cts from its pages as may throw light upon the letters
of his friend.

LETTER 40.

TO MRS. BYRON.

"Prevesa, November 12. 1809.

"My dear Mother,

"I have now been some time in Turkey: this place is on the coast, but
I have traversed the interior of the province of Albania on a visit to
the Pacha. I left Malta in the Spider, a brig of war, on the 21st of
September, and arrived in eight days at Prevesa. I thence have been
about 150 miles, as far as Tepaleen, his Highness's country palace,
where I stayed three days. The name of the Pacha is _Ali_, and he is
considered a man of the first abilities: he governs the whole of
Albania (the ancient Illyricum), Epirus, and part of Macedonia. His
son, Vely Pacha, to whom he has given me letters, governs the Morea,
and has great influence in Egypt; in short, he is one of the most
powerful men in the Ottoman empire. When I reached Yanina, the
capital, after a journey of three days over the mountains, through a
country of the most picturesque beauty, I found that Ali Pacha was
with his array in Illyricum, besieging Ibrahim Pacha in the castle of
Berat. He had heard that an Englishman of rank was in his dominions,
and had left orders in Yanina with the commandant to provide a house,
and supply me with every kind of necessary _gratis_; and, though I
have been allowed to make presents to the slaves, &c., I have not been
permitted to pay for a single article of household consumption.

"I rode out on the vizier's horses, and saw the palaces of himself and
grandsons: they are splendid, but too much ornamented with silk and
gold. I then went over the mountains through Zitza, a village with a
Greek monastery (where I slept on my return), in the most beautiful
situation (always excepting Cintra, in Portugal) I ever beheld. In
nine days I reached Tepaleen. Our journey was much prolonged by the
torrents that had fallen from the mountains and intersected the roads.
I shall never forget the singular scene[126] on entering Tepaleen at
five in the afternoon, as the sun was going down. It brought to my
mind (with some change of _dress_, however) Scott's description of
Branksome Castle in his _Lay_, and the feudal system. The Albanians,
in their dresses, (the most magnificent in the world, consisting of a
long _white kilt_, gold-worked cloak, crimson velvet gold-laced jacket
and waistcoat, silver mounted pistols and daggers,) the Tartars with
their high caps, the Turks in their vast pelis