CONSTANTINOPLE. 
118 
vered with detached fuites of apartments, baths, mofques, 
kiofques, gardens, and groves of cyprefs. Such a com¬ 
bination of nature and art, to many glittering domes, 
with an elevation Angularly fine, cannot but fill the eye- 
of a (tranger with admiration and pleafure, which, if 
confidered feparately, could produce neither. Yet, with 
all thefe advantages, and all its hilt-orical confequence, 
the lover of the human race will regard it with horror or 
regret, as that fpot of the whole world, upon which 
feenes of cruelty and rapine have been a deed with greater 
frequency, and in a far greater proportion of-enormity, 
than on any other we know. 
Tire entrance into this voluptuous repofitory, is thro’ 
the Baba-hoom'djun, or Sublime Porte, which is not the 
lead extravagant appellation bellowed upon it. There 
is an irregular but fpacious area, once the Forum Au- 
gulti ; on the left is the fouth front of Santa Sophia, 
and in the center a richly ornamented fountain built by- 
Ahmet III. and decorated with verfes of his own com- 
pofition. The Sublime Porte can boad no architectu¬ 
ral beauty, for it is a heavy mafs, like a bafrion, erected 
by Mahommcd It. in 1+78. In this gate are expofed, 
for three days, the heads of date delinquents, which are 
placed on a falver, with a paper deferibing the cuufe of 
their death. Within is the fird fquare, which contains 
the Taraphana, or mint, and the vifier’s divan. Behind 
is the church of St. Irene, reported to have been built 
by Condantine, in which the lecond general council of 
Theodofius was held. It refembles St. Sophia on a 
fmall fcale, and .is embellifhed with marble and mofaic. 
This dructure the Turks have converted into their grand 
armoury, and it is certainly a repofitory of many curiofi- 
ties. It contains the Roman military engines ufed by 
Alexius at the fiege of Nicoea, in 1097 ; the armour, and 
weapons of the crufaders, who poiielfed Condantinople 
under Godfrey of Bouiliion, and innumerable trophies 
of Ottoman victories. The oppolite gate is Galled Bala 
Selam , and that farther on beyond the fecond Court, Baba 
Saadi, the Gates of Health, and of Happinefs. There is 
a column compofed of a tail (haft and Corinthian capital, 
with an inscription on the bafe, which has buffered only 
the lofs of the dame. The fplendid confufion, in which 
the detached buildings are fcattered, would fcarcely ad¬ 
mit ef a minute detail, were it practicable to examine 
them. Baths of marble and porcelain, rich kiofques, 
the imperial manege and gardens* cover the remaining 
fpace within the walls. Nearer the (bore are kiofques, 
frequented by the ladies, with dower gardens in the 
Turkilh dyle, and terraces upon high walls, painted 
green. In thefe that fumptuous exhibition, called the 
tulip fead, is held. The great kio.fque, which the Bri¬ 
tan vifits on date days, is lupported by pillars of verd 
antique, and wainfeotted with veneered marbles. Each 
of thefe commands a fine view of the harbour. 
The fulfan Selim III. lately determined to appropri¬ 
ate ground for a garden in the European.tade ; and, hav¬ 
ing obferved one at Buyuckdereh on the Bofphorus, be¬ 
longing to a refpeCtable merchant, he applied to him to 
-fugged a plan for his new dcligu. As this gentleman is 
a German, he propofed the dyle of his own country, and 
that feveral acres, cleared of venerable cypreffes, Ihould 
be laid out in a crofs walk of trellis, and young trees to 
be trained ever it, with dages for flower pots and foun¬ 
tains at equal diflr.nces. To extend the plan, many 
valuable edifices were dedroyed. A beautiful eminence 
ever the lea between Scutari and Chalcedone, had been 
feleCted by the emprefs Theodora, the wife of Judinian, 
for a fumptuous palace, called the Herceum, noticed by 
Gibbon, vol. vii. p. 124, which continued to be a favou¬ 
rite fummer refidence of her fucceffors. In the feven- 
teenth century, Morad IV. eroded another on the fame 
fpot, in a high dyle of Afiatic embelliihment; but in 
1794, thefe were demoliflied and the mod exquifite mar¬ 
bles were torn from the walls, and the admiration of 
ages facrificed to falfif. tade, A lover of modern garden¬ 
ing mud lament that a more correct idea of'the effect, 
which ft liapp'y combination of nature and art is capa¬ 
ble of producing, was not communicated to this mod re¬ 
cent of our allies, fo delirous,of improving the genius of 
his people. 
The library, of the feraglio has long been a mydery to- 
learned Europe, increafed by the inaccurate relations of 
thofe who, far didant from the place, have Compiled ac¬ 
counts of it. The abbe Sevin, who in 1728 was lent by 
the French king to colled Greek manuferipts, was idly 
allured that every one of that defeription had been 
burned by order of Morad III. in the fifteenth century. 
It is morally impollible for any Chridian to vilit this- 
library, as it is fituate in the interior of the feraglio. One 
hundred and twenty of Conltantine’s manuferipts in folio, 
chiefly the New Testament and commentaries upon it,, 
mod elaborately written, are preferred by the Turks 
with due veneration. By comparing the accounts of 
different relators, it is evident that many manuferipts- 
both Greek and Latin, as well as Oriental, are kept in 
confuted heaps, without arrangement or catalogue.- 
When pope Nicolas V. in 1453, lent literati to Conltan- 
tinoplc and Greece to colied manuferipts of -the Greek 
fathers, and offered a reward of live thoufand fiequins for 
tlie original gofpel of St. Matthew in Hebrew, they 
conjedured and ventured to affert, that it might be 
found in this' library. Others have followed their ex¬ 
ample with refped to the lod decads of Livy, with a 
total deficiency of proof. The books of Diodorus Si¬ 
culus complete, are laid by Condantine Lafcaris, in his 
treatife on the Greek and Sicilian hidorians, to have 
been feen in the library of the Greek emperors at Con- 
ftantinople. 
A Turk will not believe tlfe treafures of the feraglio 
to be of a value within the limits of computation ; they 
are certainly very great, arifing from the gradual accu¬ 
mulation during each reign, diftind from thofe found at 
the taking of Condantinople by Mohammed II. The 
prefects made by the ambalTadors from different fove- 
reigns, if compofed of maflive gold or filver, are now 
fent to the mint, and others are given by the fultan to 
his relatives and favourites. The apartments of date re- 
femble each other very nearly. The chief furniture 
confids of the fofa fpread round the room, the carpets 
and the mirrors. In thofe more peculiarly adapted for 
the fummer, are marble fountains which difpenle frcfii- 
nefs ; and the tinkling of water is a high gratification to 
Turkilh ears. What diftinguiflies this imperial refidence 
is the richnefs, not the variety, of materials, of which 
the furniture is compofed. Silk and cloth of gold are 
fubdituted for cotton and woollen duffs ; fringes are 
drung with pearl and inferior jewels ; and the walls are 
wainfeotted with jalper, mother of pearl,-and veneered 
ivory. By the fight of l'uch gorgeous ornament furprife 
father than admiration is excited. The Turks amafs, 
but they know not how to arrange, and that, judicious 
difpafition of objeCts, to the perfection of which the 
praife of real talle is given,, and which is lo ambitioully 
attempted in the palaces of Chridendom, they have not 
fuppol'ed to exid, or are much too prejudiced to apply. 
A mere houfe of precious things, richly fuited but un- 
fuitable, without elegance or propriety, is all that the 
mind of a Turk is equal either to edimate or enjoy. We 
niud yet remember, that the arts,, ancient or modern, of 
which European palaces are the magnificent repofitories, 
and to the feleCtion and difnofition of which they owe fo 
much of. their celebrity, are rigidly forbidden by the 
fird principles cf the Mohammedan law, which rejects 
the adniiiiion of painting and fculpture, as a grofs profa¬ 
nation of the Deity, and the objects of his creation. 
In the audience chamber, where the ambaffadors are 
received by the fultan in perfon, is a throne asrefplendent 
as the mines of the ead can make it, with a canopy of 
velvet fringed with jewels, under which he fits in date 
for a few minutes to hear the compliments of the fove- 
reign. 
