But man and woman in England, who nifters there are defcribed in a very can read, affects to belong. We lively manner. agree, indeed, that the traveller has ftruck out a new path, and that it is enlivened by a certain vivacity and fpirit, not common to travellers.' We are, in particular, fo well pleafed with the ease of her stile, that we had not called the purity of it in queftion, had not the prefacer fixed it as the ftandard of the English tongue; which we cannot quite admit, even to compliment à lady. In the very fecond page, and in the very first letter, and very firft day's journey out of her own country, the lady begins to forget her own language. She fays he had voitures to carry her from Helvoetfluys to the Brill; we cannot help thinking our Eng lish word carriages would have been as pure and as expreffive. The accabléed (letter xlix) with vifits at Paris, in her return home, is, confidering how much the had travelled, very allowable; but there is in many places an affectation of ufing foreign words, not quite confiftent with the boafted purity of her language. It is not, however, the policy or government of countries that the reader is to expect in thefe letters; the fuppofed authorefs having given her greateft attention to the manners and way of living of the people of rank in the feveral countries the paffed through. In the true genius of a fine lady, vifiting is every where her object, and poffibly the reader may be curious to fee the different manner of vifiting in different countries. Her first stop was at Raifbon; the manners of the mi "You know that all the nobi lity of this place are envoys from different ftates. Here are a great number of them, and they might pafs their time agreeably enough, if they were lefs delicate on the point of ceremony. inftead of joining in the defign of making the town as pleasant to one another as they can, and improving their little focieties, they amufe themselves no other way, than with perpetual quarrels, which they take care to eternize, by leaving them to their fucceffors; and an envoy to Ratisbon receives regularly, half a dozen quarrels, among the perquifites of his employment. You may be fure the ladies are not wanting, on their fide, in cherifhing and improving these important piques, which divide the town almoft into as many parties as there are families. They chufe rather to fuffer the mortification of fitting almost alone on their affembly nights, than to recede one jot from their pretenfions. I have not been here above a week, and yet I have heard, from almoft every one of them, the whole hiftory of their wrongs, and dreadful complaints of the injuftice of their neighbours, in hopes to draw me to their party. But I think it very prudent to remain neuter, though if I was to tay amongst them, there would be no poffibility of continuing fo, their quarrels running fo high, that they will not be civil to thofe that vifit their adverfaries. The foun dation of thefe everlasting disputes, turns entirely upon rank, place, and the title of Excellency, which U 2 they ANNUAL REGISTER 292 they all pretend to, and what is very hard, will give it to nobody. For my part I could not forbear advifing them (for the public good) to give the title of Excellency to every body, which would include the receiving it from every body; but the very mention of fuch a dishonourable peace, was received with as much indignation, as Mrs. Blackaire did the motion of a reference. And indeed, I began to think myself ill-natured, to offer to take from them, in a town where there are so few diverfions, fo entertaining an amufement. I know that my peaceable difpofition already gives me a very ill figure, and that 'tis publicly whifpered as a piece of impertinent pride in me, that I have hitherto been faucily civil to every body, as if I thought no body good enough to quarrel with. I fhould be obliged to change my behaviour, if I did not intend to purfue my journey in a few days." Letter vi. Her next ftop was at Vienna; their "Though I have fo lately trou- They poffible for you to imagine. build certain fabrics of gauze on their heads, about a yard high, confifting of three or four tories fortified with numberless yards of heavy ribbon. The foundation of this ftructure is a thing they call a Bourlé, which is exactly of the fame fhape and kind, but about four times as big as thofe rolls our prudent milk maids make use of to fix their pails upon. This machine they cover with their own hair, which they mix with a great deal of falfe, it being a particular beauty to have their heads too large to go into a moderate tub. Their hair is prodigiously powdered to conceal the mixture, and fet out with three or four rows of bodkins, (wonderfully large, that stick out two or three inches from their hair) made of diamonds, pearls, red, green, and yellow ftones, that it certainly requires as much art and right, as to dance upon May-day experience to carry the load upwith the garland. Their whale bone petticoats outdo ours by fevefome acres of ground. You may ral yards circumference, and cover eafily fuppofe how this extraordidary drefs fets off and improves the natural ugliness, with which God Almighty has been pleased to endow them, generally speaking. Even the lovely emprefs herself is obliged to comply, in fome degree, with thefe abfurd fashions, which they would not quit for all the world. I had a private auof half andour, and then all the dience (according to ceremony) other ladies were permitted to come and make their court. I was perfectly charmed with the emprefs; I cannot however tell you that her features are regular; her eyes are not not large, but have a lively look full of fweetnefs; her complexion. the finest I ever faw; her nofe and forehead well made, but her mouth has ten thousand charms, that touch the foul. When the finiles, 'tis with a beauty and fweetnefs that forces adoration. She has a vast quantity of fine fair hair; but then her perfon! one muft fpeak of it poetically to do it rigid juf tice; all that the poets have faid of the mien of Juno, the air of Venus, come not up to the truth. The Graces move with her; the famous ftatue of Medicis was not formed with more delicate proportions; nothing can be added to the beauty of her neck and hands. Till I faw them, I did not believe there were any in nature fo perfect, and I was almoft forry that my rank here did not permit me to kifs them; but they are kiffed fufficiently, for every body, that waits on her, pays that homage at their entrance, and when they take leave. When the ladies were come in, fhe fat down at Quinze. I could not play at a game I had never feen before, and the ordered me a feat at her right hand, and had the goodness to talk to me very much, with that grace, fo natural to her. I expected every moment, when the men were to come in to pay their court; but this drawing room is very different from that of England; no man enters it but the grand maiter, who comes in to advertise the emprefs of the approach of the emperor. His Imperial majefty did me the honour of fpeaking to me in a very obliging manner, but he never fpeaks to any of the other ladies, and the whole paffes with a gravity and air of ceremony that has fomething very formal in it. The emprefs Amelia, dowager of the late emperor Jofeph, came this evening to wait on the reigning emprefs, followed by the two arch-ducheffes her daughters, who are very agreeable young princeffes. Their Imperial majefties rofe and went to meet her at the door of the room, after which fhe was feated in an armed chair next the emprefs, and in the fame manner at fupper, and there the men had the permiffion of paying their court. The arch-ducheffes fat on chairs with backs without arms. The table was entirely ferved, and all the dishes fet on by the emprefs's maids of honour, which are twelve young ladies of the firft quality. They have no falary, but their chamber at court, where they live in a fort of confinement, not being fuffered to go to the affemblies or public places in town, except in compliment to the wedding of a fifter maid, whom the emprefs always prefents with her picture fet in diamonds. The three firft of them are called Ladies of the Key, and wear gold keys by their fides; but what I find most pleasant, is the custom, which obliges them as long as they live, after they have left the emprefs's fervice, to make her fome prefent every year on the day of her feaft. Her majefty is ferved by no married women but the Grand Maitree, who is generally a widow of the first quality, always very old, and is at the fame time groom of the fole and mother of the maids. The dreffers are not, at all, in the figure they pretend to in England, being looked upon no otherwife than as downright chamber-maids. I had an audience next day of the empress U 3 mother, mother, a princefs of great virtue and goodness, but who piques herself too much on a violent devotion. She is perpetually performing extraordinary acts of pennance, without having ever done any thing to deferve them. She has the fame number of maids of honour, whom the fuffers to go in colours; but the herself never quits her mourning; and fure nothing can be more difmal than the mourning here, even for a brother. There is not the leaft bit of linen to be seen; all black crape in lead of it. The neck, ears, and fide of the face are covered with a plaited piece of the fame ftuff, and the face that peeps out in the midft of it, looks as if it were pilloried. The widows wear over and above, a crape forehead cloth, and in this folemn weed, go to all the public places of diverfion without fcruple.' Letter ix. Vienna is the place of Etiquette, and the letters which follow our extract give a lively and an agreeable account of it. The laft letter of the firft volume (dated from Adrianople,) is, perhaps, the most extraordinary in the whole collection. We cannot therefore refrain prefenting the reader with it. "I am now got into a new world, where every thing I fee, appears to me a change of fcene; and I write to your ladyfhip with fome content of mind, hoping, at leaft, that you will find the charm of novelty in my letters, and no longer reproach me, that I tell you nothing extraordinary. I won't trouble you with a relation of our tedious journey; but I must not omit what I faw remarkable at Sophia, one of the most beautiful towns in the Turkish empire, and famous for its hot baths, that are reforted to both for diverfion and health. I ftop'd here one day, on purpose to fee them; and defigning to go incognito, I hired a Turkish coach. Thefe voitures are not at all like ours, but much more convenient for the country, the heat being fo great that glasses would be very troublesome. They are made a good deal in the manner of the Dutch ftage coaches, hav ing wooden lattices painted and gilded; the infide being alfo painted with baskets and nofegays of flowers, intermixed commonly with little poetical motto's. They are covered all over with fcarlet cloth, lined with filk, and very often richly embroidered and fringed. This covering entirely hides the perfons in them, but may be thrown back at pleasure, and thus permit the ladies to peep through the lattices. They hold four people very conveniently, feated on cushions, but not raised. In one of these covered waggons, I went to the Bagnio about ten a clock. It was already full of women. It is built of stone, in the fhape of a dome, with no windows but in the roof, which gives light enough. There were five of thefe domes joined together, the outmost being less than the reft, and ferving only as a hall, where the Portres ftood at the door. Ladies of quality generally give this woman a crown or ten fhillings, and I did not forget that ceremony. The next room is a very large one, paved with marble, and all round it are two raised fofas of marble, one above another. There were four fountains of cold water in this room, falling first into marble bafons, 2. Ah! when will the hour of poffeffion arrive ? The fweetness of your charms has ravished my foul. STANZ Á IV. 1. My cries pierce the heavens ! My eyes are without fleep! Turn to me, fultana-let me gaze on thy beauty. 2. Adieu-I go down to the grave. If you call me I return. My heart is--hot as fulphur; figh and it will flame. I rub my face against the earth; -I am drown'd Have you no compaffion? will you not turn to look It is but juftice, after hinting our doubts, to let the reader judge for himself, on one of these paffages, where the author claims a right to know more than other travellers. "Now I am talking of my chamber, (at Adrianople) I remember, the defcription of the houfes here will be as new to you, as any of the birds or beafts. I fuppofe you have read in most of the accounts of Turkey, that their houfes are the most miferable pieces of building in the world. I can fpeak very learnedly on that fubject, having been in fo many of them; and I affure you, 'tis no fuch thing. We are now lodged in a palace, belonging to the grand fignior. I really think the manner of building here very agreeable, and proper for the country. 'Tis true, they are not at all folicitous to beautify the outfides of their houses, and they are generally built of wood, which, I own, is the caufe of many inconveniencies; but this is not to be charged on the ill tafte of the people, but on the oppreffion of the government. Every house, at the death of its mafter, is at the grand fignior's difpofal, and therefore no man cares to make a great expence, which he is not fure his family will be the better for. All their defign is to build a houfe commodious, and that will laft their lives; and they are very indifferent if it falls down the year after. Every houfe, great and fmall, is divided into two diftinct parts, which only join together by a narrow paffage. The firft houfe has a large court before it, and open galleries all round it, which is, to me, a thing very agreeable. This gallery leads to all the chambers, which are commonly large, and with two rows of windows, the |