Note: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu [1689-1762] was the daughter of Evelyn Pierrepont, earl of Kingston, a member of Parliament. Rather than marry a man of her father’s choosing, she eloped and married Edward Wortley Montagu. When her husband was sent as ambassador to the Ottoman Court at Istanbul, Lady Mary accompanied him.

This letter is among several Lady Mary wrote during her travels. Among other things, her letters reveal a sympathetic view of Ottoman society and implicitly criticize earlier travel literature, which tended to emphasize the superiority of Britain and, more broadly, Christian Europe.

This letter recounts her experience of a bathhouse in Sofia, now part of Bulgaria. In her letter, Lady Mary emphasizes the bathhouse as a social institution. Lady Mary is greatly impressed by the friendly reception of the women she meets there. Her admiration for this feature of Ottoman society and culture relates to the fact that it is a place where women can meet alone in friendship and conversation. “‘Tis the women’s coffee-house” she sums up, noting that, in this respect at least, women in the Ottoman world had a significant advantage over women in Europe.

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Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, “Letter from Adrianople, on the bathhouse at Sophia,” 1717

(Note: 18^th century spelling and usage preserved)

LETTER XXVI.

To Lady ______ .

Adrianople, April 1, 1717.

I am now got into a new world, where everything I see, appears to me a change of scene; and I write to your ladyship with some content of mind, hoping, at least, that you will find the charm of novelty in my letters, and no longer reproach me, that I tell you nothing extraordinary. I won’t trouble you with a relation of our tedious journey; but I must not omit what I saw remarkable at Sophia [presently capital of Bulgaria, then part of Ottoman Empire], one of the most beautiful towns in the Turkish Empire, and famous for its hot baths, that are resorted to both for diversion and health. I stop’d here one day, on purpose to see them; and designing to go incognito, I hired a Turkish coach. The voitures [i.e., carriages] are not at all like ours, but much more convenient for the country, the heat being so great that glasses [i.e., windows] would be very troublesome. They are made a good deal in the manner of the Dutch stage coaches, having wooden lattices painted and gilded; the inside being also painted with baskets and nosegays of flowers, intermixed commonly with little poetical mottos. They are covered all over with scarlet cloth, lined with silk, and very often richly embroidered and fringed. This covering entirely hides the persons in them, but may be thrown back at pleasure, and thus permit the ladies to peep through the lattices. They hold four people very conveniently, seated on cushions, but not raised.

In one of these covered wagons, I went to the Bagnio about ten a clock. It was already full of women. It is built of a stone, in the shape of a dome, with no windows but in the roof, which gives light enough. There were five of these domes joined together, the outmost being less than the rest, and serving only as a hall, where the Portress stood at the door. Ladies of quality generally give this woman a crown or ten shillings, and I did not forget that ceremony. The next room is a very large one, paved with marble, and all round it are two raised Sofas of marble, one above another. There were four fountains of cold water in this room, falling first into marble basins, and then running on the floor in little channels made for that purpose, which carried the streams into the next room, something less than this, with the same sort of marble Sofas, but so hot with steams of sulphur proceeding from the baths joining to it, ‘twas impossible to stay there with one’s clothes on. The two other domes were the hot baths, one of which had cocks of cold water turning into it, to temper it to what degree of warmth the bathers pleased to have.

I was in my travelling habit, which is a riding dress, and certainly appeared very extraordinary to them. Yet there was not one of them that shewed the least surprize or impertinent curiosity, but received me with all the obliging civility possible. I know no European court, where the ladies would have behaved themselves in so polite a manner to such a stranger. I believe, upon the whole, there were two hundred women, and yet none of those disdainful smiles, and satirical whispers, that never fail in our assemblies, when any body appears that is not dressed exactly in the fashion. They repeated over and over to me: “UZELLE, PEK, UZELLE,” which is nothing but, “Charming, very charming.” The first sofas were covered with cushions and rich carpets, on which sat the ladies; and on the second, their slaves behind them, but without any distinction of rank by their dress, all being in the state of nature, that is, in plain English, stark naked, without any beauty or defect concealed. Yet there was not the least wanton smile or immodest gesture amongst them. They walked and moved with the same majestic grace, which Milton describes our General Mother with. There were many amongst them, as exactly proportioned as ever any goddess was drawn by the pencil of a Guido or Titian, [Italian painters of reknown who had painted goddesses] –And most of their skins shiningly white, only adorned by their beautiful hair, divided into many tresses, hanging on their shoulders, braided either with pearl or ribbon, perfectly representing the figures of the graces.

I was here convinced of the truth of a reflection I have often made, that if it were the fashion to go naked, the face would be hardly observed. I perceived that the ladies of the most delicate skins and finest shapes, had the greatest share of my admiration, though their faces were sometimes less beautiful than those of their companions. To tell you the truth, I had wickedness enough, to wish secretly, that Mr. Gervais could have been there invisible. I fancy it would have very much improved his art, to see so many fine women naked, in different postures, some in conversation, some working, other drinking coffee or sherbet, and many negligently lying on their cushions, while their slaves (generally pretty girls of seventeen, or eighteen) were employ’d in braiding their hair in several pretty fancies. In short, ‘tis the women’s coffee-house, where all the news of the town is told, scandal invented, &c.–They generally take this diversion once a week, and stay there at least four or five hours, without getting cold, by immediate coming out of the hot-bath into the cool room, which was very surprizing to me. The lady, that seemed the most considerable amongst them, entreated me to sit by her, and would fain have undressed me for the bath. I excused myself with some difficulty. They being however all so earnest in persuading me, I was at last forced to open my shirt, and show them my stays, which satisfied them very well; for, I saw, they believed I was locked up in that machine, and that it was not in my own power to open it, which contrivance they attributed to my husband. I was charmed with their civility and beauty, and should have been very glad to pass more time with them; but Mr. W resolving to pursue his journey the next morning early I was in haste to see the ruins of Justinian’s church [the Hagia Sophia], which did not afford me so agreeable a prospect as I had left, being little more than a heap of stones.

Adieu, madam, I am sure I have now entertained you, with an account of such a sight as you never saw in your life, and what no book of travels could inform you of, as ‘tis no less than death for a man to be found in one of these places.