Gulliver's Travels (Swift)/Part 2/Chapter 4
from the Collection âGulliver's Travels. Part 2â
The division of this summary into sections is editorial.
Gulliver described the giant kingdom of Brobdingnag as far as he had travelled around its capital, Lorbrulgrud. He attended the Queen on royal journeys, but stayed with her while the King went farther to inspect his frontiers.
An isolated kingdom
Gulliver estimated the kingdom at about 6,000 miles long and between 3,000 and 5,000 miles wide. He believed European maps were wrong to show only sea between Japan and California: he proposed joining this land to northwestern America, reasoning that it must balance the great landmass of Tartary.
A volcanic mountain range cut the peninsula off to the northeast; no one knew whether people lived beyond it. The ocean surrounded its other sides, but rocks, rough seas and the absence of ports prevented contact with the outside world. Inland rivers carried boats and supplied fish. Sea fish were ordinary European size and therefore too small to be worth catching, although people sometimes ate whales washed onto the rocks.
Gulliver saw a whale served as a rarity at the Kingâs table. To him it was smaller than one he had seen in Greenland, but he thought its size disgusted the King.
The capital and its disturbing sights
Lorbrulgrud lay on both sides of a river and had more than 80,000 houses and about 600,000 inhabitants. Gulliver measured its dimensions from a royal map spread on the floor: he calculated that the city was about 54 miles long. The palace was an irregular collection of buildings roughly seven miles around.
Glumdalclitch, the girl who cared for Gulliver, took him with her and her governess on coach trips through the city. He travelled in a box, but often asked the girl to hold him in her hand so that he could see the streets.
During stops at shops, beggars crowded around the coach. Gulliver was horrified by their enlarged ailments and injuries, but found the lice on their clothes worst of all: he could see their limbs and feeding snouts more clearly than those of a European louse under a microscope. He wanted to dissect one, though the sight made him nauseated.
A travelling box for Gulliver
Because his usual box was too cumbersome for the coach and Glumdalclitchâs lap, the Queen commissioned a smaller travelling box, made to Gulliverâs instructions. It had three barred windows and fittings on the fourth side for a carrying belt. Inside were a bed, a hammock, two chairs and a table; the furniture was screwed down against jolts.
On journeys a trusted servant could fasten the box to his waist and set it on a cushion before him on horseback. Gulliverâs experience at sea helped him endure the motion. For trips around town, Glumdalclitch held the box in an open sedan chair carried by four men. When curious crowds gathered, she stopped and held Gulliver up for them to see.
The temple and royal buildings
Glumdalclitch took Gulliver to the chief temple, whose tower was reputedly the kingdomâs tallest. At 3,000 feet, it disappointed him: relative to the giantsâ size, he thought it less remarkable than Salisburyâs steeple. He nevertheless admired its thick stone walls and marble statues of gods and emperors. Among the rubble he found a fragment of one statue and recorded its size:
I measured a little finger which had fallen down from one of these statues, and lay unperceived among some rubbish, and found it exactly four foot and an inch in length.
Glumdalclitch wrapped the finger in her handkerchief and took it home for her collection. Gulliver also admired the Kingâs immense vaulted kitchen, though he held back from describing all its equipment for fear of being thought an exaggerating traveller. He worried instead that the people of Brobdingnag might find his account unfairly small.
The King ordinarily kept no more than 600 horses, each about 54 to 60 feet high. His ceremonial guard of 500 mounted soldiers was, Gulliver thought, the most splendid sight he had seenâuntil he later saw part of the army drawn up for battle.