A Week at Constantinople in 1829. [DEC. 



illusion produced on the mind by a distant view immediately vanishes. 

 Such a compound of filth and wretchedness I never beheld. I was 

 only astonished that the plague should ever cease its ravages in its 

 narrow streets. At Pera the vision brightened, though the appearance 

 of this celebrated Frank quarter greatly disappointed us. Its finest 

 features are its barracks and cemeteries : the latter are indescribably 

 beautiful. Barbarous though we style the Turks, how far superior are 

 they in this point to the more civilized Europeans ! There is an exquisite 

 feeling of delicacy and religious respect for the dead, evinced by this 

 people in the construction of their beautiful cemeteries, which must 

 command our warmest admiration. Aware that our stay would be ex- 

 tremely short, we made the necessary dispositions for making the most 

 of it. As a preliminary measure, we engaged an Italian " cicerone" 

 whom we fell in with at an inn in Pera. On the following morning we 

 pulled round the Seraglio Point to see the Sultan going in state to the 

 mosque of the Sultan Achmet. The cortege was splendid, and realized 

 to the fullest extent all my preconceived ideas of oriental pomp and 

 magnificence. Mahmoud was mounted on a beautiful Arabian, and 

 rode on without casting a look either to right or left. It was impos- 

 sible to gaze on this extraordinary man without a deep feeling of interest 

 and admiration. Nurtured in adversity, unawed by the experience of 

 the past, fierce and bloody insurrection at home, or foreign aggression 

 from without, with an admirable singleness of purpose and unshaken 

 firmness, he pursues his system of reform. I confess I am one of those 

 who wish him success. A fine spectacle he certainly presents; and 

 bloody and terrific as have been some acts of his career, it would be un- 

 generous not to give full weight to his peculiar position. The counte- 

 nance of the Sultan wore an expression of sternness and hauteur almost 

 bordering on ferocity, heightened by the most piercing pair of black 

 eyes I ever beheld. Of his figure we could not judge, robed as it was 

 in the ample folds of oriental costume. 



To one accustomed to the monotony of European towns, the first view 

 of Constantinople produces a singular effect on the mind pleasing, cer- 

 tainly, from its novelty. The crowds of people of different nations, in 

 their various and picturesque costumes, who swarm its narrow streets 

 and lanes the absence of horses and wheeled carriages a melancholy 

 and desolate air which pervades every thing, interrupted by an incessant 

 noise of hammers and files, which, like many Portuguese towns, distin- 

 guish Stamboul present to the eye of the stranger a picture unique in 

 its kind, though, when the first charm of novelty had worn off, I think 

 disgust would rapidly succeed. Our cicerone now led us to the seraglio, 

 into the first court of which we penetrated : there was as usual a dis- 

 play of human heads. An air of desolation and melancholy seemed 

 to hang over the vast area, the scene of so many bloody tragedies. A 

 few Turks were lounging about with a listless air, which singularly con- 

 trasted with the hungry looks which a pack of half-starved dogs di- 

 rected towards the human heads in the niches above them. 



We made a hasty tour of the old town. The remains of antiquity 

 greatly disappointed our expectations. Gibbon we set down as a 

 ' ' romancier." San Sophia, in external appearance, is decidedly inferior 

 to the mosque of the Sultan Achmet and several others. Although the 

 late events have infused into the character of the haughty Osmanlis a 

 certain degree of courtesy towards foreigners, hitherto unknown, we 

 ventured not to penetrate into the interior of any of the mosques. 



