Gulliver's Travels: Part 2, Chapter 4 - Summary

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SUMMARY

      Gulliver observes the geography of the kingdom and explains the isolation of this continent from the rest of the world. He advises the geographers of Europe to correct their maps as it is a big error to suppose that there is nothing but sea between Japan and California. Gulliver describes the kingdom as a peninsula, stretching to the north-east where a ridge of thirty miles high volcanic mountains cut this continent from the rest of the world. The coasts where the rivers issue are full of pointed rocks, therefore no one can venture even with the smallest boats, resulting in its exclusion from trade and commerce with the rest of the world. Gulliver also provides a description of the country with special emphasis on Lorbrulgrud, the Metropolis. The palace of the king is a heap of buildings about seven miles round. Unlike the country of Lilliput, this kingdom has a large number of horrifying and diseased beggars whom Gulliver has described in minute detail. The queen who is extra caring, orders the making of a smaller box to carry Gulliver as the older one is quite big and cumbersome for Glumdalclitch to carry. There is a depiction of the chief temple describing its beautiful carving but the author was disappointed with the height of this temple for it was not above three thousand feet. Glumdalclitch finds there a broken finger of an idol that she wraps in her handkerchief and carries home to keep as a relic. The chapter ends with the description of the royal kitchen and the horses of the royal stable. The king’s kitchen was six hundred feet high. The author has compared the size of its oven with the cupola of St. Paul’s Church. The size of the kitchen grate, the pots, the kettles and the quantity of meat prepared every day are incredible to the author, and, he feared that no one would believe even if he dared to mention their particulars. Next, the author gives an account of the king’s stable and militia. The king hardly keeps above six hundred horses in his stable, the average height of a horse is about fifty-four to sixty feet. While on formal trips abroad, he is attended by the militia guard of five hundred horses, which to the author, was the most splendid sight he ever beheld.

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