254 RIDE TO THE SEVEN TOWERS. 



The Seraglio has never been inhabited by the 

 sultan since the destruction of the Janisaries, in 

 1826. Sultan Mahmoud's weakness in his later 

 days appears to have found a way of shewing 

 itself in palace-building. He seems to have been 

 mad on this point, because no man in the world 

 ever had so many palaces, or kept on so fast con- 

 structing new ones. Every grand building that 

 strikes the traveller's eye on the sides of the Bos- 

 phorus, he will find on inquiry to be " the sultan's 

 new palace." I really do not know how many 

 he built, but I was quite tired of asking about 

 buildings, because I was certain to have the 

 eternal reply of " the sultan's palace." 



We employed one afternoon in riding to the 

 Seven Towers, and completely round tlie walls of 

 Stamboul. Stamboul is situated on a tongue of 

 land, at the tip of which is the Seraglio Point, the 

 Seven Towers being on the extremity of one side, 

 on the Sea of Marmora, the works at the other 

 extremity of the tongue resting on the Golden 

 Horn, the line of fortifications between the Seven 

 Towers and the Golden Horn being nearly 

 straight. The Seven Towers appear to be strong, 

 and command, in a great measure, the passage 



