the ceiling is coffered and painted. The runnels with decorative dragon-head spouts used in ordination ceremonies are kept in many temples in Luang Prabang and there is a good example in Vat Xieng Tong. At the back of the altar, on the outside wall, is a mosaic representing the tree of life, and nearby a small chapel to a Lao hero, Sri Sawai, is entirely covered with charming mosaics on a red background. There are a number of other chapels in the grounds, as well as a small building for a prayer drum. The most opulent of these is undoubtedly the building containing the royal funeral carriages; the carving and gilding is almost overwhelming on the outside, and if the inside of the building is simple, the objects it contains are not; the royal funeral carriages are masterpieces of carving which, until the present king changed the tradition of burning them after the cremation of the monarch they had borne, used to disappear without trace.\n\nAlong the main street going towards the Phu Si is Vat Sene, with a three-tiered roof in the Lao style. The entrance is elegant and raised on octagonal columns and the walls are decorated gold on a red background. Nearby is Vat Pak Khe, one of the most unusual temples in Luang Prabang, with Siamese style frescoes inside and on one of the entrances are supposed to be represented Dutchmen and on a window Venetians. Certainly the objects of the panel carver's attention are European and the style of the dress dates from two to three centuries before the founding of the temple in 1861. Father de Leria visited Vientiane between 1642 and 1647 and his information is recorded in Father Filippo de Marini's book", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207149, "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-1974", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "214\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\ngood size bed rooms, with dressing and bath room to each; two servant's rooms; a front and back verandah, closed with venetians, each 100 feet long and 12 feet wide, flat roof convenient for exercise and affording a fine view of the harbour and its entrances. Commodious outbuildings for servants, store room and offices; a large compound, garden, etc., whole surrounded by a good fence. Situated on the ridge at West Point and now in occupation of Jamieson, How and Co.\n\nThere was not a ready sale. A business depression prevailed and the location was too remote from the European section of Victoria.\n\nBelow the bungalow Jamieson, How and Co. built a large godown on Marine Lot 57 in 1842. Ten years later this property was sold at auction. The premises on the Marine Lot were described as consisting of \"a costly and recently improved residence, granite godown, pier, outhouses, shrubbery\". The West Point Bungalow was described as beautifully situated immediately opposite on the hill. Both properties were bought by Yorick Jones Murrow.\n\nIn 1854 the West Point Bungalow was used as a military barracks. This left it the worse for wear. Because of its dilapidated condition the Rhenish Missionary Society was able to purchase the property at a reasonable price in 1857. They needed a centre in Hong Kong as they had been forced from their stations on the mainland by the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and China. In 1859 the Government repossessed the property as a site for a new Civil Hospital.\n\nThe area north of Queen's Road extending to Ko Shing Street was the original beach. The land between Queen Street on the east and Wilmer Street on the west can be divided into six main sections. The first (Marine Lot 68) is a rectangular lot three houses wide and bounded on the east by Queen Street. The second section (Marine Lots 68A, 69, 69A, and 70) is intersected by Tsung Sau Lanes East and West. The third section (Marine Lot 58) is the former Ko Shing Theatre property with Wo Fung and Kom Yu Streets. The fourth section (Marine Lot 57) is bounded on the west by Sutherland Street and contains In Ku Lane. The fifth section (Marine Lots 71, 71A, 72, 72A) lies east of Sutherland Street and is intersected by Li Sing Street. The sixth piece (Marine Lot 200) is a triangular lot with its narrow point on Queen's Road and its west boundary Wilmer Street.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208117, "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-1977", "page_number": 156, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "140 \n\nW. J. HINTON \n\nnot so very different in their essence from those of greater cities. \"Aes alienis\" is much the same all the world over. \n\nFarther west a rope walk stretches back across several streets on the landward side, where they are twisting a mighty bamboo cable for the big junk being built in the Yard at the end of the bay. On the seaward side one of the long dark houses frames a picture of the bay and the ships seen through a verandah three rooms distant; within is the rich glow of lacquer chest. It is a picture for a Dutch master. For the most part the well-built doorways are closed by lacquered or painted doors or screens. We are in the West End; the crowd is thinner, but the dogs, pigs, fowls, and cats, if anything, more densely strew the scene. Through little lanes and alleys, we can see the Hoklo boats drawn up on the beach or riding a little from the land. Their owners are busy about them or putting out to fish with net and line in neighbouring bays. \n\nA dry nullah, and we are on a flight of steps leading to the terrace of the Pak Tai Temple. This terrace is a spacious place at times covered with a huge matshed theatre, which will house all the population that can leave home or junk for the show. Just now, it is occupied by children and by two parties of fishermen making fishing lines of some tough fibre on a primitive bamboo contrivance doubling and redoubling the thread. Under the groves, we see the eaves of another and smaller temple, and the tall wooden dyeing vats in which the nets are dyed blue and so made invisible to fishy eyes in the blue water. \n\nThe Pak Tai Temple must await another visit, for dusk has fallen, and bright lights are burning on the junks. There is no moon, but the stars are reflected in the still water. On the stern of every junk, the little cooking stoves glow, and family groups crouch round the rice bowl, half-illuminated by the glow, or brightly lit by a fishing flare where such extravagance can be afforded. Our yacht lies far out, and we hire a sampan, sitting side by side in the middle while the woman plies the \"ulch\" like a Venetian gondolier, crooning meantime to the baby on her back. Now we are among the junks, and the water lanes are full of small craft loaded with miscellaneous wares. A pedlar dips his paddle and cries his wares set out in a tray on his tiny dug-out. Sampans carry happy parties going ashore, or quiet ones coming off to their floating homes. There are no noisy parties of drunken sailors, but plenty of jollity and even a little horseplay here and there. Our boat moves", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210341, "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-1984", "page_number": 312, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "Page 31\n\n2\n\n291\n\n1886: Returning Home\n\nHis work in Singapore concluded, Woods returned on the Flying Fish to Japan in September 1885 for a second, longer visit. (There is no mention of his passing through Hong Kong on the way.) Woods' stay in Japan was extended by epidemics and the resulting quarantine, and it was February 1886 before he could leave Japan and proceed to Hong Kong.\n\nThere are no available details of his last stay. He rejoined the Flying Fish, which left Hong Kong on 19 March 1886, and travelled on her, via Manila and the Celebes, reaching Port Darwin in Australia on 23 June 1886. Immediately he resumed his Australian researches.\n\nWoods seems to have used every voyage as an opportunity for research, and some sixteen of his scientific publications are based on his work in Asia. In one of these, we find his description of Hong Kong. It is obviously a composite, based on his various visits:\n\nI first visited the south Chinese coast in 1885, arriving at Hong Kong in the middle of January, or, as I may call it, the depth of winter. It was piercingly cold at the time. All the inhabitants who could afford them were wrapped up in winter furs. The air was cloudy, damp, gloomy and raw to an extent which recalled to my mind the melancholy fogs of London. Having come straight from the fervid temperature of Singapore, the change can be imagined. Three days after leaving the Straits, all our Chinese passengers came on deck swathed to the eyes in quilted silks or cottons. It was evident that we were in a new region. We were passing many fishing junks of the unmistakable Chinese pattern: the sails of palm canvas, with bamboo laths across them like Venetian blinds. These junks, with thin radiating ribbed sails, apparently lop-sided and conspicuously down by the head, are characteristic sights to be seen nowhere but in China. In their marine architecture, as in everything else, the Chinese keep distinct from all the world.\n\nAmid the fog and mist which came thickly down upon us,\n\nPage 31\n\n2\n\n291", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210889, "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-1986", "page_number": 240, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "223\n\nIn Canton were two small machine shops where foot engines and automatic tools were used to make such articles as screws and cylinder wheels. Nearby was a printery with a machine press and movable type.\n\nTailors and seamstresses were using American sewing machines, probably Singers, in spite of the opposition of the tailors guild.\n\nCanton was also showing progress architecturally. Glass was replacing oyster shells in windows, venetian blinds took the place of shutters.\n\nA few shops even had plate glass windows. Their interiors were adorned with elaborate kerosene lighted chandeliers and ornamental clocks ticked away the hours.\n\nForeign-style furniture was invading the living quarters of the prosperous merchant,\n\nIn shops, even in areas where foreigners were seldom seen, one could buy such familiar European products as Huntley and Palmer's biscuits, Bass' beer, Eau de Cologne and Florida Water, Keatings cough lozenges and worm tablets.\n\nAs the report put it, shop shelves had home brands and familiar labels of “foreign eatables, drinkables, smellables, and seeables.”\n\nWaxing poetic but with an air of superiority, the article concluded: \"These are the first buddings of that graft of our Western civilisation which after many failures is beginning slowly and unostentatiously to transform a dry and withered stock into a new life and verdure ere long to bear blossom and fruit.”\n\nHo A-mei was one of the pioneers of the process.\n\nOUTSPOKEN HO A-MEI\n\nHo A-mei left his position with the Kwangtung customs administration about 1877 and returned to Hongkong where he became\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211908, "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-1989", "page_number": 323, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "298\n\nwere so responsible. Everything appears strange, and I feel altogether out of place.\n\nFor the five days I have been here I have messed with Mr Beach and Cleverly. I have of course never been in such society, and it is hard work to be the gentleman. However I tried my best. Mr Beach being absent I had to take the head of the table, and goose was given me to carve. I could not help thinking which was the greater goose of the two. But still with a little tact I manage to pass muster, and they both seem well satisfied with me. We spend two hours over dinner, from eight to ten, and then a chat in the Drawing Room, and to bed at eleven.\n\nIt is rather queer work to be looked up to in the way I am here. No one would imagine me to be the boy that used to clean boots and knives and run errands13 at a brewhouse. Truly God has been good to me, who am most undeserving.\n\nThe building is very large and beautiful. I had no idea of its being so extensive. I shall have 52 students when the vacation ends on Sept. 1st. At present there are 12 who live too far off to go home. The study room is a fair sized one, and adjoining is the college chapel. The work before me is quite unlimited. I can launch out as far as I like, and raise the college to almost any amount of perfection if all goes well. I have a Chinese master who greatly pleases me. He is the headman, and his appearance and manners are highly satisfactory. He will doubtless prove a great assistance to me. The other three are away for vacation. The Chinese classical master is a Chinese graduate, or what in England is equivalent to a Master of Arts. I understand he is a clever fellow in his department.\n\nThe library, which is my sitting room, is a large fine room, with glass doors and venetian shutters. One end faces the sea, and the other opens on the verandah. I have one part of the house to myself. I have also a private parlour, with three large glass doors and a fine view, and a bedroom, but I have ordered them to be lime washed and repaired, and shall enter them on Monday. At present I live in the bishop's bedroom, which of course is not a bad berth,\n\nThe selection of books in the library is very large. I have never before seen such a useful and valuable selection. There are on a rough guess about 5,000 volumes, and I have the entire charge of them, to lend out", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212238, "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-1990", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "157\n\nEncephalatus. The path brings us into the avenue, through which we now pass under the lofty trees. Here we get a good view of the college, which is a pretty specimen of Tudor architecture, and appears to be built of “Freestone\" outside, although it is chiefly of granite.\n\nThe hall and porch is straight before us. On each side of the entrance are vases, etc., with various plants. Over the centre of the porch is a gilt mitre, the episcopal symbol. We go up the flight of steps and ring the bell. We are admitted through the large glass doors into the Hall; thence we go along the verandah, and look out through the Venetian shutters all round. Just a look at the Bp's drawing room as we pass. It is a fine room, well furnished, and doubtless very comfortable. Here I shall come of an evening and spend the time with the family. In the centre of the verandah before the Tower Room is a billiard table. This game is very popular as it affords good indoor exercise. Most houses here contain one.\n\nAs we come back we look into the dining room, and see the folks at dinner, with the punkah swinging overhead. A string passes outside by which a coolly [sic] moves it. Passing through the passage, with a hasty glance at the servants' room and pantry, we enter the instruction room. At the further extremity stands the Tutor's desk, a large and very suitable affair, about the best of the kind I ever saw. The desks are arranged in two rows, which extend down the room. At the opposite end is the headmaster (Hah Shoe's) desk, and a table where the Chinese classical master officiates. There are two black-boards, two book cases, and a supply of maps. The latter, as well as the books, are all to pieces and have been shamefully used. I will soon teach them better manners! There are large windows, or rather glass doors at each end, which are opened in summer.\n\nAdjoining is the chapel, a neat little place, with an altar, pulpit and reading desk, and accommodation for the whole household, and plenty of visitors. There is a service held in it every Sunday afternoon in Chinese. I have had the harmonium moved into it, and use it as often as I can, although there are not enough to muster a sing. I have generally to conduct the prayers twice a day. Now and then Mr Beach comes in. I get through it something as old Bobby used to do at Highbury, only I do not wear the gown, although I have one in my charge, in my dressing room.\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212242, "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-1990", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "161\n\nis the loftiest room I was ever an occupant of, being 15 feet high, which is the height of all the rooms upstairs belonging to me.\n\nAThe sea view is very good, though slightly interrupted by trees, which Mr Beach advises to cut down. We now come into the verandah, which has Venetian shutters, or rather doors, which open with a view of the playground, and the whole way up the Peak and surrounding hills. Many fine villas lie around. The villas in the corner of the [ground floor plan] are very fine ones indeed, and are occupied by high families. We can see them very capitally, although they are a good height above. If it were evening by moonlight we could see the dining and drawing rooms of each house well lighted up, and hear the piano, accompanied by some good male and female voices. Sometimes I have to wait half an hour before I can sleep, till they have finished.\n\nAMy bedroom has two large windows opening to the verandah, and one the other side with a sea view. I had the bed newly painted. You will see the mosquito curtain of green gauze, which however I never want to use. There is a capital barometer which I hang up inside the window; about the best I ever saw; so that I can always know the state of the weather and temperature. Over the mantel piece hangs my picture gallery of portraits, before which I spend several odd minutes, and wish often enough I had a great many additions to it, which I expect every mail. There is a mahogany dressing table, which however I do not use, so I cover it with my “deer skin”, and use it as a side board. I forgot to point out the round mahogany table in the parlour. Next allow me to show you my pantry, etc. There are two or three [meat-] safes and cupboards, a dresser, and shelves all round piled up to the top with Chinese books. The other day I had 500 large books put up there out of the way. Here all my provisions are kept, and the food that has been prepared in the kitchen below. Beyond is a spare room, which I can in emergency use as a bedroom. Indeed it was intended for that purpose, but I never want to use it so leave it locked up. Any of my friends who can honour me with a permanent visit shall be made very comfortable there I promise them.\n\n^We now turn the corner, and enter the library, which has large doors opening to the verandah, as well as the opposite end. The breeze in the daytime is generally very refreshing through the room.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213405, "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-1994", "page_number": 227, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "215\n\nYounghusband, Francis, The Heart of a Continent. London John Murray, 1896 (Hong Kong Reprint. Oxford University Press)\n\nYuan, Chung Teng, Reverend Issachar Jacob Roberts and the Taiping Rebellion, Journal of Asian Studies 23.1:55-67 (November 1963)\n\nYule, Colonel Sir Henry, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, edited and with notes by Henri Cordier, London John Murray, 3rd edn, 1903\n\n—, Cathay and the Way Thither, new edition revised with notes prepared by Henri Cordier, London Hakluyt Society, 1915 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing)\n\nJ\n\nMANI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214442, "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-1998", "page_number": 300, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "267\n\ntroops in quarantine. These were built from a framework of bamboo poles lashed together, with walls and roofs of palm leaves and woven rush mats. Similar structures can still be seen today on vacant lots erected at times of Chinese festivals for Cantonese opera performances. The only difference is that today zinc sheeting is used instead of matting. The matsheds were not popular with the troops as mosquitos and other insect life infested the sheds. During typhoons or heavy rains the sheds were liable to collapse and leave the troops exposed to the weather. The building of proper barracks was therefore imperative for the health of the troops.\n\nThe first permanent buildings at Gun Club Hill were constructed in 1903-4 for infantry but were soon afterwards occupied by the Asiatic Artillery which was originally made up of Sikh and Punjabi Mussulman Companies known as Gun Lascars. They became the Hong Kong Asiatic Artillery in 1891 and the Hong Kong-Singapore Battalion Royal Artillery in 1898. In 1905 four companies were housed in the newly completed barrack blocks flanking the parade ground. According to PRO records construction was \"brick and granite and best Manilla Hardwood; outer walls of Amoy Brick and inner walls of Canton Brick.\" By 1909 other buildings had been built and a layout of the barracks at this time shows an Infants' School, Followers' Hut, Sikh/Mohammedan Cookhouse, NCOs' Quarters, Guard House, Sergeants' Mess, Officers' Mess, and a small Medical Centre.\n\nMost of these buildings have now been replaced with more modern buildings, but two of the original barrack blocks facing the Parade Ground still exist, together with the Medical Centre and the Officers' Mess although somewhat changed in appearance. Photographic evidence in the Public Records Office shows that the buildings were brick-built two-storey colonial style blocks with pitched Chinese tiled roofs and balustraded 'Venetian' verandahs. The Officers' Mess seems to have undergone an external facelift in the 1930s with an annex added on to the south elevation facing the Chatham Road entrance. The barrack blocks and Medical Centre were remodelled and altered in the 1960s but retain much of their original colonial style.\n\nThe Medical Centre, formerly the Soldiers' Canteen, numbered Block 11, is a single storey rectangular white painted brick-built block with an eight bay front verandah with a flight of steps at each end\n\nPage 300\n\nPage 301", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214443, "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-1998", "page_number": 301, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "268\n\nleading up from ground level. The rear verandah has been bricked up. The tubular steel railings to the verandah and steps are probably not original. The building has an underfloor ventilation space formed by segmental arches bearing on brick piers. The verandah columns are square brick pillars with stop-chamfered arrises with plain plinths and capitals. Windows are metal framed with matching glazed doors. The flat roof has a parapet with coping and piers arranged above the verandah columns. Modern installations include a cat ladder to the roof on one side elevation and two floodlights mounted on poles on the roof to illuminate the volley ball court in front. The whole building is well maintained and in good condition. Photographic evidence in the PRO indicates that the roof originally was a Chinese tiled pitched roof.\n\nBarrack Blocks 1 and 2 are white painted two-storey brick buildings forming two opposite sides of the parade ground or barrack square. Both blocks have identical front elevations of plain but boldly arched verandahs of nineteen bays each. Arches are supported on square brick pillars with stop-chamfered arrises and plain unmoulded plinths and capitals. The lower floor is raised off the ground by means of segmental arches on short square brick piers forming a ventilation space below. Storey heights are emphasized by horizontal projecting string courses. The flat roofs have coped parapet walls with exposed brick piers, in vertical line with the pillars below, raised off the top string courses. The front elevation of each block is marred somewhat by the addition of a modern external staircase with balustrading and verandah railings in tubular steel. Internally there is little of architectural merit. There is evidence in the P.R.O. that when originally built Blocks 1 and 2 were left unpainted in natural brickwork and also had open verandahs on the rear elevations (now bricked up). Verandah balustrading consisted of two panels of cross diagonal braces per bay. The roofs were pitched Chinese tiled roofs with steel trusses, gable ends and chimney stacks. External rainwater pipes with hopper heads served the roof gutters. Both blocks are Grade 3 historical buildings.\n\nBlock 9, the Officers Mess, is a white painted building L-shaped in plan. The rear part of the Mess dating from 1903/4 consists of a two-storey building built in rusticated granite in Italianate style with bold arched ‘Venetian' verandahs on both sides. The lower floor is raised off the ground in a similar manner to the adjacent barrack blocks. Arches to the under floor ventilation space and ground floor verandahs", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214952, "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-2000", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "had become a mere staple drink. May be so, but no one would doubt its importance to the Chinese people. 'The cup that cheers but not inebriates' as the Chinese describe it, remains one of the pillars of Chinese social customs.\n\nTea and the British\n\nThe British people's love of tea is proverbial, but it came late, centuries after its pleasures were known to the Chinese. Who introduced tea to the western world? Thoughts naturally turn to Marco Polo. But the Venetian traveller, who wrote vividly and at times with exaggeration of the many marvels of Cathay, did not mention tea; perhaps it was not a favourite drink in the court of Kublai Khan. Instead, credit is sometimes given to another Venetian called Ramusio who in the 16th century wrote enthusiastically about tea. However, this lies in the realms of conjecture. Historically, it is the Dutch who are credited with introducing tea to Europe, around 1610 AD. Europe was slow to respond. Opinions swayed as to its merits or demerits. Within the next hundred years, Europe accepted tea as its best loved beverage, and while it has remained popular in Holland and the rest of Europe, it had never reached the level of popularity it enjoyed in Britain.\n\nStories abound as to when Britain took to tea, but all are agreed that 1660 was a milestone - when Samuel Pepys, that inveterate diarist and Admiralty official, took his first cup of tea and so noted in his diary. It had infiltrated into Britain slowly. First drunk in tea houses, then favoured by the Court, by the beginning of the 18th century, tea had found its way into the home and to the daily table of the common man. It seemed to permeate every aspect of British life. It became a panacea for a multitude of ills and support in difficult times. Confronted by an emergency, tea was the immediate remedy. The Army made its own particular brand of strong sweet tea. 'Let's have a brew' was a great encouraging cry during a lull in fighting. Some would go as far as to assert that it helped the people of Britain to endure the blitz during the Second World War.\n\nBy the end of the 18th century, the rise in tea consumption in Britain was phenomenal. To the British people tea had come to be almost a necessity of life. Afternoon tea had become a treasured custom in every British household, and a whole ritual had evolved as to how to prepare", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]