The country described. A proposal for correcting modern maps. The king’s palace; and some account of the metropolis. The author’s way of travelling. The chief temple described.
I shall now provide a brief description of this country, or at least the parts I visited within a two-thousand-mile radius of Lorbrulgrud, the capital. The Empire of Brobdingnag is a vast peninsula, six thousand miles long and up to five thousand miles wide. Based on my observations, I am convinced that our European geographers are mistaken in their maps of the Pacific; there must be a substantial landmass to balance the weight of the other continents. Consequently, I believe this territory should be joined to the north-west parts of America in future charts.
The kingdom is naturally isolated. To the northeast, a ridge of mountains thirty miles high, topped with active volcanoes, forms an impenetrable barrier. The other three sides are bounded by the ocean. However, there are no seaports, as the coast is guarded by jagged rocks and a sea so turbulent that even their largest vessels would be dashed to pieces. This isolation prevents any commerce with the rest of the world. Interestingly, while the rivers are full of giant fish, the creatures in the sea are the same size as those in Europe. To the inhabitants, such fish are not worth the effort of catching. Occasionally, a whale is washed up on the rocks, which the common people eat with great appetite, though the King finds the sight of such a creature quite repulsive due to its "small" size.
Lorbrulgrud, the metropolis, is a magnificent city divided by a large river. It contains over eighty thousand houses and six hundred thousand inhabitants. According to the royal map, which I once measured by pacing across it while it lay on the floor, the city is about fifty-four miles long. The King’s palace is not a single building but a vast complex of structures spanning seven miles. The principal rooms are roughly two hundred and forty feet high, and the halls are so vast that they feel more like open plains than indoor spaces.
For my local travels, the Queen provided a coach for Glumdalclitch and me. Often, at my request, my nurse would take me out of my box and hold me in her hand so I could better observe the houses and the people. On one such excursion, the coach stopped near some shops where a crowd of beggars had gathered. It was the most horrific spectacle I have ever witnessed. I saw tumors the size of massive wool-sacks and wooden legs twenty feet high. Most nauseating of all were the lice crawling on their clothes. With my acute vision, I could see the limbs and snouts of these vermin as clearly as a European might see a pig through a magnifying glass. The sight was so ghastly that it nearly turned my stomach.
To make long journeys more convenient, the Queen commissioned a smaller traveling box, about twelve feet square. This "traveling closet" had windows on three sides protected by iron wire. On the fourth side, strong staples were fixed so that a servant could thread a leather belt through them and buckle the box to his waist while on horseback. Inside, I had a field-bed, a hammock, and furniture neatly screwed to the floor to prevent me from being tossed about by the motion of the horse. Since I was accustomed to the rolling of ships at sea, these violent movements did not particularly bother me.
I was also keen to see the kingdom's chief temple, especially its famous tower. However, when I finally visited it, I must admit I was somewhat disappointed. The tower is only three thousand feet high; when one considers the enormous scale of the people, it is not nearly as impressive in proportion as the steeple of Salisbury Cathedral in England. Nevertheless, the beauty and strength of the building were undeniable. The walls were a hundred feet thick, built of immense hewn stones and adorned with marble statues of gods and emperors. I found a "little" finger that had fallen from one of these statues; it measured over four feet long. Glumdalclitch wrapped it in her handkerchief and took it home as a souvenir.
Even the King’s kitchen is a marvel of engineering, with a vaulted ceiling six hundred feet high and an oven nearly as wide as the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral. I could describe the prodigious pots and the entire joints of meat turning on spits, but I fear the reader might suspect me of exaggerating—a common fault among travelers.
Finally, I should mention the King’s stables. He keeps about six hundred horses, most of which stand sixty feet high. When he travels on state business, he is attended by a guard of five hundred horsemen. This was, I thought, the most splendid sight I had ever beheld, at least until I saw his army performing maneuvers, an account of which I shall save for another time.