A Journey Through the Crimea to Constantinople 0405030185

Citation preview

RUSS1R OBSERVED

Advisory Editors

HARMON TUPPER

HARRY W. NERHOOD

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE CRIMEA

TO CONSTANTINOPLE

Elizabeth Craven

ARNO PRESS & THE NEW YORK. TIMES

New York • 1970

Reprint edition 1970 by Arno Press, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 73-115525 ISBN 0-405-03018-5 ISB

Russia Observed Complete set 0-405-03000-2

i^XpReprinted from a copy in le Wesleyan University Library

^^^.nufactured in the United States of America

A

JOURNEY THROUGH

THE

CRIMEA T O

CONSTANTINOPLE. I N

A SERIES OF LETTERS FROM THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

ELIZABETH LADY CRAVEN, TO HIS SERENE HIGHNESS

The MARGRAVE of BRANDEBOURG, ANSPACH, and BAREITH. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR M DCCLXXXVI.

DUBLIN: Fainted for H. Chamberlains, R. Moncrieffe, W. Colles, G. Burnet, W. Wilson, L. White, P. Byrne, P. Wogan, H. Colbert, J. Moore, J. Jones, and B. Dornin. M,DCC,LXXXIX.

T O

HIS SERENE HIGHNESS

T H B MARGRAVE of BRANDEBOURG, ANSPACH, and BAREITH.

USTOM has long given a Preface to every book that has been publifhed—It is likewife accompanied with a Dedicati­

on.

I have always thought the laft made

the firft unneceflary—Indeed both may As

be

4

DEDICATION.

be difpenfed with, if an author does not think his Rile requires an apology for

offering to the Public a work, which his humility or juftice may lead him to think fit only to put his readers to fleep-----

The greateft part of the public has my permiflion to doze over the following

fheets, as I expofe them to the malice

of my enemies, without referve, merely

to oblige many of my friends ; who, know­ ing I had taken a long and extraordi­

nary journey, have defired me to give them fome account of it.

The beft I

could give, and in the moft agreeable manner to myfelf, was by tranferibing part of my letters to you—-in which,

though in a curfory manner, I have gi­ ven you a faithful picture of what I

have feen.

Befide curiofity, my friends

will

DEDICATION

5

will in thefe Letters fee at leaft for fome time where the real Lady Craven has been,

and where file is to be found—it having

been a practice for fome years paft, for a Birmingham coin of myfelf to pafs in moft

of the inns in France, Switzerland, and England, for the wife of my hufband—-

My arms and coronet lometimes fupport-

ing, in fome meafure, this infolent de­ ception ; by which, probably, I may have

been fecn to behave very improperly.

I think it my duty to aver upon my ho­ nour, that it has frequently happened to

me, travelling with my fweet child, to

find a landlady, who has (hewn a parti­ cular defire of ferving me in the moft menial offices, with tears in her eyes, and

upon my afking the reafon, in the ho-

neft indignation of her heart, the faid,

6

DEDICATION

(he had been impofed upon, at fuch a

time, by a traveller who called herfelf by my name.

If I had pofiefled the inva­

luable blefling of having you for my

real brother-—this curious and unheard of treafon to my birth and charader would long fince have been punilhed in

the perfon who could only countenance the deceit.

But let me thank Heaven

that I have found in you, Sir, all the

virtues which I could defire in a brother * and that affedion

and refped which

leads me to dedicate thefe Letters to you. My adions in future will prove more

than this feeble tribute, how deeply im-

preffed I am with all the feelings of efteem that can fill a grateful heart; your

people, Sir, your many virtues, that make all

DEDICATION.

1

all that approach you happy, will juftify

my dedicating my ftudious, as my facial hours to you—

ELIZA CRAVEN.

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY T O

CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER I. Paris, June 15,

Th E

honour you do me, in wilhing tc hear from me, deferves in return a greater entertainment than my letters can afford; and if it was not for the precious name of filler, which you order me to take, I fhould B perhaps

LADY CRAVEN'S JOURNEY

perhaps be a long time before I could ven­ ture to write to you.; but when you com­ mand me to look upon you as my brother, the idea coincides fo perfectly with the ef. teem and friendfhip I feel for you, that I obey with pleafure— Since your Highnefs left Paris, I have had my brother and lifter here; the fouth of France has entirely recovered her, and fhe is m a fair way of producing an heir— I have many nephews, but none of that name yet —— -----—-

I fhall fet out to-morrow for Touraine, called by the French le "Jardin de la France; and at three o'clock in the morning, as it is very hot—My harp is in the coach with me; for though my intention is not to ftay above three weeks where I am going to-— 1 cannot be fo long abfent from the found of an inft foment that I prefer to. every Other.

I have

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

3

I have fent you fame Englifh garden­ feeds which were given me by Lady —.. I hope when you are eating your fallads this fummer, you will think of your adopted Sifter, and believe that it muft be very good reafons, that deter her from vifiting Franconia, in preference to all other

I have the honour to fubfcribe myfelf your very affectionate lifter, faithful friend and fervant,

Eliza. Craven.

B 2

LETTER

4

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER II.

I SLEPT at Orleans laft night-—and as

the weather is extremely hot, I refted in the middle of the day at Blois, where I examined the Royal Chateau^ a houfe compofed of different orders of architedure, built at different periods of time, and by various perfons. The moft modern ad­ dition has been made by Gallon Due d’Or­ leans, who chofe to place an Italian ftructure in the midft of the various irregu­ larity belonging to the ancient Gothic, one part of which was built by Francis the Fine----- The ornaments of this (feveral of them) were to me as incomprehenfible as Egyptian hieroglyphics would have been. I wiftied my friend Mr. W. at my elbow, whofe knowledge in, and tafte for the Gothic, might have explained them. The porter who conduced me about,

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

5

about, feemed a good hiftorian for a per * fori of his condition. I need not tel! you, how many extraordinary perfonages and events this Chateau called to my mind. If the confuiion which ambition naturally creates in hiftory, fhould at this moment prevent your memory from placing them before you—I refer you to the Nouveau Voyage de la France^ par Mr. Piganiol de la Force, who gives a curfory account of Blois, and this Chateau-—but he does not fay, what I can affert, that fo many perfons have fcraped the (lone on which Henry Due. de Guife’s blood fell, that there remains but one half of it. My old condudor told me thofe who preferved the powder as a relick, were people related to the Guife family, and curious travel­ lers—I was not one of them. This let­ ter would be too long if I inferted an ad­ venture which happened to me at the poft beyond Blois. You (hall have it in my next. I will only add to this, that if ever you go from Blois to Tours, do not go by night-—the road is on a caufeway, the Loire on your left, and a precipice into meadows

6

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

meadows on your right, without any fence to prevent an accident, if your poftillions were drunk, or yourhorfes frightened. The uncommon drynefs of the fcafon prevented my judging of the much boafled beauties of the Loire, which is now re­ duced to the narrnweft rivulet I have feen-—Thetc are many cattles on the banks which ornament the landfcape—and were probably fortified, in former days; one in particular put me in mind of dear B. Cattle. I fuppofe they are left now, as moft habi­ tations in France are (diflant from Vcrfailles) for a Concierge to keep his pigs and chickens in----- Adieu—

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

7

III.

AT

the poft beyond Blois, while the horles were changing, (an operation not performed in one minute as in England) one of my fervants came up to the door and faid, ces inaudits poftillons ne veulent point laiffer monter cet enfant derriere la voilure. The word enfant always ftrikes to my heart: among the many reafons I had before, I have now an additional one for feeling about an enfant of any fort. I am at this moment above a hundred miles diftant from the moft affedionate, the moft engaging, and the moft beautiful child that ever mother had—and for the firft time I have ever left him ——

Quel

8

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

Qjjel enfant ? fays I, looking out on the left towards the hind wheel of my Berline——\ faw a boy, leemingly about ten years old, decently drefled in mourn­ ing-—a crape round his hat, and black buckles in his fhocs. Madame-, fays he—-and the tears in his eyes flopped his voice--------

jEZ» bien, mon enfant ; parkz----

Madame, le Maitre de pope d Pdo's in a. confeille de monter derriere voire Berlin -----

I am called away to go up to the tower of Fourviere to look over all the town at once,

Yours, Adieu *

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

33

LETTER IX.

Lyons, July ar.

Th E

fine profped I was promifed from

the tower was immenfely fo indeed— Landfcapes fo various, and objeds fo vaft and innumerable, that the eye feeks in vain for a refting place------- 1 do not know, dear Sir, if you are of my opinion ; but I like that my fight as well as my mind Ihould be colleded, to enjoy one pleafing fubjed at a time-----Vary the fcene as often as you pleafe-—but I hate confufion fo much, that if 1 was obliged to choofe a houfe, fituated on an eminence, commanding a large city, many windings of a river, and an immenfe trad of coun­ try, or one at the bottom of that eminence, with a view fo confined that I could fee only to the end of a finall garden, I think 1 fhould prefer the latter-----1 know this may ftem very ftupid, but I never D could

34

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

— Adieu, Dear Sir, Yours.

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

37

X.

Avignon, July 50, 1785.

Nothing

can be more delightful than rtiy laft method of travelling by water. I have had high and contrary winds; but the Rhone’s famed rapidity that I had heard fo much of, was neither furprifing nor ter­ rifying—the fhores on each fide were rocks interfperfed with vine-yards and caftles----I landed the firft day at Condrieux, where J bought fome excellent wine for 25 fols a bottle, the growth of that place-—About a league from thence is la Montagne Tupain, belonging to Mr. de la Condamine, where the beft Cote-rotie wine is to be had; that word fignifies really and truly roafted-coaft, the grapes being almoft broiled by the fun. The wine is of a red and ftrong kind----reckoned very fine; but like many other fine things, I did not relifh it,-------- A little farther

38

LADY CRAVWs JOURNEY

farther on the left is l’Hermitage, a fpot fo called becaufe formerly a hermit lived upon that hill, the wine of which is too much known for me to fay any thing about it I gave three livres a bottle for it, but found the white fo much better than the red that I ordered fome to be fent to Marfeilles, from whence I (hall have it (hipped for England.

There is a fmall town called Vienne, that has a fine Gothic cathedral, which I went on fhore to look at, together with a monument belonging to the Montmorin family, well executed.

I faw feveral people on the, banks of the Rhone fifting gravel; they find among it little bits of folid gold, Wgihed down from the mountains; a moft horrid em> ployment in this hot weather I (hould think j but what will not poor mortals do for gold, fince the rich are often (laves to that which they ought to be matters of Monte-

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

39

Montelimart is a cattle from whence I am told three kingdoms are feen, and feven provinces. I did not ftop to fee this or any other of the many cattles I by.

At the Pont St. Efprit, which is a noble bridge indeed, I think the palfage might be dangerous, if the boatmen were not very attentive.-------- My coach is lb large, and has fuch excellent blinds, that I have not fuffered from the heat at all-------The fhores lofe all their beauty near Avig­ non, which I could not fee, becaufe it is furrounded by a high turrrted wall.-----------

Madame de Brancas, the Due de Crillon’s fitter, was very civil to me, and we talked about-------- -------------- -----

I dined with Lord------- , whofe health is much impaired, and I hope this cli­ mate will do him good.-------- Adieu, dear Sir, yours-------P. S.

I am

4o

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

P. S. I am told, by fome one who knows the Due de Crillon very well, that his lifter is exactly like him ; which I can cafily conceive, for the has as many pro­ jects about her gardens and houfes as her brother had about the taking of Gibraltar: I hope they will fuccecd better than his have, for the is very good-humoured.

LETTER.

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

4'

LETTER XL

MaR’seili.rs, Auguft s, 17S5.

J) EAR Sir, I thought it unneceffary to give you any defcription of Avignon, becaufe you have been there, but as you did not take the fame road to it as I did in coming from it, I will endeavour to give you fome faint idea of a natural curiofity that I have feen, and which pleafed me highly—the much famed Fontaine de Vauelufe.-----------

I fet out from Avignon in the middle of the day, and arrived at a town called Lille, where I took a French port chaife, and went in it by the fide of the Sorgue’s clear fircam, till the road was too narrow for the carriage to proceed; I then walked in a narrow path winding round

42

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

round the immenfe rocky mountains to the left, with the flream rapidly flying by me to the right about a mile, till a ca­ vern, pretty much in the fhape of thofe which lions come out of in an opera, prefented itfelf to my view, and from that flows the river. I am told it is an unfathom­ able abyfs. Why it is called a Fontaine * I am at.a lofs to guefs. Monflrous rocks rife over and on each fide of this craggy arch ; thefe feem to bend forward to meet or crufh the cu­ rious.—Which ever way I turned my eyes, I faw gigantic and fantaftic fhapes, which nature feems to have placed there to aftonifli the gazer with a mixture of. the me-, laucholy, terrible, and cheerful; for the clearncfs and rapidity of the river make it a lively objed, and where there is a flat place on the banks, though not above a few feet in circumference, the peafants have planted trees or fowed gardens—— you lift up your eyes, and fee the moft perfed contrafts to them-—the birds, which hovered towards the upper part of the rocks,

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

43

rocks, were fcarcely perceptible. In look­ ing into the cavern, it appears horrible and gloomy ; I could almoft have fancied the river ran thus faft, rejoiced to quit the nianfionfrom whence it fprung. No won­ der Petrarch’s fong was plaintive, if he courted hismufe with this feene perpetually before his cyesj Love and all his laughing train muft fly the human imagination, where nature ddplays her features in the majeflic and terrible ftile, and I was very glad to find fo good an excufe as this fituation for Petrarch’s eternal complaint— till now I was puzzled to guefs, how a man of his fenfc could pafs the greateft part of his life in eternizing a lady’s contempt of a faithful paflion—but I now believe there was no Laura -or if there exifted one, he found in either cafe his imagination parti­ cularly turned to poetry, and that of the melancholy kind, in this, probably his fummer’s refidence. I, who you know----.-------- , and have as playful a mufe as ever fmiied upon mortal, fat examining the afloniflfing picture before me with a filent reverential fort of admiration----and

44

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

and fhould have remained there till night, if I had not been informed that it grew very late, and I muft fee the pidures of Petrarch and Laura in the Chateau of the Marquis de Chamont, which is a miferable houfe a few Reps from the Fontaine. Thefe pictures are very modern—probably as like you as the perfons they were drawn for.----- 1 returned to Lille, and eat crawfifh and trout, the moft excellent that I ever tailed, which abound in the Sorgue— I paffed through Aix, to come to this place; I did not flop, as I expelled a letter at Marfeilles, the contents of which interefted me very much: for ----- -----

I faw many plantations of canes, which I wonder we do not cultivate in our water­ meadows in England----- and I bought very excellent melons out of the fields for five fols a piece.

A country

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

45

A country flowing with wine and oil, and where figs and melons are to be gathered on each fide of the public road, may be a very fine thing; but a want of verdure and fine trees gives it a moft uncomfortable and ungentlemanlike ap­ pearance. When I compared England and the fcene before me together, I could almoft have fancied I had the maladie du pays upon me---- fo much did I with to fee a green carpet under my feet, and fome of our beautiful foliage over my head--------

Adieu, dear Sir; how often I with to be with you I leave the juftice of your heart to determine. I remain yours moft affedionately----P. S. I forgot to tell you, that while I was changing hoifes at Lille, I talked to Captain B----- , a failor, who lives with his wife and two children in that neigh­ bourhood----- He very civilly invited me to pafs the evening at his houfe, talked about my brother G----- , and informed me

46

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

me that the fource of the Sorgue was at this time remarkably low; and I found by the marks the torrent had left on the rocks when at its height, that it muft be at leaft forty feet lower now than when it takes its winter-courfe: as I faw it, it creeps humbly from the cavern under part of the rock, and becomes rapid as it finds its level and forms a river; whereas, when it is in all its glory, it tumbles over the rock a wild cafcade, which muft add confiderably to its terrific beauties — —

I was informed by the inhabitants of Vauclufe, that people, who are tired of life, fling themfelves into the cavern, where, as I told you before, the water is unfathomable; upon this information, I afked if bodies were often found there; I was anfwered in the affirmative, and that they were chiefly the bodies of priefts—■ Adieu-----

P. S. I never felt any heat like that which I experience here-----

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

47

XII.

Marseille?, Aug. 8, 1785.

I HAVE examined the rocks juft out of this harbour, and think fome of them moft fortunately fituated to defend the port, but what furprifed me much, was being aflured by the boatmen who row me out twice a day (to get a breath of air) that, at all times of the night, boats are fuffered to come in and out of the harbour with­ out being examined --------------- -

People of all nations, that fill every day the great walk leading to the quay, made me think on my arrival that fome impor­ tant event had drawn all the people from the houfes and the fhips together—-but a repetition of the fame feene foon convinced me of my miftake. There are two very 1 hue

48

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

fine pictures, painted by Puget, reprefenting fome of the horrid fcenes at the time of the plague at Marfeilles; they are only too Well executed; I faw feveral dying figures taking leave of their friends and looking their laft anxious kind and wifhful prayer on their fick infants, that made the tears flow down my cheeks----- 1 was told the phyficians and noblemen who were affifting the fick and dying were all portraits. I can eafily conceive it, for in fome of the faces there is a look of reflexion and con­ cern which could only be drawn from the life-------I have fpoke to Captain----- , who com­ mands the King-Fifher; he is obliged to perform quarantine here, though he had already done his duty in that way at ,Leghorn and Genoa before; but the plague rages very much all along the Barbary coaft, from whence he is come; and one cannot be furprifed at any precaution taken at Marfeilles to avoid this danger-----

I do

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

49

I do not think Marfeilles a beautiful town ; and the country houfes in the en­ virons, which they call here Baflidcs, are frightful.

I have juit got a note from on board the King-Fifhcr, that has been foaked in vine­ gar ; the direction is fcarcely legible----Adieu, dear Sir; the heat is fo excefiive here that I atn abfolutely flupified by it,

Believe me yours affectionately..

5o

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER

XIII.

Hyeres, Aug. io, 1785.

I STOPPED in my way here at Toulon, and intended to look at the dock-yards, but was refufed, which furprifed me very much, as an Englilh lady of my acquain­ tance was fuffered to go into them at the time of the Iaft war with France, when her hufband and all the gentlemen with her were Cent out of the town----- 1 could get no other reafon afligned for the refufal, but this—that fince Lord----- had feen them, nothing of Englifh blood fhould ever be permitted to go into them. So I walked about, and all I could fee was that the fineft ports in the world, and fhips worthy of being commanded by our admirals, will never make (at leaft for a great while to come) good failors of the French—my reafons I will tell vou, when we meet. -----

Mr.

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

51

Mr. de S----- , who refufes to let any Englilh perfon fee the dock-yards at Toulon, expreffed a great diflikc to our nation, faying he had reafon; you will laugh when I tell you, that hi-s reafon for hating us is, that in the late war two thirds of his fquaaron were taken, with the greatefl: part of his convoy, deftined for the Eaft-Indies, and had he not bravely ran away himfelf, he would certainly have fallen a prey to thofe opiniatre^ feroccs matehti as he calls our failors----The gentleman who waited upon Soulangcs to alk permiffion and plead my caufe, wifhing to recoiled what defence Mr. de Soulange’s fquadron had made, afked an officer in the room the name of the French (hips, which the poor Mr. de Soulangcs fo bitterly lamented , he anfwered he ffiould recoiled them if he heard their names, but could not exadly remember-----

My friend allied if it was----- the Ville de Paris, le Glorieux—le Centaur—FArtois—le Caton—FArgonaut—lc Jafon----E 2 le

52

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

le Prothee—le Solitaire—le Pegafe—here the gentleman flared at him, and faid» le Pegafe was one of them-----

Soulanges faid, yes, but the Foudroyant that took her was one of the largeft fhips in our navy, and commanded by that feroce matelot Captain Jervais, who would attack the devil, if he met him at fea; but, added he, Jervais could not have taken the Pegafe., unlefs aflifled by other fhips---My friend told him, the Foudroyant was a two decker and carried only fix more guns than the Pegafe, and was taken in the war before the Iafl, by the Englifh fhip the Monmouth, commanded by Captain Gardiner, that carried but 64 guns—that, though he had not the pleafure of being perfonally known to Captain Jervais, from his public character he was fure he would do his beft in time of war to burn, fink, or take the devil, if under French colours.----- He had a great incli­ nation to have told Mr. de Soulanges what is very well known, that Captain Jervais took the Pegafe after an a&ion of little nore

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

53

more than half an hour,' without any help whatfoever, but his commands to a gal­ lant crew--—and that the other fail of the line under Soulantic c? ’s command (truck to

ceiving a fingle broadfidc; but be thought a repetition of naval actions, fairly Rated, might be piinful to many officers who were prefent, and who paid the tribute due to our navy, in rxpicfling the highcR efteeni for it. rind fo look his leave. The in qucRion is the very Chip my brother commanded l.dl war. I have often linen t-.;hl that (he could not fail, bv the French---but I always allured them, that fne has profited fo much bv the trim he gave her, that (lie goes now pcrfcdlly well-----

They have alfo talked much of the im­ provement made in their marine the lafl war; but unlels it is in the ci’oathing their (hips’ company, J cannot find out in what ----- Old Englifh officers have told me, they always found their hearts lay in the fame

54

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

fame place as heretofore-—and that when­ ever they could fail faft enough to get along fide of the enemy, the bufinefs was prefently fettled —I think I need no better proof of this affertion than one, which I hope may Rand unaltered in the book of Fame for centuries to come; it is this—our marine is in part compofed of line-of-battle fhips taken from our enemies; whereas there exifts not a power upon the . face of the globe that can boaft of having in their marine one fhip of the line taken from the Britiih nation----I do not doubt but that the Minijlre de la marine de France, and French officers, are excellent naval officers in theory—but when that is to be put in pradice, I hope events will prove, that we remember we have no other ramparts to defend our coun­ try and our liberties but the ocean, and that we ever were, are, and muft be, a race of" feroces, opiniatres, matelots----You fay amen to this wiffi, I am fure----fo remain yours moft affectionately. I think

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

55

I think the drive from Marfeilles to Toulon is beautiful—the rocks are as ftupendous and nearly as fantaftic as thofe about Vauclufe, and for fome miles they are covered with fir trees----You may form fome idea of the magni­ tude of the hills and rocks by my protcfting, that the trees and a few cottages which adorn them, look, the firft like tooth-picks, and the latter like the finalleft Dutch toys—the road winds round moft gracefully; wherever there was a little valley, I faw large flocks of goats----As I came nearer to Toulon, I began to fee many orange and pomegranate trees in the gardens; and the caper, which is a pretty but (linking creeper, grows wild, wherever it is permitted to take root----From Toulon to Hyeres I was gradually apprifed of the charming filiation of the latter place, by the approach to it, which grew more and more lovely every ftep I took—The hedges on the road are compofed of myrtle, pomegranate, and wild vine;

56

LADY CRAVLN’s JOURNEY

vine j I patted by feveral neat-looking white houfes, the gardens of which are full of large orange trees. The town of Hyeres is about a league from the fea, placed on the fide of a hill. I fhall wait patiently here for that letter I expelled at Marfeilles—This happy fpot is refrefhed by fea-breezes—and from the elegant cheerfulnefs which reigns here, it might almoft tempt one to devote many months to folitude and fiudv.

LETTER

tp • i,

LETTER

Y

57

XiV.

lhi Rr.s, Aug 15,

i755-

* WENT up laft night on horfeback to a chapel fituatcd on a hill near the fca, called noh c Dame de Confolafion : there is a mail who calls himfelf a hermit, by name Lau­ rent, and who by his medical knowledge, as he afliircs me, and the afliftancc of the BlcfTcd Virgin, cures the King’s Evil. 1 talked to him fome. time, his ignorance and fimplicity a mu fed me very much; but I pity thofc who tiufl to his phyfical knowledge; I gave him fome very curious receipts, all impromptu, as jou may guffs, afforing him, among other tilings, that bathing people in aqua iortis w'as an in­ fallible remedy/ for the disorder he cured-----

I defire,

58

LADY CRAVENS JOURNEY

I defire, if ever chance (hould bring you to Hyeres, that you will afcend this hill, and examine the fcenes around, towards the fea; theiilands of Portecroix andPourquerolle are beautiful objeds, and a peninfula called Gien which is joined to the land only by a narrow road, forms a landfcape worthy of a great mailer’s pencil---- On looking towards the land, mountains on every fide, whofe tops are decorated with firs and rocks alternately, and towards the bottom, with olive, orange, and fig trees, form a beautiful circle, feemingly intended by nature to prevent the fea from extend­ ing any farther----- At a little diftance, in­ land, rifes the hill, on the fide of which is built the town of Hyeres: above the town are feen rocks and remains of the ancient town and wall.----- 1 could have lat and looked at all this beautiful fcenery for ever; but the evening clofing fent me home to my harp and my books. Yours affedionately----- --------

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

59

XV.

IhEPT'^, Aug. 1S,

1785.

i HOPE the following lines will amufe you, for a moment; 1 only wifli they may make you laugh as much as I did, when I read the French oflie'Ts melancholy ftory in profe; whofoever he may be, fhould he take offence al my having turned his tra­ gedy into a farce, 1 lisail bear his anger patiently, when 1 think that the princes of the lloufe of Bourbon, all the Spaniards, Lord Howe, and Sir George Elliot, each of whofc valour he flights, will certainly laugh, with me.-----1 have marked the pages where I have literally tranffated his own phi'rtfcs, that you may not fuppofe 1 have invented the llrange things he fays—and I fend veu his pamphlet that you may com­ pare the one with the other..... VERSES

60

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

VERSES Written at Hyeres, on reading a pamphlet called I’Hiftoire du Siege de Gibraltar^ par un ojjicier de /’Armee Fraryaife, im~ primee a CadiZy I’an 1783.

Sweet mufe, who haftwith fragrant rofes fpread The thorny path of life, which mortals tread ; Who haft, with fancy’s gayeft varied flowers, Bedeck’d with many a wreath my youthful hours j If e’er and oft thy fong beguil’d my care, Smiling malicioufly, O Mufe appear— Apollo form’d this fea-girt orange-grove, Fit hau.it for playful Mufe, or happy love; Here myrtle-blofloms gracefully entwine, And mix their perfume with th’ encircling vine— And this, a youthful poet might fuppofe, The fpot where Venus from the waves arofe— O Mufe, approach, with all thy mirth and fire, While Momus, laughing, fhallnew-ftringmy lyre, That I may briefly fing in numbers gay, What I have heard a profing Frenchman fay; His country’s difappointment to afluage, He tells a tale, of fam’d Gibraltar’s fiege; A Tom-

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

61

A Tom-Thumb Rory of this fiege relates — Of Gallic fame, heroic Gallic feats; Of Crilion’s Duke, and all his conquer’d men, Who (talk’d outwithhim—toftalkhome again.— My lyrebedrong, for chords perchancemay break, When Frenchmenof their arms and valour fpeak; While wond’ring worlds of Elliot’s juftly ring : Thus fpoke the grieving Frenchman, thus I fing :

P. 5. Seven thoufand men, and eke York town, line 1. Artillery immenfe our own, Lately all taken by my nation, I. 3. lias added to its reputation----The conqueft of St. Kit’s adorn’d, Names henceforth never to be fcorn’d, The names of (as new worlds can (hew) 1. 6. TVajhington, Bouille, Rocbambrau, p. 6. Buffy, with our friend Hyder Kan. 1. 2. Suffrein, unconquerable man, Promis’d in Afia greater feats, Than e’er were fung in Paris’ (Ireets ; 1. 3. Promis’d us victory and teas ; Our dreamers glorying o’er thefeas, Proudly difplay’d on th’ eaftern (hore, 1. 6 Where Englifh banners wav’d before. 1< 9. Minorca too we call our own, Which adds ko Crillorfs name, Mahon. Pad

62

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

I. 12. 'Part conquefts, oft bring frefli in view : Thus fet we out in eighty-two, J. 13. Like the moil brilliant fummer’s morn, A Dauphin at that time was born; 1. 16. The people all were drunk with joy, To fee fo fine a royal boy. 1.17. Ruflia’s young heir from Northern courts, 1. 20; Came to admire our fuperb ports, Our induftry, fertilifation----And Paris rais’d his admiration. What circumftances thefe, t* inflame Our minds with glory and with fame! p. 28. But to thefe fplendors, fad reverfe ! Unpleafan t news our joys difperfe; For Rodney’s vift’ry reach’d our ears J Which chang’d our vap’ring into tears, > p. 32. Our fetes to mourning, hopes to fears. J Since the year twenty-feven had Spain Thought of Gibraltar’s rock in vain 5 In awful filence long had ftar’d, p. 7. But to attack it never dar’d; 1. j 8. Till * Crillon offer’d gold and penfions, For fuch unheard-of new-inventions, * A paper-merchant offered the Duke an immenfe Kite, at the Tail of which a Man in a fack was to afcend, and was to pour aquafortis over the officers and foldiers at the Parade. —I am told that the Duke had the kite fent over the rock—rluckily for the inventor, who had put himfelf into the fack, the firing broke, juft as he was lifted off the ground.

As

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

63

As might this fturdy rock invade, For this full many a fcheme was laid: p. 6. TheHoufe of Bourbonfquadronsmann’d 1. 33. Colleded armies, batt’ries plann’d ; Thefe preparations, vaft and great, T All Europe knew, were to defeat s p. 7. Brave Elliot in his fnug retreat J 1. 2. * D’Ar$on of floating batt’ries fpoke; Great Crillon haften’d to St. Roque, To take upon him the command Of th’ army, both by fea and land. p. 11. Four hundred workmen, under d’Ar^on, 1. 9. (Whofe batteries were made a farce on) Inceflant work’d by day and night, To finifh them, which gave delight To Monfeigneur d*Artois, who came 1. 16. With laurels to bedeck his name.----* Le Chevalier d’Ar^on, whofe floating batteries deferved a different fate from what they experienced ; they were neither executed nor feconded according to his plan. 1 have examined the invention, with perfons whofe judgment I can truft to, and am convinced that it is a very good one—and if juflice had been done in the execution of them, the batteries, I do believe, were incombuftible and infubmerfible, as he affertedthey were; but as to their aflifting towards taking of Gibraltar—from thejjrudence of the general who defended it, I rather think we have to regret, and the combined armies to rejoice, that they fucceedcd no better.

Mow

64

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

Now martial feats his fenfes warming, And warlike flores around himfwarming; Veflels of ev’ry name and fize, 1.19-23-In numbers dance before his eyes: Now to the lines the French troops march, Their queues fo tied, their curls fo ftarch, p. 13. Heavens, how the Spaniards flood aghaft! 1. 16. (Of Soldiers they the leaft, and laft) I.17,18. In flocks they came our men to fee, 1.19,20. And, by their curiofity, 1.21,22. Prov’d how imperfed was their notion 1. 23. Of mufic fweet, and rapid motion----1. 24. Our troops the Spaniards wonder rais’d— So on Columbus Indians gaz’d 1----An Englilh brig of fixteen guns Was taken by thefe ftupid dons, p. 14. And this unufual thing, a prize ! 1. 28. Our hopes uplifted to the Ikies----1. 29. The little fleet that watch’d the bay, Came in to keep St. James’s day ; p. 15. For on a holiday ’tis right. 1. 10. That Catholics Ihould pray, not fight— 1. 11. But whilft our fliips delay’d theircruifing, 1. 12. The Englilh brought the ugly news in Of Rodney’s triumph ; from the Rock Of guns our ears receiv’d the fliock 5 For Elliot thought, a gallant adion 1. 30. Deferv’d a mark of fatisfadion---Soon

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

65

Soon after this, four Englifli knaves 1. 31. Deferted, and inform’d us, flaves 1. 32. Of hope and fear—that Elliot’s troops p. 16. Of provender had loft all hopes.----l.i, 2,3.Which rais’d our fpirits, made us gay, And think all fighting only play. Then d’Ar^on made us move fo fwift, p. 21. His barrels * and his b^gs to lift, 1. 5, 6. That in one night, his epaulement 1. 7. Was form’d fo thick, fo long, fo ftrong * p. 21. That fure, if Elliot and his men 1. 8, 9. Could ever be alarm’d, ’twas then—The Due de Bourbon came to pore 1. 16. O’er d’Ar^on’s work, on feaandlhore; His floating batteries complete ; His forty cannon-boats fo neat j • The lame Chevalier d’Arjon, who invented the floating batteries, executed an epaulement (which he planned) within the fpace of four hours, in the dark part of the night, be­ tween the 15th and 16th of Auguft, 1782. jit was called by him the Parallel Battery, but more properly by Sir George Elliot, the Sappe Volante, from the rapidity of the execution : It'was 1010 toifes in length, and ten feet in heighth and breadth, formed of facks and barrels, brought to the fpot and filled with the fand found there: I have feen his own ac­ count of the diflribution of employment among fo great a num­ ber of men (viz. 17,000) and which proves, that he had a clear head to calculate the work, fo as to prevent confufion.

F

His

156

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

His twenty bomb-boats add to thefe, Will take the place whene’er we pleafe. The royal princes, twain of Bourbon, Of caution ftorn’d to clap the curb on ; But yielding to their valour hot, p. 26. Advanc’d almoft within gun-lhot-— 1. laft. Thefe awful things together bind Triumph and vift’ry in our mind. p. 35. Our foldiers play, and fing and dance: 1.3,27.Oh! happy nation ! happy France! Whofe people^ light at head and heel, No pangs for others ever feel. -—All the work’s fo quickly done, Hope on ev’ry vifage fhone : But all's not gold, alas, that fhinesj For ElliotJet in flames our lines; To the fea for water went our men ; The Englifh fir’d on thefe again $ Ah, barb’rous nation ! cruel foes ! p. 36. Who mercilefs could fire on thofe, 1.13,15 Whom ye confus’d by many a (hot, By Elliot’s order made red hot-— We burn’d our fingers, then we refted. In fleep our fad affronts digefted. Our balls now fly round Elliot’s head ; p. 40. But he lay filent, as if dead; 1. lb 12.In vain we make our bullets dance, or Sing againft the rock—no anfwer.-— Heav’n

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

67

p. 4. Heav’n feem’d to favour, our intent; 1. 26. The wind to weftward firmly bent j 1. 29. Ships of tfie line, full forty-eight Of ours, befpoke poor Elliot’s fate—At anchor firm before his face, Refolv’d no Englilh Ihip Ihould place Or beef, or mutton, in his dilh * (He, food for us) or feed on filh) Gibraltar mute, by us ftruck dumb, Our triumph now was foon to dome:— p. 49. Alas ! (the wheel is ever turning) 1.5,6. Our triumph foon was chang’d to mourn­ ing : The floating batt’nes our reliance To fet the general at defiance, From them by fea to end the matter, Withlhowers of balls,his rock we fpatter; He, feeing now what moft we want is To eternife our new flottantes, Red bullets fends US by the fcore, That caus’d fuch mifchief heretofore, 1. 18. And men of all degrees and nations, That gaze upon our diff’rent ftations, With moiiftrous grief, exceflive wonder, See turn’d to fmoke our floating thunder. Some in the camp were free from care, Nor dream’d they of the dire defpair,

F 2

The

68

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

p. 54. The rage, calamity, and crime, I. 14. That Rruck us jointly at that time : 1,20. For thirteen Englifh gun-boats came,. To add frefh fuel to the flame. Amidft this burning, what could fave Hundreds from th’ untimely grave ? For through the flames no Frenchman chofe, In faving friends, to fcorch his nofe; His brethren broiling calmly views, Rather than finge his beard or fhoes. But Elliot and his' men of Reel, That aft fo Rout, can pity feel, p. 55. And Curtis led the gen’rous crew, 1.16. To fave the foe, with death in view: Three hundred French and Spaniards took, And nurs’d and fed them at the rock, With anxious care, a care divine ; 1. 30. Such deeds, brave Elliot, fuch were thine! More to thy glory far, ’tis faid, p. 60. Than with hot balls to Rrike us dead— 1. 22. Our batt’ries burnt—-our fpirits fail, And gloomy thoughts our minds aflail. p. 65. HiRorians fay that we inherit 1. 3, 5. From Gauls a moR impetuous fpirit; But that it laRs not, as it ought, And ends before a battle’s fought-_ Our

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

p. 78. 1. 22.

p. 79. 1. 30.

1.34.

€9

Our princes, fick of war’s alarm, Whom Crillon’s camp no longer charm, With Cordova were going away ; But frelh bad news made them delay— A Spanilh brig announc’d that night Howe and the Englilh fleet in fight-— Now hopes alone our bofom warm, For burfting clouds befpeak a ftorm, Sad councils and reflexions came About our Ihips, our hopes, our fame— The ftorm came on ; it quickly bo^e J The Englilh off the Spanilh Ihore, > And ours from all their anchors tore: J Some were driven near Elliot’s guns, Who ling’d the whilkers of the dons 5 Too fure there’s fire in that head j He fent us fcores of bullets red $ In him, ’twas horrid, I declare, y To take la Fortune de la Guerre, C When beat by rain and ftorms we were. J In the midft of all this fad confufion, The Englilh fquadron made intrufion ; Cordova, fpight of wind and weather, Call’d all his officers together : They held a council, talk’d of fight— A frigate at th’ approach of night, An Englilh frigate, Ikimm’d away, Like lightning into Roliere’s bay—Oh

7o

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

Oh heaven and earth! to France and What indignation, wonder, pain, It was to fee two more advance, And Englifli tranfports to enhance ! The horror of our fouls aggriev’d, For thus Gibraltar was reliev’d ; It was reliev’d, dear France; but know, Not to brave Elliot, or to Howe, Is due the glory of this deed, Which makes our forrowing hearts oft bleed, p. 91. By copper, and by coals alone 1. 4. Their martial courage was made known; And if an Elliot’s facred nameWith that of honour be the fame-— To wond’ring ages yet to come, And we were fent like children home— The coals that made his bullets red Deferve the wreaths that crown his head— And copper-bottom’d flrips I ween, That feud along fo neat, fo clean-— Secure the aftive Britilh foe, And not the valour of their Howe-— Dear friends, like me, treat with difdain Their glory, and forget your pain ; Hate honour from your haughty fouls That’s gain’d by copper, and by coals-—

And

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

71

And now, ye playful dolphins, quickly bear, Acrofs the Teas, this difmal tale with care; At Calpe’s * foot, I charge ye, reft a while, Divert the warrior from his hourly toil A Britifh hero fcarcely can refufe This trifling tribute from an Englifh Mufe. Then to the we (tern ocean fpeed your way, Nor loiter thoughtlefs on the Bifcayn-bay----- ■ In Britain’s channel once arriv’d, remain ; And let my countrymen from you obtain Your facred charge-----Beneath the oak’s deep fhade, My honour’d friends, retir’d from toil, are laid----While they on French defcription fmiles beftow, France fows frefh laurels for each Englifh brow. Mean time with care a myrtle-wreath I weave To grace but one f, the braveft of the brave.

* Sir George Elliot was then at Gibraltar,

f Sir George Elliot.

You

72

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

You fee, dear Sir, I meant to have fent it to Sir George Elliot ; I know he has the French pamphlet—but as he may not be fo partial to the produdions of my mufe as you are, I am rather content that you ihould fee it.

Believe me your’s moft affedionately.

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

73

XVI.

Hyeres, Auguft 24, 1785.

D EAR Sir! I am extremely furprifed that invalids, who fly to the fouth in winter, do not choofe Hyeres in pre­ ference to Montpellier or Nice 5 it is true that it is more folitary than either of thefe places j but I am fure, by the ac­ counts I have had of the laft, its lying, gofliping, mifchievous ftile of the fociety muft be a moft horrid thing for nerves ihaken by illnefs. There is an uncommon clearnefs in the air here; the iflands ap­ pear to the eye to be not above three miles diftant, and I am afiured they are feven leagues—Provifions are excellent here, par­ ticularly fifh; among thefe, the John-dory and the red Mullet are of an amazing fize, and excellent; I thought the Dory was called the Dorade, but it is called the Poiflon de St. Pierre;

74

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

Pierre; and the Dorade, of which there is plenty, is a very indifferent fifh-------They fpoil the red Mullet by conftantly pulling out the livers. The land is too precious here to be fpared for building, yet there are houfes enough to lodge feveral families-------There is very feldom any rain at Hyeres, and the rides of the environs are the moft beautiful that your imagination can form —particularly one towards the refidence of a Mr. Glapiere de St. Tropes—who has near his houfe a beautiful large valley between the mountains, which he might with little expence turn into a charming park with a river running through it—You muft not fuppofe from the want of rain here, that there is no verdure, or that the orange-gardens look burnt by the fun; the natives of this happy fpot are extremely in­ genious in turning every little fpring that comes from the mountains (and thefe fprings are numerous) over their fields and gardens, fo that the conftant want of rain here is the

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

75

the very reafon why every vegetation ne­ ver fails of being refrefhed perpetually.—

Put all thefe circumftances together, with another, which I think muft weigh with every reafonable perfon, out of their own country, which is, that provifions are very cheap, and you will agree with me, that Hyeres is a very good place for an invalid to pafs a winter in.-------I am fetting out for Antibes, having re­ ceived the information I waited for ----I remain your’s moft truly,

E. C-------

LETTER

76

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER

XVII.

Antihes, Aug. 28, 1,85.

M OST

part of the road from Hyeres to this place is very mountainous and nar­ row, fo I rode along the greateft part of it-------I find here an ancient work of the Ro­ mans ♦, it is an aquedufl which a Colonel d’Aquillon imagined might be reftored to its former ufe of bringing water to the town, at a fmall expence •, he met with much oppofition and ingratitude from the very peo­ ple to whom it could be of ufe; but I am told he has obtained a penfion, and a mo­ nument is intended to be erefled to his honour—I believe there is no nation but ours that waits for a perfon’s death, to Ihew fome fign of fatisfaflion—for the benefit derived from their fuperior talents —

If 1

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

77

If Vauban’s plan had been followed for this port, it would have been one of the fined in the Mediterranean—As it is at prefent, none but veffels of the lighted burthen can enter-----

I have hired a felucca, a long narrow boat with three fhoulder-of-mutton-fails, and ten oars, in which I mean to go from hence to Leghorn—I have talked fo much lately to you about orange-gardens, that you may fairly fuppofe, I pafled much of my time in them; but indeed I have not, for they are far from being comfortable things to be in, though magnificent to look at, from a little didance ; there is one, and not a very large garden, at Hyeres, that brings the proprietor in fifteen hundred pounds fterling a year; I was taken to fee it upon my arrival—but the ground is fo precious in thefe gardens, that none is to be fpared for walks—fo that I was forced to creep among the orange-trees as I could, like any other earthly reptile-------The Spaniards and Algerines having late­ ly made a peace, I am informed I run fome

78

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

fome rilk of being taken by a Barbary corfair, as the Algerines turn their fpirit of piracy on all other veffels but Spanilh at prefent—however I cannot fay I am the leaft afraid, fince the very fears of my Italian failors will prevent them from going farther from the fhore than what is abfolutely neceflary for failing-----

Adieu, dear Sir.

I remain your’s------ -

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

79

LETTER XVIII. Genoa, Sept, i, 1785.

I Got no farther than Monaco laft night, where I looked over the old caftle which ftands perpendicularly upon a rock from the fea.----- The prince was abfent: he is adding a Salle de Compagnie to his chateau, which it wants very much---- The building being ancient and irregular; he has taken moft of the fine pidures to Paris, as his people told me, and I was fhewn a modern cornifh in flucco, one of Adanj’s defigns, executing as a great curiofity, though it was none to me, as we have fuch in moft of our parlours in England----- -There are the remains of fome fine painting eu frefque in the court----- The room the poor Duke of York died in isoneof the moft melancho­ ly I ever faw ; the very bed had a gloomy look; but indeed all the apartments are dark and difmal----- The prince has three 1 houles

So

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

houfes for his own refidence, at a fmall diftance from each other, on this coaft----Monaco, Moncobron, and Menton—His poffeffions do not feem very fertile, from whence probably arifes an Italian diftich my boatmen repeated fo often in going up to Monaco, that I could not avoid retaining it; in Englifh it i$—Monaco upon a rock, neither fows nor reaps, but lives on others property^—They added, that part of his revenue confided in a tribute which all fmall veffels pay in going from France to Italy, that is, all but the French, who are exempt from this tax, which, by the bye, I faw no other method of exacting but a miferable little veffel of his I faw in the port, which they told me went after the others, who might refufe to pay it-----

There were arms and ammunition for forty thoufand men fent in there, by fmal.1 quantities at a.timc, for fifteen months pad —from France-----

Monaco’s Prince, from his connexion with French families, and his frequenting Verfailles,

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

81

Verfailles, is become, I fuppofe (though a fovereign prince) only a tool of that court ----- Thefe private military preparations are conveniently placed for Italy, Monaco be­ ing within four-and-twenty hours fail of any Italian port north of Leghorn. Here I found the great ufe of my new travelling bed—the feet, which are of iron, are placed in tin cups full of water, and a zinzaliere, or gauze curtain with no opening to it, that lets down over me, prevented my be­ ing devoured by gnats and every other fort of biting, flinging vermin-----

I can conceive nothing pleafanter than having a clean comfortable Englilh yatcht, with four or five fenfible people to go with into Italy, coaflingas I do—The fcenery is beautiful—Nice, which 1 pafied by, is a fine object j the fky too is fo clear, every thing feems to confpire in making this voyage delightfub—but, alas! in a felucca, it is too true, what the late Lord D---------- faid, that you never come out of one, without feeling all alive. As foon as the heat of the fun goes off, with the approach of the evenG ing,

82

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

ing, thefe Italian Tailors make a horrid noife too; they Eng, it is true, not unharmonioufly; but for two hours, nay more, the fame hymn to the Virgin—now and then interfperfed with a lively ballad—fo that the Rill part of the evening, which at fea parti­ cularly invites to contemplation or converfation, is ruffled by the gaiety of thefe poor fellows.----- 1 am at prefent in a very good inn, the Golden Stag—and every thing I fee here is fo unlike any thing I ever faw before,. that I am at the window gaping like a country-mifs, that is in London for the firft time in her life-----

When I have gaped to feme purpofe, you fhall profit by it ----- —-

I now wife you and — a good night—

Your’s affectionately.

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

83

LETTER XIX

Genoa, Sept. 16, 1785.

This town

is oddly fituated-~it is fo

much confined between the fea and high mountains; the churches, convents, and their gardens, take up fo much room, that mercantile people can fcarcely find habi­ tations ; the palaces are extremely fine, but fo lofty, and the ftreets fo narrow, that to fee the outfide of the houfes, I think one ihould lie down in the middle of a ftreet----I never faw any thing more truly magnifi­ cent than fome of the palaces, the pillars and ftaircafes of which are all marble----You may judge of the folidity of thefe buildings : fome of them are feven and eight hundred years old—I faw one flair­ cafe, the altering of which coft twenty thoufand pounds. It is well worth any perG 2 fon’s

84

LADY CRAVENS JOURNEY

fon’s while to come here who loves fine pic­ tures---- in moft of the palaces there are fome—a few of the palaces have large col­ lections; and in thefe printed catalogues of them—I have had the greateft pleafure in looking at fome—there are two Vandykes in one of the Brignoli palaces, that I think invaluable. The man is on a grey horfe, the lady his wife, is a whole length—there is as much grace and beauty in her face and figure, as his pencil could exprefs----All the magnificence of the Genoefe is confined to their palaces; by their laws, they cannot have gold either on their clothes, carriages, or liveries. The chief amufemerit of ladies here is walking the ftreets in the evening, with their fedanchair and feveral fervants behind them, ac­ companied by one or more gentlemen—it is very much the fafhion likewife, for every perfon who can afford it, to have one or feveral country-houfes—as they call them; but the fituations of them, perched about the fleep rocks, gives me but little idea of the country. The people in general do not look

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

85

look healthy----- All the women wear what is called a mezzaro, viz. about two yards or more of black fi!k or chintz, wrapped about their heads and (houlders, inftead of a cloak; it is extremely graceful, if well put on. Every woman has an opportunity of hiding a defed, or (hewing a beauty, as they may conceal one eye, the throat, the forehead, the chin, or in fhort fuffer thofe they meet to fee only what they choofe to difplay. The mezzaro too has a great con­ venience, which is, that a woman can fo hide herfelf in it, that fhe may walk all over the town unknown; this mezzaro is particularly advantageous to a perfon with fine fhoulders and eyes. There are but two ftreets in the town where carriages can. go; fo that fedan chairs or walking are the' principal methods of going from one place to another.-----

The females among the lower clafs dif * gufted me much by their head-drefs—their hair is (trained up to a point on the top of their head, and fattened to a pin----- judge what a figure an old greyheaded or bald, woman mutt make.-----

I cannot,

86

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

I cannot help thinking this once flourilhing republic, notwithftanding the opulence of fome of its noble families, is becoming very faft a dependent on, of a creature of the court of France * Some of their nobles marry into French families—anti foon lofe their fortune and their patriotic ideas in the extravagance and fervility of that court— Corfica is a melancholy proof of this opi­ nion— Of the two noble Genoefe, to whom I had letters, the lady is dead, and the gen­ tleman is not here; fp that I have announc­ ed myfelf no where, as I would not be de­ tained here longer than juft to fee the churches and pidures, and though I fhould have been pleafed to have feen the manner of living of the Genoefe nobles, I would not upon any account get into a train of minifters dinners and vifits-----

I have been much furprifed to fee a black Virgin and child in one of the churches here; unlefs it be to tempt Negroes to turn Chriftians, I cannot conceive why they fuffer it to remain—— I have

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

87

I have been on board the Galores—and if the variety of very fine pidures have de­ lighted me, the fight of heavy chains, and fo many human beings enduring flavery for years, has (hocked me beyond defcription ; yet they do not look unhappy ♦ and I think fervitude a more rational punifhment for fome crimes than death ; but 1 flavery to an Englifh mind, I fuppofe, muft be very horrible by what I feel-------Yefterday two Algerine (laves came to my apartment to fell flippers; the oldeft of the two was one. of the handfomeft brown men, with the beft countenance I ever faw 5 he has been a flave five-and-twenty years, and isfufiered to go about without the ufual. attendant, which is a man with a flout flick in his hand, who follows the flaves who walk about the town chained together, always in pairs ——

When I thought upon the fate of this old man j guilty of no crime; a prifoner of war; his looks fo noble and fo honefl; 1 wept, andwifhed I might have had intereft enough

88

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

enough with the Doge and Senate of Genoa to have fent him home to Al­ giers------- -— Thefe fort of pidures in real life, are of a dark hue: I muft therefore again turn to thole I have feen in the palaces ; I confefs I fhould not d'iflike to pa'fs three winter months here to examine them at leifure, -and copy a few. There is a buft of Vitellius in one of the palaces, for which I am affured the Duke of Marlborough offered to give its weight in gold. The fum. muft neceffarily have been very large, for the buft is fo maify that it probably weighs above half any other marble ftatue: But it does much honour to the duke’s tafte, as the work is perfed ; and much likewife to the poffeffor, to prize fo highly what deferves fo well to be efteemed. 1 have been offered any price I choofe to afk for a cheftnut Suffolkhorfe here; the ftable it is in is crowd­ ed every day, and it grieves fome of the Genoefe very much that I will not part with him; but I think a good woman’s horfe

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

89

horfe is fo difficult to be had, that I never can understand how any perfon can part with one-----

Adieu, my dear Sir—Believe me-

LETTER

9»

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER XX.

Pisa-Baths, Sept. 17, tjis.

I Set out again in a felucca, intending to land at Leghorn, but contrary winds or calms became fo tirefome to me, that I landed at an kalian port called Via regia, had my coach taken out, and fet out by land for this place. I have pafled through a foreft of oaks, belonging to the Grand Duke.

Some of thefe oaks are the largeft and fineft looking timber-trees I ever faw ; I am allured here the wood is not hard and good, like our Englilh oak; if fo, I fuppole it is affefled by the climate--------I could not help reflecting in one of the fineft palaces at Genoa on the want of unity and: order, the two principles on which

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

91

which good tafte is founded, that is ever difcovered in the drefs and ornaments of all kinds which foreigners have ■ I haa paffed through an immenfe fuite of rooms, each more magnificent than the othet j when coming into the bed-chamber of the miftrefs * of the houfe, her drefs which fhe had pulled off the night before, even her bracelets and rings lay upon a table, and I can with truth affert, no village-girl could have adorned herfelf with more mean, ordinary, paltry finery than was exhibited; The heir to this noble houfe, a child of about two years old, that had taken a fancy to my looks, and accompanied me through the apartments, was dreifed likewife in a coarfe coloured linen- —

Thefe circumftances were fuch contrails to the houfe, that it brought to my mind a hundred examples of the like in France, where ofleii, to get at the moft elegant Salle de Conlpagnle^ you are obliged to pafs through a dirty antichamber, where you are forced to hold up your petticoats, that

92

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

that you may not fweep in to the inner rooms a load of filth. In the ftreets you meet a magnificent carriage, attended by fervants in coftly liveries, drawn by a pair of dog-horfes, the harnefs of which a hack­ ney-coachman would not ufe with us; and frequently at Paris the fin eft hotels have their architecture difgraced by the black funnel of a temporary chimney, run­ ning out at a window or through a cor­ nice’----- -

Thefe incongruities cannot be imagined, nor believed, but by thofe that have feen them. With us cleanlinefs-conftitutes our firft elegance ; and fitnefs of things is next confidered; and I believe it is the combi­ nation of thefe two circumftances which enchants foreigners of fenfe and parts fo much in England-,-----

The Grand Duke and Duchefs are here, fo that the apartments ufually let out to company are taken up by them, and their fuite

I have

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

93

I have hired a comfortable houfe here by the week; thefe baths, firft built by the Roman Emperors, are kept in excellent re­ pair j and well they may, for the bathing is exceflively dear----There is a public room at the palace, where the company affemble about nine in the evening; the heat in the day is excefiive j all the Italians lie down and deep after dinner, and get upto drefs about fix, walk afterwards, and meet in the great room. I met the Grand Duchefs laft night, with another lady j I had not the leaf! idea who fhe was, being followed by a tingle foot­ man in grey j file looked at me with the greateft attention, and curtfied very civil­ ly 5 I curtfied and flared at her, from her extreme likenefs to my coufin of witty me­ mory, the late lady T-----

I was peftered to death with queflions about my harp at night. I find a harp with pedals is a very rare thing in Italy, and an Englilh perfon meets with homage little fhort of adoration. The very fhopkeepers 3 and

94

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

and peafants look in my face and fay—

Cara—Cara Inglefe------Thefe baths are very good for palfies, paralytic diforders, gout, rheumatifm> and fcrophulous complaints; Pifa and Lucca are near j Pifa, I find, the Grand Duke pre­ fers to Florence. I fhould think an invalid might pafs a comfortable winter h$re-?-

Hoping that you may never come here as one, I finifh this letter-----

Yours affectionately

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

95

LETTER XXI.

Pisa-Baths, Sept. t$, 17S5.

I Have rode over to Pifa, where I have been much entertained; the cathedral, the baptiftery, and the Campo Santo are well worthy a voyage from England-The leaning tower, which you may probably have feen, or at leaft read and heard many accounts of, is a proof, among many others, that in all ages fancy is too often miftaken for tafte—---- -It has the appearance of patchwork, from the variety of orders of architefture difplayed in the pillars, which (land in rows one above the other, from the bafe to the top-------- As to the learned in building pretending to fay the tower was built leaning, only to /hew the excellence of the workman/hip, they certainly

96

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

certainly delude themfelves, or delire to impofe upon credulous perfons-------- There are many proofs of the ground having funk; one infallible, according to my judgment; and that is, the firft row of pillars being above half buried in the earth-------- This tower Rands by itfelf—fome paces from it I entered the cathedral through brafs doors brought from Jerufalem, reprefenting, in relievo, the hiftory of Chrift— but I would prefer the poffeflion of one pannel of the folding doprs on the oppolite fide of the cathedral to the whole of thefe; for the modern relievo, executed by John of Bologna, is full of grace and nature; while the ancient feems chifeled out by an awkward carpenter------- There is a beau­ tiful urn placed on a pillar on the outfide of the church, which was (hewn formerly as the cup which meafured the tribute paid to Caefar—but that miftake is now rec­ tified, and the true ancient ufe rcftored to it—it contained the afhes of fome illuftrious perfonage------- A fine farcophagus is likewife placed at the door of the cathe­ dral, as a monument to the Comteffe Matilda

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

97

Matilda—who was fovereign of this coun­ try—and is faid pioufly to have added much to the magnificence of thefe buildings— but the croifades have afforded their moft curious relics------I refer you to books for a precife and minute account of all that is to be feen in this vaft and magnificent cathedral; I have only time to give you a few’ obfervations--------

The chief altar is compofed moftly of lapis lazuli and all that is rare and coftly—Some of the pictures are fine, but the ca­ thedral is too dark to permit them to be feen to advantage -At the lower end is a handfome farcophagus to the memory of the Emperor Henry VII. who was poifoned by a prieft at the holy table with a confecrated wafer--------

I quitted the Cathedral to go into the Baptiilery, a building (landing like the tower at a fmall diftance irom the cathedral; it is fhaped like a handlome bell—-the firft and H fecond

98

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

fecond row of pillars on the outfide of this, one above the other, are in a good Rile; but the man dying without leaving a drawing, or plan of his intentions towards the finifhing, the upper part is finifhed in the gothic Rile, and ill done-------There are granite pillars at the entrance, very fine indeed-----------

The front is very remarkable, it is immenfely large, of white marble, beautiful Mofaic fculpture in different pannels, which furround the outfide—and the defign of every one differs from the others, fo that there are not two alike----The fculpture too of the pulpit is very fine; it reprefents a groupe of perfonages ----- 1 was told they were all portraits— many of the faces are ridiculous caricatures ----- but fome barbarous travellers have plucked off feveral of the heads; a thing eafily done by a ftrong hand, as they are not fo large as my fill, when doubled; if

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

99

you have never feen that, you may guefs at the fize from what I fay------The Campo Santo is earth brought from Jerufalem, which had the Angular pro­ perty of deftroying the dead bodies put into it, four-and-twenty hours after they had lain there. It was the burying-place of the noble Pifans, when Pifa was a Hourifhing republic ; at prefent no ufe is made of it •, it is an oblong fquare built round with a cloifler; the length is three hundred and fifty feet, in the center is depofed the holy earth, round which reign Gothic arches forming doors and windows, thefe arches are fo light and fimple, that they feem to hold together by magic power; and if any thing could reconcile me to the Gothic, thefe arches would: againft the wall on the oppofite fide from the cloifler, there are the remains of a painting en frefque upon the plafter, which is very fine.----- This plafter or flucco is broken off in feveral places, and difcovers that the outlines of the painting were done upon the wall, be­ fore the flucco was laid on; this appears H 2 perfectly

100

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

perfectly incomprehenfible, as the flucco is thick, and can never have been tranfparent —but I am affured that the red lines un­ derneath, which appear to me to be com­ mon chalk pencil, were done with a compofition which pierced through the ftucco when wet, in a faint line, the only way of accounting for this lingular circumftance —I confefs the drawing on the wall is done with fo much more freedom and boldnefs than the painting expreffes, that I wifhed all the flucco fallen off, that I might fee all the fpirit of the defign at once.----- As I walked back through the town, 1 was (hewn an ugly flrange-lhaped tower, where Ugolino and his innocent family were ftarved to death—As 1 looked at it, I thought, that if every man in thefe days, who did not exert his utmoft abilities to fave his country, was ftarved to death, there might be formed a large regiment of good cooks wanting employment--------

The grafs grows in every ftreet in the town; a melancholy proof of the fad reverfe this

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

IOI

this city exhibits to that picture it once gave the admiring world---------- -

There are many remarkable mouments placed in the cloiflers of the Campo Santo. The King of Pruffia has erected one in memory of Algarotti—-I cannot poflibly give you a lift of them—I only mean to be your finger poft, juft to point out to you what is worth feeing, if chance or choice ihould lead you this way---------- I was (hewn feveral curious ftatues, and pillars in the ftreets; till night only, as ufual, fent me home-----

Adieu, dear Sir, Believe me moft affectionately ■■ .........

LETTER

102

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER

XXIL

Pisa-Bath.% Sept. 20, 1785.

Since

I wrote laft, I have been to fee

Lucca—a virgin republic, for it has never loft its liberty. The motto over the gates, or wherever it can be placed, is Libertas. The territories belonging to it are only forty-ftx miles long from St. Pellegrins to the Pifan mountains, and nineteen from Via regia to Porquetto, the half of which town belongs to the Tufcan dominion------- —

Lucca is extremely well fortified j crouds of people in the ftreet, and a look of opu­ lence among the bourgeoifie prove the good effect of their motto. The oil is remark­ ably good here. I was fhewn the Cathedral, which has nothing very remarkable in it but a circular chapel, the fliape of which is pleafing, 1

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

103

pleating, and it has four flatues of the Apoftles, good. I was told this chapel, dedicated to the Virgin, was tranfported in one night, entire, from another church at fome diftance. The figure of the Virgin I could not fee, it was covered up j (he wears conflantly golden flippers, and there is a (kull of one of the fenators of Lucca, who was hung for dealing one of them, though he declared that (he flung it at him, as he was praying at her feet for more wealth— I met in the inn --------- , whom I cer­ tainly (hould not have rccolleded again, his countenance is fo altered: I believe the Mufes (hould not marry, and he certainly is one ----------

There is fomething romantic and pittorefque in the manner of training the vines here. In the low grounds they twine round the trees which furround the little enclofures, and hang in fefloons from one tree to another. The oxen too are of a particular kind; very large, and of no other colour but a light grey j in a fmall field I have

104

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

have feen thefe yoked to a plough, prepar­ ing one corner of it fvr corn, while the reft was filled with melons, olive, and fig-trees: 1 am told the fun is powerful enough to bring the fruits of the earth to perfection through the branches of the trees ; if fo, they are extremely carelefs in making their wine; there is little or none to be bought good.-----

I do not know what people mean by fay­ ing Italy is a beautiful country ; a want of fine trees and turf makes it in general very ugly. If travellers would content themfelves with faying, that in Italy, a perfon who is paflionately fond of the fine arts might find conftant amufement, I believe the praife would be juft ; but when led by their enthufiafm for them, they fay, Italy is the fineft country in the world, they prepare many people, as eafy in their faith as I am, to be as much difappointed as I have been----A lady on a fide-faddle is an objed of great wonder here; the peafants who pafs me

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

105

me on the right hand, when I am on horfeback, the women, particularly, fay, Pove­ rtna—Jeju Maria—Povera—una garnbia—

They adually fancy I have one leg only; their flare of concern always makes me laugh ; and then they add cara to their la­ mentations. In a day or two I fhall fet out for Florence, from whence I fhall write to you. I confefs I long to fee the Venus de Medicis, and the Niobe family. I do not envy the Grand Duke his fovereignty; but his collection of perfections, I confefs, I fhould like to fhare with him-----

Adieu—your’s affectionately--------- ,

LETTER

io6

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER XXIII.

Florence, Sept. 38, 1785.

I Hope you do not expert a very rational

letter from me, as I have been three days fucceflively to fee the ftatues and pidures, and am fo much delighted with them, that 1 am at a lofs how to give you an account of my feelings, otherwife than by telling you, that while I am in the Tribune, the vulgar idle tale of real life never once comes into my mind, and I feel quite happy j and if till now I have been forry often, when I have felt confcious of having nice feelings, or what is commonly called tafte, at this moment I am extremely glad of it; I think and dream of nothing but the ftatues, from the time I leave them till I fee them again j fo till a few days repetition of the fame fights has familiarized my head to them, I fhall

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

107

fhall content myfelf with telling you two little adventures I have had; which may prove to you I have neither loft my eye-fight nor my pleafantry upon occafions which fret and anger others

I fet out from the Pifa baths on the 23d in the afternoon; 1 fent on my coach and fome of my fervants two pofts, and went on horfcback myfelf: when I got about half way, I pafied by a gentleman in an Englifh phaeton, whofe curiofity I fuppofe w’as awakened by an Englifh horfe and fide-faddle. From an uncommon flow trot he flew after me full gallop; I was warned of this frightful operation by my fervant, and had juft time to turn my horfe into a gateway ; he could not flop his horfes im­ mediately, but being determined to fee me, as foon as he could, he pulled up, and went as flow as it was poflible: I thought this fo impertinent, that I determined on my part, that he fhould not fee me; fo I defired the perfon who accompanied me to follow me; and I pafied by the left fide of the phaeton as • faft as my horfe could go, with

io8

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

with my hat and head fo low, that the foolilh man could not fee me. My horfe is a moft excellent and fleet one, and I kept him on till my purfuer gave up the chafe; and I then, when out of his fight, turned into a farm-yard, and hid myfelf, till I faw the phaeton pafs again ; fo I pofi lively got to my carriage without being feen by this curious gentleman-------The man at the poft-houfe, upon my alking for fomething to drink, brought me a bottle of white wine, which he told me he had made himfelf, and which he would have given to no one but me; it was the very beft white lever tailed fince I drank •Din d’Arbois, with which Henry quatre ufed to drink to his fair Gabrielle; but I mixed it with water, parcequilfaut que les Dames mettent un peu d’eau dans leur win-----

The man was quite offended at my of* fering to pay for it------- -— So I thanked him with one of my belt fmiles, and got into my coach, where I had not 1

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

icp

not been above two hours before I was fail afleep, and waked only to fee the walls of Florence, which do not feem calculated to defend it from any enemies, but thofc which fmuggling might create to the Tufcan fovereign’s purfe--------

I went to Mcggit’s inn, and got into bed about four o’clock in the morning. I have the fame apartment my mother and Lady Louifa H-------- occupied—when there. The next day, the firfl thing I did, was to go and fee the Venus de Mcdicis : -I was (hewn a youthful figure oppofite as an Apollo; and after I had examined it fome time, I afked why it was called an Apollo. Does not Eccclenza fee, fays the guide, his attribute the lyre? I do, returned I, but that is modern to the ftatue; I made my obfervation; the man laughed. You arc perfectly right, faid he, and I do not know any other reafon for its being an Apollo, than becaufe probably that God was thought a proper companion for the Venus. But how did you know thofe pieces were reftored ?

1IO

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

flored? faidhe; I told him from fome obfervations I had made upon other fine works of that fort----However this flatue is very pleafing; but I do not think it has the commanding look of the God of day. I looked at the face with delight; for about the nofe and upper lip it put me in mind of my dear fon William, who, probably, is now nearly as tall----It Is lucky for my friends that I have that fon and fome others, for in the humour I am in, I equid almoft be tempted to remain a prifoner for life, upon condition my ca­ chet was the Tribune; and I would afk for no other company than the heavenly inani­ mate figures in it, their filence is fo much more eloquent than language, their forms fo harmonious. I think you begin not to underftand me, and as I am not at ali cer­ tain, if your ear and your eye agree toge­ ther, as mine do, I will not attempt to ex­ plain what may be felt, but not defcribed ; fo I beg you would recoiled 1 did not promife

TO CONSTANTINOPLE*

111

mife this letter (bould be perfectly rational; and I believe I am in my fober fenfes, when I have courage to end my rhap-

I remain your’s affedionately —

P. S. Apropos, on looking over my let­ ter, I find that I have forgot to tell you, the only objed I took notice of, from my coach going to Florence, was the moon; it put me in mind of what Mr. de Caraccioli fays ; que la lune de Naples ‘valait bien le foleiI d?Angleterre; however our Englifh fun has but one fault notwithftanding the Mar­ quis’s witty remark; and that is the fame that an Englifh mind has—peeping through a cloud too often. The Venus fuited the ideas I had formed of her-, but the Niobe family furpafled them; there is a horfe be­ longing to that, which is not placed in the room

iiz

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

room with them, and which certainly was held by the bridle by one of the fons. Every thing elfe feems to be in perfed order-----

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

"3

XXIV.

October ia, 1785, Th IS city is very clean and chearful; Florence,

the ftreets are paved with large flat pieces of rock, unlike any other pavement I have feen, and much fmoother; fine ftatues and relievos in marble fland in the fquaresand angles of ftreets, without having any thing to proted them but the refped the very loweft people have for them—Sir Horace Mann, Lord Cowper, the Prince Corfini, the Lucca minifter Comte Santini, and the Comte d’Albany, give great dinners hereto all foreigners of diftindion; but the Floren­ tine noblefle never invite any one to dine or fup at their houfes—When they give an entertainment, it is an aflembly, where every creature that can call itfelf a gentle­ man or gentlewoman, can eafily go—I was at one the other night given on account of a wedding, and though it was but a few I paces

114

LADY CRAVEN’s JOURNEY

paces from our Englilh minifler’s houfe, all his carriages, horfes, and fervants, paraded with flambeaux to the houfe—1 went in one of his coaches with him—The miftrefs of the houfe, and bride, flood at the door to receive every body, and curtfey to them as they paffed-^-The number of rooms opened and illuminated upon fuch an occafion is incredible—I was told in this houfe there were eleven rooms which were not r feen, becaufe they \tere not flnifhed—I could not help obferving that all the handfome Florentines are very like the Englilh, an effect perhaps of the great partiality the Italian ladies have for my country people. What I mean is, that as they have conftantly fo many Englilh people here, their looking at them conflantly may very natu­ rally occafion the likenefs----The Italian ladies are very good-humored, which is more than I can fay for their neigh­ bours the French j and they have like wife more nafural civility to flrangers; for they do not flar" at them, and whifper to one another, fo as to leave no doubt to the Anglaife

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

1 >5

Anglaife that her drefs is criticifed ; but they fpeak to her, and if they remark any thing new to them, they do not tell her, ce rieft pas a-la~mode—but they fuppofe it is the fafhion of the country (he is come from----The fovereign might make Florence a paradife; but he keeps no court----- There is nothing about his manner of living that betrays either the gaiety or magnificence that naturally belon * to royalty—Any perfbn whofe rank fuits prefentation might be prefented to the Grand Duke or Duchefs, but I fhall certainly not be fo; for fovereigns, like the fun, (hould chear with their rays the people who look up to them; and when they choofe to hide thofe rays in a corner, ftrangers muft be very foolilh to go and feek them out, difturb their privacy, and gain neither pleafure nor amufement by it. Florence fwarms with Englifh-The operas here are very indifferent----In the palaces here, there are generally feveral indifferent pictures mixed with a few good ones----- There are two Apoftles out of four, painted by Carlo Dolci, in the I 2 Palazzo

116

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

Palazzo Riccardi, which I think invaluable; there is a Mufe by the fame in the Palazzo Corfini-----

The Grand Duke has juft purchafed from the Dini family a pidure done by Guercino da Cento, and placed it in the Tribune; it is an Endymion fleeping the fweetnefs and beauty of the countenance are enchant­ ing; but Guercino was fo taken up with the mortal, that he has reprefented the Goddefs in one corner of the £ky, like the paring of of a nail, however this new pur­ chafe is well worthy a place in the Tribune; It coft the Grand Duke not quite an hun­ dred guineas----I have been obliged again to afliire the French, at the French minifter’s table the other day, that Sir George Elliot was not born of French parents-----

Sterne’s adventure about Yorick, I have now good reafon to believe was a fad; for I was afked too by a Frenchman if Sir Jolhua Reynolds did not build St. Paul’s. I think

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

117

1 think Frenchmen fhould never quit Paris; for they do not choofe to be acquainted with the chronology or genealogies of any other nation but their own. The only thing which feems to deljght the French minifter here is, that the bridge over the Arno, which is juft before his windows, puts him in mind of the Pont-neuf at Paris; the only obfervation I have ever heard him make upon the beauties of this town---- -

Judge of my furprife the other morning. Meggit came running in hafte to my apart­ ments, to aflure me, that Lord B------- ■ would be here in two or three days, he was at Venice he faid, and produced a letter to prove his afiertion; but as I thought I was more likely to have intelligence than he was, and as the name was not fpelt right, 1 contented myfelf with telling him to referve, as long as he could, an apartment adjoining to mine, then empty, and promifed him I fhould endeavour to make him lodge there ; though my brother wrote me word,

118

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

word, he fhould have une maifon montee if he fhould pafs the winter in Italy; but I think it will be lefs trouble for him and me to be here, if Florence is the place he fixes in-----

There is a charming ride here about a mile from the town, in a wood of the Grand Duke’s, called the Cafhins, (where the ladies walk or go in phaetons, Called here Biroches)—but its chief beauty, the moft enormous firs I ever beheld, are now fellingj There is alfo a dairy, where cream, milk, and butter are fold, at a royal price indeed. There is an excellent invention in it to keep the milk fweet in this hot climate, the pans are placed in a trough or frame, full conftantly of frefh water, which runs in at one end and out at the other.—Talking of inventions too * I wonder why in all great cities they do not copy one from the clock in the Piazza di gran Duca here, the figures {hewing the hour are tranfparencies, with a light behind them; fo that in the darkeft night, the fober citizen can fee what hour of the night it Is i Lucca

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

119

Lucca Giordano’s painting en frefque here I admire * though he was called fa prejio becaufe he ended in three weeks what moft painters would have been two years about; but the genius that could produce fuch effed by drawing, in fo fhort a time, has that freedom and grace, which the precifion attendant on ftudy feldom can give----Mifs Davies is here, and I am very forry fhe does not fing at the opera; for her voice and manner pleafe me more than any thing I have heard here----Your’s affedionately-----

P. S. The Titian Venus, and the child by Titian in the Strozzi palace, are both much impaired by time; very foon the copies will be invaluable, becaufe neceflarily all the beauties of the originals muft vanilh-----

LETTER

i2e

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER

XXV.

Bologna, Nov. 15, 1785.

I Received nbout a week fince a letter

from Lord B----- , informing me that he could not pafs this winter in Italy; fo I im­ mediately determined mycourfe; and it is North. Now I am on the wing, I will fee courts and people that few women have feen, as I may never have an opportunity of travelling again j and I will make the beft ufe of my time; few as the months are I can allow myfelf to run about in, I will employ them, I hope, to my fatisfadion and your amufement—— I flopped my coach to look at the flame which iffues conftantly from the ground about

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

121

about four miles from Fillegara: Mr. Dutens mentions it in his Itinerary. From Florence to Fillegara the road winds round one brown mountain to another; but to-day the landfcape improved much or. my ap­ proaching Loiano. Some fpots were not unworthy the pencil of Salvator Rofa.— *There is a beautiful defeent of a mile and a half to Pianoro; I there got upon my horfe and rode to this place; and I can never believe it is ten miles from Pianoro here, which I am allured it is. I lodge at the Locando Reale, a large inn, the miftrefs of which allured me the PrinccfsCzartorilka was in Bologna; but it proves to be the Princels Lubomirfka, her fifter-in-law, whom I do not know; I have only time to tell you, if you fhould ever pafs through this city, that you muft afk to fee the Palazzo Zampicri, the church of St. Giovanni in monte, and a few others. This is a clean looking town, but I do not comprehend the dialed!; 1 had accuftomed mvfelf to the Tufcan manner of fubftituting the H for the C; but here, I do not conceive what letters they put in the ✓

122

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

the place of thofe which they ought to pro­ nounce — ------------------

1 can tell you no more at prefent. I mean to get to Venice as foon as poflible ; from^ thence to Vienna, and I afterwards intend to proceed to Warfaw and Peterfburgh. 1 take the advantage of the winter, in hopes 1 may go on a fledge the greateft part of my road, for I hate the jumbling of a coach, though mine is as eafy as poflible. Pray do not make yourfelf unhappy concerning the delicacy of my conftitution, and the dread of pulmonary affections, for I affure you I have neither had a pain in my breaft, nor fpit blood, fince I quitted the environs of Paris, which makes me fuppofe the air of that part of France did not agree with me; and I hope the frequent change of air I am taking will ftrengthen my conftitution, fo that I fhall never have any re ** turns of thofe ugly complaints j it is now

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

123

now four months fince I was laft troubled with them. Adieu, dear Sir; believe that the greater the diftance is between me and the objeds of my affedion, the more I am anxious to hear from them, fo write often to your affedionate filler-----

LETTER

124

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER

XXVI.

Venice, Nov. 18, 1785.

I Stopped for a moment at Cento,

to fee the pidure which is called Guercino’s chef d'au'vre-, he was born there, and is buried in the Cathedral. From thence I proceeded to Ferrara, my road to which I advife none to go by night; the country all about is fo low and flat, that the road, to be paflable, is raifed upon a caufeway, with nothing to prevent your horfesfrom rolling down on one fide or the other; it is extremely narrow like wife. Ariofto, who was born and died at Ferrara, did pot gallop his Pegafus, or invoke his Mufe in the clay, and among the difmal poplars to be feen in the fmall fields thereabouts; I went about three miles an ho.ur, I flept at Ferrara,, and among twenty things ferved up to my table at fupper, I could eat nothing but celery. In Italy

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

Italy cinnamon is an ingredient they put into every difh, which I have a mortal averfion to, woodcocks flewed in fugar, and chickens roafted till they are as hard and as dry as wood—voila la cuifine-----

I embarked with rtiy coach in a very good boat at a place called Francolino, and was rowed down the Po; I had a fine clear {ky, and did not feel that I was in the month of November: From the Po I came into a canal, and from thence into the Brenta, a pretty but narrow river; except the Sorgue, it was the only clear ftream I had looked into fince I had left my native Thames5 I heard much of the beautiful villas on the borders of the Brenta; but I faw none that gave me the idea of elegance or beauty on the outfide----A mile before I arrived at Fufino, a vil­ lage, where I was obliged to leave my coach and faddle-horfes, I pafled a lock which feparates the fait water from the frefli, and there quitted the land, going five miles acrofs the fea, intermixed with flat fands, to

126

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

to get into the great canal at Venice. I had juft read the Abbe Coyer, who fays, Rome eft batie par les hommes; mats Venife par les Dieux, and I had formed fome idea of it from the pidures I had feen, and expeded to fee a gay clean looking town, with quays on each fide of the canals; but was ex­ tremely difappointed; the houfes are in the water, and look dirty and uncomfortable on the outfide; the fine palaces have moft of them above half their windows fhut up by dirty fhutters not painted. The innumerable quantity of gondolas 'too, that look like fwimming coffins, added to the difmal fcene; and, I confefs, Venice on my arrival ftruck me rather with horror than with pleafure; but now that I am accuftomed to a gondola, have feen the infide of the Cafini, and have trufted to my own eyes about feveral things, I cannot fay I diflike Venice in the leaft. The whole fcene is unlike any thing I could have ima­ gined : I walk all the morning, and that is the beft way of feeing the town and peo­ ple. There are narrow paflages that you arrive

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

127

arrive at from one to another by bridges which crofs the fmall canals; the famed Rialto is built acrofs the large canal, the arch of which is very noble and light 5 but there are three diftind pafiages over it, formed by rows of (hops, the tops of which are fo heavy that they disfigure this fine •bridge very much; you may walk quite from one end of Venice to the other. The extraordinary figures I faw in the Piazza San Marco would tempt one to believe, it is a bal mafque en plein air. We are not now’ in the time of the Carnaval; but I meet as many men in black dominos and mafks as without them; thefe are the no­ ble Venetians, who, conftantly watched by the ftate-fpies, dare not go about unmafked: for if an ambaffador’s fervant, or L a minifter, or conful of any other nation, was feen fpeaking to a noble Venetian, he might be imprifoned: The laws are fo exceflively ft rid upon this fubjed, that the Corps diplomatique are confined extremely in their fociety, and I am amazed any gen­ tleman can accept of an embafly to a place where the natives muft avoid them, as if they

iz8

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

they were infeded with the plague.----Strangers pals their time well here; for nothing can be more fociable, civil, and magnificent, than the minifters are to one another, and ftrangers prefented to them— The Cafini are v,ery fmall houfes hired by one perfon, or a fet of people, to meet in of an evening, where cards, converfation, tea, coffee, lemonade, &c. and a well feleded fociety confpire to give pleafure: Thefe Cafini are fitted up with an elegance of which you can form no idea; I have dined in one, which has fo fine a view from it, that from the neatnefs and tafle of the in fide, and of the magnificence of the objeds on the without, 1 could almoft have fancied a little fairy’s palace. Venice feems to me to be a new world, retired and different from any other I have feen ; the Venetian ladies are fome of them very handfome, and a few of them are moft re­ markably determined in their refolutions. It is not an uncommon thing here for a lady, married in the morning, to declare to her parents before night that the has taken

an

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

129

an averfion to her huiband, who, upon fuch an occafion, is forced with the parents to apply to the great matter of the church (the Pope) who is always good enough to admit of the reafons given him, as fufficient to grant a divorce; the lady, one© out of her convent, bears the name of her own family in the world, and the gentle­ man looks out for another wife--------

Nothing is more frequent here than to fee a Venetian lady quit her palace, for months together, to live in a cafino; of which the hufband perhaps does not even know the fituation; I could divert you ex­ tremely with fome Venetian anecdotes, but I have no leifure to make this letter much longer; for between my Venetian acquaintance and the ambaffadors I have fcarcely time to breathe. The Comte Juftiniani was delighted to fee me again; he has promifed to accompany me to the Arfenal, which is extremely large, and where the man, who ihewed it to me, was pleafed to fay, the State was building frigates of a hundred guns each, and twenty K fuch

130

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

fuch lies. The ancient families of Venice are the moft pure nobleffe in Italy, and that idea, together with their natural fpirit and extraordinary fituation, will produce many brave and gallant foldiers among them, whenever a good caufe calls them into the field-------Adieu, dear Sir, I have three gondolas waiting at my door for me, fo I quit my pen.—

letter

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

x3i

LETTER. XXVII.

I Have been to fee the Doge’s palace, and the church in the Piazza San Marco, both Gothic, and what is very {Locking to the eye, the fine bronze horfes brought from Conftantinople are perched over the door of the church. Books will inform vou more minutely than I can of the pictures to be feen in Venice. The council chamber is a very fine room ; but all the paintings in it are dirty ; I went likewife into the court of juftice, becaufe every body was running to hear I’Avocato Stephano; and I thought from the grimaces and gefticulations Italians make ufe of in common converfation, fome entertainment, might be expected from one, upon an occafion, where art would natu­ rally produce action. Nor was ! deceived; nothing can be more comic than what I faw—his pleading was fcolding---and his two

132

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

two thumbs which he had Ruck upright, and moved very quickly from and near his breafl, was perhaps the moR ridiculous ac­ tion that ever was imagined, nor can I con­ ceive how any perfons, much lefs the judges, could, keep their countenances. It is impoflible for you to imagine any thing more entertaining than the Piazza San Marco: people of every nation, and in drefles I never faw, and indeed nevercan fee but at Venice, are lounging in the fliops andcoffee-houfes; and it is a great amufement to me as I walk there every morning. But I never flay long, for they read Englilh in my looks; and their love for any thing of that nation is fo great, that they will come from the other end of the Piazza to look at an Englifli woman-----

There are two fine lions at the door of the Arfenal, in marble, brought from the entrance of the Piraean port: it is a pity I cannot make them fpeak, they might tell me many things I want to know about Athens----i

The

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

J33 The houfe I lodge in is miferably cold, it is upon the grand canal—and as the gla­ ziers here fcldom put putty to the panes of glafs, the winds come in- This damp feaair agrees perfe&ly well with me -----

Provifions are very good here ; every lady feems determined to be amufed and chearful, and I think I could pafs a very merry winter here; there are feveral theatres, and I have been to an opera—very good. The Ruffian minifter’s wife is Madame de -------- ’s daughter, a very young, and very amiable modeft woman. The Minifter’s wife from Vienna is likewife extremely fenfible and polite, and her huffiand the beft man in the world ; and I muft not forget, for the honour of our country, Madame de ------- , who from her charming difpofition and talents I abfolutely love fo much, that it will be a grief to me to part with her. The Ruffian Minifter’s wife often talks to me of Stowe in raptures, though ffie was quite a child when ffie pafied fome days there-----

Mr.

i3+

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

Mr. Emo’s floating batteries are much fpoken of here; I underftand they were five hours and a half before the forts of Golleta; fo I have defired a receipt to make them, and I have it as exactly to be copied as any receipt to make a good pye; I (hall give it to G B----- , who being a profeflbr in the art of war, may prefent to our ene­ mies a difli of the fame fort of his making, whenever occafion requires he fhould treat them according to their deferts——

I muft tell you a moft ridiculous thing that has happened to two Englifh travellers that arc.here now, and advife every gentle­ man who cannot fpeak German, not to tra­ vel in Germany without a companion, or fervant that knows the language. . Thefe gentlemen not having either, were in great hafte to arrive at Venice from Vienna; they left, a large town they had flept at over night, one morning, and, after travelling poft for two days, found themfelves drove into the ve.ry town they had quitted, eightand-forty hours before. If they hate the motion

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

*35

motion of a carriage as I do; I can eafily guefs how angry they mull have been----I am advifed to take a new road to Vi­ enna as the beft. I fhall write from thence, I hope foon ; as I do not mean to proceed in a retrograde motion—fo with all kind wifhes to your fire-fide-----

I remain—yours affectionately.

L R T T F R

136 LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER XXV11I.

Vienna, Dec. 14, 1785.

I Came, as I told you I was advifed, by a new road but I ffiould imagine from the difficulties I met with it was the worft. It is true, fome of them were owing to rivers, which, fwelled by the late rains, are be­ come torrents which have carried whole vil­ lages and many miles of the road before them-----

I fet out from Venice on the 30th of laft month, going by water to Meftre, where my coach and horfes met me. I meant that night to have flept at Mr- ------- , at Cornegliano; but the weather was fo bad that I was obliged to flay at a village called Trevifa, where there is an excellent and clean inn. The next day, I endeavoured to crofs the river, but the boatmen would not ven­ ture

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

137

ture over, though 1 had my coach embark­ ed, and would have gone myfelf, knowing I was I was expeded by Mr. obliged to return to the good inn—where I was furprifed to fee, what I thought a fine large chicken ferved up to my table, which upon cutting, 1 found to have brownflefli; I aiked what it was, and was anfwered— una Colombina—it was a pigeon. I begged to fee one alive, or at leaft with the feathers on, for it muft have been a moft extraordi­ nary fight; but the people feemed more aftonifhed at my admiration of this bird than I was at the fize of it; for it is the com­ mon pigeon there-----

The next day, the rain and wind being fomewhat abated, I got to Cornegliano, and you may imagine the real pleafure 1 was re­ ceived with by a countryman, who had not feen me for many years, and that in my own houfe in the country. I never was more delighted in my life than by the mafic I heard there; his eldeft daughter, a child about feven years old, plays on the harpfichord with a tafte and feeling at which few

138

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

people, more advanced in age and mufic, ever arrive. Her lifter too, an infant of five years of age, played and fung her part afterwards wonderfully for her years----In the evening many of the Venetian nobleffe came to partake of the concert, and fee the Donna Inglefe; among Mr.-------- ’s country neighbours there were feveral who were as fat, fair, and heavy as many of our Englilh Country ’Squires, and, like them, had never ftirred from their family manlion ; and I fancy the Englilh lady and her horfes, will be the fubjed of their fire-lide con ver­ fat ion for fome time—rThe next day I patted the Taillamanta, a river which had torn and wafhed away the road for nine miles before I came to it; fo 1 travelled in a bed of gravel, every now and then jumping into and out of £ little ditch formed by the different torrents. The river was frightful to pafs. I got to San Daniello, from which place, this new road is called the San Daniello road; from thence to

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

*39

to Pontiebba, the road is good; but winds round rocks according to the turns of a ri­ ver, which was fometimes on the right, fometimes on the left, in a moft beautiful manner. It is fo narrow, that I think it the moft dangerous 1 ever went, nothing between the precipice and the carriage to prevent an accident. It would be well worth any perfon’s while, who is as fond of the beauties of nature as I am, to ride along this road. The views arc romantic and majeftic beyond delcription---Trevi fa, which is the place I next flept at, I arrived at with much difficulty ; my coach drawn with ten horfes and four oxen ; and you can form to yourfelf no idea of the obftinacy, and provoking phlegm of a Ger­ man poftillion or poftmafter. At one place, tired of the fnail-Iike pace I went, I hired a traineau of a pea fa nt, and went on before my carriage. It feeins there is an order at every frontier town in Germany, not to fuffer ft rangers who travel without pofthorfes, to leave the town without ftaying in it two hours; this the German poft-mafter

T4O

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

ter did not choofe to tell me, nor did he refufe me another traineau and horfes, but fat with two other fat Germans playing at cards, without deigning to give me any other anfwer than—Patienxa, to any thing I could fay to him. When I recoiled the fcene of thefe three fat men playing at cards, their figures, and all I faid in Italian to perfuade the man and his patlenza I could die with laughing ; however, in about an hour, an officer came in , who looking at me fome time, faid, Paries vous Francais ?—Mon Pieut oui Monficur, fays I; and I found, the poft-mafter’s deafnefs proceeded from his not being able to talk Italian very well, French not at all; fo he took me for an im­ patient boy, and fent me to Coventry. When the gentleman called me Miladiz thefe three fat Germans deigned to look at me ; for I muft tell you that in this coun­ try, the refpeci paid to our fex is fuch, that it is enough for a woman to fpeak, the is obeyed immediately; and I had a traineau, and fix horfes for my coach ready in an in­ flant. One night i flept at Klagenfurt, a large town, where one of the Emperor’s unmarried

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

141

unmarried lifters lives. I am arrived here at laft, through a very beautiful country; but muft obferve, that whoever wrote L. M——’s Letters (for fhe never wrote a line of them) mifreprefents things moft terribly; I do really believe, in moft things they wifhed to impofe upon the credulity of their readers, and laugh at them. The ftoves of this country, which fhe praifes fb much, are the moft horrid invention you can conceive. The country people in Ger­ many feem to fear the cold very much ; the cafements of their windows are double; and there being no chimney in the rooms, there is no vent for fumes of any fort, fo that the breath of the inhabitants of them refts in drops of fteam on all the tables, &c. and the ftink and fuffbeating heat that affails the traveller’s fenfes when he enters any room, particularly where people are, cannot be conceived. J do not believe the German women, of the lower order, are very gentle tempers; for feveral of them flew into the moft violent paflions, when I opened a door or window, and fhut them again immediately. My only refource upon thefe

142

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

thefe occafions was to go out into the yard—As to the Roves being ornamental; I think they are frightful from the compofition of them, thesround work of which muft be iron to refill the fire within : the glazing, painting, and varnifh foon moulder off; and 1 leave you to judge, from this in­ evitable circumflance, together with ano­ ther, which is the fize of them, how it is poflible they can reprefent either China jars or any other thing that may be elegant or pretty, as a flove fills up one corner of the room-----

In this town, feveral of the fiifl houfcs have fine comfortable clnmnies, and Roves are, where they Riould be—in the anti­ chamber. The difierence of the chcarfulnels which a good fire gives to a room, to that which reigns in one where there is only a Rove, is very vifible. I think tilings mull be very much altered fince that lady or gentleman wrote about Vienna. The German ladies arc handfomc, accomplished, and

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

143

and civil to a degree you have no idea of; feveral of them, betides poflefllng many other languages, read, write, and fpeak Englifh well; and I was furprifed to find my connexions, and other circumftances flattering to my pride, better known here than they are by half my acquaintances in London- 1 ~~ Moft of the Germans are naturally muficians, and I am fure a young Englifhman, with good manners, may every evening here pafs his hours in a circle of handfome and accomplifhed women of the firft rank. I have feen no place yet I thould fo much with my fon to come to as Vienna. Sir Robert Keith aflures me he has prefented above four hundred noblemen and gentle­ men, young countrymen of mine, and has never had reafon to complain of them, while we hear and fee conftantly the follies of the Anglais at Paris, where they go to ruin themlelves, equally with the Duchejje or the jille d'opera, and only to be laughed at --------------------

The

144

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

The ladies are tall and fair—more handfome than pretty. There is a great fop per at Prince Galitsin’s every Sunday night ; and at Prince Par’s every Monday ; the firft is the Ruffian minifter, who does great ho­ nour to his court, by his fenfe and polite nefs here. The prefentation at court is very different from our’s; but I have not time to fay more at prefent, than that I remain

Your’s affectionately-----

P. S. I cannot help adding, that the queftions afked travellers by the guards at the frontier towns are moft ridiculous—are you married or not ? Do you travel for your pleafure or upon bufinefs? Your name and quality? It put me in mind of a ftory told me by the Ruffian Minifter at Veiice, of a traveller, who being afked his name, anfwered Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo—pray, Sir, i’avs

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

145

fays the guard, how do you write that ? That, Sir, replied the traveller, is your bufinefs, I have told you my name; it is impoflible, I think, to anfwer gravely to queftions fo perfetftly abfurd.

L

LETTER

146

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER XXIX. Vie ns a. Dec. 15, 17R5

I Went with

Madame Granieri, the Sar­ dinian Minifler’s wife, to court. Nothing is more ftriking, I think, than the variety of the officers dreffes in the Emperor’s anti­ chamber. The Hungarian and Polifh I think beautiful, and 1 now am flrengthened in the opinion I always had, though pro­ bably I have never told it, even to you, that every nation ought to prelerve the falhion of their country, and that there is no neceiiitv for mankind to ape one ano­ ther in drefs-----

The Emperor gives a private audi­ ence for ladies that are prefented to him. There was only myfelf and the lady who accompanied me that went into his room together; we met a Princefs Eftcrhazi coming out. The Emperor was clofe to

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

J47

to the door; and after bowing very civilly, he made us (it upon a fofa, and flood the whole time himfelf; I flaid three quarters of an hour; there is no occafion to fear flaying too long ; for when he cannot fpare any more time for the audience, or for any other reafon choofes to end it, he very ci­ villy fays, he will detain you no longer; you then get up, and go to the door, which he opens himfelf, and thus ends the prefentation, 1 think much more agreeably than to anfwer any queflions a Sovereign choofes to make before a hundred people that are within hearing in the circle of a drawing­ room, who generally repeat what they hear, according to the folly or malice they poffefs ; and I fhould think it totally impoffible for a monarch to converfe with any fatisfaction furrounded by fo many ears, which have often no brains belonging to them. The Emperor is like the Queen of France, and the only thing that gened me at was his not being feated. He converfes politely and agreeably-----

L 2

The

148

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

The firfl: minifter here, Prince Kaunitz— is a very extraordinary perlonage; he is reckoned an able nunifier and a good pa­ triot; I fee in him all that fincerity and franknefs which are the conftant attendants on a mind truly great--and I believe the welfare of the people at large is his delight; for he afked me what I thought of Vienna ; I told him that I had not time to make many obfcrvnrions, but that there was an air of plenty and comfort among the lower fort of people very ftriking; meme les vendeujes de •pemmes ont Fair aife, mon Prince; on my faying this, there was a fmile upon his coun’■euaucc, which .1 am fure came from his ■'c: rt ; zud he cendefcendingly told me fexcra! particulars relative to the markets and provifions, one of which 1 cannot help thinking very ncceflary in all large cities, which is, that the:e is an infpe for I have a charming letter in my pocket from him—He faid, if there was nothing imprudent in his requefl, he would alk to fee it. He imagined Mr. W’s fiile muft be uncommon; I gave him the letter, he put it into his pocket after reading it, and told me, as his lifter, the Princefs of Cracovia did not underftand Englilh, he Ihould tranllate it into French for her; and if I would dine with him two days.aft er, he would read me his trauilation, which indeed..furprized me; he muft be a very .elegant writer in every language he choofes to profefs; I wilh 1 had dared io have alked him for a copy. Well, Sir, he is the fecond perfon I ’nave feen, whom I wilhed were not fovcrejgns, for it is iinpoflible thaCthc many difagreeable perfoiis and circumftances, that furround them, Ihould not

160

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

not deprive them of the fociety of people who, facrificing only to the Mufes, are better company than thofe who only facrifice to ambition, when they give their time to fovereigns. We were only fourteen people at the King’s dinner, and we converfed as chearfully and as rationally as if we had not been at court-----

The King, in his face, is very like the Duke of Marlborough, and there is an ele­ gance in his language, with a foftnefs in the tone of his voice, that pleafes the ear to the higheft degree. My old acquaintance, the princefs C-------- , will be the occafion of my fhortening my flay here; for it is many years fince I faw her, and as flie does not come here on account---- - ------------------ I (hall give her the meeting in the country, and afterwards fet out for Peterfburgh. I told the King I fhould fee her, as he fpoke to me of her: I hate party affairs -and----- ------------------

I make

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

161

I make vifits in a new ftile here, in the Comte de Stackelberg’s coach and fix, and a couple of equerries at the two coach win­ dows on horfeback. The Polifh ladies feem to have much tafte, magnificence, fpirit and gaiety j they are polite and lively, exceflively accomplifhed, partial to the Englifli. There is a Princefs de Radzivil, who, if I were a man, I fhould certainly be de­ voted to—I could be very happy here, Sir, if my heart could forget maternal duties, or thofe of friendfllip------------- -

I have feen feveral dwarfs here, who with equerries ftand in drawing-rooms of the great houfes, and hear all the converfation that pafles, an uncomfortable cuflom I think; and which in any other country would be dangerous; but here fervants and dependants are the abfolute property of the matter—and their fidelity in general is equal to their fubjeettion; to the credit of the Polifh nobles, I believe there are few fer­ vants that, having proved for eight or ten M years

162

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

years their attachment, are not difmiffed with a penfion for life. I found the French maid, the Princefs C----- had from me, in this fituatioDj nine years forvice had ob­ tained a hundred pounds a year, and a farm of fixty acres of land for the reft of her life ■ fhe feems the happieft creature in the world. The King has a manner of faying things obliging or flattering, pecu­ liar to himfelf ; he tells me he thinks men,, animals, trees, every thing in fhort, that takes its birth or is produced by England, is more perfect than the produce of other countries; the climate, the foil probably, he fays, may occafion this; his partiality to the Englifh, together with your’s, Sir, would make me prejudiced in favour of my own country, if I could love if better than I do; but the word comfort which is under­ flood there only, has long ftamped the value of it in my mind-------I am going to fee the Princefs to-mor­ row, and am forry to quit this place fo foon; not that there is any thing in this flat country

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

163

country that would tempt me to fee the beauties of it in the fpring, but the King’s acquaintance, with that of fome of the ladies, and monfieur de Stackelberg’s converfation, I am forry to quit - --------

Adieu, Sir.

LETTER

164

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER

XXXII.

Peterjburcii, Feb. 8, 1786.

Th E

ioad between Warfaw and this place is one infipid flat, except juft in and about the town of Nerva, where I took a fledge and flew hither. When I wrote laft, dear Sir, I think I was upon the point of going to fee the Princefs C--------, I paffed two days with her at a country houfe of the Princefs Lubomirika’s, her fifter-in-law; I was moft fincerely glad to fee her, and we parted with regret. I received a very civil meflage from the King, and M. de Stackelberg fent me fix bottles of bifhop, which 1 can a flu re you was very ferviceable to me; I did not ft op at Warfaw on my re­ turn from the P----- , and the meflenger caught me juft one poft on this fide of Warfaw; I can conceive nothing fo enuyant as travelling in fuch a country as this, one flat

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

165

flat plain; the view terminated by a foreft, which you drive through, only to arrive at the fame fccne you have quitted, the froft was not hard enough to make the road good, till I came to Nerva. I am fomethinglikc a country Mifs, gaping at the window all day here, every creature that goes about the flreets, feem as if they were in a violent hurry, they drize full gallop, traineaus with one horfe ply at the corners of the flreets as do your hackney-coaches and chairs. My. S-------- informed me, it belonged to my dignity to have fix horfes to my coach, in order to pay my vifits; and 1 beg you will imagine my furprife, when I found I had a coachman on the box, with three poflillions, one to each pair of horfesand thefe fitting on the right hand, I go thus, full gallop, running races with every other attelage that falls in my way; the flreets are luckily wide, and cuftom makes the danger lefs than one ihould imagine-----

I am interrupted, and therefore wiih you a good night--------

LETTER

■t 65

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER XXXI1L

Petersfurgh, Friday Feb. i3, 1786.

I Was to have been prefented to the Emprefs next Sunday, but (he gracioufly fent me word to come to the Hermitage on Thurfday, where (lie keeps her court in the evening every week; and has alternate­ ly a French play or an Italian opera— Marchefini and Madame Todi are the firft fingers. It is but juftice to fay, that no­ thing can be more magnificent than the appearance the Emprefs makes when the comes into the drawing-room; fhe has a lively and good-humoured look, and her politenefs to me was very great; but I could plajnly fee that fome one had told her I was not an Englilh woman, for fne allied me if I was not of a Scotch family. I can­ not conceive why this building which (he has added to the palace is called the Hermi­ tage;

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

167

tage; it is a long fuitc of rooms, full of fine pictures. You are not ignorant, dear Sir. of the many collections the Emprcls has purchaied; among the reft Lord Orford’s; all thefe fine works want at prefent, a perfon to arrange them according to their (hades and fize, and I doubt not but the Emprefs will find one------ -

Peterfburgh is a chearful and fine looking town; the ftreets are extremely wide and long, the houfes ’ftucco’d to imitate white flone; none above three ftories high, which certainly adds to the lively and airy appear­ ance of them.; I think, Sir, if a young woman may permit herlelf to judge of things otherwife than en detail—that not only the town, but the manner of living is upon too large a a fcale; the nobles feem to vie with one another in extravagancies of every fort, particularly in foreign luxuries and fafhion. The fafhion of the day is moft ridiculous and improper for this cli­ mate ; French gauzes and flowers were not intended for Ruffian beauties, and they are fold at a price here which muft ruin the There

168

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

There are buildings ereded for the re­ ception of Arts and Sciences of every kind; forartifts or amateurs, though but the fur­ plus qf Italy, France, and England, would find handfome encouragement and houferoom from the Emprefs, whofe refped for talents, and generofity to thofe who poffefs them, have induced fome, and would many more, to fix in the prefent capital of this vaft empire; but, alas 1 Sir, eight months of winter, and the horrid cold I feel, muft congeal the warmeft imagination; poets and painters require verdant lawns; and the flowers of fancy muft fade and die, where fpring is not to be found----The Emprefs and the I’rinqefs d’Afhkow are the only ladies who wear the Ruffian drefs; it is I think a very handfome one; and 1 am more furprifed every day, that nations do not each preferve their own faffiions, and not copy one country that is at prefent only the ape of every other__ From Cherfon, the new town on the Turkifh frontiers, which is one thoufand fix hundred miles from hence, arc brought many

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

169

many provifions; from Archangel likewife this town is provided, and from Aflracan on the Cafpian Sea, near two thoufand miles, all the dainties, fuch as grapes, peafe, beans, artichokes, are brought. It is na­ tural to fuppofe, that the neceffaries of life are dear, from thefe circumftances; but fome of them arc extremely cheap, and I believe Rufiia is one of the cheapeft coun­ tries in the world to live in; if French wines and falhions, and Englilh comforts can be difpenfed with. To thefe laft I never felt fo much attachment as at this moment—Dans le Ligne Anglais^ a quarter of this town, where the Englilh merchants live, I find Englilh grates, Englilh coals, and Englilh hofpitality, to make me wel­ come, and the fire-fide chearful; I have never yet been fortunate enough to make any acquaintance in rhe world of com­ merce; but if all Englilh merchants and their families are as well informed and civil as thole I find here; I Ihould be very glad to be admitted into the city of London as a vifitor, to enjoy a little rational converfation, which at the court-end is feldom to be

17©

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

be found. How fhould it be otherwife? A little Latin and Greek in the fchools of Weftminifter and Eton, and a great deal c£ vulgar rioting, make our young men a flrange mixture of pedantifm and vice, which can only produce impudence and folly. Thus tutored, at fixteen they are turned upon the hands of fome unhappy man, who is to prefent them at foreign courts, with no other improvement or alte­ ration in the boys heads, than that of their hair being powdered and tied behind----The careful citizen, confcious that fair dealing and knowledge only can promote the well-being of his family, brings up his fon to bufinefs, and that only, as you know well, makes the idle moments of life happy. Peter the Firft thought commerce an eflential pillar to his empire, and the Englifh trader was encouraged; our little ifland is a proof of the confcquence which trade alone can give any country; and the new ac­ quired poffeflions of the largeft empires may only become additional trouble to their maflers, unlefs the advantages of trade give them new life----The

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

171

The French Ambaffador, and the Comte Serge de Romanzow (named to Berlin) are men of wit. Mr. Ellis is with Mr. Fitzherbert; and converfation does not languifh or grow infipid in their company. We are in the laft part of the carnival and balls; thofe given by the AmbafTadors are very fuperb. Mr. de Segur, and the Due de Serra’ Capriola, the Neapolitan Minifler, have each given one in a very magnificent ftyle----I was prefented to the Grand Duchefs the fame night that I waited upon the Emprefs; fhe has fince been brought to bed. There are fome young Ruffian ladies very pretty and much accompliihed; many of them figh after a different climate from their own, and------told me he had no idea of happinefs in the world like that of re­ turning to England as a private man, and purchafing a farm; he fpeaks very good Engliffi. Indeed, Sir, the elegance which is produced by the cleanlinefs and order feen with us, is found no where out of England; here the houfes are decorated with

172

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

with the moft fumptuous furniture from every country; but you come into a draw­ ing-room, where the floor is of the flneft inlaid woods, through a flaircafe made of the coarfeft wood in the rudeft man­ ner, and ftinking dirt----- The poftillions ■wear fhecp-ikins; and at a ball, when a nobleman has propofed his hand to a fair lady, he often kifles her before the whole company—apropos to this cuftom—I muft tell you an anecdote of---------- ----- -

Thus you perceive he was nearly in the fame predicament as the Chevalier dans la Fee Urgclc, and might have faid, pour un baifer faut-il perdrc la vie ? Adieu, Sir—I will give you fome ac­ count in my next of what I have feen at the Mu feu m——

You may have heard much of Prince Potemkin ; I fee him every where, but he is refer ved and converfes very little with ladies. I was invited by him to dine in an immenfe

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

173

immenfe palace he is building in the fuburbs; the only room finifhed is too particu­ lar not to be defcribed ; it is three hundred feet in length, and on the fide oppofite the windows there are two rows of ftone pillars, whofe height and breadth are proportioned to the immenfe fize of the room, which is an oblong fquare-, in the centre of which on the fide where the windows are, it is formed into a femi-circle or what we call a bow—which bow forms another large fpace independent of, though in ti e room j this fpace was laid out by his Englifh gardener into a fhrubbery, with borders of flowers, hyacinths, and narcilfufes—myrtles, orangetrees, &c. &c. were in plenty. We were fevcn or eight ladies, and as many men— immenfe Roves concealed by the pillars, were heated in order to make fuch a hall in fuch a climate fupportable—but 1 came home quite ill with cold. It was there I heard that extraordinary mufic performed by men and boys, each blowing a fhaight horn adapted to their fize—fixty-five of thefe muficians produce a very harmonious melody, fomething like an immenfe organ. The

174

LADY CRAVENS JOURNEY

The mufic, the room, the cold, all was gi­ gantic. I fat by Prince Potemkin at din­ ner ; but except aiking me to eat and drink, I cannot fay I heard the found of his voice; fo am unable to tell you what fpecies of efhas raifed him to the fortunes and dig­ nities he poifefles, or what occafions Mr. S-------- and others to call him a fenfible man----I have feen likewife the cabinet of medals and the Mufeum here * ; the laft when finifhed, will be a very beautiful fuite of rooms. Peter the Great likewife fitting in a chair, with a coat of his amiable Catha­ rine’s embroidery. I cannot help thinking, and often here, that notwithftanding he transferred his capital to this place, and that the Emprefs, Prince Potemkin, and others, may build palaces of the fineft orders of architecture, to contain the produce of learning and commerce, that a time • will * A complete fet of inrnefs made of white leather, Hitch­ ed with coloured filks, for fix dogs, with a fledge for one perfon, brought from Kamikatka, was the lighteft, neateft, and moft' curious .piece of wcrkmanfliip I ever faw.

come

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

I75

come when the heads of an empire, which extends from the South to the North, will prefer balking in the rays of the fun, which chear the mind and the body together—to eternal froft—and thefe (lately buildings will be turned into ftorehoufes— Juftice obliges me to fay, the Emprefs does all lhe can to invite politenefs, fcience, and comforts from other countries, to cheer thefe regions of ice—but, until lhe can alter the climate, I believe it is a fruitlels trial. I am informed the fpring, or rather the time of the year we call fpring, is more melan­ choly than winter here, lb I lhall haften my departure; but a converfation I had with the Swedilh Minifter, a few days paft, will make me give up entirely the thoughts of returning into Germany through Sweden and Denmark. I lhall in my next have the honour of repeating it to you; I remain with the bigheft refpeCt and regard,

Your moft affectionate lifter,

E. C---------I promifed

ij6

LADY CRAVEN'S JOURNEY

I promifed to give you an account of the converfation with the Minifter, here it is----------M. S----L’on ma dit, que Miladi voulait me faire I'honneur de prendre des renfeignemens fur le voyage qu'elle comptefaire, M-----

Oui, Monfieur, on pretend qu'il y a beaucoup de rifque dpajfer ces mers de glacej, et je voudrais fqavoir comment cela fe fait, parce * que, de quel cote que je tourne mes pas, je veux faire leplus grande parti e demon voyage en traineau, deteflant le cabotage d'une voiture ordinaire, et aimant beaucoup le traineau—~ M. S-----

Miladi, fait ellc que, pour aller d’ici cbez nous, on attele un troifieme cheval devant les deux autres ; mais d tine difiance tres confiderable dans les endroits fufpeEls------- M----appetite vous endroitsfufpcdls ? M. S--------

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

177

M. S---Ou ilferait dangereux que la glacefe rompit—et deft avec des cordes tres-longues quon attele ce cheval, qu'on appelle l enfant perdu —parce que, Ji la glace vient d fe cajfer, vite on coupe les cordes; le cheval dijparait pour jamais, et les voyageurs retournent fur lews pas— ✓

M---Comme je nai jamais commence un voyage pour retourner fur mes pas, et quil me femble que je cows rifque d'etre enfant perdu moi-meme, Ji Jentreprens ce voyage, je remettrai ma vijite a votre pays pour une au­ tre occajion, Monfiew ?Ambajfadeur; and fo we talked of other things-----

I (hall now prepare every thing to vifit the Crimea or rather tbeTauride-, 1 have been told it is a-very beautiful country; and I confefs 1 am not forry this enfant perdu gives me a good excufc for turning my fteps towards Conftantinople—------

N

There

178

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

There arc ladies here whom I (hall be forry to quit; who in youth are pofleffed of many talents, and with whom I could form an agreeable fociety; Italian mufic, the pedal harp, and our Englilh poets are perfectly underftood by them ; 1 think often I can trace Grecian features among the fe­ males of this country, and the fubtle wit of the Greek in the men: that pliability of genius which caufes them to fpeak fo many different languages well, and adopt all the inventions and arts of other countries that are good--------« I am fpeaking without any partiality, dear Sir; but I do not fee here the preju­ dices of the Engliffi, the conceit of the French, nor the fliff German pride, which national foibles make often good people of each nation extremely difagreeable. 1 am affured the Ruffians are deceitful—it may be fo ; but as I do not defire to have inti­ macies, 1 am much better pleafed to find new acquaintances plcafant and civil than morofe or pert---Mine

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

179

Mine at prefent is a geographical intercourfe with the world j and I like to find, the road I travel fmooth. Wit and talents will always be objects of importance to me; I have found them here, and fija;l be forry to quit them. Prince Repnin and his ne­ phew Prince Kourakin, whom I often faw in England, are both here, and I look upon them as old acquaintances, as it is thirteen years fince that period. The latter is grown fat. 1 forgot to tell yon. Sir, that the Grand Duchefs was brought to bed five days after my arrival j fo I have only feen her the night I was prefented to her, which was the fame on which I was prefented to the Emprefs $ her affability is great to Grangers > for Mr. S----- had not announced me to her j but feeing me move from one feat to another at the opera, by the Emprefs’s defire, and probably being informed who I was, fhe fent for me to come to her after the fpedtacle—which I did. A moft ridiculous thing happened to me; for though I bad no lefs than three carriages as 1 thought waiting for N 2 me,

180

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

me, I was above an hour getting at one, owing to the great diftance of the Grand Duchefs’s apartments from the Hermitage, where the theatre is—and Mr. S-------- ’s telling me he wailed for me at the Hermi­ tage. I went three times through the whole palace, and whi'e I was at one door, two of the carriages were at the other. Prince Kourakin, who had offered to conduct me back to the Hermitage from the Grand Duchefs, and who was engaged to fup with the Grand Duke, was not a little embarraffed ; for the doors, opened to let in company, were fhut; and I had no other refource but to fit in the guard-room of the Duchefs, till Prince Kourakin’s fervant fhould find one of the carriages belonging either to me or my party. The Prince went in to fup, but the Grand Duchefs hearing this circumftance fent me a very fine peliffe, which I told the Prince I really did not want; but he in­ formed me I muft put it on, fo I did $ and in a few minutes 1 had a carriage ; but the moft ridiculous circumftance was, that the Saxon Minifter’s wife, whom I had come to court with, thought I was gone home i in

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

181

in my own carriage—the company in that, thought I was gone home with her,- and gave me up, after having paraded on the outfide of the palace from door to door, as I had on the infide. My fervants at home I thought 1 had been invited to fup at the palace--------

The Grand Duchefs is fair and tall; the Duchefs of Wirtemberg, who is the Duchefs of Brunfwick’s daughter, is pretty, and very like our royal family—fhe was very ci­ vil to me—I have not feen the Grand Duchefs’s children—I am told they are fine and healthy-----

Adieu, Sir, for the prefent. I remain vour’s, with great refped and truth----P. S. I am not a little furprifed to hear people fay : I fhall inherit fo many hundred peafants, or fuch a one loft a village—it is the number of men, and not of acres, that make a fortune great here; fo that a plague or any diftemper that would prove mortal to the peafants, would be death to the no­ bles nockets likcwile——

i8i

LADY CRAVEM’s JOURNEY

I have taken leave of the Emprefs, and you may judge if I do not leave Petcrfburgh with a good imprefllon of her politenefs; lhe told me before the opera, that fhe knew my intention $ but as we defer difagreeable things as long as poflible, you fhall not take leave till after the fpcdaclc ; thefe words Hie faid with the moft gracious fmile ; and alkcd me if I was fatisfied with the amufements and civilities I met with. I told her I rnuft be both ftupid and ungrateful, not to regret infinitely, that I could not ftay any longer, to thew how fenfible I was of the hofpitality and magnificence with which I was treated. The Vicechancellor, Comte d’Ofterman, is obliged to have a table for iixty foreigners every Wednefday; and a widow Princefs de Galitzin, a fupper once a week—at Monf d’Ofterman’s too, a ball every Sunday night. The Emprefs is at the. expence of thefe dinners and fuppers ; and I confefs, I think it an excellent and royal idea, to be certain of having houfes open for the entertainment of foreign minifters and flrangers of diflintfion j for you know, my dear Sir, that private houfes are feldom open

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

)8S

open to ftrangers now in moft coun­ tries, for various reafons. Here I am told there are many Princes who keep a public day, as we do in England, for the conveni­ ence of our country neighbours, and exped people whom they leave a card with, to dine with them upon fuch a day ; but. if I was to ftay here ten years, I Ihould never be prevailed upon to go to thofe houfes to dine without invitation ; nor can I believe it poflible the mailers of them can exped a foreigner to grace their table, without being deli red even by word of mouth. I am af­ fined I (hall affront----- and ----- but as I meet them every where, 1 cannot think they Ihould be fo totally ignorant of the manners of other countries, to expect me to dine at their houfe without alking me. There is a cuftom here which I think very abominable ; noblemen, who are engaged to marry young ladies, make no ceremony, but embrace them in the midft cf a large company at a ball-----

1 have mentioned to a few people my in­ tention of feeing the Crimea ; and 1 am told that

184

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

that the air is unwholefotne, the waters poifonous, and that I fhall certainly die if I go there; but as in the great world a new ac­ quired country, like a new beauty, finds detractors, I am not in the leaft alarmed; for a perfon, not a Ruffian, who has been there on fpeculation, has given me fo charm­ ing a defcription of it, that I fhould not be forry to purchafe a Tartarian eflate. Adieu, mv much honoured and beloved brother-----

I remain your’s-----

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

185

XXXIV.

Moscow, Feb. 29, 1786.

I Left my coach

at Peterfburgh, and hi­ red for myfelf and my fmall fuite, the car­ riages of the country, called Kibitkas ; they are exadly like cradles, the head having windows to the front which let down; I can fit or lie down, and feel in one like a great child, very comfortably defended from the cold by pillows and blankets. Th^fe car­ riages are upon fledges, and where tnc road is good, this conveyance is comforta­ ble and not fatiguing; but from the incre­ dible quantity of fledges that go conftantly upon the track of fnow, it is worn in tracks like a road ; and from the fliakmg and vio­ lent thumps the carriage receives, I am con­ vinced the hardeft head might be broken. I was overturned twice ; the poftillions I fancy are ufed to fuch accidents; for they get

186

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

get quietly off their horfe, fet the carriage up again, and never afk if the traveller is hurt. Their method of driving is lingu­ lar: they fit behind three horfes that are harneffed abreaft—a (brill whittling noife, or a favage kind of Ihriek is the fignal for the horfes to fet off, which they do full gal­ lop ; and when their pace flackens, the dri­ ver waves his right-hand, fhrieksor whittles, and the horfes obey. I am told the whip is unmercifully ufed in the ftables; I obferved a pottillion never ftrikes a horfe in driving; which caufed my aftonilhment at their being fo tradable to the railing of a hand only. I would never advife a travel­ ler to fet out from Peterfburgh as I have, juft at the end of the carnival; he might with fome reafon fuppofe it is a religious duty for theRuflian peafant to be drunk; in moft villages I faw a fledge loaded with young men and women in fuch a manner, that four horfes would have been more pro­ per to draw it than one, which wretched beaft was obliged to fly with this noifv company up and down the village, which is generally compofed of houfes in ftraight rows

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

187

rows on each fide of the public road. The girls are dreffed in their holiday-clothes, and fome are beautiful, and do not look lefs fo from various coloured handkerchiefs tied over their forehead, in a becoming and pittorefque manner. There is one particular piece of roguery pra&ifed after this diverfion upon travellers, which ought to be put an end to : the horfe employed upon thefe feflivc occafions is generally upon the point of death; and the firft poft-horle that is wanted, that horfe is harneflcd to a kibitka in his place, becaufe a traveller is obliged to pay the value of any horfe that dies in his for vice. I had one that died thus, though I remonftrated upon his being put to the collar, feeing that he was dying—but unlefe I could have armed fix fervants with good cudgels, my arguments were as fruitlefs as thofe employed at the next poft, to prove how unreafonable it was, that I ihould pay a great deal of money for a dead horfe, that was dying when he was put to the car­ riage— The

188

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

The Ruffian peafant is a fine, flout, flraight, well-looking man ; fome of the women, as I faid before, are uncommonly pretty ; but the general whitenefs of their teeth is fomething that cannot be conceiv­ ed ; it frequently happened that all the men of the village were in a circle round my car­ riages—and rows of the moft beautiful ori­ ental pearl cannot be more regular and white than'their teeth. It is a matter of great aftonifhment to me, how the infants outlive the treatment they receive, till they are able to crawl into the air; there is a kind of fpace or entrejol over every ftove, in which the hufband, wife, and children lie the greateft part of the day, and where they Ileep at night—the heat appeared tome fo great that I have no conception how they bear it; but they were as much furpriied at me for feekinga door or window in every houfe I was obliged to go into, as I could poffibly be at their living in a manner with­ out air. The children look all pale and fickly, till they are five or fix years old. The houfes and dreffes of the peafants are by no means uncomfortable; the firft is ge­ nerally

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

189

nerally compofed of wood, the latter of fheep-fkins; but trees laid horizontally one upon another makes a very ftrong wall, and the climate requires a warm (kin for cloth­ ing. It might appear to Englifh minds, that a people who are in a manner the pro­ perty of their lord, fuffer many of the af­ flictions that attend flavery; but the very circumftance of their perfons being the pro­ perty infures them the indulgence of their matter for the prefervation of their lives; and that matter ftands between them and the power of a defpotic government or a brutal foldiery. Befide, my dear Sir, the invaluable advantage which thefe peafants have, as in paying annually a very fmall fum each, and cultivating as many acres of land as he thinks fit, his fortune depends entirely upon his own induflry; each man only pays about the value of half-a-guinea a year. If his lord would raife this tax too high, or make their vaflals fuffer; mifery and defertion would ruin his fortune, not theirs; it is true, that a lord is obliged to give one man as a recruit yearly out of fuch a number; but it is one out of three or four

I9o

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

four hundred j fo that notwithftanding this great empire is faid not to be popu­ lated in proportion to the extent of it j when you reflect what a number of troops the Emprefs has, and thefe kept up by this method j the Ruffian people muft be more numerous than ftrangers may imagine, in travelling through this country- It is very amuftng to me to reflect, without prejudices of any kind, upon the ridiculous ideas of liberty and property that our Englilh com­ mon people have; for — ------

And now, my moft honoured and dear brother, that I have given you fo pretty a picture of Englilh liberty—1 fhall with you a good night, and remain

Youfs affectionately-----

E. c-------

LETTE R

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

XXXV.

Moscow, March 3, 1786.

I Believe I have not

told you, that I am pofleffed of all the inftrudions to proceed upon this new journey in a very pleafant manner. The commanders at Krementchouck and at Cherfon are informed of my intention to proceed to Perekop, where f fhall enter into that peninfula called the Tauride, which, from the climate and fituation, I look upon to be a delicious coun­ try ; and an acquifition to Ruffia which fhe fhould never relinquifh. I muft take off your attention, for fome time from your own people and my journey, and, in as few words as poflible, fhew by remote and paft ages, that the Tauride muft naturally become a treafure to pofterity. Long be­ fore Homer, the firft inhabitants of it that can be traced were the Cimmerians $ a nu­ merous

i92

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

merous and warlike people, defendants of the Thracians; in their incurfions into Afia Minor, they were robbed by the Scy­ thians of their pofieflions, but prcferved the Crimea longer than the reft of them; the Scythians drove them from the flat country 656 years before Chrift; but they remained concealed in the mountains, calling themfelvesTaourians-and from thence the peninfula took the name of Taourica—Taourinia-—or Tauris. The Greeks began to eftablifh themfelves in the fixth century be­ fore Chrift. The Milefians built a town called Panticapoeum or Bofporus, now called Kierche ; and Theodolia, which at prefent is moflly called Kafl'a. The Emprefs has ordered this town to be reftored to the original Greek name Theodofia ; it is at prefent a town of no inconfiderable com­ merce. Before I proceed to follow the vari­ ations which the changes, and I may fay mixtures of nations that have governed this country, and have produced the prefent an­ nexion of it to Ruflia, I muft obferve that, according to my ufual mode of tracing ex­ traordinary appearances to their primitive caufcs—-

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

193

caufes—I yet think I am perfedlly right in perceiving a lineal dcfcent in many Ruffians from the Greeks. The darknefs in which we are loft, when we turn back to nations conquered by favage unlettered people, puts a flop to all certainty as to genealogy; but when the Greeks by terror and oppreffion were driven from Theodofia, and other towns on the fea-coaft—is it not very natu­ ral to fuppofe that they wandered, or were driven farther up into the country, and that by degrees their defeendants peopled a country, which nothing but neceffity forced them to inhabit ? Many marks of fuperior genius have pierced through all the diffi­ culties that ignorance and the climate have occafioned, and ihewn themfelves in the Ruffian peafant, nor fhoukl I wonder to find, if their genius was traced, it defeended from a Thales or an Alcibiades. Let us return to hiftory-—480 years before the birth of Chrift, the people from Mitylene founded a monarchy in the Crimea, which was governed forty-two years afterwards by Spartacus. This King and his fucceffors, we are told, favoured the Greeks, particuO larly

i94

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

larly the Athenians, and drove away the Scythians in a great meafure; but they were entirely exterminated by the Sarmati­ ans. At this period, the Taourians from the mountains molcfted the new monarchy, till Mithridrates, King of Pontus, about 112 years before the birth of Chritt fubdued them, and made himfelf matter of the whole peninfula. About the birth of Chritt, the Alains made the Kings, pottettors of Bofphorus, his tributaries, and drove away the Taouiians. Thefe new matters held their power about a century and a half. In the fecond century the Goths fucceeded to the Alains, and it was under their dominion that Chriftianity was firtt introduced into the Crimea. During the lives ofDiocletian and Conttantine the Great, bifhopricks were created. But the Goths were obliged to fubmit to the Huns, and like all other poflettors o( the Crimea, when driven from the .plains, they, m their turn, took refuge in me mountains, where they had their own fovereigns, who were Chrittians; at that time there remained tome of the Alains in the mountains iikewilc, and a few were difperfed

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

195

peiTcd over the plains. About the fourth century, what was called the kingdom of Bofphorus ceafed to cxift as a kingdom; the Hungarians entered the Crimea in 464, they 1 j imoa aixi 10 r thou uh theie countries were tiibutary/ to the Khatyarcs, they c fot court. Notvereignty of the Dv'/ju: O .? w;c?j handing l

1

i.

)

u'

1 ti

196

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

withftanding this, from the time the Khatyares had firft conquered the Crimea, that peninfula had taken the name of Khat, or Gatyaria, except the mountainous part, which was called Gothia, from the Goths, and Tfikia, from the remaining Alains.— Jews were then numerous in the Crimea— The Petchenegues or Kanglis, in 882, drove the Hungarians from the Crimea; but beyond the Ifthmus of Or, remained two detached branches of Bulgarians and Hungarians, known in the annals of Ruflia by the name of Berendec, or Black Bul­ garians; from this period the Khatyares preferved no power but in Afia, where it was likewife annihilated in 1015- yet even then the Crimea preferved the name of Khatyaria----About the eleventh century, the Petchencgucs were obliged to give up that peninfula and moft of their poffeflions to the Ro­ manes, other wife called Butyes or Polouzes, who iikewile fubdued the Goths and Greeks that were left in it. At this period of time the town of Sougdaia, now called Soudak, became

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

197

became fo confiderable from the commerce and trade carried on there, that all the land pofiefied by the Greeks in the Crimea was called after it Soudak-----

Till the year 1204 they acknowledged the fovereignty of the Byzantian empire; but then they made themfelves indepen­ dent, or fubmitted to the power of different princes, fo that when the Ottomans con­ quered that country, there exifted two principalities, one called Theodor, now Inkerman; and the other Gothia, now called Mangoute. In 1237, the Polouzes were fubdued in the Crimea by the Mongouls or Tartars, who were governed in clans by their princes, by the titles of Ouloug Beigh, in the plains, till MenguelciGhierai converted the Crimea into a kind of ftate. The Goths and Greeks paid a tribute to the Mongouls, as they had be­ fore to the Polouzes. In the firft part of the Tartarian reign, a number of Tcher, Kafes or Circaffians, eftablifhed themfelves in the Crimea in 1333 j that part called Kierche was governed by a Prince of that nation ;

198

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

nation 5 and, as the Tartars carried on a great trade in the town of Krim, the pcninfula took the name of Krim, by which only it is known to the Orientals at this hour. While the Latins were matters of Conftantinople, they carried on a confiderablc-trade at Krim, Tamane, and Tana; the moft considerable traders were the Ve­ netians. But when the Gcnoefe, by a treaty with the’Emperor Michael Paleologus, had obtained an exemption of all duties in the Grecian ftates, and a free navigation in the Black Sea, they began to monopolife all the trade of the Crimea; bloody wars enfued, in which they were almoft conftantly victorious. They rebuilt, with the confent of the Mongoul Khan, the town of Kaffa; made it the chief repofitory or capital of their commerce, and at laft of fuch confequence, that Kaffa, for a time, was the name by which the peninfula was called. By degrees they conquered Soudak, and Cembals, now called Balouklava; it is true, they paid a tribute to the Mongouls, while thefe preferved their power; but when their own inteftine divifions had weakened it,

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

i99

it, the Genoefe ihook off their yoke, and the Mongolian or Tartarian Princes were eleded or depofed as the Genoefe thought fit. It was at this period that the trade from India to the Crimea was divided into two brandies by the Araou, the Cafpian Sea, and Aftrakan—-one ended at Tana; the other proceeded by Bagdad and Tauris to Trapefond and Savaftopolis. Tana be­ longed to the Genoefe and Venetians, un­ der the fupremacy of the Mongouls; the Genoefe had their confuls at Trapefond and Savaftopolis. In 1575 the Genoefe loft their power in the Crimea, by the Turks having con­ quered Kaffa, Soudak, and Balouklava, and Tana upon the Don. Thefe new con­ querors put an end to the principalities of the Goths and of Theodori, eftablifhed garrifons in all the principal towns upon the coaft, and by that meafure checked the power of the Khans of the Crimea; thefe however, till the year 1584, were rather the allies than the fubjeds of the Porte, till it attained the power of naming them, or confirming

200

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

confirming their nomination, when they ventured to be chofcn without having previoufly obtained the fan 61 ion of the Ottoman council-----

The Turkifh cabinet began by eftablifhing at Kaffa a Sandjak, and then a Behjlerbeghjilik, which governed all the domains belonging to the Porte either in the Crimea, on the borders of the Don, or upon the fea of Afoph, and left a very flrong garrifon in that town to intimidate the Khans. But from the wretched policy of the Turks, they at the fame time fhut up the entrance of the Black Sea to other European nati­ ons, fo that trade and commerce were almoft ruined in the Crimea, and the ex­ ports, from that time to this, were con­ fined to the productions of the country and flaves----The great market for the Circafilans, of which we have heard fo much and know I fo little, was at Kafta; where they came and fold their children to Greeks, Genoefe, Jews, or Armenians, who fold them in their turn

at

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

201

at Conftantinople, but that was before the Turks had extended their power over the Crimea-----

When the fovereignty of the peninfula patted to Mengheli-Gherai, there were but few Tartarian inhabitants; but the wars he was engaged in againft them, on the borders of the Volga, gave him an oppor­ tunity to bring back into the Crimea with him many thoufand Nogais, which he oblig­ ed to fix there; in this method of peo­ pling the country, he was followed by his iucceffors, who furnifiied the Kouban, and the country between the Don and the Dneifter with their prifoners--------

The Crimea was for a long time a formi­ dable power to the Ruffians and Poles, till thefe nations became improved in military fcience- Until the peace of Karlowitz, both thefe nations were obliged to pay the Khan to the amount of 100,000 rixdollars, to infure their countries from the incurfions of the Tartars; Ruflia has gained ground by degrees, and by arms and policy is be-

cotac

202

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

come mailer of the peninfula; the lafl Khan has a peniion from the Em prefs, and is re­ tired to live as a private gentleman; long before be resigned his lovereigntv; the Turkilh cabinet on one fide; the crafty policy of the Ruiiians on t’.e other, left him no peace; even fome hordes of Tartars infulled his tottering power. Thus, my dear Sir, I have fummed up as well as I am able, a Iketch of the paft and prefent revo­ lutions that happened in the country I am proceeding to, in which there are at prefent about thirty thoufand of the Emprefs’s troops, including five thoufand Coflacks in her pay; which I am very curious to fee. The Khan’s Dalaces, noble Tartar houfts, and others are prepared for her re­ ception, in which I am allured I fhall be received and treated perfectly well. Notwithftanding all that has been faicl to deter me from continuing my tour, 1 fhall certain­ ly go on, and if 1 am not poifoned by the waters in Tartary, or drowned in my paffage by the Black Sea to Conftantinople, I fhall, 1 hope, afford you fome amufement in

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

203

in the geographical defcriptions I fhall give you, and variety of military figures: who though not verfed in tadics like your Pruffian troops, may always entertain any perfon, who, like you, are a good foldier by in­ heritance, example, and pradice; I am going to dine at my banker’s, who infills on fhewing me his very fine hot-houfes, and having the honour of giving me a good dinner. I remain unalterably

Your affedionate filler,

E. C-------

LETTER

“204

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

letter

xxxvl

Cherson, March 12, 1786,

I Was obliged

to put my kibitkas on wheels at a vile little town called Soumi, before I arrived at Pultaxva. Notwithftanding there might have been many things worth flopping to look at in the immenfe town of Mofcow,I was fo impatient to meet the fpring, that I would not fend my name to any perfon whofe civilities would have obliged me to flay. I cannot fay that Mof­ cow gives me any other idea than of a large village, or many villages joined, as the houfes fland at fuch a diflance, and it is fuch a ter­ rible way to go to vifit things or people, that I fhould have made as many long journeys in a week,- as there are days in one, had I flaid. What is particularly gaudy and ugly at Mofcow arc the fteeples, fquare lumps of different

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

205

different coloured bricks and gilt fpires or ovals 5 they make a very Gothic appearance? but it is thought a public beauty there; a widow lady was juft dead, who having outlived all the people that lhe loved, file left an immenfe fum of money to gild with the pureft gold, the top of one of the fteeples----At Pultawa I was (hewn the ground on which the armies moved, a memorable check to the wild fpirit of Charles the Twelfth. A private perfon, one Paul Budenkof, has, at his own expence, eredled a monument in remembrance of that event; it is a plate of brafs, on which is reprefented the battle in a good engraving, the plate is fixed into a pillar. At Sou mi I convcrfed with a brother of Prince Kourakin’s and a Mr. Lanflcoy, both officers quartered there; and to whom I was indebted for a lodging: they obliged a Jew to give me up a new little houfe he was upon the point of inha­ biting. The thaw had come on fo quickly that

20$

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

that I was obliged to flay two days while my carriages were taken off the fledges— Mr. Lanfkoy has a little of the beauty and fweetnefs of countenance of his coufin who died; the favourite of the Emprefs; and who, if his pictures and the medal do not flatter him, was perfedly beautiful. Both Prince Kourakin and Lanfkoy arc very impatient to quit fuch difmal quarters, and feem to defire fame event in which they may difplay a military ardour, verynatural to foldiers, and incrcafcd in them by having no poliflied people to convcrfe with; as I found, upon my afking what fociety they had, their account of the country nobles thereabout was truly laugh­ able— There is no gentleman’s houfe at Fultawa-, I flept at my banker’s, and walked all about the fkir'ts of the town---- -

At Chrcmcntchcuk, the general who commands has a very pretty well-bred wife, 2 VrliO

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

207

who did the honours of her houfe and the place perfedly well. Prince Potemkin has a large houfe juft out of the town, which I went to fee; at the Governor’s I aflifted at a dinner where there was fuch a num­ ber of people, and fo much company after dinner, that I was heartily tired; there I began to find the manner in which I was recommended by the prince; the greateft attentions and refped were paid me. An Englifh woman, married to a Ruffian who was there, came to my lodging, and looking earneftly at me, faid, are you an Englifh lady? I fmiled and faid, quite fo: fhe flung her arms round my neck, and almoft fmothered me with kifles; forgive me, faid fhe, I too was born in England, and have never had the happinefs of feeing a country-wo­ man fince I left it; I am married, have children here, and probably fhall never fee England again. I was intreated to fiay by all the ladies at leaft fome days; but I can­ not defer too long letting----- know what is become of me; I concealed from -------and •------- my intended journey, and only wrote word from Peterfburgh, that I was going

2oS

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

going to make a little tour to a warmer part of that country; and I mean not to let either of them know where 1 am till I get fafe to Conftantinople. I am going to fee the Dock-Yard here and the fortifications, which are to be new done by a Colonel Korfakof, a very civil fpiritcd young man here, who feems to have the welfare of this place and the honour of his nation very much at heart. I lhall give you an account of what I have fccn to­ morrow.

I remain with refpcdi, Your affectionate lifter,

E. C-----

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

209

XXXVII.

Cherson, March 9, 1786.

Th IS place is (ituated upon the Dneiper, called by the ancients, the Borifthenes; which falls into the Black Sea; the only inconvenience of the Docks here is that the /hips, when built, are obliged to be taken with camels into that part of the channel deep enough to receive them. The town is not at prefent very large, though there are many new houfes and a church built after pretty models; good architecture of white ftone. There are no trees near this place; Korfakof is trying to make large plantations; the town is intirely furnifhed with fuel by reeds, of which there is an inexhauftible foreft in the /hallows of the Borifthenes, juft facing Cherfon; Rails, and even temporary houfes are made of them. Thefe reeds are ftrong and tall, and arc a P harbour

no

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

harbour for birds of various kind, particu­ larly aquatics; of which there are fuch a number, and of fuch beautiful kinds, that I can conceive nothing fo entertaining as fhooting parties in boats here; Korfakof, and a Captain Mordwinof, who both have been educated in England, will, I have no doubt, make a difli: guiTied figure in the military annals of RuT.i; Mordwinof is a fea-officer, and fuperintends the (hip-buildjng here ; there are fome very pretty frigates n the flocks. Repninfkai is the gover­ nor’s name, and he has a young wife, who is very civil; my lodging is a large houfe built for a Greek Archbifhop; but, being empty, was appropriated to my ufe: I have remonflrated here, but in vain, againft having centinels, and the guard turning out as I pafs through the gates. I hate all kind of ceremony and honours, particularly fuch as I am not accuftomed to, but I am told here I mull content myfelf with not refufing the orders that arc given; the Empe­ ror’s Conful has a wife who wears a Greek drefsherc -, I think it by no means becom­ ing—Chcrfon may in time become a very beautiful

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

21 I

beautiful town, and furnifh the borders of the Borifthenes with examples of com­ merce; that ineftimable and only real fource of greatnefs to an empire-, lam not foldier enough to know what fault there was in the fortifications, fo that they are intirely to be done anew-—but by the adive and fludious fpirit of Korfakof, I have no doubt that they will be executed in a mafterly manner-----

I can conceive nothing fo pleafant to a young foldier, as to be employed in places where his talents muft create the defence and ftability of newly acquired pofleflions; I leave this place in two days, dear Sir; and will do myfelf the honour of writing from the firft town where I can fit down again for a few days----I have nothing but maps and plans of various forts in my head at prefent, having looked over all fuch as my curiofity could induce me to aik for. The fortifications and plantations are executed here by malefailors, whole chains and fierce looks P 2 ftruck

212

LADY CRAVENS JOURNEY

ftruck horror into my heart, as I walked over them, particularly when I was inform­ ed there are between three and four thoufand. Yet 1 muft confefs, I think this me­ thod of treating criminals much more rati­ onal than that of (hutting them up; and rendering them ufelefs members of the fociety by which they muft be maintained—

Mordwinof informs me, the frigate which is to convey me to Conftantinople is pre­ pared, and is to wait my pleafure atone of the feaports in the Crimea, and that the Comte de Wynowitch, who commands at Sevaftopole has directions to accommodate me in the beft manner; Mordwinof and Korfakof both are much more like Engliflimen than any foreigners I ever met with, except one, whom you are aflured is the perfon upon earth I honour and efteem the moft; and to whom I fubfcribe myfelf with all refpeCt,

His moft affectionate fitter,

E. C---LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

213

LETTER XXXVIII.

Karasbayer, April 3, 1786.

1 Went in

a barge for about two hours down the Borifthenes, and landed on the fhore oppofite to that on which Cherfon Hands. A carriage and horfes belonging to a Major who commands a poft about two hours drive from the place where I landed were waiting, and thefe conveyed me to his houfe, where I found a great dinner prepared, and he gave me fome excellent frefh-butter made of Buffalo’s milk; this poor man has juft loft a wife he loved, and who was the only delight he could poflefs in a moft difagreeable fpot, marfhy, low, and where, he can have no other amufcment but the troops. From thence I crofted the plains of Perekop, on which nothing but a large coarfe grafs grows, which is burnt at certain periods of the year. All this

214

LADY CRAVEN’S journey

this country, like that between Cherfon and Chrementchruh, is called Steps, I fhould call it defert; except where the pofthorfes are found, not a tree not a habita­ tion is to be feen. But one thing which delighted me much, for fcveral miles after I had quitted Cherfon, was the immenfe flocks of birds j buftards, which I took at a certain diftance for herds of calves, and millions of a fmall bird about the fize of a pigeon, cinnamon colour and white; droves of a kind of wild fmall goofe, cinnamon colour, brown, and white. As I went farther on, thefe multitudes decreafed, not choofing I fuppofe to go too far from their (helter, the reeds----Perekop is fituated upon an eminence; the ditch of it feems rather calculated for the lodgment of an enemy than a defence. The governor did every thing he could to detain me a few hours; but, as there was nothing to fee, I went on. Juft without the fortrefs of Perekop I was obliged to fend, one of my fervants to a Tartar village to get a pafsj the fervant whom I fcnt, whofe ridiculous

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

215

ridiculous fears through the whole journey have not a little amufed me, came back as pale as death. He told me the chiefs were fit­ ting in a circle fmoaking, that they were very ill black-looking people; I looked at the pafs, it was in Turkifh or Tartarian characters. I faw there two camels drawing a cart; this village gave me no great opinion of Tartarian cleanlinefs, a more dirty milerable looking place I never faw. The land at Perekop is but fix miles acrofs from the fea of Afoph, or rather an arm of it called the Suafh, to the Black Sea. The Crimea might with great eafe be made an ifland; after leaving Perekop, the country is exactly like what we call downs in England, and the turf is like the fineft green velvet. The horfes flew along; and though there was not a horfe in the ftables of the poft-houfes, I did not wait long to have them harneffed ; the Coflacks have the furnifhing of the horfes, and verfts or mile-ftones are put up; the horfes were ail graft ng on the plain at forne diftance, but tne inftant they fee their Coflack come out with a little corn the whole herd furrounds him, and he takes th ofc

216

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

thofe he pleafes. The pofts were fometimes in a deferted Tartarian village, and fome­ times the only habitation for the ftablekeeper was a hut made under ground, a common habitation in this country, where the fun is extremely hot, and there is no (hade of any fort. To the left of Perekop I faw (everal lakes about the third poft ; it was a moft beautiful fight. About fun-fet I arrived at a Tartarian village, of houfes or rather huts (haggling in a circle without fence of any kind. At different fpots upon the downs, large herds of horfes, cows, and (heep were approaching, with a (low pace, the village; making at once a fimple and majeftic landfcape, full of that peace and plenty which poflefiions in the primitive ftate of the world might have en­ joyed—

I flopped there and made tea j that I might go on, as far as I could that night. You muft not fuppofe, my dear Sir, though I have left my coach and harp at Feterfburgh, that 1 have not all my little neceflaries even in a kibitka—a tin-kettle in a bafket

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

217

ket holds my tea equipage, and I have my Englilh fide-faddle tied behind my carriage. What I have chiefly lived upon is new milk, in which I melt a little chocolate. At every place I have flopped at I alked to tafte the water from curiofity, I have always found it perfectly good ---------

I can eafily fuppofe people jealous of Prince Potemkin’s merit; his having the government of the Tauride, or command­ ing the troops in it, may have caufed the invention of a thoufand ill-natured lies about this new country, in order to leflen the (hare of praife which is his due, in the attainment or preservation of it; but I fee nothing at prefent which can juftify the idea of the country’s being unwholefome. To-morrow I fhall have the honour of piving you an account of my arrival and recep­ tion here, and what fort of a place it is.

I remain—yours affectionately. E. C-------LETTER

218

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER

XXXIX.

Karasbayer, April 4.,

-A. BOUT half an

hour after ten laft night I ordered my fervants not to have the horfes put to, as I intended to fleep , for the only thing in which I am a bad travel­ ler is, that 1 cannot go to fleep while the carriage is in motion. I had not an idea of getting out of it, as our Poft was a vile Tartar village; in a few minutes the fer­ vants called me, and faid, the General’s ne­ phew and fon were arrived to meet me, and very forry to find I had quitted Perekop, as they had orders to efoort me from thence. 1 opened my carriage and faw two very pretty looking young men ; I told them I ihould certainly not think of detaining them ; and we fet off, nor did 1 fufoed that there were any perfons with me but them : at------- o’clock I let down the forepart of mv carriage to fee the fun rife; when, to my great furprife, I faw a guard of bet w- ta twenty and thirty CofTacks, with an ofiicer, who wasclofe to the fore-wheel of the car­

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

219

riage ; upon feeing me he fmiled and pulled off his cap—his companions gave a moft vi­ olent fhriek, and horfes, carriages, and all increafed their pace, fo that the horfes in the carriage behind mine took fright, ran away, and running againft my carriage very nearly overturned it; and when I afk­ ed what occafioned this event, I found my Coffack efcort, feeing my carriage fhut, thought I was dead; as a Coflack has no idea that a perfbn in health can travel in a carriage that is not open, and the fhout I had heard, the fmile I had fecn, was the furprife they had felt, that the young Englifh princefs, as they called me, was alive ; as they believed it was only my corpfe that was conveying to Karafbazar to be buried. They always ride with long pikes, holding the points upwards; the Tartars ride with pikes, but they hold the ends of theirs to the ground. About fix I pafled the Tartar town of Karafbazar, lying to the left—and arrived at the General’s houfe, a very good one, newly built for the recepti­ on of the Emprefs ; the General Kokotchki, his brother the governor, and almoft all the general officers were up anddrefied; upon

220

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

upon the Reps of the houfe I found myfelf in my night-cap, a moft tired and forlorn figu re, in the miuft of wc-ll-bowdered men, and as many ftars and ribbons around me as if I had been at a birth-day at St. James’s. I retired, but rofe again at one, drefled and dined, and looked about me; this houfe is fituated near the river Karafou or Black­ water, which bathes the lawn before the houfe, and runs in many windings towards the town; it is narrow, rapid, and very clear; this is a moft rural and lovely fpot, very well calculated to give the Emprefs a good opinion of her new kingdom, for fo it may be called. I had a Coflack chief pre­ fented to me, a foklier-like fine whitehaired figure, he wore a ribband and order the Emprefs had given him fet round with brillants. The general told me he was forry he was not thirty years vounger, as the Emprefs had not a braver officer in her fervice. In the evening, in an amazing large hall, feveral different bands of mufic played ; and I heard the national fongs of the Ruffian peafants, which are fo Angular that I cannot forbear endeavouring to give you

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

221

you fome idea of them. One man ftands in the midft of three or four, who make a circle round him •, fcvcn or eight more make a fecond round thofe ; a third is compofed of a greater number ; the man in the mid­ dle of this groupe begins, and when he has fung one verfe, the firft circle accompany him, and then the fecond, till they become fo animated, and the noife fo great, that it was with difficulty the officers could ftop them. What is very Angular they fing in parts, and though the mufic is not much varied nor the tune fine, yet as fome take thirds and fifths as their ear dired, in per­ fed harmony, it is by no means unpleafing. If you afk one of them why he does not fing the fame note as the man before him, he does not know what you mean. The fubjeds of thefe ballads are, hunting, war, or counterfeiting the gradations between fobernefs into intoxication, and very di­ verting. As thefe fingers were only young Ruffian peafants, they began with great timidity, but by little and little ended in a kind of wild jollity, which made us all laugh very heartily. The Governor’s refidence is not

222

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

not here, but at a place called Atchmechet j he is only come here to meet and condud methrough the Crimea; he is a grave fenfible mild man. I am told he has conciliated the Tartars to their change of fovereign very much by his gentlenefs and firmnefs. To their honour, I find none would Ray who could not bear the idea of taking the oaths of allegiance, but are gone towards Mount Caucafus. They have repented fince, but it was too late. All the country here is downs except the borders of vallies, where Tice is cultivated, and what the Tartars call gardens, which I call orchards. I cannot tell you, Sir, with what refped and atten­ tion I am treated here, and how good-na­ turedly all the queftions 1 afk are anfwered-------There is an Albanian Chief here, though his port is at Bilaklava, a fea-port; he is diftinguifhed by the Emprefs likewife for his bravery ; his drefs differs much from the Coffack; it is fomething like the ancient Romans—he is an elderly man too. In a day or two I fhall give you an account of I the

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

223

the fource of the Karafou, and take my leave of this place for Batcheferai, the prin­ cipal town and formerly the chief refidence of the Khans.

Adieu--------

E.C-------

LETTER

M4

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER XL.

April, 1786.

YESTERDAY I went to fee the fource

of the river, it lies in the recefs of a rock, which is placed between many others that line the fteep tides of a valley ; a Major Ri­ bas, a very lively handfome officer of the Chafieurs, has drawn it for me. I rode a white horfe of the general’s, a very quiet creature, but awkward, not being ufed to a fide-faddle-----

I never faw a fcene fo lively as this vifit ; there were near forty people on horfeback ; the variety of drefles and colours upon the green carpet was gay and pidurefque. We continued going up hill to the fource, till we perceived the rocks, but the tides of them were fo fteep that we were obliged to dis­ mount and fcramble down as we could; this

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

225

this fpring does not prefent itfelf like the Vauclufe, majeftic and terrible, but pretty and romantic $ and might be copied in a park where huge fragments of ftone could be had. As we returned, I got off and walked befide the foldiers houfes, and went into fome ; they are placed in a line on the declivity of the down, as they defcend to the General’s houfe; all things were very neat and orderly. The old Coffack chief had looked with the greateft aftonifhment at my riding, and when I jumped down from my horfe on returning home, he kiffed the edge of my petticoat, and faid fomething in his language which I did not comprehend, but the general told me he had paid me the higheft compliment imaginable, viz. I was worthy of being a Coffack------In the evening I went in a carriage with the governor and general to Karalbazar ; and on the road faw a mock battle between the Coffacks. As I was not apprifed before­ hand, I confefs the beginning of it aflonifhed me very much. 1 faw the Coffack guard on

226

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

on each, fide the carriage fpring from their flirrups, with their feet on the faddle and gallop away thus with a loud fhriek. The General fmiled at mv* aftonifhed looks; and told me the CofiTack Chief bad ordered an entertainment for me, and defired me to get out and ftand on the rifing part of the down, facing that where a troop of Coflacks Was pofted, which 1 faw advancing with a flow pace; a detached Coflack, of the adverfe party approached the troop,; and turning round fought his fettered compa­ nions, who were in fearch like him of; the little army ; they'approached, but not in a fquadron, fome on the left, fome on the right, fome before, fome behind , the troop —a fhriek—a piftol fired, were the fignals of battle—the troop was obliged to divide in order to face an enemy that attacked it on all fides. The greateft fcene of hurry and agditv enfued; one had feized his enemy, pulled him off his horfe, and was upon the point of flripping him *, when * A Coffack, if he can avoid it, never kills his enemy be* fore he has flripped him, becaufe the fpoils are his property, and he fears the blood fliould fpoil the drefs — —

one

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

227

one of the prifoner’s party came up, laid him to the ground, remounted his compa­ nion, and rode off with the horfe of the firft victor. Some flung themfelves off their horfes to tear their foe to the ground ; alternately they purfued or were purfuing, their pikes, their piftols, their hangers all were made ufe of; and when the parties were completely engaged together, it was difficult to fee all the adroit manoeuvres that patted-----

I was much entertained and pleafed ; and defired the Coffack Chief might have my beft thanks. J arrived at the town, and was led to the Kadis’ houfe, where his wife received me, and no male creature was fuffered to come into the room, except the interpreter and a young Ruffian nobleman only twelve years of age. This woman had a kind of turban on, with fome indif­ ferent diamonds and pearls upon it. Her nails were dyed fcarlet, her face painted white and red, the veins blue; file appear­ ed to me to be a little fnrivelled woman of near fixty, but I was told (he was not above o, 2 * fifty

228

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

fifty. She had a kind of robe and veft on, and her girdle was a handkerchief embroi­ dered with gold and a variety of colours. She made me a iign to fit down; and my gloves feeming to excite much uneafinefs in her I took them off; upon which fhe drew near, fmiled, took one of my hands be­ tween her’s, and winked and nodded as a fign of approbation; but fhe felt my arm up beyond the elbow, half way up my fhoulder, winking and nodding. I began to wonder where this extraordinary exami­ nation would end, which it did there. Coffee was brought, and after that rofeleaves made into fweetmeats, both of which the interpreter obliged me to tafte. The fweetmeats are introduced laft, and among the Orientals they are a fignal that the vifit muft end. Our converfation by the inter­ preter was not very entertaining. She afked if I had a child, and told me what I have been told fo often before, though I confefs not by women *, that would be unneceflary • Tartarian and Turkifh women, deriving the only plea­ sures of fociety from women, have none of that envy which

prevails

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

229

unnecefiary to repeat it. A Tartar houfe is a very flight building of one flory only; no chair, table, or piece of furniture in wood to be feen ; large culhions are ranged round the room, on which we fat or reclined; but what is extremely convenient, I obferved more than double the fpace of the room behind thewainfeot, which drew back in moft places, fo that in a fmall room, where it appears there is nothing but the cufhions, every neceflary is to be found. As the vifit was at an end, I curtfied and (he bowed. In the court-yard there was a dancer, a woman accompanied in her geftures by a boy, but it was impofllble to fee them either with pleafure or propriety; (he never lifted her feet off the ground but once in four minutes, and then only one foot at a time, and every part of her perlon danced except her feet. I went to a Mofque, where feveral pious Mufiulmen were going round in a circle in the midft of the buildprevails in European female breads—and among the Tartarian and Turkifh women, the extravagant encomiums which fall from the lips of a man delperately in love with a pretty woman, are to be heard and are in frequent ufe.

ing»

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

ing, groaning and flinging their heads aL inoft to the ground and then up again, a conftant motion which with the moving round one way foon puts them into a kind of torture, under which they fall to the ground ; and then are dragged into recefles in the Mofque, made on purpofe to receive thefe holy men, who facrifice fo many hours, and their perfons to idle pain, in order to prove their devotion to Mahomet. They frequently pronounced Allah-----

In one of the recedes 1 faw a man lying, ■hat 1 was told had been there without eating or drinking forty hours ; which abftinence is another pious ad, and if their courage is exceffive, and Allah can infpire them with ftrength enough, they endeavour in getting out of the dark and damp hole where they lay for many hours, to join in the circle, and begin to move, but in this attempt they generally fall lenfelefs to the ground, and are carried home to recover their ftrength. This kind of mummery infpires the people with a great reverence and efteem for thofe who pradife it. I return­ ed

FO CONSTANTINOPLE.

231

cd home as much difgufted with this nonfenfe as 1 was difpleafed with the dirt of the town. The Molque was fhabby on the outlide and gloomy within, notwithftanding many lamps in it. The Minaret, which wc fhould call a ftceple, and all the other Minarets I faw in the town, are uncom­ monly light, being very high and narrow. A man ftands at the top and calls to pray­ ers, inftead of tolling bells as we do, at par­ ticular hours, and makes a noife to the full as agreeable----The chief traffic of this town is the lea­ ther which we call Morocco, of various co­ lours, yellow, red, green, and blue ; it is to be had very cheap, and is like fattin. The innumerable fheep with which thefe plains are covered furnifh much leather, which is a cheap, commodity, as well as the moft beautiful and coftly pelifies. The fheep are all fpotted. The lamb-fkins are beautiful, and they kill the ewes to have the lamb-ikins before the birth ; thefe have fmall fpots, and are fmooth like the lighteft and fineft fattins. As many of thefe little animals

s32

LADY CRAVJEN’s JOURNEY

animals muft be fkinned to make the lin­ ing of one coat, it is no wonder this is one of the moft fumptuous prefents the Emprefs can make to an ambaflador. I with I was rich enough to fend you a pelifle made of thefe ficins-----

I remain dear Sir,

Your moft affeiftionate After,

E. C-----

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

233

LETTER XLI.

Batcheserai, April S, 1786.

In my

way hither I dined at the Coffack Chiefs poft, and my entertainment was truly Coffack. A long table for thirty peo­ ple j at one end a half-grown pig roafted whole; at the other a half-grown fheep, whole likewife; in the middle of the table an immenfe tureen of curdled milk; there were feveral fide-dilhes made for me and the Ruffians, as well as the cook could imagine to our tafte. The old warrior would fain have made me tafte above thirty forts of wine from his country, the borders of the Don; but 1 contented myfelf with three or four, and fome were very good. After dinner from the windows, I law a fine mock battle between the Coffacks ; and I faw three Calmoucks, the uglieft fierceft looking men imaginable, with their

2J4

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

their eyes fet in their headj inclining down to their nofe, and uncommonly fquare jaw­ bones. Thefe Calmoucks are fo dexterous with bows and arrows that one killed a goofe at a hundred paces, and the other broke an egg at fifty. The young Coffack officers tried their (kill with them, but they were perfectly novices in comparifon to them j they fung and danced, but their fteps and their tones were equally infipid, void of grace and harmony. When a Coffack is fick he drinks four milk for a few days, and that is the only remedy the Coffacks have for fevers-----

At night I lodged at a houfe that had belonged to a noble Tartar, where there is a Ruffian poft, with about twelve hundred of the fineft men I ever faw, and uncom­ monly tall. A Tartarian houfe has always another building at a little diftance from it for the convenience of travellers or ftrangers, whom the noble Tartar always treats with the greateft hofpitality; here the General parted from us. I proceeded in the Go­ vernor’s

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

235

vernor’s carriage with him thus far, the reft of our company went to fee Kaffa or Theodofia. I go to meet them to-morrow, at a place called Mangoufs. We had only two Coffacks with us, as the General, to pleafe the Tartars, never is efcorted by a military party. Batcheferai is fituated in fo fleep a valley, that fome of the hanging pieces of rock feem ready to fail and crufh the houfes. About a mile from the town on the left, I faw a troop of well-dreffed Tartars, there were above a hundred on horfeback; the Kaima-Kan * was at the head of this company, who were come out to meet and efcort us, but 1 who did not know this, afked the Governor if there was a Ruffian poft here-, which there is above the town, of a thoufand men. There are five thou fan d Tartar inhabitants here; 1 do not believe there was a man left in his houfe, the ftreets being lined with Tartarian men on each fide; their countenances were very * That word means the Khan’s firft minifter—a perlon called him cream of Tartar—which I fearing he Ihould be told of, turned into the cream of the 'tartars—which he laid was fio wonder ; as he was fo------

fingular,

^6

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

Angular, moft of them kept their eyes fixed on the ground, as we pafledj but fome juft looked up, and, as if they were afraid of feeing a woman’s face uncovered, haftily caft their eyes downward again; fome diverted at the novelty, looked and laughed very much— There is a great trade here of blades for fwords, hangers, and knives—I am aflured many made here are not to be diftinguilhed from thofe of Damafcus---- -

The Khan’s palace is an irregular build­ ing, the greateft part of it is one floor raifed •upon pillars of wood painted and gilt in a fanciful and lively manner, the arch, or laft door-way, has fine proportions, a large infcription in gilt letters is the chief ornament —I am told it was perfectly in ruins, but the governor has had it repaired, new gilt, and painted for the Emprefs’s reception. Court within court, and garden within gar­ den, make a variety of apartments where the Khan walked from his own refidence to the Harem *, which is fpacious and higher * Harem means that apartment where the women refide; which is always a feparate building from that which the ma­ iler inhabits—and fillers, mothers, wives, or miftrefles ’all inhabit the Harem--'-

than

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

237

than the other buildings. What I thought pretty enough was that feveral of the fquare places under his apartment were paved with marble, and have in the center fountains which play conftantly. My room is a fquare of more than forty feet, having two rows of windows one above the other on three fides, and it was with diffi­ culty I found a place to have my bed put up in--------

I never faw fuch a variety of colours— different coloured gold and filver mixed to­ gether. The Kaima-Kan, and two other principal Tartars, fupped with us, and I find nothing can exceed the ignorance and fimplicity of thefe people. The KaimaKan is the Khan’s firft minitter; he is total­ ly ignorant of the geography of his own country; and fays that England and Peterfburgh are the fame thing; I am to dine with his fitter to-morrow; fhe is married to a rich Tartar, who has given a certain yearly fum to poffefs, folely, the profits of the foap mines. For among the excellent productions of this peninfula, there is a mine of earth exactly like foap, and reckoned very

238

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

very good for the {kin; the Turkifh wo­ men confume a great quantity of it at Conftantinoplej and I am told this Tartar makes an immenfe income from it. I faw from the windows a kind of dome which raifed my curiofity, and I am told it is a monument built to the memory* of a Chriftian wife, which the Khan loved fo tender­ ly that he was inconfolable for herlofs; and that he had placed it there, that he might have the fatisfatftion of looking at the building which contained her remains * — This Tartar Khan muft have had a foul worthy of being loved by a Chriftian wife I think-----

Adieu for the prefent, dear Sir,

E. C------- P. S. Wild afparagus- grows in great plenty all over the peninfula, and a wild * Many buildings fuch as baths, fummer-honfes, &c. are in ruins near Batcheferai. I went into one bath, it was circular, having white marble on the infide, with niches for the bathers to fit in, which we have no idea of. Cold bathing is unknown in Turkey and Tartary------- r-

kind

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

*39

kind of horfe-radifh of an enormous fize, and the ftrongeft and beft flavoured I ever tailed, the root is as long and as big as the ftouteft leg you ever faw—-

LETTER

240

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER XLII.

Sevastopole, April 12, 1786.

Th E

laft time I wrote I was at Batche-

ferai, fince which I have been at another Ruffian poft, at the place where the ancient town of Krim flood, of which there is not a veftige left. A General Schlikt commands a fine regiment of Ruffian cavalry there, and lodges in an outer building belonging to a good houfe prepared for the Emprefs. This general fought very valiantly in the Poliffi Confederacy againft the Ruffians, and his bravery induced the Emprefs to take him into her fervice. He (hewed meA among his horfes a fine cheftnut or rather gold-coloured Arabian, fo beautiful an ani­ mal I never before faw. I muft not forget to tell you that I went, as I told you I (hould, to dine with the Kaima-Kan’s lifter, whofe harem, with -her hufband’s houfe, 1 is

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

241

is fituated in a very romantic manner at the foot of fome very extraordinary rocks, from which iflue many clear fprings, that fupply the houfes and her bath with perpe­ tual frefh water; there is a ft range ap­ pearance on the fummit of thofe rocks, places where immenfe cables have certainly paffed and been tied. The Tartarians infift upon it that the fea once lay at the foot of them ; and fhips were fattened to them. We dined in the hufband’s apartment, a very dirty fhabby place for fo rich a gentle­ man—Tartarian cookery confifts in much greafe and honey; after dinner, the KaimaKan walked acrofs a yard, and I was bid to follow. I did fo into another court, where four women and fome young girls met us, and laft of all his fitter. Her drefs was magnificent, particularly her girdle, in the front of which were two circles like bracelet lockets; the centers of them contained two fine emeralds. She offered me a large gob­ let which held two quarts of fherbet, an in­ different kind of lemonade; after that coffee, and latt of all fwcetmeats. We converfed very well by figns, (lie was neither old nor R

u

242

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

ugly, but how is it pofiible to judge of a countenance hid under bad painting, and eyebrows which join into one flraight line drawn acrofs the nofe ? My gloves gave her the fame uneafy appearance I had feen in the other Tartarian woman, fo I pulled them off, but (he was not fo curiou&asthe other, and it feemed to be a high entertain­ ment to her brother to fee us converfe by figns. I wore a cbemife with two rows of very fine lace at the bofom, which I thought would furprife her, but lace, and every magnificence which is not gold, filver, pearls, or diamonds, I am told paffes unnoticed— Linen is not much in ufe; their fhifts, and the fhirts of the men, are generally made of very thin filk, or filk mixed with cotton, which is feldom changed; but the very frequent ufe of baths makes this cuftom lefs loathfome than it would otherwife be, When fhe had quitted the harem, her bro­ ther Raid behind a little, and afterwards came up to me, kiffed the bottom of my gown, and prefen ted me a very beautiful handkerchief of his fiftefs embroidery, which the governor told me I muft accept; I defired

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

243

I defired the Kaima-Kan to thank her, and tell her I would keep it for her fake •, it is of muflin, the borders embroidered with different coloured filks and gold, and what I cannot comprehend, both fides are the fame------- ■ I have been at Soudak^ where the foun­ dations yet remain of a very large town, which was rebuilt by the Genoefe, on the defcent of fteep rocks. When you get to the fummit of thefe you look down to the fea, and there are the remains of a chapel, where a granite pillar is fo placed that the firft (hake it receives it muft fall perpendicu­ larly into it. This town muft have been inacceflible to a fleet, and from the pofition of the fortifications and out-pofls, of which there are remains, muft have been ex­ tremely well defended from the inhabitants of the interior part of the country----To the left of the town there is a fine harbour; it is upon this fouthern part of the peninfula that vines are cultivated,, and grow wild in great abundance; at prefent only a few private people there have vineR 2 yards

244

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

yards of their own. There is little good wine made, and the Emprefs has indeed a Frenchman, who feems to care only about theflrength of the wine being fufficient to make brandy, which be diftils in great quantities. He is fettled at Sou dak at pre­ fent, and probably will make a great for­ tune, but not teach the culture of vines to the Ruffians. From Soudak I went to Atchmetchet, the refidence of the gover­ nor ; it is prettily fituated on a riling ground, not far from the valley which borders the river Salguir; and the foil on the borders of this river is exadly like the black mould of our kitchen gardens, and extremely fer­ tile. The governor’s houfe is comfortable, and the barracks with the other buildings eredted by the Ruffians make a good ap­ pearance; I faw fome people courfing with Tartarian greyhounds, which are remarka­ bly tall, and reckoned very good. The go­ vernor lhewed me likewife a pretty collec­ tion of fluffed birds, and other prefervations;( with flones, minerals, the produce of the Crimea; but the fine turf, the excel­ lent 1’oil, the orchards, the climate, are i fufficient

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

245

fufficient inducements to be partial to this l country. One very particular thing I took notice of was a fmall pink flower, that fpread like net-work over the turf—and, afking what it was, found they were peachtrees, which when very young, being nip­ ped by the flieep, grow into little bufhes— I was really forry to quit the governor; grave, fleady, and cold in his manner, there was a dignity in it which made his extreme attention and refpedt for me the more acceptable, nor can 1 fay that he for­ got any thing that could make me take a true impreflion of the country, or a favour­ able one of the Ruffian officers, who have given me feveral maps, and every infor­ mation I dould defire I with it may ever be in my power to (hew him in my country any marks of the fenfe I have of his goodnefs—I have promifed to take a barrel of wine belonging to Mr. de Bullakof, the Ruffian Minifter at the Porte—and a root of horfe-radifh from him---- -

I find a thirty-fix gun frigate, under the difguife of a merchant-ffiip, had been fitted out

246

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

out for me, and had been ready above a fortnight; the governor accompanied me to this place, which the defcription of would be too long for this letter, fo I (hall take my leave of you for the prefent, only obferving that 1 have a whole houfe to my­ felf, where the architecture and furniture are Englifh; it belonged to an Admiral Mackenzie, who is juft dead—I crofted an arm of the fea in the Comte de Wynowitch’s barge to arrive here—and upon landing, at the bottom of a flight of fcveral fteps, I was furprifed by two or three voices, who faid, we are your countrymen, my Lady— and in fa£t, there are fevcral of my country­ men as captains or lieutenants in this navy. The Admiral’s houfe is juft above this land­ ing-place, and makes a fine appearance— Adieu, dear Sir, I remain your affectionate

E. C-------

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

247

LETTER LXIII.

Dear Sir,

I Should be very glad

you could fee this place—From the Angularity of the coaft, the harbour is unlike any other I ever faw; it is a long creek that is formed by the Black Sea between two ridges of land, fo high that The Glory of Catherine, one of the largeft fhips in the Ruffian navy, which is at anchor here, cannot be feen, as the fhore is above the pendant—The water is fo deep that this fhip touches the land— All the fleets in Europe would be fafe from ftorms or enemies in thefe creeks or har­ bours, for there are many. Batteries at the entrance of them, on one fide, would be fufficient effectually to deftroy any fhips that would venture in, and placed towards the fea muft even prevent the entrance of a fleet.

248

LADY CRAVEN'S JOURNEY

a fleet. The Comte de Wynowitch com­ mands here, and has a little farm at Inkerman, which muft have once been a very confiderable and extraordinary town; at prefent the only remains of it are rooms hewn out of the rock. Here is a large chapel, the pillars and altars of which are extremely curious; the flone is whitifli, and not unlike marble. I climbed up a flair-cafe, and crept into and out of very extraordinary fpaccs large and commodious; I entered at the bottom of thefe Angular habitations?, and like a chimney-fweeper came out at the top; and though it coft me not a little trouble in turning and climbing up fo high, I had no idea I had mounted fo much, till on looking about me I turned quite giddy, in feeing the Bay of Inkerman and all the Black Sea, at leaft two hundred and fifty feet beneath the place where I flood. Though I have not been abfolutely all over this peninfula, I think I am perfect­ ly acquainted with it; and though it is a new acquaintance to me, I finccrely with it to be peopled by lhe indnflrious, who may reftore to it that commerce and opu­ lence,

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

249

lence, which the natural productions of it demand from the hand of man. Can any rational being, dear Sir, fee nature, with­ out the leaft afliftance from art, in all her grace and beauty, ftretching out her liberal hand to induftry, and not wilh to do her juftice? Yes, I confefs, I with to fee a colony of honeft Englilh families here; cftablilhing manufactures, fuch as England produces, and returning the produce of this country to ours; cftablilhing a fair and free trade from hence, and teaching induftry and honefty to the inlidious but opprefled Greeks, in their iflands—waking the indolent Turk from his gilded flumbers, and carrying fair Li­ berty in her fwelling fails as the pafles through the Archipelago and the Mediter­ ranean, to our dangerous (happily for us our dangerous) coaft----- This is no vifionary or poetical figure—it is the lioneft wilh of one who confiders all mankind as one family, and, looking upon them as fuch, wifhes them to be united for the com­ mon good; excluding from nations all felfifli and monopolizing views----- 1 am in pofleflion

350

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

poffeflion of feveral maps of this country, drawn and coloured very well, which I /hall have the honour of /hewing you when I fee you. I take my leave at prefent, and remain

Your moft obliged and affectionate

E. C-------

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

251

LETTER XLIV.

VVE fet out the day before yefterday to fee, a moft beautiful valley called Baydar, but when we had gone a confiderable way acrofs the mountains in carriages, the Comte de Wynowitch told me that we were five-and-twenty miles from the place we were going to, and that we muft take the Cofiack horfes, of which we had five with us, and ride them. As I was not apprifed pf this, 1 had not brought my fide-faddle with me. I told him it was impoflible for me to ride aft ride, and the Cofiack faddies I could not fit upon, fo we returned back to Sevaftopolc. We fet out again yefter­ day for the valley of Baydar, and at the fame place where we had left the carriages the day before, I had my fide-faddle put upon

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

upon the talleft of the Coflack horfes, and after going about twelve miles among the moft beautiful mountains imaginable, a fmall valley appeared a little to the right of us infinitely pretty. We crofled that and ivent through a thick wood, which led to the valley of Baydar; a moft enchanting and magnificent fpot, intended by nature for fome induftrious and happy nation to enjoy in peace. A few Tartar villages leflen the wildnefs of the feene, but, in fuch a place, the meadow part fhould be covered with herds, and the mountainous with fheep. When we were come into this valley we found the mountains to the left lefs high, and lefs rocky than thofe to the right, which run in a line with thofe to Soudak, and form the coaft. When we were in the valley wc could not have ima­ gined that we were fo near the lea; as the rocks which are above it are covered with wood of every fort, wild vine, pomegranate, and many fweet fhrubs; I rode up to an elevation, which is, for as much as I can guefs, the centre of the valley, and fat there with

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

253

with my companions contemplating the beautiful fcene. The valley is above twenty miles long;, wide enough to form it into a graceful oval—two or three fmall rivers run through it, and there are fine clear fprings in every village. The Albanian Colonel, who had been prefen ted to me at Karafbafar, met us with his fon; and I (hall ne­ ver forget their appearance. When they heard us coming they got off their horfes. I faw the fon firft, a tall lad about thirteen years old, in a kind of Roman warrior's drefs, with rows of gold like armour all down the fore part of the veft—He had a helmet on—As I was not apprifed of this, I had no idea what the vifion was that prefented itfclf, till I faw the father. They were both leading their horfes, and came to me to infift on my dining at Balaklava, on my way home, which I did; and if I had not been obliged to quit this country in a fllip, I fhould certainly have bribed my Coffack to have fold his horfe to me; the animal was fo excellent a galloper that I was obliged feveral times to flop till the reft of the company came up------The

254

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

The Coflacks, Sir, are extremely proud of their horfes, as they fay fince your im­ mortal uncle the King of Trullia firft rode one, he never has, in time of war, made u(e of any other than a horfe from the borders of the Don. I do not know who was moft pleafed, the Colfack that lent me his horfe, or 1 who rode him. We turned to the left to go to the Colonel’s houle, and winding round fome beautiful rocks, the defcent of which was gentle, we faw before us the harbour of Balaklava. The Albani­ an Chief had ranged his regiment in one ftraight line, at the foot of the rocks to the left facing the fea, on the edge of which his houfe flood. I can conceive nothing fo An­ gular to a regular corps as the fight of an Albanian troop; they had firelocks of every country; each man is at liberty to drefs and arm himfelf as he pleafes. Oriental and Italian poniards, with the oddeft piftols in the world were ftuck in their girdles ; fome had hats, others caps, and helmets upon their heads. Gregorio Chapone, the colonel, defired I might be told they were alert,

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

155

alert, fpirited, and brave; his poft indeed was of infinite confequence, and he was placed there on that account; opinions were unanimous concerning his military re­ putation. The Albanians wear fhort jack­ ets, with two, three, or four rows of fillagree buttons, an ornament they like much, and I thought them pretty. The Colonel’s wife and feveral other women received me at the door, and we converfed by interpre­ ters. There were feveral Turkifh boats in the harbour, but there was a line on the fhore marked with fires which they were not permitted to pafs. The Turks came to fell oranges, and every precaution is taken to prevent their communicating the plague; fo that although they may come on fhore, they are obliged to heap their oranges with­ in the fpace allotted to them, and bargain at a difiance. We were above thirty people at table, and 1 returned with my company to Sevafiopole in carriages. I called juft now the Turkifh veflels boats, but I am told they are fhips ; a moft dangerous fort of conveyance for men or merchandife in my

256

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

my opinion, long, narrow, and top-heavy. The frigate prepared for me feems a good fhip; the three fea-officcrs who go with me, have never been at Conftar.tinople; we go as merchants, for by a treaty be­ tween the Porte and Ruflia, trading veffels may come from the Black Sea into the Canal of Conftantinople, but not men of war. We have a Greek pilot on board, who is to Peer us fafe, pleafe Heaven. I am told we are not to be much more than two days in our paffage ; but I have told my company 1 expert to be feven. Why I have chofcn the number feven I cannot guefs; but I can give no other reafon to you than that I have long refulved in my mind to expert a triple dofe of any bitter draught I am obliged to fwallow; and 1 affure \ou, Sir, in this method of calculating events, I fhall not be fo often difappointed as 1 have been in life, when the natural chearfulnefs of my mind made me always forefee prospe­ rous gales. 1 ihall write to you next from the Canal, whence 1 hope to afford you fome entertainment. There and every where

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

257

where elfe, Sir, I am with all gratitude, refpefr, and efteem,

Your moft affectionate,

and ever attached fifter,

E. C--------

P, S. You may think me very odd in faying a voyage is a bitter draught to me; you will be much more furprifed when I tell you I hate travelling; but you know why 1 travel -------------

And as I do, I am determined to fee that place where the capital of the world ought S to

258

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

to be placed; when I am lick at fea I (hall think of that; and that according to a vul­ gar Englilh faying, the' longeft way about is the neareft way home—

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

Palais

de

259

XLV.

France, Pera, April 20,

I Am fafely arrived, dear Sir, and haften to inform you how I made my voyage. I fet out the 13th at five in the morning; Mr. de Wynowitch took me out of the harbour in a fmall frigate, and after feeing me fafe in my cabbin took leave. I gave him many thanks for the attentions he had paid me, and wifhed him an opportunity of fignalizing his courage at fea, which feemed to be the thing he had moft at heart. He gave me a royal falute, and as his guns fired, we fet fail with a fair wind ; we had not been two days at fea before we were becalmed; and we lay three days and three nights, wifhing for wind, which came on at laft very frefh with rain. It was a fidewind, the rain prevented us from feeing the Turkifh fliore fometimes, and fometimes S2 we

s6o

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

we could fee it very diftindly; but we ran thus four-and-twenty hours to the left, without feeing the objefts that precede the entrance of the Canal. On the feventh day, the Greek pilot, the only pet fon on board who had ever been at Conflantinople, was dead drunk and incapable of fpeaking, much lefs of fleering the (hip. The officers were greatly alarmed, and there was a long confultation between them and the reft of the company. I luckily had a fmall map of the Black Sea, and the entrance of the Canal, which alone was our guide. As to me I had drefled myfelf in a riding habit, and had a fmall box in one hand, an um­ brella in the other, and had told the cap­ tain I was determined to get into the boat and land on the Turkifh fhore, rather than lofe fight of the Canal, or fail into it with­ out being quite fure that we were right. There is a large rock on the European fhore, which is fo far diflant from it that, unlefs a map or pilot direfls the mariner, he muft infallibly take it for the entrance of the Bofphorus, and feveral hundreds of Turkifh boats are wrecked upon it yearly. The

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

261

The gentlemen arid officers flood all the morning upon deck, watching the ffiore; we had ran then above ninety leagues to the left, always feeing land, which was owing to the currents which had taken our ffiip during the three days calm, fo much more to the right. As to me I flood be­ tween decks, till the Captain told me to come and look at a village, church, or fomething. It was a Turkiffi Minaret, and a few moments afterward we faw 'that rock 1 dreaded fo much; upon which there are about a thoufand Turkiffi veflels that periffi conflantly every year, as the Turks for­ get as they leave it to the left in coming out, they muft leave it to the right in going in. Perhaps they are like an Iriffi acquaint­ ance of mine, who going up a very fleep hill in a carriage to pay a vifit, could never be made to underftand that he was to go down the hill in returning; the only argu­ ment he made ufe of was, (hat as the road was- the fame, he muft neceflarily go up the hill, having done fo, in going over that fame road----To return to my voyage, Sir: you may judge how infinitely comfortable I felt, in being

262

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

being at anchor about fix in the evening; efcaped from all the dangers I had been threatened with upon the Black Sea; and the ugly circumftance that attended u£ when we were about to take our leave of it- I had fo many birds, among which was a moft beautiful milk-white fmall heron, that had taken refuge in the fhip, that my cabbin looked like a bird-fhop. We fupped on board very comfortably, and I took fome hours reft; and the next morning we put ourfelves in the long-boat, and were rowed to Mr. de Bukalow’s houfe at Bouyukdere, but he was at Pera, fo we were rowed by a Turkifh boat down to Pera. The Bofphorus takes a fudden turn at Bouyukdere—I refer you to Mr. Gibbon, Sir, for his account of the fingular fituation of Conftantinople, my pen will repeat feebly what lie has defcribed in language rnajeftic as tlie fubjed deferves. But 1 am certain no landfcape can amufe or pleafe in compa­ nion with the varied view, which the bor­ ders of this famed Straight compofe. Rocks, verdure, ancient caftles, built on the fummit of the hills by the Genoefe—modern Kiofks , * * Kiofk means a fummer-houfe with blinds all round.

Minarets,

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

263

Minarets, and large platane-trees, rifing promifcuous in the vallies—large meadows —multitudes of people, and boats fwarming on the fhore and on the water; and what was particular, nothing to be feen like a formal French garden. The Turks have fo great a refped for natural beauties, that if they muft build a houfe where a tree ftands, they leave a large hole for the tree to pafs through and increafe in fize, they think the branches of it the prettieft ornament for the top of the houfe j in truth, Sir, contraft a chimney to a beauti­ ful foliage, and judge if they are right or wrong. The coaft is fo fafe that a large fleet of Turkifh veffels is to be feen in every creek, mafts of which are intermingled with the trees, and a graceful confufion and va­ riety make this living pidure the moft poignant fcene I ever beheld. Judge of Mr. de Bukalow’s furprife, when he had opened his letters and read my name; he had fcarcely time to offer me his fervices, when Mr de Choifeul’s people came and claimed me from their matter, who

264

LADY CRAVEN'S JOURNEY

who had been prepared for three weeks be­ fore my arrival, by Mr. de Segur at Peterfburgh and, I confefs, from the character I had heard of him * I was not at all forry that he claimed my fociety as his droit— And now I have heard him fpeak, I am ex­ tremely glad that I am to profit by his converfat ion and company, both of which are as much to be defired as talents and politenefs can make them. Adieu for to-day. I am fun-burnt, tired, but likewife pleafed beyond meafure—yes, Sir, pleafed to be here, and to call myfelf by the honoured name of Your affectionate filler,

E. C-----

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

265

LETTER XLV1.

April 25, 1786.

I Have a double

fatisfadion in being au Palais de France; Mr. de Choifeul has been fick thefe fix months and never been out, but his fpirits are better, and upon my ac­ count he has opened his houfe, and goes out a little, which cannot fail to do him good. He has fome art ills with him, whofe pencils he has employed to colled all the fineft drawings, coloured, of the fineft ruins that exift either in Europe or Afia, where an artifi c^tild venture. Monfieur Cafas, one of them, has been plundered by Arabs feveral times ; but his beautiful and accurate drawings will gain him immortal honour. The Comte de Choifeul’s colledion is, per­ haps, the only thing in the world of the kind, and he means, when he returns to

Paris,

166

LADY CRAVEN'S JOURNEY

Paris, to have all the ruins and temples ex­ ecuted in plafter of Paris, or fome materials which will copy lhe marble, in fome mo­ dels ; to be placed in a gallery upon ta­ bles— The ambaflador alfures me the moft an­ cient and fineft amphitheatre in the world is at Pola in Kiria, three days fail SoulhEaft of Venice; it (lands near the port, and in good preservation. The Temple of Auguftus and Triumphal Arch, both of the Corinthian order, belonging to the fame town, are fine monuments of antiquity— Mr. Cafas has taken drawings of them. At night when we have no vifitors, and all the ambafiador’s bufinefs is done, he comes into my room, followed by Mr. Cafas and a few more people, with largeportefeuilles full of thefe moft beautiful drawings, and we pafs three or four hours looking over them, and converfing upon topics which are my favourites. It is a fingular inftance of good tafle in a Frenchman, to have given him­ felf up ten years ago to the finding and col­ lecting all that is really belt worthy of re­ cord.

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

267

cord, as to the ancient architedure. Mr. de Choifeul’s Voyage Pittorejque de la Grece, and when he was but two-and-twenty, taking the moft perilous journeys to find out new antiquities, if I may fo call them, muft endear him to all lovers of the fine arts— but now that his judgment is formed, and that he fits down to colled all his materials together, I doubt not the work he is about to publiih, which is an addition to the firft, will be the moft perfed thing of the kind exifting. You will wonder that I do not begin this letter by giving you a magnifi­ cent account of the view from my windows •, but my eyes and ears both are fo much better pleafed within than without doors, that I muft firft give you an account of what pafies there. Mr. de Choifeul, befide being a very fine fcholar, is a very lively and polite man ■ and has none of that kind of moft odious attention which young Frenchmen difplay, thinking it neceflary to fay fine things to, or admire ladies upon the flighted acquaintance ; he has the dig­ nity of the Vieille cour, with the eafe of modern manners •, and, if I was the Em­ prefs

268

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

prefs of Rufiia, he could not treat me with more refped, nor if I was his lifter with more regard. His houfe is like a very fine French Hotel at Paris, built with good ftone and wood, rare materials here, where every 'houfe is in the conftruflion like a ftage, and compofed of as flight materials From fome of the windows I look acrofs that harbour called the Golden Horn by the ancients, and from others can fee the fea of Marmo­ ra, the iflands therein; and’ part of the Se­ raglio—from mine I faw yefterday the Sul­ tan fitting on a filver fofa, while his boats, and many of the people who were to ac­ company him, were lining the banks of the garden. A magnificent fight, as they are of a light ihape, gilt, and painted very beautifully. We had a large telefcope, and faw the Ottoman fplendour very diftindly. The Sultan dyes his beard black, to give himfelf a young look—and he is known at a confiderable diftance by that, which con­ trails Angularly with his face, that is ex­ tremely livid and pale. The kioik, which contained him and his filver fofa, was not very large, and like a hundred others to be feen

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

269

feen on the Canal. It is flrange, Sir, how words gain in other countries a lignification different from the meaning they poflefs in their own. Serail, or Seraglio, is generally underflood as the habitation, or rather the confinement of women; here it is the Sul­ tan’s refidence ; it cannot be called his pa­ lace, for the kiofks, gardens, courts, walls, flables, are fo mixed, that it is many houfes in many gardens.

The flreets both of Pera and Conflantinople are fo narrow that few of them admit of a carriage—the windows of every ftory project over thofe under them, fo that at the upper people may fhake hands fometimes acrofs the flreet. No Turk of any confequence makes a vifit, if it is only four doors from his own, but on horfeback; and, on my arrival here, I faw one who landed in a boat, and had a fine grey horfe led by four men, that went a long way round, which he mounted gravely, to get off in a few moments.

As

ijo

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

As to women, as many, if not more than men, are to be feen in the ftreets—but they look like walking mummies. A large loole robe of dark green cloth covers them from the neck to the ground, ovfcr that a large piece of muflin, which wraps the fhoulders and the arms, another which goes over the head and eyes; judge, Sir, if all thefe co­ verings do not confound all fhape or air fo much, that men or women, princeffes and flaves, may be concealed under them- I think I never faw a country where women may enjoy fo much liberty, and free from all reproach, as in Turkey. A Turkifh hufband that fees a pair of flippers at the door of his harem muft not enter; his refped for the fex prevents him from intrud­ ing when a ftranger is there upon a vifit; how eafy then is it for men to vifit and pafs for women ! If I was to walk about the ftreets here I would certainly wear the fame drefs, for the Turkifh women call others names, when they meet them with their faces uncovered. When I go out I have the Ambaflador’s fedan-chair, which is like mine in London, only gilt and varni/hed like

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

271

like a French coach, and fix Turks carry it; as they fancy it impofiible that two or four men can carry one; two JanilTaries walk before with high fur caps on. The Ambafladors here have all Janiflaries as guards allowed them by the Porte. Thank Heaven I have but a little way to go in this pomp, and fearing every moment the Turks ihould fling me down they are fo awkward j for the platform, where people land and embark from and to Pera is not far from this houfe-------There the Ambaflador’s boat waits for us, and we row out: boats here are to be hired as hackney-coaches are in London, and all very beautifully carved, moft of them with fome gilding; the fhape of thefe boats is light and beautiful, and the Turks row very well, which is a thing quite in­ compatible with the idlenefs vifible in all ranks of people. I faw a Turk the other day lying on cuihions, ftriking flowly an iron which he was ihaping into an horfefhoe, his pipe in his mouth all the time— nay, among the higher order of Turks, there

z7z

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

there is an invention which faves them the trouble of holding the pipe, two (mail wheels are fixed on each fide the bowl of the pipe, and thus the fmoaker has only to puff away, or let the pipe reft upon his under lip, while he moves his head ashepleafes. Perhaps, Sir, it is lucky for Europe that the Turks are idle and ignorant; the immenfe power this empire might have, were it peopled by the induftrious and ambitious, would make it the miftrefs of the worldAt prefent it onlyferves as a dead wall to intercept the commerce and battles which other powers might create one another----The quiet ftupid Turk will fit a whole day by the fide of the Canal, looking at flying kites or children’s boats—and I faw one who was enjoying the (hade of an im­ menfe platane-tree—his eyes fixed on a kind of bottle, diverted by the noife and motion of it, while the ftream kept it in conftant motion. How the bufinefs of the nation goes on at all I cannot guefs, for the cabinet is compofed generally of ignorant mercenaries; the Vifir was a water-carrier to

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

273

to Halfen Bey, the Capitan Pacha, or highadmiral. Haifa n himfelf was only a fervant at Algiers. Places arc obtained at the Porte by intrigue; each placeman, each Sultanefs has her creatures, and plots for placing them; and Verfailles has not more intricate intrigue than the Porte. A rebel­ lious bafhaw raifes troops and lives in open defiance of the fovereign who invefied him with his authority. There is one at this moment, at the head of forty thoufand men in Albany, who might with the greateft eafe make himfelf king of a large country— his name is Mafmoud, not above thirty years of age—and he fucceeded his father in the government, which he now holds in defiance of the Porte. Is it to be won­ dered at if the Turk is a predeflinarian in moft things, fince it is neither birth or abi­ lities that can give him place or power— nor is there generally any vifible juft reafon why heads are ftruck off. There is a re­ cent example here, proving that the confi­ dence of the Sultan is not the fureft wav* to efcape a fudden and unexpected death. One Petraki, a Greek, a kind of banker to T the

274

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

the court, by his frequent accefs to Achmet, raifed the jealoufy of the miniftry, who, upon various pretences, one day in council, defired Petraki’s head might fall----The Sultan, whofe private reafons for keeping it on, were infinitely better than thofe Petraki’s enemies had alledged, Was extremely averfe to fuch a thing •, but the Capitan Pacha and his friends were bold enough to declare, they would not ftirout of the council till Achmet had figned the order; which he did, with the tears flream­ ing down his cheeks. Upon fuch occafions, there is a perfon whofe place it is to go to the houfe of the unfortunate dead man, and examine the papers of any perfon who in his life-time had dealings with the cabinet-----

The man found fome, which he fealed up with four large feals, and de­ fired they might be delivered into the i Sultan’s

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

275

Sultan’s own hands-, very much alarmed at having feen them; for Petraki was the pri­ vate agent of the Sultan, who received the money, which Petraki feemed only to re­ ceive for places which his intereft pro­ cured-, and Petraki’s accounts were fo regularly kept, that the money he deli­ vered, with the dates and the places, were regiflered----The vile low intrigues of the minifters here are not to be imagined. The Sultan has the higheft opinion of the fenfe and courage of the Capitan Pacha; when he quits Conftantinople the Sovereign thinks his capital in danger. But I find all ranks of people agree in his having introduced a better police for the town than hitherto exifted. At a fire fome JanifTaries not do­ ing their duty properly, he had four of them flung into it. Pour encourager les autres, as Voltaire has obferved upon ano­ ther occafion. He is always accompanied by a lion, who follows him like a dog; the other day he fuffered him to accompany him T 2 to

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

to the Divau, but the miniflers were fo terrified that fome jumped out of the windows, one was near breaking his neck in flying down flairs, and the High Admiral and his lion were left to fettle the councils of the day to-

I think it a lucky thing for the Ambaffadors that the Turks neither pay nor receive vifits.----- Could any thing be fo terrible as the fociety of the moft ignorant and uninformed men upon earth ?

You know, I fuppofe, that they were always perfuaded it was impoflible for a Ruffian fleet to come to Conftantinople by any other fea than the Black Sea} and though the French endeavoured to prove to them by maps, the paflage of their enemies to the Archipelago; till the Turkifh fleet was engaged with the Ruffian in the Bay of Tchefme, no Turk would believe the poffibility of the thing----I am

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

277

I am told here that a Mr. Bouverie, who defired to fee Conftantinople, came and looked at it from the frigate he was in— but never landed—I really do not think he was to blame. Conftantinople, and the en­ trance of the Bofphorns by the fea of Mar­ mora, is the moft majeftic, magnificent, graceful, and lively fcene the moft luxuriant imagination can defire to behold * It was no wonder Conftantine chofe it for the feat of empire. Nature has compofed of earth and water fuch a landfcape, that tafte, unaflifted by ambitious refiedions, would naturally defire to give the picture living graces j but I who am apt to fuppofe whatever is in poflibility to exift, often place along the Chore, Peterfburgh, Paris, London, Mofcow, Amfterdam, and all the great towns I have feen, feparate from each other, and there is full room enough. Here I will end my fuppofitions, and think it better that man has done fo little where nature has done fo much----et que tout efl comme il doit etre; who ought with more juftice to think fo$ I who have

±73

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

you for my friend and brother. But left you fhould not be of the fame opinion as to the length of this letter, I will now take my leave, and aflure you I remain at all times and places,

Your aflejftionate

E. C-----

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

LETTER

Th E

XLVIJ.

harbour called the Golden Horn,

which feparates Pera and Conftantinople, has a Angularity I with much to have ex­ plained to me. All the filth and rubbifhof both towns are conftantly flung into it; cuftom-houfes, barracks, ftore-houfes, the dock-yard, all thefe are placed on the bor­ ders of it; whole dunghills are fwcpt into it; no mcafures for keeping it clean are taken, no quays are formed by men; yet by the ftrength or variety of currents, or fome other natural caufe, this port is always clean, and deep enough to admit of the en­ trance of the largeft merchantmen ; which, like as in all the other harbours in the canal, may be hooked on, clofc to the fhore----This harbour grows narrower as it meets the frefh water, and ends at laft in a fmall rivulet;

280

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

rivulet; but where it is juft wide enough to have the appearance of a fmall river, the French fome time paft have dammed the frefh water up, making of it fquare pieces of water, to imitate thofe of Marly. Here kiofks and trees have been placed in great regularity, and it is here that on a Friday Turks in groupes are to be feen dining, taking coffee, or fmoaking upon carpets, fpread under the (hade of the immenfe and lofty platane. I can give you no other idea of the fize of fome of thefe beautiful trees, but by telling you it correfponds to the gigantic landfcape of which they make the fineft ornament; yes, my dear Sir, the largeft oaks you can have feen would look, fet down by thefe, as little broomfticks. Women in groupes likewife, apart from the men, meet here; but when they come to thefe places, of which there are a great number near Conftantinople, they, hire what they imagine to be coaches, called arabats—A vile machine like a covered cart, with rows of benches in the infide There are no fprings to them; and one.day in a valley called PEcbelte du grand Seigneur, I got

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

281

got into one, but chofe rather to get out and walk fix miles, than be jolted unmerAll the Ambafladors fince my arrival here have given balls and dinners. Madame d’Herbert, the Imperial Minifler’s wife, is lively, and I fee her often. The Dutch AmbafTador’s wife is a very good woman; and I am very comfortable, think­ ing people extremely good to me to anfwer the million of queftions I afk. There is but one perfon here to whom I never ap­ ply about any thing; for I obferve a (Lifted fmile upon every perfon’s countenance when he opens his lips; his long refidence here has given the other ----- ----- ------

So if his details to the -------------- cabinet are as true as thofe in fociety—the bufinefs of the nation will go on admirably-----

By

£82

LADY CRAVEN’s JOURNEY

By the by, Sir, I forgot to tell you I found Sir Richard Worfley here, who has travelled much, with a perlon to take views for him. He fhewed me a coloured draw­ ing of the caftle of Otranto; which, faid he, I intend to prefent to Mr. W-------- ; and pray, Sir, fays I, are you an acquaint­ ance of his? No; upon which I helitated not to alk him for it; that I as a friend of W-------- ’s may have the pleafure of giving it to him. He intreated me to accept of fome Egyptian pebbles, as knife handles— and I obtained for him a permilfion to go in the frigate, that brought me hither, to the Crimea-------

I am told there is an Englilh merchant here extremely offended at my lodging au Palais de France, and fays, if Sir R. Ainllie’s houfe was not good enough for me, he had a new houfe, which he would have emptied, and let me have had it all to myfelf—It is an affront to the nation, he fays—Apeerefs of England to lodge at the French Ambaffadors!—The Englilh merchants are very

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

283

good to me; I believe they guefs the refped and efteem I have for them-------- Mr. de Bukalow Cent me a few days paft one of Merlin’s fineft piano-fortes, to re­ main here as long as I ftay; and Mr. de Choifeul found out a pedal-harp fomewhere, and had it fet in my room—I believe peo­ ple think it fo fingular a thing for a lady to come here without being obliged, as a minifler’s wife, that they endeavour to keep me as long as they can; Mr. d’Herbert told me --------•---------

I repeat this to you, Sir, that you may know at leaft that-----

-----

-----

Think me not quite unworthy of your efteem and friendfhip—and you will find I prize both, beyond thofe of every other perfon; being Your affe&ionate

E. C--------

LETTER

284

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER XLVIII.

Dear Sir, IT would feem that every thing in nature which has remarkable advantages, has likewife fome misfortunes attending it that counterbalance the good, fo as to reduce the portion of happinefs to a level for man­ kind. This beautiful enchanting country, the climate, the objects, the fituation of it, make it an earthly Paradife; but the plague —but earthquakes—what terrifying fubjeds, to make the thinking part fly it for ever. If things and perfons may be compa­ red, it is not a beautiful woman; who is handfomer than moft ofherfex, with ac­ complishments equal to her beauty; but whom the world, her very inmates envy thofe.advantages—and might not the bafe paflions

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

285

paflions that furround her frighten her greateft admirers from trufting to her be­ witching charms-----

I was led to this comparifon by talking about the Grecian Iflands, which I mean to vifit—they are all I am told volcanos; fome of them have difappeared ; and thofe who have furnifhed Greece with their men of greateft genius, only like them, are to be found in books; and by an adventure which happened to us yefterday, as we em­ barked at Tophana. There are fmall plat­ forms of wood fixed on to the edge of the water, where people Jeave or take boats. As we arrived a boat full of Turks landed with a corpfe, feemingly in great hafte, and as they pafled, touched Monf. de Choifeul and me. He ftarted, and I afked him what was the matter-—He told me he was fure it was a man dead of the plague; and in truth it was fo. Judge how difagreeable to one who had not been out for fix months----I have

286

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

I have been to fee the Mofque of St. So­ phia, with two others. The dome of St. Sophia is extremely large, and well worth feeing, but fome of the fincft pillars are let topfy-turvy, or have capitals of Turkifh architecture. In thefe holy temples neither the beautiful ftatues belonging to * Pagan times, nor the coflly ornaments of modern Rome, are to be feen : fome (habby lamps, hung irregularly, are the only expence the Mahometans permit thenifelves, as a proof of their refpeCt for the Deity or his Prophet. I went and fat fome time up flairs, to look down into the body of the temple—I faw feveral Turks and women kneeling, and feemingly praying with great devotion. Mofques are conftantly open; and I could not help reflecting that their mode of worfliip is extremely convenient for the carry­ ing on a plot of any fort. A figure, wrap­ ped up like a mummy, can eafily kneel down by another without being fufpeCled, and mutter in a whifpcr any fort of thing; the longer the con verfation lafts the more edified a iilent obfcrver may be. No par­ ticular hour for divine fervice, or perlon to officiate,

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

287

officiate, is appointed. It is true, that at certain hours of the day men arc feen on the minarets or fteeples, bawling and hal­ looing to all good Muflulmen, that it is the hour appointed for prayer; but they follow their own convenience or devout humour, and fay their prayers not only when but where they choofe—for I have feen feverat Turks, in the moft public and noify places about Conflantinople, kneeling and praying, without being the leaft deranged or difturbed by the variety of objeds or noifes that furrounded or paffed by them. In order to procure me a fight of the Mofques, the Ambaflador was obliged to apply for a permiffion ; the Porte gracioufly gave one; in which I had leave to fee fe ven tv-five. The burial places for the dead are very nu­ merous, and in a manner furround Conftantinople and Pera, forming very ffiady romantic walks, as the trees and graveftones are huddled together in a confufed manner; both prefenting great variety to thofe who ramble among them. Each grave-flone is crowned with a turban, the form of which (hews the employment or quality

288

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

quality of the corpfe when living-—I (hall fend you a drawing that will give you fome idea of them-----

I can give you no jufl idea of the beauty of the trees; which, particularly in thefe burial places, are never touched, therefore fpread and grow in the mod luxuriant and graceful diforder. There are no bounds fet, or fencestoreflrain or defign ,the form of thefe burial places, fome extend a mile or two ; and, if it was not for one difagreeable reflexion, would be as pleafant to a foreign­ er as to a Turk but when we confider that it is pefliferated earth we tread on; that every new made grave may contain a body rotting with the plague, and the flight man­ ner in which it is covered with earth, from the hurry with which it is thrown in, we cannot with reafon flay therein. Turks are predeflinarians, and therefore imagine it is fate, and not the care which is taken in Chriftian houfes that prevents them from dying of this horrid diforder; therefore walk unconcerned, under the dangerous fhadeof the trees that hang over their deceafcd neighbours-------Con-

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

2S9

Conflantinople is almoft furrounded by a very high wall, turreted and flanked by large fquare towers, built by the Greek Emperors—the ftyle of architecture exaCtly like that of Warwick and Berkeley Caftle ; but many of the fquare towers, which ferve as gateways, are mouldering away under the negligence of the Turks; moft of whom believe in an ancient prophecy, which announces that the time is near when the Emprefs of Ruffia is to make her public and triumphal entry through one of thefe towers, as Emprefs of Greece, into Conftantinople. Many have made up their minds, and taken their meafures to tranfport themfelves acrofs the Bofphorus into Alia; nay, fome go fo far as to point to the very identical gateway through which Ihe is to proceed. To fome nations it would be very agreeable that the Turkilh empire was to be driven from a fituation, which feems hy nature formed as an univerfal paflage for trading nations, which the inactivity of the Turks has too long obftruCted. And it is to be wifhed by all thofe who bear any refpeCt to the beft monuments of fculpture, U that

29o

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

that Athens, and all it yet contains, might not by Mahometan ignorance be entirely deftroyed : at prefent, ruins, that would adorn a virtuofo’s cabinet, are daily burnt into lime by the Turks-, and pieces of ex­ quisite workmanfhip Ruck into a wall or fountain. There remains but a very little of that pillar that once probably was a fine ornament to the Atmeidan, or market for horfes.

I have feen likewife the Sultan go in cercmony to prayers—from the gate of the Seraglio to the door of the Mofque—it was but a few paces. He was preceded by a double row of Janifiaries, to the amount of about an hundred and fifty, with other at­ tendants-, he was mounted on a grey horfe led by two perfons, and followed by his fon, a fickly looking child, fitting on a milkwhite horfe; over his head w’as held a green umbrella, the ribs of which were fet with diamonds. You muft know diamonds are the things which the Turks are moft fond of. While the Porte delays erefling batteries upon the moft important pofts, under the i pretence

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

291

pretence of wanting money to pay for the pieces and work neceflary for the defence of the empire, the jewellers cannot find diamonds enough to fupply the demands of the Harem, for which they are paid ready money. It is the quantity, and not the quality of this flone, which they prize: fcarcely any other than rofe diamonds are to be feen here-----

I have been with a large party to fee the Captain Pacha’s wife, but as this letter will not contain an account of this curious vifit, I muft defer my account of it to the next. Believe me, Sir, with the trueft efteem and affedion, Your faithful friend and fifler,

E. C-------

Us

LETTER

292

LADY CRAVENS JOURNEY

LETTER XLIX.

Dear Sir, Palais

de

France, Pera, May 7, 1786.

.Monsieur de Choifeul propofed to the Ambaffadors wives and me to go and fee the Capitan Pacha’s country feat; accord­ ingly we fet out with feveral carriages, and about a league from Conftantinople, to­ wards Romelia, we arrived there: The houfe and plantations about it are new and irregular. The Ambaffadors and the reft of the male party were fuffered to walk in the garden j but the Minifter’s wives and myfelf were (hewn into a feparate building from the houfe, where the ground floor was made to contain a great quantity of water, and looked like a large clean ciftern. We then were led up ftairs, and upon the land­ ing-place, which was circular, the doors of feveral

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

293

feveral rooms were open. In Tome there was nothing to be feen, in others two or three women fitting clofe together ; in one, a pretty young woman, with a grqat quan­ tity of jewels on her turban, was fitting almoft in the lap of a frightful negro woman; we were told fhe was the Capitan Pacha’s fifter-in-law ; fhe looked at us with much furprife; and at laft, with great fear, threw herfelf into the arms of the Black woman, as if to hide herfelf. We were called away into a larger room than any we had feen, where the Capitan Pacha’s wife, a middleaged woman, dreffed with great magnifi­ cence, received us with much politenefs ; many women were with her, and fhe had by her a little girl, dreffed as magnificently as herfelf, her adopted child. She made an excufe for not receiving us at the door, as fhe was dining with her hufband when we arrived. Coffee, fherbet, and fweetmeats were offered, and we haftened to take our leave, as our cavaliers were cooling their heels in the garden. You

294

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

You can conceive nothing fo neat and clean to all appearance as the interior of this Harem; the floors and paflages are cover­ ed with matting of a clofe and flrong kind ; the colour of the ftraw or reeds with which they are made is a pale ftraw. The rooms had no other furniture than the culhions, which lined the whole room, and thofe, with the curtains, were of white linen. As the Turks never come into the room, either men or women, with the flippers they walk abroad with there is not a fpeck of fand or dirt within doors. I am femmelette enough to have taken particular notice of the drefs, which, if female envy did not fpoil every thing in the world of women, would be graceful. It confifts of a petticoat and veft, over which is worn a robe with fhcrt fleeves; the one belonging to the lady of the houfe was of fattin, embroidered richly with the fineft colours, gold and diamonds—A girdle under that, with twocircles of jewels in front, and from,this gir­ dle hangs an embroidered handkerchief—: A turban with a profufion of diamonds and pearls, leemed to weigh this lady’s head down

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

295

down ; but what fpoiled the whole was a piece of ermine, that probably was origi­ nally only a cape, but each woman increafing the fize of it, in order to be more mag­ nificent than her neighbour, they now have it like a great fquare plaifler that comes down to the hips; and thefe fimple igno­ rant beings do not fee that it disfigures the tout enfemble of a beautiful drefs. The hair is feparated in many fmall braids hang­ ing down the back, or tied up to the point of the turban on the outfide. I have no doubt but that nature intended fome of thefe women to be very handfome, but white and red ill applied, their eye-brows hid under one or two black lines—teeth black by fmoaking, and an univerfal ftoop in the fhoulders, made them appear rather difgufting than handfome. The laft defect is caufed by the pofture they fit in, which is that of a taylor, from their infancy---- -

The black powder with which they line their eyelids gives their eyes likewife a harfh expreffion. Their queftions are as fimple as their drefs is ftudied----- Are you marri­ ed ?

296

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

ed ? Have you children ? Have you no diferder ? Do you like Conftantinople ? The Turkifh women pafs moft of their time in the bath or upon their drefs; ftrange paftimes! The firft fpoils their perfons, the laft disfigures them. The frequent ufe of hot-baths deftroys the folids, and thefe women at nineteen look older than I am at this moment. They endeavour to repair by art the mifchief their conftant foaking does to their charms; but till fome one, more wife than the reft, finds out the caufe of the premature decay of that inva­ luable gift, beauty, and fets an example to the riling generation of a different mode of life, they will always fade as faft as the rofes they are fo juftly fond of----Our gentlemen were very curious to hear an account of the Harem, and when we were driving out of the court-yard, a meffenger from the Harem came running after us, to defire the carriages might be driven round the court two or three times, for the amufement of the Capitan Pacha’s wife and the Harem, that were looking through tha

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

the blinds; this ridiculous meffage was not complied with, as ydu may imagine ; and we got home, laughing at our adventures. You rtiuft not fuppofe that carriages may proceed in the ftreets of Pera, or Conftantinople, as faft as in tliofe of London or Paris. A race of dogs, belonging to, no one in particular but to every Turk indifferent­ ly, fwarm in the ftreets ; and fo accuftomed are they to have the Turks on horfeback turn out of the middle of the ftreet, where they lie bafking in the fun, that our fervants were obliged to ftop the carriages and lift the dogs out of the way, feveral times, be­ fore we reached the Palais ds France. No­ thing is more horrible than the fpecies of this animal here, all of the fame race, an ugly currifh breed; nothing more abfurd than the general protection afforded them; on every dunghill you may fee a hundred fighting and fcrambling for the filth they can fcratch out of it; for the ill-underftood charity, publickly given them, is by no means fufficient to feed them, and many­ hundreds die with hunger. No man has a dog

298

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

dog belonging to him, but all dogs are fuffered to lie and breed about the flreets. Turtle-doves are likewife an objed of refped with the Turks, and they are feen difputing the crumbs with the hungry curs in the ftreets-----

Adieu, my dear brother, my beft withes and refpeds attend you-:---Your’s affedionately,

E. C----

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

299

LETTER L

My Dear Sir,

I Have feen a very horrible fight, though not a new one to thole who inhabit Conftantinople or Pera. Yeflerday I went upon the Canal to fee the departure of the Capitan Pacha, commanding the Turkifh fleet, which fet fail for Egypt; and at night a moft dreadful fire broke out in Conftantinople, probably kindled by the parlizans of the commander, in order to perfuade the Sultan that in the abfence of this favourite, he is not in the fame fccurity as when he is at prefent----You may be furprifed at this fuppofition, but nothing is more frequent than tricks of this kind: 1 went up with the AmbafTador and many more perfons into the Obfervatory, and flaid till three in the morning, to

3oo

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

to make my remarks. The houfes are like tinder, and burn as faft as matches from their flight conftrudion and the material which is wood. The fcene of horror and confuflon was great, and though the fire began at the edge of the water, and the Janiflaries were very diligent, above fcventy houfes were burnt prefently----The Sultan, when he wants to make the common people believe he has no fears, goes out incognito, in a hired boat with only two or three attendants. I had feen him come out thus of a back-door of his garden, juft after the fleet had failed; the fire at night was calculated to renew his fears, if he had loft them. But here it is known when he Tallies forth without guards and ceremony : it is like children that fing in the dark, to make their nurfes believe they are not afraid----Upon new buildings or children, theTurks imagine the looks of Chriftians bring ill luck—and fo to attrad what they call the evilfight, upon arches or houfes they fufpend

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

301

pend a ball, or fome fantaftic thing to fix the attention of thofe who pafs, in order that the eyes may not be fixed too long on the building. As to children, particularly the Sultan’s, the guards hide them when Chriftian men or women would look at them----All this is very childifh indeed ; but there areathoufand fuperftitious ideas the Turks have relative to the Franks, which is the name by which they diftinguilh every one who wears an European drefs. Among others, they imagine them to have an in­ tuitive knowledge in phyfic—and alkChrif. tians oftener to eive them a cure for diforders than any other queftion.

The red leather pocket-books, embroi­ dered with gold fo neatly, and which you may have feen, are to be had cheap here ; half-a-guinea or fifteen (hillings is the higheft price for them: I (hall fend you one or two, and beg you will keep my letters to you in them. I know, dear Sir, the mag­ nificent

302

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

nificent outfide of them will not pleafe you half fo well as the fimple fcrawl within----- *

Among many abfurdities the Turks are guilty of, there is one for which I fee no reafon. The Sultans formerly built diffe­ rent palaces on the borders of the Canal, which are now forfaken. There is one on the Afiatic fide in the midft of a fine gar­ den, falling to ruin very faft: In it there are yet coftly looking-glafles and furniture, thefe are not removed but fuffered to fall and perifh as it may pleafe the winds and ruin to direft. As no one is to touch or remove any thing, the Porte and public arc equally lofers; the garden, large enough to make a beautiful park, is quite wild; and as no one goes into it, one of the fineft fpots on that coaft, juft facing the Seraglio, is loft to every one. I find this is the cafe with every royal rcfidcnce, which, when abandoned by the caprice of the fovereign, is not demolifhed or unfurnifhed, but left in the fame manner----Jf there are many fimple and abfurd cuftoms and opinions among the Turks, tiicre exifts

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

303

exifts likewife much generofity and magni­ ficence in their conduit when in an opulent fituation. No minifter of the Porte has a night all the people who have been prefented to me came to with me a fafe and pleafant voyage -------------- -

come in, looking,as like the Coufin Hogreften, as poflible, and afliired me the Iflands of Naxos and Smyrna were ravaged by the plague at this moment; and that the rocks and ftorms in the Archipelago were the moft dangerous in the world ; that he wish­ ed me a fafe return, but my intended voyage was very perilous. A ftifled fmile upon fome people’s faces, and the fettled reputa­ tion he has for invention, made me perfedly eaiy, and if his intention was to render me otberwife, it has failed thoroughly; nor could we refrain from laughing when this Hogreften took his leave-----

The Venetian Ambaflador here is a very fenfible man, but he diflikes his poft; his paflion is Rome; where he might follow bis tafte for the fine arts. He is very converfible, and I dare fay feels, as Monf. de Choileul muft, like the Prince in the Ara­ bian

TO CONST/1NT1NOPLE.

317

bian Nights, who landed in a country where all the inhabitants were turned into ftone; for indeed a nation with which one does not aflociate, is a nation of ftatues to ft rangers who arc forced to remain in it, except that the people walk, ride, and go in boats----Mr. de Choifeul has fome excellent muficians, and we have had concerts; there are ladies that fing, but according to my ufual fhynefs about mufic, I (hall let no one here know I can -------- for -------and fo remaining—I wifli you a good night—

E. C-------

LETTER

318

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER

LIU.

Athens, May 20, 1786.

I Set out on the 12th, at half paft fix in the evening, on board the Tarleton, which contained Mr. de Choifeul and great part of his houfehold, myfelf, my fellow-tra­ veller, and the officers ; how this little fri­ gate contained us all I do not know, but fo it was, and all our fervants. It was the . fineft weather in the world, and we pafied thofe iflands, called the Princes, to the left, which are feven miles and a half from Conflantinople; from thofe to Cape Bourbouron, which is the promontory of land that forms part of the port of Moudagna, it is four-and-twenty miles and a half; from Cape Bourbouron to lhe port of Moudagna, thirteen. As we had but little wind, we did not make thefe four-and-forty miles and

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

31?

and a half in lefs than feventeen hours •> and after having landed our fick but amia­ ble Ambaflador, we fet fail again, and when fairly out at fea, we had a moft vio­ lent ftorm, and with difficulty faved ourfelves from the Ifland of Marmora, a moft tremendous naked rock, which feems only placed in the midft of that fea to re­ ceive a wreck from a thunder-ftorm- I was heartily fick and tired, for the (haking of fo (mall a veflel (hocks my flight perfon moft horridly. When we were juft over againft the Trojan (bore, I would fain have landed, but as there is nothing to fee on the furface of the ground, and we had not time to flay, and dig for the afhes of the heroes’ buried there, we contented ourfelves with fuppofing what we might have found; we deplored Leander’s fate as we pafled the Straits, and found there the Capitan-Pacha and his fleet: our little frigate fainted him, he returned our fa I u tat ion. We pafled the weftern points of the Iflands of Mittelina and Ipfera, leaving to the left the Ifland of Scio; to the right that of Miconia, and the little

one

320

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

one of Dragonifla, and landed at the liland of Naxia or Naxos. I faw but little re­ mains of the temple dedicated to Bacchus, which (lands on the point of a rock, which probably was part of the ifland when the temple was built; at prefent one muft fcramble in a boat to reach that point where it ftands; a fine proportion gives room to fuppofe it might have been very majeftic * I was fhewn the fountain befide which it is faid the forfaken Ariadne wept her lover’s flight, and where Bacchus found her; it is of white marble, too much deftroyed by time to admit of defcription, and contains a fpring of clear water.

The town of Naxos is a poor place; we waited near four hours to fee a Naxiote maiden drefied in her holiday clothes, which are neither decent nor pretty: A fhort fhift reaching to her knees ferved as a petticoat; her veil was fantaftic beyond conception, pearls, feathers, beads, fowed on, in vari­ ous forms; and two wings like thofe of a butterfly, ftuck between her fhoulders, added to tlie flrange appearance. Her head and

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

321

and neck were adorned with gold, chains, pearls, ftones, ribbands; in my life I never faw fo bizarre a figure. We took our leave of her, making many excufes for the trou­ ble we had given her, and failed for the fmall ifland of Antiparos, which is to the right of Paros, where I could plainly difcover the mouths of feveral quarries of that famous marble, of which, had I poffefled a fairy’s wand, I would have conveyed large blocks to England, and laid them at the feet of my friend Mrs. Darner, whofe talent for fculpture makes her as diflinguifhed in that art as in every other which fhe has chofen to profefs—though her modefty has concealed many from the world----Mr. de Choifcul’s artifts were to take aftronomical and geometrical obfervations of the famous grotto, and 1 had promi fed to defeend into it with them. An afs led by two Greeks was waiting on the fliore for me, as the heat was exceflivc, and my com­ panions were afraid I fhould be too much fatigued if I had walked. Indeed it was a league diflant from the fhore, and we afY feended.

322

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

cended conflantly; turning fuddenly to the left, we defcended a little, and a fcene truly romantic offered itfelf; a vaulted femicircle formed by craggy rocks, fome bearing the appearance of pillars, which feemed to fupport the pendant roof, and caverns which afforded a refrefhing fhade to diffe­ rent flocks of goats which the Greek fhepherds had driven in, and were refling by, was an object worthy the pencil of my companions----Here we refted, and a fmall hole on the ground was pointed to me as the entrance of the grotto. I was obliged to crawl in, a flrong cord was fattened to the outfide, and feveral failprs and Greeks preceded us with flambeaux t it required a good deal of courage and dexterity to proceed, fometimes I fat, and flid down fmall points of rock, which were the only fupport for hands or feet; in two places the defcent was perpen­ dicular; there rope ladders were fattened, and in one or two places, through holes on the left, we could look down perpendicu­ larly into the grotto, where I arrived fafely,

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

323

refuting conflantly to be afliflcd, for I thought myfclf in greater fafety in trotting to my own hands and feet than to the afiiftance of others, who had enough to do in preventing themfelves from flipping-----

Tournefort fays the grotto is three hun­ dred fathoms perpendicular from the en­ trance ; it is three hundred feet only; but as there are feveral windings in the pafiage, in times when mathematical calculations were in lefs pcrfe&ion than at prefent, the mittakc was an eafy one. The feeble defcription my pen may trace of this famous grotto I mutt defer at prefent; I yet remem­ ber with pleafure its gloomy frcfhnefs, and the fweet fpring of foft water we found in one corner of it, that made us relifli our cold collation with much pleafure. My patient contemplation of objeds, which the filent and cold hand of time only can pro­ duce, was very favourable to the artifl who was taking a drawing of the interior of the grotto, intended for Mr. de Choifeul’s fecond volume of his publication, du Voyage Pittorefque de la Grcce^ where lam to be feated at the foot of what they call le Y 2 Grand

324

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

Grand Autel. Would, my dear and ho­ noured friend, you had been fitting by my fide, for I fear no pen or pencil can do juftice to the immenfity of objeds I faw, nor the beauty of them. When I recoiled the coolnefs of my feat, I feel the more fa­ tigued with the almoft infupportableheat of this place, fo I quit my pen—

Adieu, dear brother, with what pleafure I write to you I give you leave to guefs. Your’s faithfully,

E. C-------

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

325

LETTER LIV.

Athens, May 21, 1786.

Th E

water, which diftils drop by drop

conftantly from the top of the grotto, hard­ ens, and by degrees the firft drop acquires a confiftency like a brittle and thin (hell; the the next extends round the firft, fo that upon breaking off and examining the pen­ dent point, at the end of which there was conftantly a drop of clear water, it refembles many glafs quills that are made to go within each other; the laft forming a more confiderable circle than that hardened to precede it. Thefe are of a beautiful colour like alabafter. The altars and pillars which rife from the ground upwards, fome of them being taller than the taileft men, are of a different colour to thofe which defeend, a greyifh brown, and feemingly more hard than the hardeft ftone; but evidently caufed

326

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

caufed by the dropping of the water likewife; and it muft be a curious fpeculation for naturalifts to explain why the fame matter, in the fame atmofphere, fhould, in their congelation, produce fuch different petrifactions; the caufe feems perfectly natural to me; for the firft is fufpendcd, and as it were congeals in the air, while the other refts upon the rock, and fettles gra­ dually into ftone, like fand in the bowels of the earth. When the Ruffian fleet was here, fome of the officers broke off fome glorious pil­ lars, which by a flow proccfs, and proba­ bly by the diftillations going in the fame perpendicular line downwards for ages, had reached from the top to the bottom of the grande falle—I faw them in a very impcrfeft ftate at. Peterfburgh, and in the grotto the tops and bottoms of them ; for the ma­ terial being fo brittle they could not be broken off in their length. If the Emprefs could know how little fatisfadion the curi­ ous muft receive by feeing them in an im­ perfect and mutilated ftate in her Mufeum — i and

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

327

and what beautiful things they muft have been in the grotto—fhe would grieve with me, that ever a defire of obliging could in­ duce her officers to commit what 1 think a facrilege againft antiquity. Nothing can be more beautiful than the fhapes the chryftalifations have taken in fome parts of the ceiling, if I may fo call it, of this place— Wherever by any accident the congealing drop has been removed from its direction, it takes another courfe—As there are mil­ lions conftantly oozing out and congealing, fome of which are removed accidentally, the petrifactions reprefent the folds of dra­ pery curtains, hanging feftoons, &c. As to the altars, as the French call them, which mount fpirally towards the cieling, their ends have been deranged likewife, and wherever the congelation has ceafed at the point, it is like a cauliflower head; and moft of them look like pyramids compofed of cauliflowers, fuppofing them to be brown; the contraft of this form, as well as the colour of the fuperior part, is a great addition to the beauty of the place. After the drawings were taken, the meafures afeertained.

328

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

afcertained, and the artifts had perfectly finifhed what Monf. de Choifeul had com­ manded them to do, we fearched in every corner of the grotto, and found another chamber lower than that we were in, with feveral recefles unfufpecfted by us; names were engraven on the moft confpicuous parts of the grande falls, and we left ours engraved in the rock, and burnt into a board, for any bold adventurer to read after us—and reafeended, but with much more difficulty than we had entered, for one of the rope-ladders was fo contrived that I could not reach from one ftep while my foot was on the other; how I fcrambled up at laft 1 cannot very well tell—but I was not forry to fee the light of the fun again—I was now much furprifed to find myfelf furrounded by Greek peafant women, one pointing to her head, another to her flomach, a third to her arm, all bewailing their ill Rate of health, and touching my clothes with devotion—I found at laft, that? hearing a woman bad defeended, they took her t.o be a fupernatural being, and was pcrfcclly convinced I could cure all diforders;

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

329

ders j nor could I tirer myfelf d* affaire, otherwife than by diftributing fome thieves vinegar which I had in my pocket----One of the moft lingular fcenes I ever faw, was the defcending of about five-andtwenty people after I was at the bottom of the grotto, moft of them with torches; as there was but one rope to hold by, when we were obliged to have recourfe to it, I infilled that only five people Ihould go down with me-—and the reft fet out when we were fafely landed, left the rope Ihould break. As the palfage to the grande Jalle is winding, and as there are many gaps in it, we caught and loft fight of thefe people alternately and of the torches—The brilli­ ancy of the petrifadions, the jagged lhapes of the rocks, through which we faw the men, the darknefs of part of the grotto, and the illuminations which refieded light in new places every moment difplayed the ftrangeft and moft beautiful fcencry that can be imagined. Doubtlefs, my dear Sir, there are many obfervations, cafy to make, which my ignorance prevents me from at­ taining

330

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

taining to, but you will be amply fatisfied, when Mr. de Choifeul’s account of this grotto fhal! appear--------

He has promifed me two copies of his works; and there his pencil will give you a better idea of this remarkable curiofity than my pen pofiibly can. And now I confefs to you, that had it not been that my pride rofe fupcrior to my fears, I never fhould have gone down. Mr. de C-------- , when we were laying out the plan of my Grecian tour, fa id, ’Jamais femme ria defeen * due dans la grotte a'Antiparos, peu d’bommes veulent y de/cendre^ mais '■jous, Miladi veus, il faut abjolument que vous y entries. When I had got about two or three yards into the narrow entrance of the cavern, the frnokc of the torches, which could only find ifi’ue there, almoft took my breath away, and t was forced to fet mvfelf down, or rather lie upon the rock—as I fell almoft fufFocated—and I was upon the point of going out again : but I fhould have been ally *med to have feen the Spirited Ambaflaaor, who had ran fo manv rifques in fearchinsafter *

kJ

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

33t

after the truths of antiquity, if I had re­ turned without feeing the Grotte d'Antiparos, and I took courage and defcended-----

We fupped very agreeably on board the Tarleton, and looked over the pieces we had brought out of the Grotto: but they were fo brittle, they almoft mouldered away at the touch; I put fome into a box with cotton. As we failed for this place we palPed the iilands of Siphanto, Milos, Argentiera, St. George of Arbora—and arrived happily in the Piraean port, in which remain the two pedeftals of the lions which are now at the door of the Arfenal at Venice--------There is nothing left in thefe iilands worth the ftdppinlg to look at, and they ’all appear like naked rocks from the fea, of a volcanic nature—feveral have difappeared, and others have been fo Ihaken by earth­ quakes that they are uninhabited—I made a little drawing of one, which will give you a perfed idea of them all—----From

332

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

From the Piraean port to Athens the ground rifes gradually—and the only fine things which are feen are, to the left near the fea, a large grove or wood of olive trees; and juft below the town, ftanding unincumbered with other objects, the fuperb, the beautiful temple of Thefeus; the architecture fimple and grand; pro­ portioned with majefty and grace; it has flood to this day an eternal monument of the good tafte of the ancients. But I now finifh this letter, for upon paper as upon land, there is no fuch thing as tearing me away from this charming building; fo I (hall defer fome account of it with other things to another fheet-------Adieu, dear brother,

Your’s affectionately,

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

333

LETTER LV.

The Temple

of Minerva, in the citadel

of Athens, was ufed by the Turks as a ma­ gazine for powder, which blowing up has flung down fuch a quantity of beautiful fculpture that I fhould be very happy to have permiflion to pick up the broken pieces on the ground—but, alas, Sir, I cannot even have a little finger or a toe, for the Ambaflador who had been a whole year negotiating for permiflion to convey to Conftantinople a fragment lie had pitched upon, and thought himfclf fure of, will be fadly difappointed. The failors were pre­ pared with cranes, and every thing ncceffary to convey this beautiful relick on board the Tarleton; when after the governor of the citadel, a Turk, had received us with great, politenefs, he took Mr. de Truguct afide,

334

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

afide, and told him, unlefs he chofe to endanger his life, he muft give up the thoughts of touching any thing----- That there was an intrigue in the Seraglio to difplace him, and that if any^ thing was removed, that plea would be fufficient for his enemies to get his head ftruck off— Chagrined and difappointed as Mr. de Truguet was, he could not with any huma­ nity prefs the performance of the promife j and we returned to the Conful’s, very much concerned at the exceflive injuft ice and ignorance of the Turks, who have really not the fmalleft idea of the value of the treafures they poffefs, and deftroy them wantonly on every occafion j for, from one of the pillars of the temple of Thefeus, they have fliced a piece of marble, to burn into lime for the conflrudion of a Turkifh fountain; and fuch is the fate of many a chef d’auvre of the beft Grecian iculptors--------The citadel is in an extremely elevated fituation, and if twifdom was the virtue the Athenians prized moft, the temple could not

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

335

not be better placed, for the Goddefs to dired and overlook their actions—The Go­ vernor’s daughters received me, and the Conful’s wife, and a relation of theirs was brought in who was a melancholy prey to fome inward difeafe, that was wafting a fine form and features to decay. I was applied to, and prefled to give a receipt to cure her; and, when our vifit was ended, the Governor and his fons were as impor­ tunate as the women had been; fo I advifed cream of tartar whey, being fure it could not hurt her. I am Cure you laugh if you think there is any thing in my coun­ tenance that may lead people to take me for a phyfician—but the fad is, that the Turks afk every ft ranger for prefcriptions— I will give you no account of our interview with the Turkifh women—drcfs, manners, reception is the fame every where, the clothes and jewels more or lefs magni­ ficent according to the quality of the hufband--------

In many authors you will find an account of the Temple of Minerva; of a fweet little temple

336

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

temple called the Lanthorn of Diogenes, which is in good prefervation; and of the Temple of the Winds likewife, the interior of which is not at all damaged, but the outfide is half funken in the ruins of Athens, which has often been ruined, and many­ things bearing the flamp of the artift, are, like the artift, buried in the earth—From my bed-chamber window I look down upon the ruins of a beautiful gateway, the half of whofe pillars are only to be feen, on the fuperior part much damaged, and, three large florks nefts, with the old and young— their filth and habitation finifhing the me­ lancholy fhade, which the ruft of time and the abominable ignorance of the Turks have caft over them----The few remaining pillars of the Temple of Jupiter Olympus, or rather fuppofed to be that which contained the ftatues of all the Gods, give one a very good idea of the incredible fize of that temple. A hermit, not thinking the earth mortifying enough, had perched himfelf upon the top of one of thefe pillars, and never defcended for above twenty

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

337

twenty years; he is long fince dead, but his habitation was quite large enough for one man. Nothing can exceed the magnitude of thefe enormous columns; all fluted of the Corinthian order. 1 think there were two very natural reafons why our aftoniihment at thefe ftupendous works ihould ceafe—The firft is, in ancient days, flaves or helotes were by hundreds or thoufands to be fed, the matters of them, it is reafonable to fuppofe, would keep them employed; the fecond is, the climate and foil were un­ fit for gardens, marble of the pureft and whiteft kind was not only found at Paros, but clofe to Athens--May we not ima­ gine that this was dug out and worked up, under the direction of the Athenian archi­ tects and fculptors, by thefe flaves; the ornamental part, and perhaps only the finiihing ftrokes of that, was only done by the hand of a matter, in either fculpture or architecture. We produce efieCts for the pencil by the trees we plant in our parks or gardens; the Athenians could neither form landfcape or fhade by thefe—but they brought to perfection an art which gave Z them

338

LADY CRAVEN's JOURNEY

them feats and walks, fecured from the fcorching rays of the fun, by their marble edifices, which were both ufeful and orna­ mental—A little orange-garden, not twenty feet fquare, is fliown at Athens, as a more delicious thing in thefe days than a new temple, a pillar confecrated, or a prize gained in the Olympic games. We make a lawn, or plant a clump—they raifed an edifice. The variety of thefe, and the number of pillars, deftined only to comme­ morate the moft trifling events, prove that it was the natural produce of the foil j and the impoflibility of their ingenuity being employed in any thing but that which caufed architecture and fculpture to be brought to that exquifite pcrfcdion in which we find it to this hour-------A book written by Guilletere, which you probably have, gives a very good account of the port; but the lion and many things he faw do not exift at prefent—and the Ilyffus, that river on whofe banks fo many philofophers and heroes have walked in times

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

339

times of peace, when the one encouraged, and the other protected, the arts and fciences, is now no more—it has been drained to water the gardens of Athensby many cuts, which with the bed of the river are fcarcely now to be traced—

It was Pericles that built the Temple of Minerva; in the Citadel, on the principal entrance, the baffo-relievos are executed in the moft mafterly manner ; there is a female figure holding the reins to drive two fiery fteeds, which feem to fnort and prance in marble----As to the bafio-relievos of the Temple of Thefeus, the few that remain are muti­ lated, and reprefent the combats between Thefeus and the Amazons—Part of the Theatre remains—and every objed that I faw made me grieve moft truly that I could not reftore things to their primitive ftate of perfedion—As to the many recefles and arches over one another, that feem to be­ long to the Theatre, it is impoflible to afcertain the ufe that was made of them nor Z 2 do

340

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

do I think it a fearch worthy of o t time,. But it would be worthy the Emperor’s fituation to take advantage of the defire the Porte has to oblige him, in order to collect the fragments of the fculpture of the Temple of Minerva, to preferve them as examples to this or rifing generations, and as models for the ingenious workman to ftudy from— I am called away to fee the Baths— •

Your’s affectionately,

E. C-------

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

34i

LETTER LVI.

1 H E Baths here are very well contrived to flew the rheumatifm out of a perlon’s conftitution—but how the women can fupport the heat of them is perfe&ly incon­ ceivable----- The Conful’s wife, Madame Gafpari, and I went into a room which precedes the Bath, which room is the place where' the women drefs and undrefs, fitting like tailors upon boards—there were above fifty; fome having their hair wafhed, others dyed, or plaited; fome were at the laft part of their toilet, putting with a fine gold pin the black dye into their eyelids; in fhort, I faw here Turkifh and Greek nature, through every degree of concealment, in her primitive ftate—for the women fitting in the inner room were abfolutely fo many1 Eves—and as they came out their flefh looked

342

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

looked boiled—Thefe Baths are the great amufement of the women, they flay gene­ rally five hours in themj that is in the water and at their toilet together—but I think I never faw fo many fat women at once together, nor fat ones fo fat as thefe. There is much art and coquetry in the ar­ rangement of their drefs—the fhift parti­ cularly, which clofes by hooks behind be­ tween the fhoulders; after it is fattened round the waift, there is a fpecies of flay or corfet, that I had no idea of, but which to whom melted down as thefe were, was perfectly neceflary. We had very prefling folicitations to undrefs and bathe, but fuch a difgufling fight as this would have put me in an ill humour with my fex in a bath for ages. Few of thefe women had fair ikins or fine forms-—hardly any—and Madame Gafpari tells me, that the encomiums and flattery a fine young woman would meet with in thefe baths, would be aflonifhing— I ftpod fome time in the door-way between the drefling-rooin and the Bath, which laft was circular, with niches in it for the bathers to fit in; it was a very fine room with a Rone

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

343

ftone dome—and the light came through fmall windows at the top----In the evening, the Athenian girls were invited to perform before me the ancient dance called Ariadne’s dance. A more ftupid performance as a dance I never faw; but I can conceive that the pantomime of it reprefents the defpair of Ariadne, when fhe law herfelf forfaken. A woman, that is to fay lhe who is the moft efteemed dan­ cer, gets up, and with a handkerchief in one hand, wavesit about in a languid man­ ner; with the other (he holds the hand of a fecond, who leads a third, and fo on; they move in a ftring, ten, twelve, fix, eight, the number is indifferent, and this female line moves in a circle, or according to the direction it (hall pleafe the girl with the handkerchief to give; her eyes are fitted on the ground, and her ftep is a fort of fwim or fink; the mufic is as dull and uniform as her fteps, which like her eyes, never lofe the ground-----

A fweet little Greek, a girl of five years old, the adopted child of Madame Rogne, the

344

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

the French Conful’s After, joined in this dance, and then came and fat in my lap5 and went to deep in my arms ; lhe was fomething like my Keppel, and her little carefles gave me more pleafure than all the languid figures of the dancers before my eyes. To-morrow I fet out again upon thefe feas, where at this hour Turkifh ig­ norance prefents different fcenes to thofe that exifled, when the Athenians gave en­ couragement to heroes and fages----Thefe Seas, where Science in her fpring appear’d, In which the infancy of arts was rear’d; When Poetry was in the bloom of youth, And fiction beautified each vulgar truth : Here Ariadne wept; and there was feen IIowThefeus conquer’d th’ Amazonian Queen , Here Pnryne’s charms in Parian marble fhone, There Gods and Goddefles could be undone ; Here Arifrotle liv’d, whofe genius fway’d 1'hTAthenian youth ; who lifien’d and obey’d Thofe precepts, with unerring wifdom fraught, With which he charm’d the pupils that he taught ; To men he prov’d that eloquence was fame, And the Lyceum lives but in his name ; Here Fate’s Pern mandates were by Homer given5 To Deities of his imagin’d Heaven, From ifle to ifle the Mufes point his way, And all the Heathen Gods Lis lyre obey.

Apropos

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

345

Apropos to Homer j every ifland claims the honour of receiving his lafl breath, and none will give up the idea of having pofleffed living or dying fo remarkable a perfon. If his ghoft will appear to me and fettle this matter clearly, 1 will then inform you better; at prefent I muft finifh this letter with afluring you that the only thing of which I am pofitively certain is, that I am with much truth and regard, Your affedionate After,

E. C--------

LET TE R

346

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER LV1I.

Smyrna, May27, 1786.

This place feems much

more alive than any I have been at yet; a great number of commercial people, and many good houfes, with a conftant variety of veflels arriving and departing, make the lazy Turk pafs unnoticed. The French Conful has a young wife, very lively and civil. There is lying at anchor here the Minerva, a beautiful French (hip of feventy-five guns, com­ manded by the Chevalier de Lygondes, a Knight of Malta, an elderly and polite man, who happens to be a near relation of Lord Huntingdon, and we were not a little pleafed to talk of him, and claim a relationfhip with a perfon which any one might be honoured to call friend or parent. He had five-and-twenty young French officers with him, when I faw him firft—and a moft ridiculous

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

347

ridiculous circumftance happened. I was fitting by Mr. de Lygondes and talking to him j the other Frenchmen were laughing with the Conful’s wife, when a little man came into the room and addrefTed himfelf to me, but fo low that I could not diftinguifh what he faid, and took him to be fome interpreter (of which I believe I had feen a dozen in the morning) who complimented me upon my arrival; but he feeing that I miftook the purport of his fpeech, raifed his voice, and in good Englilh faid, My lady, hearing that you were here, I would not depart without offering you any fervices in my power; I anfwered I was much obliged to him $ he made his bow, and went out again; upon which the giddy part of the company laughed very much, none of them knowing either the perfonor the language. I fent after him, and found out that it was the worthy Mr. Howard, who has facrificed fo much of his time to the moft humane purpofe; I begged he might be informed I returned to Conftantinople and from thence to Vienna, and if I could be of the leaft ufe to him in his return, I bej» cd

343

LADY CRAVEN’s JOURNEY

I begged he would command me; but he fent me word his route lay to Venice, meaning to vifit all the lazarettos and prifons on the coafts. There are no remains of antiquity here, but a fpring called Homer’s Fountain; a broken pillar on the ground, by a clear rill, feems to indicate that a temple may have been dedicated to this fource, which proba­ bly bore the name of a Deity-----

I fpare you an account of my voyage hither from Athens, a violent fquall of wind forced us to lie two days in the Port Gabrio, where I amufed myfelf with going on ihore, and up to a convent of Greek Monks. The 1 fie of Andros and this port, is well marked in the Grecian annals, by the extraordinary fummons Alcibiades gave the inhabitants, and the very ingenious cxcufe they made, in order to obviate complying with his demands. The only pretty fnrub to be found on the iilands is the rofe-laurcl, which is now covered

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

349

covered with the flower, but the Greeks imagine it diffufes a noxious vapour, and avoid touching or going near it. I found out one thing which may be of ufe to foldiers or failors. We had endeavoured in vain to get fruit or garden-fluff j a prodi­ gious quantity of large thiftles was the only thing that prefented itfelf: I defired the largeft heads might be picked, and had them boiled, which, without being partial, I can allure you, were infinitely better than artichokes; but they muft be dreffed im­ mediately, for if they are kept till the next day they become fo hard that twelve hours boiling will not make them tender. The Chevalier de Lygondes gave me a very fine dinner on board the Minerva. I fhall fet out again the day after to-morrow to take up Mr. de Choifeul at Burfa; and hope I fhall meet with no more florms, for I am fick and tired when violently tolled about-----

The little Tarleton is an excellent failer with a fair wind, but like all delicate little frames

350

LADY CRAVENS JOURNEY

frames, is too much fhaken when fhe meets with rough treatment ----—-

I remain, my dear brother,

Your affedionate

E. C-----

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

351

LETTER LVIII,

TbrRaPIA, June 7, 1786.

I Arrived at Burfa juft three weeks after I left the port of Moudagna, and found the Ambaflador rather better than I left him. The fituation of Burfa is very beautiful, in a valley between two hills, and is now a very confiderable town. The waters are boiling hot; almoft every houfe has a circu­ lar bath under it, that adds to the heat of the climate, I found it intolerable, and Monf. de Choifeul fet out a day or two fooner than he intended, becaufe the inconveniencies of the houfe were too great; he laughed very much at my faying Bon dieu, nousfommes tons ici au Bain. To my great furprife, I found

-------- --------------- who intends to travel by land into Egypt—he fet out at twelve o’clock

332

LADY CRAVENS JOURNEY

o’clock at night—a few hours after my ar­ rival ‘ ------------

I had a very pleafant paflage from Smyr­ na to Moudagna. Juft, as the Tarleton ar­ rived at the entrance of the Straits the wind dropped entirely, and we found ourfelves in the midft of a large fleet, compofed of veflels of every fize and nation, that waited for a fouth wind to pafs the Dardanels— luckily we did not lie a confiderable time at anchor, a foutherly breeze fprung up, and our fwift Tarleton left all the other fails, loft fion to our Jigbt, far behind us; nothing could be more pretty and lively than the fcene; and I told Mr. de Choifeul no fri­ gate in the Englilh or French fervice could be a better meflenger than this, which I fliall ever be obliged to him for having fent with me. You may think it fomewhat ftrange that the Mount Olympus, which rifcs above the town of Burfa, is conftantly 3 covered

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

353

covered with fnow, but fo it is. This is not the famed Olympus of the Heathen Gods, but named after it, probably by a colony, which fettled there, originally from the other Olympus. It is very common to find feveral places called by one name in all this part of the world, and to this hour you know, my dear Sir, the names of France, Scotland, and England, are given by fettlers in newly acquired coun­ tries---------

We did not flop at Pera, but came to the Ambaflador’s houfe upon the Canal in his boat, leaving the Tarleton at anchor where (he is conftantly placed. This is the only Cool houfe I believe in the environs of Conftantinople. The fea beats againft the foundation conftantly, and from my windows I fee the entrance of the Canal by the Black Sea, in which, between ten and eleven, a north wind conftantly rifes, blowing pretty frefh till the evening. And it is a very ftrange thing to aver, but juft over againft the houfe, veffels are failing, Aa fome

$54

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

fome with a fouth and others with a north wind j a circumftance only to be account­ ed for by the fhores, which form a kind of horizontal funnel, drawing in a large body of air from the Black Sea, which lofes its force after it has gone a certain length, and ceafes intirely juft oppofite this houfe. It is quite diverting to fee the Turkifh fifhing boats failing very faft, and endeavouring to weather this fpot when the wind is foutherly, but in vain ; they are obliged to lower their canvafs and tug at the oar, or anchor in fome valley, till the wind or their ftrength permit them to proceed-----

If any thing could excufe the infatuation of the Greeks to remain here at the rifque of their lives, this fituation would plead for them; but ft ill their manner of life muft be a torment ever in Paradife itfelf; there is one who, fearing the Porte fhould think him opulent, yet too proud to appear in public without his attendants, rides round his court-yard every morning with twenty borfemen at his heels— Another

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

355 Another fent me word he begged I would not walk in his garden, for as I generally was accompanied by fome of the foreign minifters, the Porte might imagine he was carrying on fome treafon againft the empire, if ftrangers were feen within his enclofures. This meflage was told me by a perfon who added that, all the time I was in his kitch­ en garden with my company, this wretched Greek had retired into the moft remote clofet in his houfe, fearing our curiofity fhould prompt us to look at the build­ ing—— This Greek Prince had hired a French gardener, and we feeing an European gar­ den clofe to the Ambaflador’s, it induced us to walk into it, as the door was open. When the Turks or Greeks have one, they walk into it, and eat their fallads there. Fruit and vegetables are luxuries unknown in general to them----Adieu for this time, my much loved and honoured brother, I remain your’s, E. C--------

Aa2

LETTER

356 LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

LETTER LIX.

Dear Sir,

I Have been to fee the foreft of Belgrade, where the oaks are extremely venerable, •and, from a fuperftitious idea, not one of them is ever felled, fo that the greateft part of them are fpoiling. The Dutch Ambaffador has a houfe there, and the Englilh Minifter, both of whom I have promifed to dine with. At the latter end' of the fummer thefe country-houfes are deferted, for there is a lake in the foreft that produces fuch unwholefome exhalations that, if peo­ ple ftay in the neighbourhood of it, they generally have dreadful fevers. There is a kiofk of the Sultan’s at the end M of the lake,* which would be pretty enough with a little alteration-----

We

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

357

We are now at the beginning of what is called the Ramazan—the faft of the Turks, which they obferve with great ftridlnefs 5 from fun-rife to fun-fet no Turk taftes any thing, not even a drop of water; but at night all the {hops for eatables, and the places where coffee is fold, are illuminated with many little lamps 5 and it is a pretty fight to go in a boat at funfet along the Ca­ nal. Terrapia, Buyekdere, and all the places where feveral people live, look like fo many Vauxhalls; and if the boat draws near enough to the fhore, one is apt to imagine all the world is fupping together, the lmell of fried fiffi, and mutton, and other Turkifh eatables is fo ftrong. The Ambaflador’s firft oar is an old venerable Turk with a long white beard, who has rowed au Palais de France forty years, and it is with great difficulty Mr. de Choi feu Ps ftrideft orders can keep him from his duty —though it is horrible to think that if he were permitted to attend the boat, he would row feveral hours in the day, in the heat of the fun, without taking a drop of water to refreffi himfelf > for whether a Turk be

358

LADY CRAVEN's JOURNEY

be obliged to the hardeft labour, or whether he do nothing, the law of the Ramazan is equally obferved by him—This faft lafts fix weeks----With refped to coffee, which you may imagine is good in Turkey, I afiure you, prepared by the Turks, it is the naftieft potion ever invented—They make it weak and muddy, and drink it without fugar. As to the Moka coffee, not enough of that comes into Conftantinople to fupply the Seraglio, and all the reft is furnifhed by France from her Weft-Indian poffeflions, no inconfiderable branch of commerce as you may eafily believe, when I tell you that every fifty yards upon a public road, under the (hade of a tree or a tent, coffee is fold, and at moft of thefe places the Turkifh traveller or vifitor flops and takes a cup—it is true thefe cups are not much bigger than egg cups—butfour-and-twenty in a day to each perfon travelling, vifiting, or flaying at home, muft confume an immenfe quantity-----------

Mr.

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

359

Mr. de Bukalow has given me a very fine ball at his houfe at Buyekdere—and I aflurc you his garden is large enough to be a fmall park. There I faw a tree the leaves of which are of the fame fhape and quality with the fenfitive plant—they ihrink and clole when touched. Mr. d’Herbert has a pretty houfe and garden at -Buyekdere likewife—

Have you never heard at Taris of one Ifaac Bey, a Turk, that was much there? Mr. de Choifeul brought him to me the other morning; he entered my room fol­ lowed by this Ifaac, a lively, and rather well-looking man, who, after being feated a few minutes, proftrated himfelf at my feet, kiifed the hem of my garment, and laid a fine embroidered muflin handkerchief there for my acceptance. He has been at Peterfburgh, and in London, which he dis­ likes of all places in the world, becaufe the common people would not let him walk along the flreets without calling him, French dog of a T^urk. He fays he will ne­ ver go there again; but Paris Paradis— Paradis

360

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

Paradis Paris—there he will return; you may imagine, Sir, he was enchanted by the Syrens of the Opera, upon and off the flage. He diverted me very much. He ftaid and dined, and converfed very freely, as well as he was able--------

Adieu for the prefent, dear Sir,

Believe me truly, E. C—-

LETTER

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

361

letter lx.

TerrapiA, June 25, 1786.

T Shall certainly not return by the way of Semlin and Belgrade, for I am informed that four hundred robbers infeft that coun­ try, and what efcort could 1 have which would fecure me from fo many ruffians ? I have confulted maps, and the beft inform­ ed travellers here, and am allured 1 can go through Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Tranfylvania to Vienna with great eafe and difpatch, with a firman or order from the Porte. This fubjefl was in agitation two days ago, in prefence of the fame tall gloomy figure that promifed me the plague in Greece, who gravely told me I fhould run much greater rifques in taking this ne v route, for that I fhould find heads ftuck up on poles at every mile, thofe countries being much more infefted with robbers and murderers than

36z

LADY CRAVEN’S JOURNEY

than the other. I would not for the world have given him the mortification to fee that 1 did not believe a word he faid, and I hope he thinks I was extremely terrified. -----

Nothing is more diverting than to fcp the Greeks in pleafure-boats here, flopping to hear the Ambaffador’s muficians play, which they do every evening. I muft firft tell you that they are Germans, fent to Mr. de Choifeul from Vienna, and the beft per-, formers I have heard, playing always the fineft Italian or German mufic, The Greeks, in their parties upon the water, have generally a lyre, a fiddle, andaguittar or two in the boats. With thefe inftruments they make a horrid noife, each performer playing in a different key, and if they fing, all in difeordant tones; the found of the clarinets flops them before the windows, but after liflening a little time, they (hake their

TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

363

their heads, and with one accord begin their abominable noifes again, and row away from founds which they think much inferior to thofe they produce. The fervants often aflc them if their matter's mufic is not fine, but they are all of opinion it is very