738 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 
Lady Liston had been long expecting me. Till we met, I was 
personally unknown to them ; but the warmth of their reception, 
and their unwearied kindnesses while under their roof, demand 
a gratitude words can never express. A man must travel far, 
have endured dangers, privations, inhospitalities, and indeed, 
known “ the wants of a stranger,” to understand emotions like 
these. But I should be wanting in common honesty of heart, 
could any idea of misapprehension by those who sit at home, 
naturally enjoying without thought the common interchange of 
mutual hospitalities, prevent me thus publicly acknowledging 
my obligations to the philanthropy of that able minister, and 
most amiable of men. The plague did indeed rage with so 
much inveteracy, that thousands had already fallen its victims ; 
and so many hundreds were dying daily, I was detained his 
guest, not merely for days, but weeks; and hence the impres¬ 
sions of general gratefulness could not but be deepened into 
those of individual friendship. 
With regard to the city, in the Pera suburb of which I was 
then penned up, its descriptions have been so numerous I do 
not attempt repeating the details, or adding to the stock, ex¬ 
cepting where some particular remains of its ancient splendour 
chanced to present a new, or a comparatively little noticed ob¬ 
ject. Constantinople is in latitude 41° P, longitude 28° 53' E. 
From the succession of hills on which it rises, the general 
view is rendered most amazingly majestic and superb ; while the 
swelling domes of the mosques, and their white slender minarets, 
singularly contrast and enliven the dark groups of cypress, that 
would seem to rival them in height, as they grow up promis¬ 
cuously amongst the various buildings of the city. If the coup 
d’ceil of the now Mahomedan metropolis be so striking from 
