.16 
clarke’s travels. 
From Ibis room, we descended into the court of the cha¬ 
re m : and, .having crossed it, ascended, by a flight of steps, to 
an upper parterre, for the purpose of examining a part of the 
building appropriated to the inferior ladies of the seraglio. 
Finding it exactly upon the plan of the rest, only worse fur¬ 
nished, and in a more wretched state, we returned, to quit the 
charem entirely, and effect our retreat to the garden. The 
reader may imagine our consternation, on finding that the 
great door was closed upon us, and that we were locked in. 
Listening, to ascertain if any one was stirring, we discovered 
that a slave had entered to feed some turkeys, who were gob¬ 
bling and making a great noise at a small distance. We pro¬ 
fited by their tumult, to force back the huge lock of the gate 
with a large stone, which fortunately yielded to our blows, and 
we made our escape. 
We now quitted the lower garden of the seraglio, and as¬ 
cended, by a paved road, toward th e chamber of the garden 
of hyacinths. This promised to be interesting, as we were 
told the sultan passed almost all his private hours in that apart¬ 
ment, and the view of it might make us acquainted with occu¬ 
pations and amusements, which characterize the man, devested 
of the outward parade of the sultan. We presently turned 
from the paved ascent, toward the right, and entered a small 
garden, laid out into very neat oblong borders, edged with 
porcelain, or Dutch tiles. Here no plant is suffered to grow, 
except the hyacinth; whence the name of this garden, and the 
chamber it contains. We examined this apartment by looking 
through a window. Nothing can be more magnificent. Three 
sides of it were surrounded by a divan, the cushions and pil¬ 
lows of which were of black embroidered satin. Opposite the 
windows of the chamber was a fireplace, after the ordinary 
European fashion; and on each side of this, a door covered 
with hangings of crimson cloth. Between each of these doors 
and the fireplace appeared a glass case, containing the 
sultan's private library ; every volume being in manuscript, 
and upon shelves, one above the other, and the title of each 
book written on the edges of its leaves. From the ceiling of 
the room, which was of burnished gold, opposite each'of the 
doors, and also opposite to the fireplace, hung three gilt cages 
containing small figures of artificial birds : these sung by me¬ 
chanism. In the centre of the room stood an enormous gilt 
brazier, supported, in an ewer, by four massive claws, like ves¬ 
sels seen under sideboards in England. Opposite to the entrance. 
