CAPITAL OF THE CRIMEA. 
195 
hoped nothing has been omitted which might CHA p . 
be deemed worthy of the reader’s attention. <— - y — 
two minarets, the mark of royalty. There are some decent sutlers’ 
shops, and some manufactories of felt carpets, and one of red and 
yellow leather. The houses are almost universally of wood and ill- 
baked bricks, with wooden piazzas, and shelving roofs of red tile. 
There is a new church, dedicated to St. George ; hut the most striking 
feature is the palace, which though neither large nor regular, yet, by 
the picturesque style of its architecture, its carving and gilding, its 
Arabic and Turkish inscriptions, and the fountains of beautiful water 
in every court, interested me more than I can express. The apart- 
ments, except the Hall of Justice, are low and irregular. In one are 
a number of bad paintings, representing different views of Constan- 
tinople; and, to my surprise, birds were pictured, flying, in violation 
of the Mohammedan prohibition to paint any animal. It is kept in 
tolerable repair ; and the divAus in the best rooms are still furnished 
with cushions. One apartment, which was occupied by the Empress 
Catherine, is fitted up in a paltry ball-room manner, with chande- 
liers, &c. and forms an exception to the general style. The Haram is 
a mean building, separated from the other apartments by a small 
walled garden, and containing a kitchen, with six or eight small and 
mean bed-rooms, each of which (as we were told by our guide, who 
was a Jew, and remembered it in the time of the Khans) was usually 
occupied by two ladies. In the garden is a large and delightful kiosk, 
surrounded by lattice-work, with a divAn round the inside, the centre 
paved with marble, and furnished with a fountain. The word Serai, 
or Seraglio, which is given to this range of buildings, seems, in the 
Tahtar and Turkish language, to answer to all the significations of 
our English word Court; beiug applied indifferently to the yard of an 
>nu or the inclosure of a palace.” Heber's MS. Journal. 
VOL. II. 
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