Having mounted our ponies, we started, under the guidance of our polite friend, to visit the curiosities of Damascus; and first proceeded to the palace of Abdallah Bey, one of the wealthiest persons of the city. His family is considered the most ancient and most noble in Syria, and, we were informed, had the Pashalik of Damascus for 300 years. Abdallah has declined office under the Egyptian Pasha,[76] and is now a private citizen. His palace, with the courts and gardens, occupies a large extent of ground; but I will not fatigue the reader with details. There are three or four distinct courts, like that of our own residence already described, but of course much larger, and in a style of far greater magnificence. In this palace we counted eight fountains, several of them with jets. The Bey received us with great politeness, and showed us through the buildings himself, after which we were entertained with coffee, and pipes and sherbet. A hint being here given by Mrs. F. that the strangers would be pleased if they could see the ladies’ apartments, the old gentleman gave orders immediately to have them cleared of his women-folks; and when this had been done, led us through the whole establishment. As we proceeded; a rustling and occasionally a titter behind the partitions or screens, seemed to indicate that the females were not far off, and were amusing themselves with watching us while they themselves were unseen. This part of the palace is separated from the rest by a high wall, and consists of a court, with two large fountains surrounded by orange and lemon trees and rose bushes, a garden ornamented also with two fountains and trees, and a range of apartments surrounding the court. These apartments were more splendid than any others in the palace, the architectural finishing of the chambers being of the most delicate kind and in exquisite taste. One room, as we entered, presented a marble fountain in the centre, in which were seven jets; and looking through the shower of diamonds that broke from them, and fell with an unceasing murmur into the reservoir, we saw, at the further end of the chamber, a cascade of six or seven feet in height, the water of which was broken up, and fell amid sculptured marble cut into a variety of fanciful forms.