nets, I think, more conveniently than ours. Between the windows
are little arches to set pots of perfume, or baskets of flowers. But
what pleases me best, is the fashion of having marble fountains in
the lower part of the room, which throw up several spouts of water,
giving, at the same time, an agreeable coolness, and a pleasant
dashing sound, falling from one basin to another. Some of these are
very magnificent. Each house has a bagnio, which consists generally
in two or three little rooms, leaded on the top, paved with marble,
with basins, cocks of water, and all conveniencies for either hot or
cold baths.

YOU will perhaps be surprised at an account so different from what
you have been entertained with by the common voyage-writers, who are
very fond of speaking of what they don't know. It must be under a
very particular character, or on some extraordinary occasion, that a
Christian is admitted into the house of a man of quality; and their
_harams_ are always forbidden ground. Thus they can only speak of
the outside, which makes no great appearance; and the womens
apartments are always built backward, removed from sight, and have no
other prospect than the gardens, which are inclosed with very high
walls. There are none of our parterres in them; but they are planted
with high trees, which give an agreeable shade, and, to my fancy, a
pleasing view. In the midst of the garden is the _chiosk_, that is,
a large room, commonly beautified with a fine fountain in the midst
of it. It is raised nine or ten steps, and inclosed with gilded
lattices, round which, vines, jessamines, and honey-suckles, make a
sort of green wall. Large trees are planted round this place, which
is the scene of their greatest pleasures, and where the ladies spend
most of their hours, employed by their music or embroidery.--In the
public gardens, there are public _chiosks_ where people go, that are
not so well accommodated at home, and drink their coffee, sherbet,
&c.--Neither are they ignorant of a more durable manner of building:
their mosques are all of free-stone, and the public _hanns_, or inns,
extremely magnificent, many of them taking up a large square, built
round with shops under stone arches, where poor artificers are lodged
_gratis_. They have always a mosque joining to them, and the body of
the _hann_ is a most noble hall, capable of holding three or four
hundred persons, the court extremely spacious, and cloisters round
it, t