When her husband was sent as ambassador to the Ottoman court in 1716, Lady Mary travelled through Germany, Austria and the Balkans to Adrianople and Constantinople. Her letters to friends describe courts and cities along the way, then the Turkish bathhouse, the harem, veiling, religion and the smallpox engrafting she saw practised, correcting the vulgar notions of earlier male travellers.
Witty and unusually perceptive, these letters are among the finest travel writing of the eighteenth century. Download the free EPUB.