The Author goes to Brusa--Situation of the
city--Baths--Surrounding country--Residence at Brusa--Lady
Hester mistaken for a youth--Women of Brusa--Return of the
Author to Constantinople--Sudden death of Mr. Alexander,
Lady Hester’s banker--Departure from Brusa--Residence
at Bebec--Provisions--Excursion to the village of
Belgrade--Throwing the Girýd--Fast of Ramadàn--Lady Hester
resolves to winter in Egypt--Presents to the Author for
professional attentions.
It was represented to Lady Hester that the sulphureous baths of
Brusa, a city of Asia Minor, might be serviceable to her; and, the
testimony of several persons whom I consulted on the subject being in
their favour, she resolved on going thither. But the reports we heard
concerning the nature of the accommodations to be met with made it
expedient that I should precede her a day or two, in order to provide
a place for her reception. To avoid the heat, I set off at midnight,
on the first of May, in an open four-oared barge with an awning,
accompanied by Aly, a janissary, and my servant: and, although the
distance to Mudania, the landing-place nearest Brusa, is sixty or
eighty miles, the watermen rowed it within twelve hours, including the
time for allowing me to go on shore to breakfast, at a point of land at
the entrance of the bay of Mudania.
A Turkish row-barge is an object more striking and picturesque than
those on the Thames, and the watermen wear a costume more uniform and
much more becoming. Their shirts, of a texture like Chinese crape, are
open at the bosom; so that their muscular forms and brawny arms are
seen to great advantage. They wear a red cloth skull-cap and white
balloon trousers; the feet and legs are naked.
I landed at Mudania, a village nearly at the bottom of a gulf of the
same name, about mid-day; and, as I had a firmán, or order, to be
civilly treated by all persons whom it might concern, I escaped the
exactions of the custom-house officer, who sat cross-legged on a bench
near the beach to examine the baggage of persons landing.
Taking post-horses and a guide, I arrived in the dusk of the evening at
Brusa. The distance might be about eighteen miles, through a country
so fertile and so rich that I at once felt what was meant by the
luxuriance of Asiatic scenery.
I had a letter of introduction to M. Arles, a French merchant
established at Brusa, whose traffic consisted in raw silk for France,
in skins for furriers at Constantinople, and in embroidered silks; and
he received me in a very hospitable manner.
On the following morning I hired three cottages just out of the
city; one, which was new, belonging to a priest, and two others, in
themselves somewhat humble dwellings, but advantageously situated on
the sloping foot of Olympus, commanding a view of the vale of Brusa and
the adjoining baths. The snowy summit of Olympus overhung them, and
from their doors began the groves which covered the vale stretched out
before them. To the right, the lengthened city displayed its hundred
mosques, intermingled with cypresses and lofty planes. There are
several baths: the principal of them is a large building, consisting
of three spacious rooms with vaulted roofs, in which are bell-glasses
to admit a dim light, and to confine the heat. These baths in their
structure resemble the hot baths common throughout the Turkish empire.
The water which supplies them is derived from several sulphureous
springs, of different degrees of temperature, which rise near each
other within a square place of a few acres. The spring belonging to the
principal bath issued in a volume of water a foot in diameter, and of
such a heat that the hand cannot bear it. A strong smell of sulphur,
which filled the sudatory, was emitted by it as it ran, and to this
quality its medicinal virtues are ascribed. The same water, which in
the first room yields a vapour hot enough to steam the body, in a
second is received into proper cisterns, where the bather may immerse
himself. These baths were not used by invalids only, but frequented
generally by the inhabitants. I occasionally resorted to them, and
should have done so oftener, but for the vermin with which the Turks
filled the carpets and cloths.
The city of Brusa stands at the foot of Mount Olympus, one of the
highest mountains in Asia Minor. Were we to speak of it in the language
which we should use respecting a European town, we might say that it
contains a hundred parishes, there being so many mosques. But places
of worship in Mahometan countries are much more numerous than in
Christian, and with such a number Brusa is perhaps not so populous
as Bristol. It is divided into the old and new town: the former is
inhabited by Turks alone, Armenians, Greeks, and Franks being excluded,
and compelled to occupy the new town or suburbs. There is also a suburb
for the Jews, who are here rather numerous, and have less of the
degraded appearance so observable in their nation elsewhere in Turkey.
Many of them are tall, well-made, and comely; and some of their women,
whom I saw at M. Arles’s, were very handsome. Brusa, like all Turkish
cities, is made up of mean streets, although it contains several
splendid houses; and, seen from the mountain which overlooks it,
presents a striking appearance, owing to the minarets of the mosques,
and to the lofty trees which are interspersed among the houses.
I was now in a part of the empire where the Turks are seen in their
true colours, their natural dislike to Christians not being softened
down by any intercourse with civilized foreigners, as is the case in
Constantinople: for there were no more than three Frank families of
the middling rank of life in all Brusa, and the resort of European
travellers was but rare. The epithet of Christian dog was frequently to
be heard in the streets, not indeed applied to ourselves, but to the
poor _rayah_ Christians.
The vale of Brusa is almost as much renowned for its beauty as that
of Tempe: its fertility is past conception. One may ride for miles
in a continued shade of walnut, chestnut, fig, cherry, and mulberry
trees. These are the trees by the road-side; but, within the hedges, as
being less handy to be gathered, grow peach, apricot, pear, and apple
trees.[15] In every hedge flowering shrubs grew spontaneously; at every
step springs gushed from the side of the mountain. Through the centre
of the vale flow two rapid streams, fed by the melting of the snow;
and, surrounding the vale on every side, sloping hills, covered with
villages and diversified by cornfields and vineyards, bound the horizon.
That Lady Hester’s opinion was in accordance with my own, may be
gathered from a letter she wrote to a friend, from which the following
passages are extracted:--
“How I wish you were here to enjoy this delicious climate, and
the finest country I ever beheld! Italy is nothing to it in
point of magnificence. The town of Brusa is situated at the foot
of the Mount Olympus; it is one of the largest towns, and may
be considered the capital of Asia Minor: the houses are like
all Turkish houses, bad in themselves, but so interspersed with
trees and mosques that the whole has a fine effect; the view
quite delightful over an immense plain more rich and beautiful
than anything I ever saw, covered with trees, shrubs, and
flowers of all descriptions; the rides are charming, and the
horses better than any of those I have met with out of England.
“How beautiful are these Asiatic women! they go to the bath from
fifty to five hundred together; and when I was bathing, the
other day, the wife of a deposed pasha begged I would finish
my bathing at a bath half a mile off, that she might have the
pleasure of my society, but this I declined; they bathe with
all their ornaments on--trinkets I mean--and, when they have
finished, they bind up their hair with flowers, and eat and talk
for hours; then fumble up their faces all but their eyes, and
sit under trees till the evening.”
Brusa, nevertheless, was full of beggars; and the city gates used to be
thronged with miserable objects, exciting compassion by the exhibition
of distorted limbs, offensive sores, and filthy tatters. Add to this
that, from the want of gutters in the streets, the pedestrian has to
pick his way through mud and puddle every step he takes; and that the
splendid supply of water, afforded them by the Almighty, is, by their
neglect, rendered an absolute nuisance. As the summit of Mount Olympus
is so high as to be covered with snow all the year round, a portion of
it melts annually, and pours, in numerous rivulets, down the sides into
the plain.
Three days after my arrival, Lady Hester, accompanied by Mr. B.,
reached Brusa; and they were as much enchanted with the beauty of the
country as I had been. We used to ride out every day in the environs of
the city. One day we came to a large piece of ground, sown with barley,
which was now just in ear; and on it, tied by the leg, were grazing
twenty horses belonging to a banished pasha, who lived at Brusa. Lady
Hester, who was a great admirer, as well as a great judge, of horses,
thought one of them so beautiful that she fancied she should like to
purchase it as a present to some friend in England. It was an Arabian,
and she begged the groom, an Egyptian, who was tending them, to mount
and show her its action; but he declined, alleging that he had no
saddle.
We were witnesses, during our stay at Brusa, to the miseries consequent
on war. Several hundreds of Bulgarians, who had been driven from their
homes, and whose houses and property had been burned and destroyed in
the war between the Russians and the Turks, passed through Brusa, in
search of a spot on which to build themselves fresh habitations. They
drove before them their flocks, their mares, and their cows; whilst
their wives rode in covered carts drawn by buffaloes, of which animals
great use is made in this part of the world. These Bulgarians wore,
for clothing, sheep-skins, with the wool turned inward in winter and
outward in summer: their look was fierce and independent.
There was always a drawback on my pleasure, which there seemed to
be little hope of surmounting. This was my ignorance of the Turkish
language. I had now been in Turkey six months, and yet I hardly knew
how to ask for water to drink. This was not owing to my aversion to
the language, or to my indolence, but to the difficulty there is to a
free intercourse with the people. Travelling here, I found, was not
like travelling in Christendom, where a stranger goes into the society
of the natives, is received with politeness by them, and can, if he
chooses, take up his abode in the family of some one of the country.
With Moslems this is not practised. A Turk would as soon receive a
viper as an infidel into his house. The women, as they pass, cover
themselves to the very tips of their fingers, lest the poisonous
eyes of a Christian should bring evil upon them. The shopkeepers and
artificers will, it is true, supply you with their commodities, if
you pay for them; but with so ungracious an air, that one’s self-love
is sorely wounded. This unwillingness to have any intercourse with
Christians is a partial barrier to the quick attainment of their
language, and an almost effectual one to the knowledge of their
domestic customs.
I was accompanied, in all the professional visits I made, by my servant
Lorenzo, who acted as interpreter. Lady Hester found in Mademoiselle
Arles, the daughter of the French merchant, a young lady whose perfect
knowledge of the Turkish language made her an excellent means of
communication between the Turkish ladies and herself, whenever she paid
visits.
Soon after we were settled, I was solicited by the Governor of the
city to visit his son, an infant, who was dangerously ill. I had him
under my care for some time, and my constant attendance at the palace
led to an acquaintance between the Governor’s wife and Lady Hester.
Mademoiselle Arles would, on these occasions, perform the office of
interpreter. In the course of a few days, Lady Hester had received and
accepted invitations from some of the persons of distinction of whom
Brusa is so full; it being the city to which the Sultan is accustomed
to send vizirs and pashas, who suffer under his displeasure. At first,
Mademoiselle Arles said, doubts had been raised whether Lady Hester was
really a woman: for, as she rode about in an English riding-habit, a
dress (if the skirts were shorter) not altogether unlike that of the
pages of the Seraglio, it was whispered about that she was a boy; more
especially as she rode on a side-saddle, somewhat in the manner in
which the dromedaries are ridden, instead of astride, like the women
in the East. Besides, she went with her face uncovered. And so serious
were these doubts, that, when she went to the public baths frequented
by the women of the place, they all hid and covered themselves in a
great bustle, and were not convinced of their error for some time.
The female dress at Brusa pleased me exceedingly: but my fair
countrywomen will not admire my taste, when I tell them that here, and
elsewhere throughout Turkey, women wear no stays. The sex seemed to
have but few amusements. They were allowed to gad about the streets
as much as they pleased, and go to the baths when they liked; and,
although their faces and bodies on such occasions were so completely
covered that their very husbands could not know them, yet the customs
of the country, that do not admit of a woman’s walking out alone, are
a barrier to intrigue. At home, even a married woman must not see any
persons of the other sex but her husband and her nearest relations;
while the unmarried are seen by no one out of the family. Mademoiselle
Arles told us, likewise, that husbands here were very tyrannical, and
that corporeal chastisement was by no means uncommon. The wife, who is
on the very best terms with her husband, can be said, after all, to be
but his slave. When he enters the harým, or women’s apartment, he claps
his hands at the outer door as a signal, and the wife must immediately
hasten to receive him. As he walks, with an air of grandeur, into the
inner room, she humbly follows. He seats himself on the sofa, but does
not permit her to sit down until she has served him with a pipe and a
cup of coffee: then, with a sign of submissive reverence to her lord
and master, she takes her place at a distance; and, when he has smoked
his pipe, he perhaps relaxes his heavy visage into a smile, and permits
her to caress him. This is the way among the better sort of persons.
Among the lower orders the husbands are said to be quite brutal: and
the poor wife’s only protection is the occasional threat that she will
have a separation; for divorce, by the Mahometan law, is an affair
easily effected, and often practised.
As the time for occupying the house at Therapia had expired during
our stay at Brusa, we had no longer any residence at Constantinople;
Lady Hester, therefore, wished me to return thither for the purpose
of hiring one. Accordingly, on the 1st of June, I set off; and, on
my arrival, I hastened to the house of Mr. Alexander, her ladyship’s
banker. I was shocked to learn that the worthy man had died of fright a
few days before. It appeared that, in the street in which Lady Hester
had lodged on her first arrival at Constantinople, a fire had broken
out, which had raged so fiercely as to have consumed fifty houses,
among which were those of the Russian and Austrian ambassadors. The
conflagration would have extended farther, had not a copious fall of
rain soaked the wooden houses, and put a stop to it. But this of
itself became a calamity: for, one of the street sewers having been
stopped up, the street overflowed, and much damage was done by the
water.
The frequency of these accidents is assigned as a reason why the
inhabitants of Constantinople sleep in their clothes, that they may
be ready to make their escape. When the fire broke out, Mr. Alexander
had been suddenly awakened with the cry in the streets; and, hastily
rising, had rushed to the street, where he fell dead in an apoplectic
fit. He was a man who spoke fluently six languages. I visited the spot
where the fire had raged; but, as the buildings in this city are almost
always of wood and very slight, not a wall remained standing.
Having heard that the Austrian Internuncio, Baron Sturmer, had a roomy
house in a village near Constantinople, where no Europeans lived (which
I knew to be a particular recommendation to Lady Hester,) I went to
him, procured the key, and looked it over: after which I hired it
furnished for a thousand piasters, for six months.
It is said that there was a time when the ministers of two hostile
courts residing at Constantinople would remain in friendly intercourse
with each other: but an opposite principle had been adopted since
the reign of the First Consul and Emperor of the French, who, both
in regard to his own minister and to those ministers over whom he
had influence, interdicted all communication with the English. An
interview therefore with the Austrian Internuncio was not a light
matter; and, for the better prevention of any ill construction being
put upon it, I received intimation that the place of meeting must be in
his garden.
I remained to dine on the fourth of June at the English palace, in
celebration of his Britannic Majesty’s birthday, and then returned to
Brusa. Among the guests at the palace were the Hon. Frederick North
(late Earl of Guilford,) and Mr. Frederick Douglas, his nephew, both of
whom very shortly afterwards came to Brusa on a visit to Lady Hester.
On the 1st of July, 1811, we quitted Brusa, after passing two most
agreeable months there. The same evening we embarked at Mudania, and on
the close of the second day reached Bebec.
Bebec is a village on the Bosphorus, chiefly inhabited by Turks and
Armenians: it is three or four miles from Constantinople. On the edge
of the canal there was a very elegant kiosk, or summer residence of
the Grand Signor, but which was not often visited by him. The house I
had taken had once belonged to a Turk, from whom it passed into the
hands of the Austrian Internuncio in lieu of a debt. It was built of
weather-boarding, and painted of a tarry red, like some barracks built
in England during the late war. This red is the privileged colour of
Mahometans: for a Greek or an Armenian dares not paint his house with
it, and can use only a lead colour.
The interior of all Turkish houses is divided into two parts; the
largest and best furnished of them is occupied by the women, and is
called the harým; the other part, named the _selamlik_, consists
seldom of more than two or three rooms, where the master of the house
receives male visitors, and transacts business. Into the harým female
visitors enter, but no other man than the husband, his and his wives’
nearest relations, and now and then her physician. All the windows are
barred and latticed, so that it is not only not possible to look in,
but hardly possible for those inside to look out.
Attached to the harým of the house at Bebec there were a superb marble
bath, a garden, and other comforts for the amusement of the imprisoned
inmates. Provisions are taken in by means of a turn-about, such as
is used in convents. All these contrivances are, in some measure,
securities for the chastity of the women; but the greatest of all is
included in the feeling, impressed upon them from their infancy, of the
positive criminality of showing their faces to strangers.
Another fire broke out during this month in the south-east part
of Constantinople, called the Fanál, the quarter where the Greeks
reside, and consumed (as it was said) a thousand houses. Fires will be
ever frequent in a metropolis where so much anarchy prevails, where
the plunderers are more numerous than the sufferers, the gainers
than the losers. It was rumoured that the janissaries were the
wilful incendiaries in this case. That corps still continued very
disaffected, and always suspicious lest the Turkish government should
effect their abolition. As a body they were too powerful to be punished
openly; yet every day some of those known to be the most dangerous were
secretly conveyed away, and were heard of no more.
Northerly winds were so prevalent at this time, that, for six weeks,
they blew invariably from that quarter. Although the season was thus
far advanced, the Turkish fleet had not yet begun its annual summer
cruise. It is not difficult for two hostile fleets to find each other,
if so disposed; but the Black Sea was roomy enough for the Russians and
Turks to cruise without meeting.
The heat of the climate is by no means oppressive, tempered as it is
by breezes from the two seas. The thermometer generally during this
month stood at 80° Fahrenheit, at noon. Grapes were now at a penny per
pound, melons three pence a piece, fresh figs almost for nothing; so
that a handsome and plentiful dessert cost but a trifle. But the supply
for the table was in many respects deficient; and it was seldom that a
good dinner, according to the English fashion, could be served up. The
mutton was not good, and beef and veal were rarely to be found in the
market, although there are numerous droves of horned cattle to be seen
on the mountains. The butter had a disagreeable taste. Potatoes and
cabbages were scarcely to be met with; turnips not at all. Few of the
kinds of fish which were caught were well tasted: the best to my palate
was the sword-fish, which is in season in August, and in appearance and
taste, when served up, might be mistaken for delicate veal.
My long residence in Constantinople had given me time to form an
extensive acquaintance, and, from some successful cures, I was much
solicited to settle there. It would indeed have been a desirable
situation as far as money was concerned; but I was under engagements
with Lady Hester which precluded such a thought. The Turks, and also
the Armenians, were exceedingly liberal in their fees; the Greeks were
not so.
Lady Hester spent a few days, about this time, at Belgrade, a village
rendered celebrated by the praises bestowed upon it by Lady M. W.
Montague. With the exception of this one village, all the inhabitants
of Constantinople who have villas prefer living in the villages on
the banks of the Bosphorus. The wherries, with two or three pair of
oars, transport them from door to door. Soft mattresses are spread,
with cushions to recline on, there being no seats as in our wherries,
and they indulge in an agreeable indolence, fanned by the zephyrs,
and rocked by the scarcely undulating waves. It must not be imagined,
however superior we may generally be to the Turks, that we are their
inferiors in nothing; and I have been often vexed to hear persons,
little acquainted with that people, pronounce their entire inferiority
with as little ceremony as if they had passed years in investigating
the subject. Few of the travellers who visit Constantinople take the
pains of learning the language, and most of the residents are equally
negligent. There was one lady, an Englishwoman, who had lived three
years at Pera, and yet had never had the curiosity to cross the harbour.
During the summer I learned to throw the _girýd_, or blunt
javelin; and, as I conceive it to be thrown by the Turks in the same
manner as practised by the ancients during the time of the Trojan war,
I shall endeavour to make the reader understand it. When a javelin
is put into the hand of a person unused to handle such a weapon, and
he is desired to throw it, he invariably elevates his hand and arm;
and, holding the javelin on a level with his head, or still higher,
throws it overhanded. But this I conceive is not the mode employed
by the ancients; nor is the same degree of power acquired as in the
underhanded manner, which is as follows. The javelin, being from
three and a half to five feet long, and of equal weight at both ends,
is taken in the palm of the hand, resting in a position out of the
horizontal one by a trifling elevation of the point, and is pressed
almost entirely by the finger and thumb alone. The arm is straightened,
the bend of the arm faces outwards, and the elbow is turned inwards, so
that it points to the hipbone. Then a position is assumed, exactly such
as a man would take who should fence left-handed, and, in this way,
the javelin is discharged as if slung from the whole arm, without any
effort at the wrist, and little at the elbow. On horseback, the impulse
is greater, because the horse is brought to a sudden halt and a wheel
about to the left, just at the moment of throwing the javelin. Girýd is
an Arabic word, meaning _a branch of the palm-tree_; such a branch
being generally used for a sham javelin, as being firm, heavy, and
elastic, and having a slight tapering from one extremity to the other.
About the 20th of April, the Captain Pasha was sent with troops and
gun-boats to reduce a place called Heracli, on the Asiatic coast of
the Black Sea, the governor of which was in rebellion. Up to the
time of our departure it was not known what success had attended
this expedition; but a Greek one day answered to my inquiries how
the pasha got on--“Oh! we shall shortly have some information: for,
according to his success or failure, there will be an exhibition at the
Seraglio-gate, of the head of the rebel governor or of his own.”
The Ramadán, or fast of the Mahometans, began this year on the 27th
of September. It is known to the reader that this fast continues for
a whole moon, during which time no person, whatever his rank may be,
takes nourishment of any sort from sunrise to sunset. When it falls,
as it did this year, during the hot weather, so long an abstinence
is intolerable; and the boatman, who is rowing almost continually
for twelve or fourteen hours, or the bathman, who remains for a whole
day in an atmosphere fifteen degrees hotter than the hottest day in
England, each without daring to cool his thirst with one drop of water,
may be considered as enduring a species of penance, which shows the
devoutest submission to the laws of his Prophet.
Lady Hester’s application to the French court was unsuccessful. It had
given rise to a characteristic letter, which is inserted.
_Lady Hester Stanhope to the Marquis Wellesley._
My Lord,
You are aware, my lord, that I left England on account of my
health, which, though mended, is by no means re-established:
and I always suffer extremely from cold. In the course of last
winter I had often expressed a wish that it were possible I
could visit either Italy or the South of France: which coming
to the ears of Mr. Latour Maubourg, the French _chargé
d’affaires_ at this place, he was so good as to hint, through
a third person, that he should be most happy to give me every
assistance in his power to accomplish this object. I ought,
perhaps, in the first instance, to have communicated this
circumstance to Mr. Canning, and to have fairly told him it was
my intention to take advantage of the opportunity which now
presented itself of making the acquaintance of Mr. Maubourg,
and of requesting him to forward my views in the manner which
he thought most honourable and respectable to both parties.
But respecting, as I do, his many virtues, I did not wish to
quarrel with him, or appear openly to disregard his authority,
or publicly to ridicule the very idea of any person presuming to
doubt my patriotism.
The above reasons decided me to see Mr. M. privately; who is
also very young for his situation, but which his talents fully
qualify him to fill. Nothing can have been more candid, more
honourable, than his conduct upon this occasion. He lost no
time in writing to Paris for passports, and his answer may be
expected every day.
HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.
August, 1811.
So, having grown fearful of spending another winter at Constantinople,
preparations were made for quitting that city. At first she thought
of returning to Athens, and of trying a winter there; for the air of
Athens is salubrious and mild; the antiquities would always afford
amusement, and subjects for study; whilst they constantly attract
strangers of different countries who compose a small society. Lastly,
its situation would be a step on the route which it was proposed
to continue towards Syria and Egypt; but this plan was afterwards
abandoned, and it was resolved to sail for Egypt, and pass the winter
there.
A Greek vessel with a Greek crew was accordingly hired, for which the
sum of £65 was to be paid for the whole voyage. In the mean time, I
sold my horses, dismissed my Albanian groom, forwarded some books and
other articles to England, in order to lighten my baggage, and bade
adieu to my Constantinople friends; and, whether Turks, Armenians,
Greeks, or Franks, I saw the moment approach of quitting them with
sincere regret. I received from the fair hands of several ladies
various embroidered articles in which were wrapped their pecuniary
acknowledgments of my professional attentions. One was from the wife
of Ibrahim Effendy, son of the Ibrahim Kekhyah, who lost his head
with Sultan Selim. She herself was daughter of the grand almoner of
the Sultan; and she told the Countess of Ludolf, wife of the late
ambassador from the court of Naples to England, but at that time
residing at Constantinople, and in intimacy with her, that she began to
think, since she had known me, there might be some good sort of people
among the infidel barbarians of the West and North. An embroidered
purse was presented to me from the wife of a gentleman named Mikitar,
who was master of the mint, and an opulent banker, and the sister of
Mr. Ayda, an Armenian gentleman, whom the charms of an English lady
had nearly fixed in this country. This purse contained new specimens
of every coin that had issued from the Mint during his administration.
These and a variety of other curiosities, together with all my luggage
of every kind, my journals, &c., were lost by shipwreck in our passage
to Egypt, as will be narrated in its proper place.
Eastern countries became every day more agreeable to me. Whatever
shocked at first, became by degrees familiar, and at last appeared
almost necessary to my comfort. The dignified gravity of the men
pleased me, and I admired the domestic virtues of the women. The placid
mien and the extraordinary sobriety of all persons (excepting the
soldiery), the decorous, but condescending demeanour of superiors, and
the humility of inferiors, were all marks of minds rightly organized;
and I am not ashamed to say that I more than once applauded the
principle which confined music and dancing to professors only, or to
such as were born with a natural genius to excel in those arts, and
banished from society that anomaly--a woman, half lady, half artist,
half courtezan, who passes her time in displaying her attractions
to gain the admiration of men to whom she ought to be perfectly
indifferent, except on the score of worth, good conduct, and religion.