1830.] A Week at Constantinople in 1829. 669 



Most travellers complain of annoyance from the canine race, which 

 infest the streets of Constantinople. I know not whether the complexion 

 of the times had infected these animals, but we certainly did not expe- 

 rience the annoyance which the complaints of all visitors to the Ottoman 

 capital had led us to expect. 



Every officer of the ship feeling the greatest anxiety to lionize this 

 celebrated capital, I was obliged to take my turn of duty on board, 

 and thus lost two valuable days. On the morning of the fifth day, 

 I started with a party on a trip up the Bosphorus to Therapia, where the 

 Sultan was encamped with his favorite tacticoes. Nothing could sur- 

 pass the loveliness of the scenery on either side the strait. The defences 

 from the city to the castles at the mouth are extremely formidable, and 

 had been lately strengthened, in expectation of an attempt on the part 

 of the Russians. A British squadron of similar force to Admiral Grey's 

 would most certainly have made a dash : he would have had the advan- 

 tage of a strong current, which Admiral Duckworth had to contend 

 against in forcing the Dardanelles. The Turkish encampment with its 

 various-coloured tents had a most picturesque appearance. Nothing could 

 be more beautiful than the scite chosen for it. We were unfortunately 

 disappointed in getting a glimpse of Mahmoud, whom we had been led 

 to expect we should have found engaged in his favourite occupation of 

 manoeuvring the tacticoes. There were assembled at Therapia at the 

 moment of our visit several battalions of infantry, with some squadrons 

 of lancers and artillery : the material of the latter agreeably surprised 

 us. Upon the whole the tacticoes, to an eye accustomed to the beauty 

 of European troops, cut a most sorry figure. Their firing was rapid and 

 well concentrated, but in every other point they struck me as miserably 

 deficient. Nothing can well be more ungraceful than the uniform of 

 these new troops. Many grave writers have attempted to impute the 

 opposition to the military reforms of the Sultan to a bigoted attach- 

 ment to ancient costumes : for my own part, I am inclined to ascribe it 

 to a very different cause to the existence of that all-ruling passion 

 vanity. The Turks are a people passionately fond of dress, and their 

 standard of taste is certainly fixed at an elevated point. With them, 

 rank, privilege, caste, are all designated by the colour or cut of a turban. 

 A more dashing uniform would, I am convinced, have rendered the 

 service more popular. What young effendi would exchange his grace- 

 ful turban, richly embroidered vest, scarlet pantaloons, and cachmere 

 girdle, with its richly mounted " handgar," for the red skull-cap and 

 unmartial costume of the tacticoes ? Were an order issued from the 

 Horse Guards, conceived in the economical spirit of a Hume, to dress 

 our guards te a la Tacticoturque" almost every officer in the brigade 

 would, I feel confident, sell out in disgust. The dashing uniforms of 

 some of our staff-officers excited the admiration of the young Turks ; 

 with whom, as with our young dandies in the west, there is magic in the 

 glitter of an epaulette, and music in the jingle of a spur. Notwith- 

 standing their defective organization, these new troops behaved ex- 

 tremely well in the field, and on several occasions gallantly charged the 

 Russian infantry at the point of the bayonet. There is much yet to be 

 effected. The Ottoman army has neither commissariat, hospital, or gene- 

 ral staff; and they have yet to acquire the two most difficult points of the 

 military art that of directing, and the still more difficult one of subsist- 

 ing large masses. We returned at a late hour on board, delighted with 

 our excursion. 



