A Tour Up the Straits, from Gibraltar to Constantinople: With the Leading Events in the Present War Between the Austrians, Russians, and the Turks, to the Commencement of the Year 1789Sutherland, David, Captain
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A Tour Up the Straits, from Gibraltar to Constantinople: With the Leading Events in the Present War Between the Austrians, Russians, and the Turks, to the Commencement of the Year 1789
Sutherland, David, Captain
Mediterranean Region -- Description and travel; Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792
The only procession I have seen, I at first mistook for a recruiting
party. It was led by a red standard, with drums and fifes playing
Malbrook, followed by several detachments of menial ecclesiastics, in
party-coloured dresses, with a small crucifix between each division. The
rear was brought up by an image of the Virgin Mary, and a chorus. These
gentlemen were rather sparing of their music; but what they did perform,
was remarkably fine.
On the second night after our arrival, Count André gave us a ball at the
palace. The dances were all English, except two: the first was La
Courance; the other, a Sardinian. It consists of an unlimited number of
ladies and gentlemen, who stand in a ring, and dance several times round
the centre, in short steps, to a measure, something like the slow time
of a _Fandango_. Every now and then, the whole close; and the men, with
an imitation of neighing, first kick their legs forward, then throw them
back, fall on their knees, and spring to their places. The ring now
opens, and the two ends turning outwards, lead round till they join.
After footing it a little thus back to back, the former manœuvre is
repeated, to bring the ring to its original position, and the dance is
ended. The ball concluded with _Country Bumpkin_, to the great delight
of the Sardinians, who had never seen it properly danced. I had the
pleasure of dancing that, as well as La Courance, and another with the
charming Villarias. Different ices were served between the dances, and
we broke up about an hour after midnight. We were introduced to near
twenty ladies, but none of them are worth a particular description but
the three I have named.
The Viceroy is a man of good understanding, and of accomplished manners.
He was formerly Governor of Nice, and always remarkable for his
partiality to the English. One afternoon when we were almost _en
famille_, he said, "_Allons en Angleterre_," and led us into another
room, where we found a complete tea-table. He was highly pleased at the
agreeable surprise he saw in our countenances, and we were equally
charmed with his flattering attention. He has had some of us to dine
with him every day, and always sends his carriages for us. Let this, my
dear friend, be a lesson to us to treat strangers with attention. We are
always sure of receiving it abroad, and it is shameful not to return it
at home. His son, the Chevalier de Revel, possesses all the politeness
of the French, with the sincerity of the English. He has been in every
part of England, and speaks our language very fluently.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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