1830.J A Week at Constantinople in 1829. 667 



With but too many, classical enthusiasm in a sailor is regarded as sheer 

 affectation ; but in a scene of unrivalled beauty like this, with the Trojan 

 plain commanded by the lofty range of Ida before us ; behind, the 

 distant Mount Athos rearing its lofty head above the low lands of 

 Lemnos and Tenedos ; on our right the ruins of Alexandria of Troas, 

 and Lemnos ; on our left the entrance of the Hellespont,, and the high 

 lands of Imbras and Samothrace add to the crowd of recollections 

 which rush on the mind while gazing on this splendid panorama the 

 magical effect of an oriental sunset, and in this spot the indulgence 

 of a schoolboy recollection will, perhaps, escape the imputation of both 

 pedantry and affectation. 



We weighed anchor early the following morning, and passed the 

 castles at the mouth of the Hellespont with a light breeze from the 

 Southward. With every stitch of canvass set, it was with difficulty that 

 we made way against the strong adverse current. Among the crowd of 

 souvenirs which rush on the mind in passing these celebrated states, we 

 dwell with peculiar delight on the story of Leander, associated as it is 

 with the name of our own Byron, who, it may be recollected, swam 

 across it with an officer of the Salsette frigate. This feat of his lordship 

 has been much blazoned, though without reason, for he did not attempt 

 the most difficult part, which was to swim back again. 



Independent of the formidable castles which defend the entrance of 

 the Hellespont, the guns of which are all fl a fleur d'eau," there is an 

 extensive system of batteries and redoubts on the heights near Sigeum 

 and the opposite point of the Thracian Chersonnesus. As we reconnoitred 

 with our glasses these formidable defences, we felt that, once in posses- 

 sion of the Russians, they would laugh to scorn the attempts of all 

 Europe to dislodge them : even in the hands of the Turks, our 

 squadron in 1807 found their position before them untenable. 



In the evening we passed the town of Gallipoli, and held on our 

 course through the night across the Sea of Marmora ; the wind fresh- 

 ening from the southward. At an early hour in the morning, we came 

 in sight of the village of San Stefano, and the beautiful summer palace 

 of the Sultan. We could now descry from the deck the graceful mina- 

 rets and swelling cupolas of the capital. By eleven we rounded the 

 Seraglio Point, and brought up in the Golden Horn opposite Galata. 

 Then it was that a panorama of unrivalled loveliness burst upon our 

 enraptured vision, of which no description, however florid and accurate, 

 can convey an adequate idea. In the course of a long naval career, it 

 has been my lot to visit at different periods most of the beautiful spots 

 on the surface of the globe the Bays of Genoa and Naples, the 

 romantic Cintra, Rio de Janeiro, and the more distant Sydney ; but, 

 beautiful as they certainly are, they must yield the palm of superior 

 loveliness to Constantinople. On the Asiatic side, a succession of beau- 

 tiful country houses, surrounded by vines and beautiful gardens ; on 

 the left an arm of the sea stretching far up into Europe, in the middle 

 of which stands the tower of Leander ; while from the European shore 

 rises Byzantium in gorgeous magnificence, a vast amphitheatre of 

 reddish-coloured buildings, beautifully intermingled with trees and the 

 dark domes of the mosques and bazaars, above which rise the lofty 

 minarets, surmounted with the emblem of the Moslem faith, the cres- 

 cent; the whole standing out indistinct relievo from the transparent 

 dark-blue sky. But enough of description. On landing at Galata, the 



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