Travelling box
The travelling box is the most important piece of material culture in Gulliver's second voyage, a custom-built wooden chamber that functions as his portable home, bedchamber, and means of conveyance throughout his stay in Brobdingnag. More than a mere convenience, it is the physical container of his identity as a miniature being among giants, and it ultimately becomes the vehicle of his improbable escape when an eagle carries it out over the ocean. Its design, construction, and fate encapsulate the central themes of the Brobdingnag episode: the precariousness of Gulliver's existence, the protective care he receives from the Queen of Brobdingnag and Glumdalclitch, and the sheer contingency of his deliverance.
Design and Construction
The travelling box was commissioned by the Queen of Brobdingnag after she purchased Gulliver from the farmer. She commanded her own cabinet-maker, a most ingenious artist, to contrive a box that might serve Gulliver for a bed-chamber, following a model that Gulliver and Glumdalclitch agreed upon. The workman finished it in three weeks. The chamber was sixteen feet square and twelve high, with sash-windows, a door, and two closets, resembling a London bed-chamber. The board that made the ceiling could be lifted up and down by two hinges, allowing a bed furnished by the queen's upholsterer to be put in; Glumdalclitch took the bed out every day to air it, made it with her own hands, and at night locked the roof over Gulliver. A nice workman famous for little curiosities undertook to make two chairs with backs and frames of a substance not unlike ivory, two tables, and a cabinet for Gulliver's things. The room was quilted on all sides, as well as the floor and the ceiling, to prevent any accident from the carelessness of those who carried him and to break the force of a jolt when he went in a coach. Gulliver desired a lock for his door to prevent rats and mice from coming in; the smith, after several attempts, made the smallest lock ever seen among them, and Gulliver kept the key in his own pocket, fearing Glumdalclitch might lose it.
A Second, Smaller Box for Travel
Besides the large box in which he was usually carried, the queen ordered a smaller one to be made for Gulliver, about twelve feet square and ten high, for the convenience of travelling, because the larger one was somewhat too cumbersome for Glumdalclitch's lap and in the coach. It was made by the same artist, whom Gulliver directed in the whole contrivance. This travelling closet was an exact square, with a window in the middle of three of its sides, each window latticed with iron wire on the outside to prevent accidents in long journeys. On the fourth side, which had no window, two strong staples were fixed, through which the person who carried him, when he had a mind to be on horseback, put a leathern belt and buckled it about his waist. This was always the office of some grave, trusty servant. In journeys, when Gulliver was weary of the coach, a servant on horseback would buckle on the box and place it upon a cushion before him, giving Gulliver a full prospect of the country on three sides from his three windows. Inside this closet he had a field-bed and a hammock hung from the ceiling, two chairs and a table neatly screwed to the floor to prevent being tossed about by the agitation of the horse or the coach. Having been long used to sea voyages, those motions, although sometimes very violent, did not much discompose him.
Life Inside the Box
The travelling box was the center of Gulliver's domestic life in Brobdingnag. When he attended the king and queen in a progress to the south coast of the kingdom, he was carried in this box as usual. He had ordered a hammock to be fixed by silken ropes from the four corners at the top, to break the jolts when a servant carried him before him on horseback, and he would often sleep in his hammock while upon the road. On the roof of the closet, not directly over the middle of the hammock, he ordered the joiner to cut out a hole of a foot square, to give him air in hot weather as he slept, which hole he could shut at pleasure with a board that drew backwards and forwards through a groove. The box was also the scene of his most terrifying adventure: when Glumdalclitch fell ill and Gulliver went to the seaside with a page, he got into the box to take a nap, and while he slept the page went among the rocks to look for birds' eggs. Gulliver was suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring fastened at the top of the box for the convenience of carriage, and felt himself raised very high in the air and borne forward with prodigious speed.
The Eagle and the Escape
The box became the instrument of Gulliver's deliverance when an eagle seized the ring in its beak and carried it aloft. Gulliver heard a noise like the clapping of wings and perceived his woeful condition, expecting every moment to be dropped on a rock. The box was tossed up and down, and he heard several bangs or buffets given to the eagle, then felt himself falling perpendicularly for above a minute with incredible swiftness. His fall was stopped by a terrible squash that sounded louder than the cataract of Niagara, and he found himself in the dark for another minute before the box began to rise so high that he could see light from the tops of the windows. He had fallen into the sea. The box, by the weight of his body, the goods that were in it, and the broad plates of iron fixed for strength at the four corners of the top and bottom, floated about five feet deep in the water. Every joint was well grooved, and the door moved up and down like a sash, keeping the closet so tight that very little water came in. Gulliver got with much difficulty out of his hammock, drew back his slip-board on the roof to let in air, and for four hours expected every moment to see his box dashed to pieces or overset. He heard a grating noise on the side where the staples were fixed, and soon after felt the box pulled or towed along in the sea. When it struck against something hard, he heard a noise upon the cover like that of a cable grating through the ring, and found himself hoisted up. He thrust his stick and handkerchief through the hole and called for help, and was answered by an English voice. The carpenter sawed a passage about four feet square, let down a small ladder, and Gulliver was taken into the ship in a very weak condition. The sailors later stripped the quilting from the box, tore up the chairs, cabinet, and bedstead by force, knocked off some of the boards for the use of the ship, and let the hull drop into the sea, where it sank to rights.
