of the walls and on the north. It has a square altar, because the
earth is supposed to have "four corners." "Heaven is round and
Earth square," is the first line of a school reader for boys. The
Tartar city is laid out with perfect regularity, and its streets
and alleys are all of convenient width.

Passing from the Chinese city through the Great Central Gate we
enter Legation Street, so called because most of the legations
are situated on or near it. Architecturally they make no show,
being of one story, or at most two stories, in height and hidden
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behind high walls. So high and strong are the walls of the British
Legation that in the Boxer War of 1900 it served the whole community
for a fortress, wherein we sustained a siege of eight weeks. A
marble obelisk near the Legation gate commemorates the siege, and
a marble gateway on a neighbouring street marks the spot where
Baron Ketteler was shot. Since that war a foreign quarter has been
marked out, the approaches to which have been partially fortified.
The streets are now greatly improved; ruined buildings have been
repaired; and the general appearance of the old city has been altered
for the better.

Two more walled enclosures have to be passed before we arrive at
the palace. One of them forms a protected barrack or camping-ground
for the palace guards and other officials attendant on the court. The
other is a sacred precinct shielded from vulgar eyes and intrusive
feet, and bears the name "Forbidden City." In the year following the
flight of the court these palaces were guarded by foreign troops,
and were thrown open to foreign visitors.