་་་། ་ བ large room, commonly beautified with a fine fountain in the midft of it. It is railed nine or ten steps, and enclofed with gilded lattices, round which, vines, jeffamines, and honeyfuckles, make a fort of green wall. Large trees are planted round this place, which is the fcene of their greatest pleasures, and where the ladies fpend most of their hours, employed by their mufick or embroidery.In the public gardens, there are public Chiofks, where people go that are not fo well accommodated at home, and drink their coffee, fherbet, &c. Neither are they igno rant of a more durable manner of building; their mosques are all of free-ftone, and the public Hanns, or Inns, extremely magnificent, many of them taking up a large fquare, built round with fhops under ftone arches, where poor artificers are lodged gratis. They have always a mofque joining to them, and the body of the Hann is a moft noble hall, capable of holding three or four hundred perfons, the court extremely fpacious, and cloifters round it, it, that give it the air of our colleges. I own, than the founding of convents.-I think I have Yours, &c. &c. LET Adrianople, April 18, O. S. I WROTE to you, dear sister, and to all my other English correspondents, by the last ship, and only Heaven can tell, when I shall have another opportunity of fending to you; but I cannot forbear to write again, though perhaps my letter may lye upon my hands these two months. To confefs the truth, head is fo full of my entertainment yestermy day, that 'tis absolutely necessary, for my own repose, to give it fome vent. Without farther preface I will then begin my story. I was invited to dine with the Grand Vizier's lady, and it was with a great deal of pleasure I prepared myself for an entertainment, which was never before given to any Chriftian. I thought I should very little fatisfy her curiosity, (which I did not doubt was a confiderable motive to the invitation) by going in a dress fhe was was used to fee, and therefore dressed myself in the court habit of Vienna, which is much more magnificent than ours. However, I chose to go incognito, to avoid any disputes about ceremony, and went in a Turkish coach only attended by my woman, that held up my train, and the Greek lady, who was my interpretefs. I was met, at the court door, by her black Eunuch, who helped me out of the coach with great respect, and conducted me through feveral rooms, where her fhe flaves, finely dreffed, were ranged on each fide. In the innermoft, I found the lady fitting on her fofa, in a fable veft. She advanced to meet me, and prefented me half a dozen of her friends, with great civility. She feemed a very good woman, near fifty years old. I was furprised to obferve fo little magnificence in her house, the furniture being all very moderate; and, except the habits and number of her flaves, nothing about her appeared expenfive. She gueffed at my thoughts, and told me, he was no longer of an age to spend either either her time or money in fuperfluities; that her whole expence was in charity, and her whole employment praying to God. There was no affectation in this fpeech; both fhe and her husband are entirely given up to devotion. He never looks upon any other woman; and what is much more extraordinary, touches no bribes, notwithstanding the example of all his predeceffors. He is fo fcrupulous in this point, he would not accept Mr. W's present, till he had been affured over and over, that it was a fettled perquifite of his place, at the entrance of every Ambaffador. She entertained me with all kind of civility, till dinner came in, which was ferved, one dish at a time, to a vast number, all finely dreffed after their manner, which I don't think fo bad as you have perhaps heard it represented. I am a very good judge of their eating, having lived three weeks in the houfe of an Effendi at Belgrade, who gave us very magnificent dinners, dreffed by his own cooks. The first week they pleased me >extremely; but, I own, I then begun to grow weary |