TO THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 



169 



LETTER V. 



My Lord, Constantinople, Nov. 20. 1800. 



I have the satisfaction of acquainting Your Lordship, that at length 

 I have been permitted to examine the library of the Seraglio, and 

 completely to ascertain its contents. This permission was not 

 granted me till some time after the period fixed upon for my ad- 

 mission, when I had last the honor of writing to Your Lordship, 

 and I began to be apprehensive that these repeated delays would 

 only end in disappointment, when Lord Elgin was informed by a 

 message from Youssouf Aga, that if I called at his house the next 

 morning, he would send an officer along with me to introduce me into 

 the library- I fear I shall be thought tedious if I detail the minutiae 

 of our proceedings, but as by this means I may be able to convey 

 to Your Lordship some ideas respecting that habitation, alta caligine 

 mersam, which I visited, I shall venture to make the attempt. 



The house of Youssouf Aga, like all the country houses belonging 

 to the great men in this country, is built upon the very edge of the 

 Bosphorus, nearly half-way between the Seraglio point and " the 

 towers of Oblivion.'" The Dragoman who attended me and mvself 

 arrived there about eight o'clock. Youssouf was gone out to wait 

 upon the Sultan, who then resided at a palace adjoining, and we 

 found his Kiaia (steward) ready to receive us ; we were ushered into 

 a room where that gentleman lodged, who with five others of the 

 principal officers or attendants belonging to the Aga were still at 

 dinner. We sat down upon a sofa beside them, and as soon as their 

 repast was over and they had finished their ablutions, the Kiaia gave 

 us a letter to the Bostangee Bashi, (chief of the guard, and in fact 

 superintendant of the Seraglio,) which he considered as a more 

 ready mode of procuring admission, than any person he could send 

 to accompany us. Furnished with his passport, we rowed to the 



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