Mistress of the Elgin Marbles Read online

  In contrast to the boring time she had among the grandees in Italy, Mary was infinitely more entertained and interested in learning about the customs of these people, so different from Europeans. She described dinner on the pasha’s yacht:

  table and chairs set with a nice table cloath, knives and forks, wine on the table and glasses, and the most beautiful set of Dresden for dinner and desert I ever beheld; all this was compliment, for he told me they allways eat with their fingers…. I was in a sad hobble for I could hardly swallow anything, everything was so oiley; one dish was small mouthfuls of meat with strong butter and onions, there were not many dishes, but they seemed quite distressed at my not eating more.

  Although she hated the cuisine, she was dazzled by the yacht’s opulence:

  We were shewed all the pretty things in the cabin, which really surpass everything in magnificence—the sophas of beautiful coloured damask, with cushions embroidered with gold. He had two Japan cabinets and the most elegant candlesticks, and two large glass bowls with gold fish. He then shewed his arms, and such a sword as he wore himself I fancy was never seen. Isaac … spoke to the Capt. Pasha who got up and went to a cabinet which he opened, took out a pretty gold enamelled box which he filled with perfumes and which he brought and presented to me. We sat a little longer, and when we took our leave, the Pasha said I had not enough on, as it was cold; he sent for a new Indian shawl … a red colour richly embroidered, very ugly but very valuable; they cost a great deal of money and are difficult to get. You would have been delighted at his manner of giving me these things, it was not like giving presents, but as the conversation turned upon perfumes and cold, he produced these different things.

  This was just the beginning. Wherever the Elgins went, they received fabulous tribute. At Sigeum, Elgin was given the cherished boustrophedon inscription that even Louis XVI had failed to secure. Told by natives that the inscription contained magical healing powers, visitors would rub the piece, and therefore, the inscription was half-obliterated. There was an instant murmur of “curse,” which Elgin dismissed as nonsense, and he left the island thrilled. Dr. Wittman accompanied British officers to pay their respects to the sultan’s local vassal, given the honored title of “bey.” His name was Adam Oglu, and in the name of the sultan, the bey provided the English party with horses to gather the “celebrated Sigaeum inscription” and “a very curious bas-relief.” The bey was made aware that Lord Elgin “was desirous to transmit them to England,” and he was instructed to extend any kind of hospitality under his power to the ambassador and his bride.

  Marssky had certainly been an indulged young lady, but she was both astonished and amused at her sudden goddesslike status, and she received extravagant gifts from new acquaintances and strangers alike. Before leaving, the pasha sent an additional gift of six oxen and twenty-five sheep for the ship (they could not take the oxen because of their weight) and more beautiful presents for Mary. Mary joked about all the fanfare: “We saluted the Pashaw 19 guns which he returned. The salutations were most incessant; I own I was tired of them.”

  Never tired of adventure, however, she had spent the day before on a journey to what she thought was the site of ancient Troy:

  We rode ten miles across the plain, saw camels grazing, and arrived at a romantic spot where they shewed us the ruins of the outside walls. And compleat ruins it is, for there are not two stones left one upon another … think of my riding 22 miles on a Turkish saddle…. We did not get back to the ship till 9 o’clock, and never was I so hungry, for we had not a bit of anything to eat from 12 till past 9 at night, and we had a bad passage in the boat from the shore to the ship.

  Pregnant and truly not fit for that kind of strenuous travel, Mary was trying hard to be a good sport and an exemplary wife, joining in her husband’s pursuits. She admitted to a little crankiness: “I only permit Dad, Lady Robert, Rex, Bluey, and Mag to hear my descriptions, because they will judge with mercy.” She had sat, strained, and starved to visit a pile of dirt.

  I have just read over this long letter and really I feel the greatest inclination to pop it in the fire, the descriptions are so miserable; tho’ I endeavoured to write plain matters of fact, yet they fall so far short of my wish that I am perfectly disgusted with what I have said. Yet I should not feel contented were I not to send you an account of all I see, but you can make nothing of it I am sure. All the descriptions in books of the different places I have been at, are completely unlike what I have found the places.

  Understandably, the combination of discomfort and disappointment caused her ill humor. Her mood, however, would change when, on November 6, over two months after having left England, the Phaeton finally arrived in Constantinople, and she was carried ashore in a gilded chair.

  Chapter 6

  CONSTANTINOPLE: “AMBASSADRESS POLL” MAKES WAVES

  The entrance to this place is certainly the finest and most beautiful view in the world, it surpasses all my expectation.

  —MARY, IN A LETTER TO HER MOTHER

  In 1799, about 100,000 people lived in Edinburgh, and about 860,000 people lived in London. Constantinople, which boasted a population of nearly 600,000 people, was, as the nexus of a great empire, a magnet that often drew its citizens from all over its vast territories. It was likely that you would hear Greek, Hebrew, Italian, German, Russian, and other Slavic languages spoken on the streets, in its cafes, in its places of worship and of business. In Europe, the commonly accepted language of diplomacy was French, but the Ottomans, suspicious of the West, would prepare documents for foreigners in Italian because Venice was, for centuries, under Ottoman control. As there had been very few dealings with the English, very little English was used, except by the Italians who served the sultan as translators.

  From the moment Mary was carried up the heights of Pera to her new home, she was the object of intense scrutiny. The British, having had a hot and cold relationship with the Porte in the past, had never invested in a palace, preferring to lease a residence for emissaries and for commercial representatives sent to the area by the Levant Company, England’s trading enterprise in the eastern Mediterranean. The French, to the contrary, had great confidence in their strong political ties to the Ottomans and assembled an imposing presence in Constantinople. For the first time, however, a British ambassador and his wife would not live in a rented British embassy. Instead, Lord and Lady Elgin were hoisted up the cypress-covered mountain to the stunning French Embassy palace on La Grand’ Rue,1 which was, for all intents and purposes, embassy row. Shortly before their arrival, the French, thanks to Napoleon, had been forcibly evicted from their own palace and were now residing as guests of the sultan in the Yedikule prison. The infamously terrifying Yedikule prison, whose dungeons included the “well of blood” where decapitated heads were thrown, made even the bravest men shudder. For hundreds of years, tales had been told of the unimaginably barbarous acts that had transpired within the fortress. Although Elgin, immediately upon his arrival, pressed for the release and humane treatment of the French diplomats,2 the French, for reasons of their own, preferred to blame him for the imprisonment of their ambassador and staff. This was a controversial beginning for the young couple. The spectacular setting of the home itself—with views of the mysterious Seraglio, the Golden Horn, and the Bosporus, which separates Europe from Asia—and, as Mary noted, its location in the Sublime Porte, gave the impression of power; and after all, the palaces along La Grand’ Rue, official residences of the ambassadors from Venice, Sweden, and Russia for almost three hundred years, were built to impress and intimidate friends and enemies alike.

  Mary marveled at her husband’s enthusiasm for his work, and he assumed his responsibilities with a natural authority. Although the streets of Constantinople were teeming with unsavory characters and rogues, Elgin was unafraid to go about without bodyguards. Mary wrote about one particular evening, a few weeks after their arrival, when Elgin went out at midnight to watch an enormous fire. He climbed into a little boat, and as
the flames penetrated the darkness, he observed pigeons flying through the smoke. He was so affected by the scene he didn’t realize that it was raining. Mary adored that romantic side of her husband.

  She, however, focused on the practical: new wallpaper, furnishings, and the management of the embassy, including the care and feeding of some sixty in residence. Interior design and hotel management skills were no challenge for the young lady who would own at least five castles. She liked and kept the canopy and some of the gilt chairs but found the place uncomfortable. She fully understood that the embassy was about public space and entertaining.

  I have fixed Thursday as my public Evenings…. The Russian Minister’s Wife is a very pleasant woman, I like her much the best; there are several other people whom I admit of an Evening to play at Whist, the door of the room which I set in opens into my Dressing room, so when E. has any business, or when he has any body he wishes to speak to, he takes them in there whilst I have my party.

  Dr. Wittman reported on the Elgins’ outstanding hospitality and recorded a number of balls, dinners, and public nights that he enjoyed in the company of Lord and Lady Elgin. Despite his account of the Elgins’ kind treatment of all British citizens, Elgin’s own retinue had nearly mutinied the minute they got to Turkey, most of them complaining that they wanted to return to England. Mary worked at smoothing things over with the staff and wrote that the only one behaving civilly was Hunt; although she thought his sermons weak, she forgave him because of his fine behavior. Mary herself, however, behaved with grace despite her irritation with these men whom she thought whiny. “I have taken a good deal of pain to make every Body as comfortable as possible & I assure you every one of them have since thanked me … I have fixed a public Breakfast Room for the Gentlemen & Breakfast on the Table at 9 O’Clock, E & I enjoy our private breakfast.”

  Mary loved her private time with Elgin, confessing to his mother that “he never looked more captivating.” She also worked at getting apartments ready for her parents and her baby, both expected in the spring. Like any new bride, she worried about her husband’s diet, studied fabric swatches, and awaited the impending birth of her first child; but this newlywed had to give state dinners for hundreds almost the minute she arrived in town. She immediately got the message that there would have to be two Marys: the private, homesick girl and Ambassadress Poll, “as somebody dares to call me.”

  In the five short days since her arrival, she had sent home two letters lamenting her separation from her parents. “Oh Mam, that this letter may find you in London preparing for your journey—that is all I care about. Bring me all the pretty little new tunes you can find—and do come soon, dear dear Mother.” As Ambassadress Poll, she had returned home at “2 O’clock in the morning, this letter will be short…. Love your Daughter dear Mother, and believe that she loves you and Dad with all her heart. Your own, M. Elgin.”

  Completely aware that whatever she did would be talked about, she immediately decided to play by her own rules. Mary Nisbet Bruce, brand-new Countess of Elgin, accomplished in two weeks what Napoleon, up to that time, could not: she was victorious in Asia Minor. A mere eleven days after their arrival, Mary wrote home that Elgin was going to be introduced to the Grand Vizier, and that on Thursday evening she was to give a supper and ball and, though very pregnant, she would undertake all that was expected of her. She acknowledged that she would probably be exhausted, begged for their arrival (“I wish you could persuade Bluey to come with you … I shall soon have the rooms very comfortable”), and revealed her outrageous secret plan:

  I must go to bed because I am to be up early tomorrow morning to go to the Grand Vizier, Elgin has put me down in the List, Lord Bruce, a young nobleman. We sent a private message to the Vizier, by way of asking whether I might go. The dear creature sent back a most gallant answer, so, as he knows who I am, and as I am high up in the procession, I think I have a chance of a nice pelisse.3

  Due to inclement weather, the ceremony and, therefore, her own party were to be postponed to Saturday. She dryly noted that, of course, the food would all be spoiled and that she would be eating chicken for lunch. The audience with the sultan was changed from Sunday to the following Tuesday, November 26, after which she would host another supper and ball. She joked that as she was offering dinner, and not merely dancing, she received an overwhelming and immediately positive response from the community. On Sunday, between their own exciting parties and court ceremonies, they were scheduled to attend a ball at the Russian Embassy in the evening. This very pregnant woman had very little time to rest.

  On Saturday morning, a carriage belonging to Hanum, the pasha’s sister, arrived to transport Mary to the court. The episode of Mary, five months pregnant, dressed as “Lord Bruce” (with her maid in tow dressed as her twin), who made her appearance at the Turkish court with the consent of the dragoman of the Porte (the court translator), the Captain Pasha, the Grand Vizier Yusuf Ziyauddin, and her husband, was unprecedented and immediately historic. Mary’s adventure truly brought about one of the funniest—and groundbreaking—conspiracies in international diplomacy. No lady—much less her maid—had ever before been permitted to attend any political ceremonies at the court of the Ottomans, but Mary would not be treated as an unequal. She sweetly but firmly demanded to observe her husband’s presentation and induction as ambassador. “I had sent a private message to ask whether I might go, I knew I should not be refused!” but she coyly blamed her boldness on Elgin’s sense of mischief—his “wickedness,” as she wrote to her mother-in-law. Mary expected to be a spectator and thought she might end up with a trinket or two, but nearly fainted when she was summoned to participate in the ceremony.

  With a twinkle in his eye, the usually terrifying Grand Vizier melted. He not only acknowledged “Lord Bruce” but apparently thought her lovely and favored him/her with special honors and presents. In fact, he was so amused by and smitten with the plucky young ambassadress that he spoke directly to Elgin, asking him if he had a daughter.

  I dressed myself in my riding habit, and my great coat with epaulets over it, my little round beaver hat with a cockade, and black stock. (Masterman was the same.) I went in a chair down to the water … and got into a Turkish boat. On the opposite side, the Great Man had even sent one of his Sultana’s carriages to carry me to the audience, so I had no riding or any one uncomfortable thing. I was shewn into the room where the Dragoman of the Porte was; he knew me. However I was introduced as Lord Bruce, and was regaled with coffee and sweetmeats. I sat there a long time before the procession arrived, and was exceedingly entertained. An innumberable number of people in beautiful dresses, and seeing the entrance of the procession into the Court was a very fine shew indeed…. The Caimacam had ordered every respect to be shewed me, and excepting first the rush into the audience room, owing to the immense number of people, I was perfectly comfortable. They placed me exactly behind Elgin’s chair, so I saw everything. Oh, Mam, how my heart beat when he made his speech, tho’ there was nobody but Smith and me who could understand a word he said … before the speech he and the Great Man drank coffee, eat a spoonful of sweetmeat and then were perfumed. Then came the speech, and the delivery of the credentials.

  The Caimacam got up, and went to meet the Grand Seigneur’s letter, then all the Turks set up a dreadful yell, which I confess made me feel queer, till they told me it was only a prayer for the Grand Seigneur. You never saw so magnificent a pelisse as they adorned Elgin with—then Smith got one, and then Lord Bruce was called for. I find it was not a bad thing my asking the Great Man’s leave to go, for he had a fine pelisse made on purpose for me, beautiful sable. I thought I should have droped with the weight and heat of it. What do you think was one of the questions he asked Elgin? Whether he had any daughters? When the audience was over, I went back into the dragoman’s room, where I saw the whole of the procession, and a beautiful horse with magnificent gold embroidered furniture, which the Caimacam made E. a present of. I then got into my coach which wa
s exactly a gold wagon, no seats, only a carpet and four little looking glasses in it, and arrived at my palace perfectly unmolested.

  Constantinople was in a state of titillation. Everyone wanted to know this young woman, so adored by her husband that he threw tradition to the wind for her, and so immediately esteemed by the Grand Vizier that he indulged himself with a shockingly close look at this young beauty. Letters flew back to Europe about this thrilling new arrival, and this was just the beginning.

  She cemented her notoriety when, at her own party that evening, she performed the Scottish reel to great applause. Bulging tummy and all, she danced until midnight and wryly joked, “I had had enough of them.” Only a few days after her extraordinary firsthand glimpse of the court—Lady Wortley Montagu had only contemplated the palace—she broke the rules once again at the Russian Embassy. Mary, again, traveled in a gold chair; this time she was accompanied by a procession of Janissaries—the fiercest soldiers—four footmen, and a dragoman and made her grand entrance to the palace, where she dined on magnificent china, drank from the most exquisite fine crystal, and

  I was of course asked to dance, but I immediately said I hoped they would excuse me as it was not the custom in England to dance of a Sunday, and therefore I neither danced or play’d at cards on Sunday…. Next Thursday, we dine at the Prussian, that is their last dancing day till January, they don’t dance all Advent.