February xxvii.
In two hours from our conáck we arrive at Uzunkuprée, a town which has its name from the fair adjoining bridge of an hundred and sixty six arches, and by Saidino is called Ponte d’Erchiene[105]. We were the full space of fifteen minutes in passing this bridge, and towards the further end, which is the most conspicuous part, we observed ten or twelve heads carved on the battlements, that enclose the bridge, in memory, as it is said, of so many chief workmen strangled by Sultan Morát the first (who founded it) for building it so narrow, as not to admit of two carts at once. In two hours farther we arrive at the sandy and delicious banks of Hebrus, just opposite to the city and castle of Dimotico, where Sultan Morát began to seat the palace of his emperial residence. From hence we pass along the bank of that slow, but then plentiful river[106], and after two hours and a half take up our lodgings in a cold inconvenient hovel at Elchilée.