the house
he built; thus, in a few years, they all fall to ruin. I was
yesterday to see that of the late grand Vizier, who was killed at
Peterwaradin. It was built to receive his royal bride, daughter of
the present sultan; but he did not live to see her there. I have a
great mind to describe it to you; but I check that inclination,
knowing very well, that I cannot give you, with my best description,
such an idea of it as I ought. It is situated on one of the most
delightful parts of the canal, with a fine wood on the side of a hill
behind it. The extent of it is prodigious; the guardian assured me,
there are eight hundred rooms in it; I will not, however, answer for
that number, since I did not count them; but 'tis certain the number
is very large, and the whole adorned with a profusion of marble,
gilding, and the most exquisite painting of fruit and flowers. The
windows are all sashed with the finest crystalline glass brought from
England; and here is all the expensive magnificence that you can
suppose in a palace founded by a vain luxurious young man, with the
wealth of a vast empire at his command. But no part of it pleased me
better than the apartments destined for the bagnios. There are two
built exactly in the same manner, answering to one another; the
baths, fountains, and pavements, all of white marble, the roofs gilt,
and the walls covered with Japan china. Adjoining to them are two
rooms, the uppermost of which is divided into a sofa, and in the four
corners are falls of water from the very roof, from shell to shell,
of white marble, to the lower end of the room, where it falls into a
large basin, surrounded with pipes, that throw up the water as high
as the roof. The walls are in the nature of lattices; and, on the
outside of them, there are vines and woodbines planted, that form a
sort of green tapestry, and give an agreeable obscurity to those
delightful chambers. I should go on and let you into some of the
other apartments (all worthy your curiosity); but 'tis yet harder to
describe a Turkish palace than any other, being built entirely
irregular. There is nothing that can be properly called front or
wings; and though such a confusion is, I think, pleasing to the
sight, yet it would be very unintelligible in a letter. I shall only
add, that the chamber destined for the sultan, when he visits his
daughter, is wainscotted with mother of pearl, fastened with emeralds
like nails. There are others