but hasty manner, and seems to resemble the _decursio_ of the Roman army. After this the several Ministers of the _diván_, begining with the least, and ending with the _vizír_, made a pompous procession on horses of state, adorned with broad guilded bridles, and housing of the French fashion, wrought with nothing but entire thread of gold. After these followed his Excellency on an horse and furniture of the same quality, and so returned with the attendance of several _chiaushes_, and all those of the English nation, to his own palace. The habit of the several ministers of the _diván_ is exactly of the same form with the _caftans_, which they ordinarily present; but the matter is either silk, or fine grogran, fur’d with sable. Their turbant is that called the _mugevezée_; but that of the _Grand Signior_ is the same with the common _agás_, only distinguished by three small, but fine and curious black feathers, with waves of ash colour, being the outmost feathers on the wing of the _arguron_, a rare Muscovian bird. The present made by the ambassador to the _Grand Signior_ consisted of sixty pieces of different materials, as cloth, silk, sattin, velvet, and the like, all of them at the charge of the company. March xviii. My Lord Paget had this day his audience of leave of the grand _vizír_, where, besides the ordinary forms and ceremonies of coffee, sherbet, incense, and _caftans_, the letters of the _vizír_ and _Sultan_ were brought in by the _reis effendi_; and being by him reverently kissed and delivered to the _vizír_, were by the _vizír_ kissed in the same manner, and delivered to the ambassador, by whom they were kissed again, and committed to Mr. Paget, who bore them respectfully on his two hands during the whole procession to his Excellency’s palace. The _Sultan’s_ letter was enclosed in a cover of cloth of gold, about a foot broad, and a yard long, being wrote on fine Persian paper made of silk. March xix. His Excellency had audience of leave of the _mufti_, a reverend person about seventy years of age, somewhat corpulent, of an insolent and proud aspect, well learned in the Turkish law and polity, and formerly _hogia_ to the present _Sultan_. He is extremely covetous, and at the same time prodigiously rich, having hoarded, as it is said, one great part of the current gold of the empire, and likewise purchased many vast and extensive possessions about _Erzerum_ and _Trebisond_, which is his native countrey. March xx.