Diary of A Tour in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and The Holy Land [Volume 1] [Electronic Edition]

CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.
Pleasurable anticipations of the author when about to visit Greece—voyage from Trieste, in “The Prince Metternich” —Ancona—Trajan's Arch—Island of Ulysses— Corfu—Patras—Picturesque groups of the Greek inhabitants —The Corsair and Giaour—The Jew	1
CHAPTER II.
Entrance into the Ægean Sea—The Duke of Wellington's fac-simile—A ball at Athens—Wretched appearance of the town—The King's new Palace—Ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Olympus—The Acropolis—The Parthenon	11
CHAPTER III.
Another visit to the Acropolis—Situation of the Areopagus— Ruins of the Temple of Bacchus—Bas reliefs on the Temple of Minerva—State of the Temple of Theseus— Choragic monument of Lysicrates—Syria impracticable for travellers—An evening at Athens—Athenian women	19

CHAPTER IV.
Excavations at the Parthenon—Recent surmises relating to Greek architecture—Curious bas-relief—Head-dress worn by ancient Greek warriors—Expense of restoring the fallen columns—A proposal from an English gentleman to raise one at his expense	26
CHAPTER V.
Expedition to Cape Colonna—Crocusses on the rock of the Areopagus—Monument to Philopapas—The rostrum of Demosthenes—Palace of Adrian—Temple of the Winds— Attending church at Athens—Groves of Academus— Military band—The King and Queen of Greece in the Hyde Park of Athens—Dancing the romaika—Romantic adventures	32
CHAPTER VI.
Account of an interesting Syrian tour—The miracle at Mount Horeb—New view of the Pnyx and the Peiraeus—Projected excursion in the Morea—The villa and garden of Comte B.—Ruined chapel at the foot of Mount Hymettus —Dr. Bendiner—An Attic villa—A Greek artist	41
CHAPTER VII.
Convent of Daphne—Visit to Princess S——.—An excursion —The tomb of Agamemnon—Start for Corinth—Verd Antique—Bracebridge Hall—The Protestant cemetery— The Maid of Athens—Our last Athenian ride—Schools of the American missionaries	50

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CHAPTER VIII.
“The Mahmoudiè”—Her passengers—Syra—The British consul—Present state of Greece—Misgovernment—Conduct of King Otho towards England—Count A.—Evils of Bavarian rule—Re-embark on board the “Prince Metternich”—Smyrna—The bazaar—Again at sea—The French fleet—The young pacha	69
CHAPTER IX.
Approach to Constantinople—Impressions on landing— Turkish carriage—Lodgings—The Burnt Column— Dancing dervishes—Excursion on the Bosphorus—Mosque of Ayoub—Turkish tombs—Mosque of Solyman—Mosque of Sultan Achmet—The Brazen Column—Tree of Justice	88
CHAPTER X.
Visit to Scutari—Barracks—Kiosk—Procession of the Sultan to prayers—His appearance—Greek watermen— Palace of the British Embassy—Prince G——e of C——e and Prince de J——.—Visit to the mosque of St. Sophia—Slave Market—An Abyssinian beauty—Our Consul-General:	104
CHAPTER XI.
A Greek wedding—Bride and bridegroom—The ceremony— Dinner at our Consul-General's—The plague—Turkish dogs—The Sweet Waters of Asia—Turkish carriages— Turkish women—Visit to the house of the Austrian Legation—The Hatti Scheriff	125

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CHAPTER XII.
Bargains—The Seraskier's Tower—Panoramic View—Turkish accommodations—Greek Church—Walls of Ayoub— The Seven Towers—Difference of sensation produced by the organs of smell and sight—Prince's Island by sunset —Visit to the Howling Dervishes at Scutari—Their ceremonies—Bridge connecting Pera with Constantinople —Turkish artillery	139
CHAPTER XIII.
Embark for Therapia—Belgrade—House formerly occupied by Lady Mary Wortley Montague—Disappointment— A Greek group—Ancient Plane tree—A new acquaintance —The late Hatti Scheriff—The population of Constantinople —Difficulties of the Turkish language— Situation of Therapia—Impertinence—Discomforts of a Winter in Therapia	153
CHAPTER XIV.
A Turkish execution, and Turkish justice—Fatality—Character of the Turks—Rechid Pacha's harem—Expedition to the Giant's Mountain—Magnificent view—The Giant's Grave—An attack of fever—Garden of the French Embassy —English newspapers.	170

CHAPTER XV.
Second expedition to Buyakderé—Genoese Castle—Ovid's tower—Wooden kiosks—Our new attendant—Assemblage of the Turkish beau monde—The young Sultan unprepossessing in appearance—Beautiful children—Count N——.—A Turkish funeral—An Armenian funeral	183
CHAPTER XVI.
The Grand Seignior's favourite dwarf—The Grand Vizier— His excessive cruelty—Frequent use of torture—A Turkish repast—Spieler Lockner—Kosrow Pacha—” The last of the Turks”—The late Sultan Mahmoud—The government —Salaries of the Pachas—The revenue—Expenses of a Turkish nobleman—Fire at Pera—Officers of the Belle Poule	195
CHAPTER XVII.
The Armenian Burying-ground—Letters from home—Our invalid—Access of fever—Dr. M'G——, an English physician, at Constantinople, called in—The young Sultan's nurse—The plague not considered infectious	209
CHAPTER XVIII.
Visit to the harem of Nourri Effendi—His daughter—Magnificent robe—His mother, Madame Nourri—Harem of Osman Bey—His three wives—Coffee in the harem— A dejeuné—A Turkish bath—Amusement of the ladies and slaves of the harem whilst examining the various parts of English dress—Interesting child—Turkish hospitality —Increase of commerce in the Eastern Turkish provinces—The Sultan's copper-mines in Asia Minor	215

CHAPTER XIX.
The Sultan's state caique—Leave Constantinople by the Stamboul steamer—The harem of the Pacha of the Dardanelles—Our fellow-passengers—The Archbishop of Cyprus—Arrive off Smyrna—Apprehension of plague— The Dutch consul—The consul's wife—Re-embark—A Jew—Arrive off Cos—The French consular agent— Famous platane—The fountain of Hippocrates	236
CHAPTER XX.
Rhodes—Its architecture—The interior of the island—Persian prince—The Greek patriarch—Beyrout—Beyrout women —Singular head-dress—A fresh passenger—Reading at sea—English, French, and Austrian steamers	251
CHAPTER XXI.
Jaffa—Our lodging—Napoleon and his alleged poisoning— Our caravan—Ascent of the mountains of Judea—Approach to Jerusalem—Influence of Russia through the Greek church—Our reception at the Latin convent—Visit to the Holy Sepulchre—An eccentric Englishman—Converts—Traditions—Mehemet Ali	266

CHAPTER XXII.
The Temple—The Mosque of Omar—Interesting view— Ophthalmia—One-eyed regiment—Tombs of Hezekiah, Nehemiah, and Zachariah—The Mount of Olives—Armenian chapel and convent—Garden of Gethsemane— Conversion of the Jews—Intolerant Jewish laws—The rabbis—Population of Jerusalem	296

DIARY.
CHAPTER I.

Pleasurable anticipations of the author when about
to visit Greece—Voyage from Trieste, in “The
Prince Metternich”—Ancona — Trajan's Arch—
Island of Ulysses—Corfu—Patras—Picturesque
groups of the Greek inhabitants—The Corsair
and Giaour—The Jew.

TRIESTE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1st, 1839.

The long-expected day had at length arrived
on which we were to commence that part of
our travels, to which we had so eagerly
looked forward; for, delighted as we had
been with all we had hitherto seen, we could
not help anticipating a great increase of pleasure

in visiting countries which could afford
us such a total change of scene, and interest
of so different a character.

By the friendly aid of Count Walstein,
we secured the best places on board “The
Prince Metternich,” and sailed from Trieste
at four o'clock, on a most delightful afternoon.
The accommodation was much more
roomy than I had dared to hope for, and I
was much pleased to find the dispositions
of the three lady passengers on board as
airy as my own, with respect to cabin
arrangements. Mrs. Joyce, one of them,
with whom I had made acquaintance the
day before, was proceeding with her nice
little boy, to join her family at Alexandria,
in company with Madame Pastré and her
husband, who is one of the principal merchants
of Marseilles, and who was now
going to Egypt on business connected with
the Pacha.

The weather is perfect, and the vesse

without disagreeable motion, so that we
shall rest most comfortably; but such a
temperature, and such general bien-etre, we
can hardly venture to think will continue.

WEDNESDAY, OCOTOBER 2ND.

Arrived, at
eight in the morning, off Ancona, where we
landed, in the hope of going to Loretto, but
were much disappointed to find that we had
little more than six hours to spare, for an
expedition which required at least seven.
We, however, saw Trajan's Arch, which is
characterized by great simplicity, and beauty
of proportion. The bas-reliefs have been
stripped from it, but the marble looks as
pure and as white as on the day it was first
set up.

On a promontory above the town is an
interesting duomo, with a facade of the
11th century, built on a most commanding
position, where formerly stood the Temple
of Juno, of which a dozen columns, still to
be seen in the interior, are evident remains.

The evening passed off most delightfully
on board; but in the night the wind changed,
as did our spirits in proportion.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3RD.

A sad day
for unpractised sailors: our poor doctor
so unwell as to require all the nursing we
might have looked for at his hands. A
small party only met at dinner, in consequence
of the weather; but, in the evening,
the wind lulled, and enabled us to get on
deck once more.

We did not catch a glimpse of land
during the whole day.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4TH.

A quiet night,
followed by a lovely morning; all the ladies
working and reading on deck: but the wind
being still against us, prevented our arriving
at Corfu before sunset.

We passed the very beautiful little isle of
Ulysses,* and almost immediately the view

* So called because the vessel of Ulysses is supposed
to have struck on a rock near this place, from
whence he saved himself by swimming to the neighbouring
island of Corfu.

of the approach to Corfu opened upon us,
which is perfectly enchanting. The citadel
is perched on the summit of a high rock,
which is almost touched by another, equally
picturesque; but the effect is a little diminished
by the straight line caused by the
erection of a new military hospital.

The coast of Albania is only four miles
distant, and the forms of its mountains,
most beautifully traced by the setting sun,
furnished a back ground worthy of the rest
of the landscape.

Sir George B——y came out for us in
his boat; and the effect of seeing arms presented
by English troops, and English signs
and names attached to the shabby little
shops, was satisfactory after so considerable
an absence from our own country.
Luckily for us we were comfortably lodged
by Sir George B——y; for the alberghi of

the Cavallo Bianco and Bella Venezcia are
described as very dirty, and thickly populated.

M. and Madame Pastré had also been
fortunate enough to escape these bad inns:
a very amusing fellow-passenger, one Signor
Steffano, having afforded them hospitality.
He was, in appearance, a perfect Sir John
Falstaff; and even when a little paled from
the effect of the roughness of the sea, was
still busy with his basket, which he had
taken care to store at Trieste with all kinds
of good things; which, however, he dispensed
with a most liberal hand.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER, 5TH.

While George
went to examine the fortifications with Sir
G. B——y, Minney and myself accompanied
Mrs. R——y on an expedition into the interior
of the island.

We drove to the governor's campagne,
now abandoned on account of the malaria,
which has prevailed there since July. The
hedge-rows were composed of cactus and

aloes, at least seven feet high. The situation
of the house somewhat reminded us of
the Villa Rocca Romana, at Naples.

We drove to several points, each commanding
a varied, but equally fine view;
but our expedition was a little abridged by
our being obliged to be on board by half
past twelve.

The view of Corfu, for the first two hours
after leaving it, seemed quite as magnificent
as the approach the day before; but we had
no little island so pretty as that of Ulysses
to pass. Cephalonia and St. Mauro we
saw , but at some distance.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6TH.

Arrived at Patras,
at seven in the morning; and now, for
the first time, we set foot in real Greece.

We walked up to Mr. C., our consul's
house, which is situated at the highest point
of the town. The effect produced upon us
by the variety and beauty of the oriental
costume served to cheat the length and heat

of the walk; for, at every step, I was longing
to have some striking group committed to
our sketch-book.

It being Sunday, the Greeks were in their
best costumes; that of the women was not
so striking as the men's, owing chiefly to
their caps being so unbecoming. Some of
the groups were playing at cards, which at
the cafés was the universal occupation.
Many of them were sketched by Mons. Chacaton,
and they generally included one or
more fine and venerable-looking heads,
which, till now, one had never seen but in
a Rembrandt or a Titian.

The brightness of the atmosphere, and
the beauty and variety of the tints around
us, would of themselves have almost repaid
us for our week's voyage.

The wind was too high and unfavourable
for our projected voyage down the gulf of
Lepanto, whence we had hoped to get across
to Parnassus and Delphi, and to reach

Athens by this route; but after having made
arrangements for guides and horses, and
caused a perfect massacre in the poultry-yard,
we were forced to make up our minds
to put off this project until after our arrival
at the Grecian capital, where we had the
satisfaction of hearing that Lords A——y
and R——y had arrived a few days before.

The delightful calm has accompanied us
from Trieste, and our agreeable society on
board has made our voyage really a party of
pleasure.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7TH.

In the night
we passed Zante, and, in the course of the
morning, Modon and Coron, the western
points of the Morea. Here the Corsair and
Giaour furnished us with all the names of
the promontories and islands.

We did not fail to look into Navarino, as
we passed close to it; but the coast, generally
speaking, even of Arcadia, was not
very striking.

We doubled Cape Matapan very successfully;
but off the island of Cerigo, within
twelve hours of the Peiraeus, the wind
changed, and blew directly in our teeth so
strongly, that the pitching of the vessel
made it impossible for us to enjoy a moment's
rest during the night, and finally
lengthened our voyage by at least seven
hours.

George had much curious conversation
with one of our fellow-passengers, who is a
Jew, on his way to Smyrna on a trading
speculation. He spoke only English, and
wherever he went depended on his Talmud
and his own nation for friends and protection.
He appeared a sincere enthusiast,
and wrapped up in his mysticism.

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CHAPTER II.

Entrance into the AEgean Sea—The Duke of Wellington's
fac-simile—A ball at Athens—Wretched
appearance of the town—The King's new Palace
—Ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Olympus—The
Acropolis—The Parthenon.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8TH.

We passed
close to the island of Ægina, and had a fine
view of its Temple, of which sixteen columns
of marble still remain standing.

The entrance into the AEgean Sea is very
fine. The island itself, with the mountains
of the Morea and the Acropolis of Corinth
in the distance, were on our left. In
front lay Salamis, and the mountains above

Megara and Eleusis. The Acropolis of
Athens was plainly visible; and behind it,
Hymettus and Pentelicus. To the right,
the range of hills in which were situated the
celebrated silver mines of Laureium, and
which terminate in the promontory of Sunium,
or Colonna.

We reached the Peiraeus at two o'clock,
and were told, on our arrival, that Lord
R——y, with Sir A. B——d, and Mr.
H——y, were in quarantine.

The boat which put off to take us on
shore, contained in it a most striking likeness
(or rather fac-simile) of the Duke of
Wellington, in the person of the harbour-master's
Greek clerk. He spoke English
perfectly, and, to complete the illusion, his
very tone and accent reminded one of the
Duke.

On landing, our classical anticipations
were sadly put to flight by observing on one
side of the street large advertisements of

Guinness's porter and Hunt's blacking;
and on the other, a notice of the hours
of arrival and departure of the omnibus
which runs between Athens and the Peiraeus.

We soon after had the pleasure of seeing
Lord A——y drive up in his carriage, which
he had brought to fetch us. He told us
that we had arrived a day too late to attend
a ball at court, where he had been the night
before.

He described the room as full of Greek
heroes, and ladies in every variety of their
national costume, of which the Hydriote was
very remarkable. The queen was pre-eminent
in youth and beauty, and danced a
figure alone in the cotillion, in the most
graceful manner possible.

We drove to Athens, passing on our right
the remains of the old wall which formerly
connected the city with its harbour; but
could hardly believe our eyes, when we first

beheld a wretched little town, which reminded
me of those one occasionally meets
with in the north of England. Many
houses were still building, and some, though
finished, as yet uninhabited; trees were
standing in the midst of the road, and
shops full of half-unopened goods were to
be seen. George said it brought to his
recollection towns he had seen commencing
business in the far-west of America.

We quickly installed ourselves at Bruno's
small, but comfortable hotel, and then drove
to the Acropolis, passing on our way through
the bazaar, a tolerably wide street of shops,
situated among the few remains still to be
discovered of the ancient town.

The other streets are narrow, full of sharp
turns and deep holes; but our Greek coachman
made his way, in spite of every obstacle,
at a rapid pace, shouting, in bad German, to
the people who thronged the streets, to get
out of his way.

The king's new palace looks at present as
if it were being built very much on the plan
of an hospital, or a union workhouse.

It was altogether quite a relief when we
lost sight of modern Athens, and when a
few moments more brought us to the ruins
of the temple of Jupiter Olympus, of which,
alas! only sixteen columns remain standing:
they are of white marble, of the Corinthian
order, and of the finest proportions.

The Temple itself was begun by the
Greeks, but the Romans had the honour of
putting the finishing stroke to it. Their
descendants maintain to this day, that one
of its columns was afterwards removed to
Rome, and now stands in front of the
Chiesa of St. Maria Maggiore; but at Athens
the fact is disputed.

We next proceeded to the Parthenon,
which we reached after about five minutes
drive. The Acropolis is surrounded on all
sides by barren and rocky ground, and is

itself finely situated on a lofty oblong hill,
commanding a view of everything in its
neighbourhood It includes on its site, besides
the Parthenon, the beautiful temple of
Erechtheus, the portico of which is supported
by caryatides, one of which forms part of the
collection of Elgin marbles at the British
Museum, and which are exquisitely sculptured;
also the remains of the Temple of
Victory without wings, the Pinacotheca, or
library, and other ruins lately recovered.

It was fortunate we did not make our
tour a year sooner, or we should have
missed seeing in so satisfactory a manner
the Temple of Victory, and various portions
of the Parthenon, which have only very
recently been excavated.*

* Colonel Leake says that it is difficult, from the
short and imperfect description of Sponn and Wheeler,
to ascertain on what part of the platform of the outwork,
before the southern wing of the Propylaea, the Temple
of Victory stood, and in what direction it faced; and
he adds, that the tenth of the spoils of the days of
Marathon and Chalcis was destined to two magnificent
dedications in the citadel, and that there is every
reason to think that the little Ionic Temple (of Victory)
was built at the exact period when these two victories
were the most recent and the most glorious of which
the Athenians had to boast.

We had the pleasure of seeing this very temple
nearly restored (that is, its exterior,) to its pristine
beauty.

Some bas-reliefs were lying about, which
had been also lately discovered. The first
we saw represented two persons proceeding
to a sacrifice, one of whom is endeavouring
to check the impetuosity of a bull.

Another was Neptune, with his trident in
one hand, while the other hangs down by
his side, and is of such exquisite sculpture,
and in such perfect preservation, that every
vein is distinctly visible. He appears to
be joining some ancient hero, or demi-god,
in upbraiding a woman, whose profile and
head-dress mark her as an Egyptian.

It was now getting late, so we prepared

to descend; and whilst passing through the
Propylsea had the good fortune to catch a
view of the setting sun through its magnificent
columns, as it sank into the Gulf of
Ægina, throwing a different hue on each
of the Peloponnesian mountains forming
the back ground. It exceeded anything I had
ever seen, in vividness and beauty of colouring.
The first effect was much like that of the
sunset from the Pincio; but the bright red
dissolved into the most beautiful shades of
violet and lilac, and the only things I could
think of to compare them with, were the
colours produced by artificial means at a
good exhibition of fireworks. The last
broad blaze of light which illumined the
whole horizon, none of us, I think, can
ever forget.

The shortness of twilight at this season
of the year in Greece hastened our movements,
and we returned to our hotel, asking
ourselves, “Are we really in Athens?”

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CHAPTER III.

Another visit to the Acropolis—Situation of the Areopagus
—Ruins of the Temple of Bacchus—Bas
reliefs on the Temple of Minerva—State of the
Temple of Theseus—Choragic monument of Lysicrates
—Syria impracticable for travellers—An
evening at Athens—Athenian women.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 9TH.

Re-visited the
Acropolis, which we examined more in
detail. It was surrounded with a wall by
the Venetians; and the Turks have since
built their houses and a small mosque there;
so that, altogether, a strange jumble of
architecture is presented to the eye.

The Areopagus was pointed out to us by
our Greek servant, and seems to be the very

spot which would have been selected by St.
Paul to prove to the Athenians their too
great “superstition,” looking as it did upon
the many temples which crowned the city,
and, above all, upon the colossal statue of
their tutelary goddess Minerva, which stood,
as is very probable, within the Propylaea.

The temple or theatre of Bacchus, the
scene of the triumphs of all the great poets
and actors of antiquity, has scarcely a vestige
left; and the remains of a large Turkish
bastion disfigure even the hill round which
the religious processions passed to the
temple.

An adjoining theatre, however, supposed
to be on the site of the Odeum of Regilla,
is tolerably entire. It was rebuilt by a rich
Roman citizen, named Herodes, a son of
Atticus, in honour of his wife; and the interior
was said to have been lined or covered
entirely with cedar wood, curiously carved.

On the frieze of the cella of the temple of
Minerva are still to be seen exquisite bas-reliefs,

which neither time nor barbarism
have as yet been able to efface.

The small temple dedicated to King Erechtheus
was very perfect until the last attack
on the Parthenon, when, a number of persons
having sought shelter within its walls,
it attracted the fire of the enemy. A shell
at length penetrated it, and, at one blow,
nearly levelled what had been so long
respected by time.

On our return, we visited the Temple of
Theseus, which is in good preservation, and
reminded us much of Paestum, but is as
much inferior in point of size, as it is superior
in the quality of its materials. It is
now used as a repository for various interesting
memorials which are being daily
excavated in its immediate neighbourhood.
Amongst other things are some fine sarcophagi,
with various strange devices on them;
one we noticed in particular bore a spirited
and very tipsy little Bacchus. But the most
beautiful bas-relief we have yet seen is a

very graceful figure of Victory, untying her
sandal, it is supposed, after the battle of
Marathon. Would that she had not lost
her head — though enthusiastic amateurs
might their hearts and purses had she been
more perfect!

A little to the east of the Acropolis is a
small building, commonly called the Lantern
of Demosthenes, but now known to have
been a Choragic monument of Lysicrates.
It has escaped the accidents of war much
better than the surrounding monuments of
antiquity, from having been protected by the
walls of a convent, in which Lord Byron
resided whilst at Athens.

We were so interested by all we saw , as
almost selfishly to demur at going down to
the Peiraeus to see our imprisoned friends in
quarantine. We found Lord R——y grown
very thin: he had been at the point of death
from a fever at Damascus. He described
the present state of Syria as perfectly impracticable
for travellers, or at least highly

dangerous, from the united obstacles of
marauders and pestilence.

He saw a party of deserters marched in
near Damascus, chained to each other, and
occasionally a man free from plague joined
hand in hand with one who was infected.
Some enterprising travellers, who had persevered
in going on to Palmyra, had actually
been robbed of all they had, stripped, and
then left to make their way on foot nearly
three hundred miles back to Damascus.

Mr. H——y and Sir A. B——d had had
either more luck or less enterprise, for they
appeared to have escaped all interesting adventures,
though they had seen almost as
much of Syria as those who had so severely
suffered. One thing appeared too evident,
that no père, much less mère de famille could
venture on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the
present period; which imparted a feeling of
disappointment, that even the interest and
charm of Athens could not wholly dispel.

We stayed at home in the evening, which
we passed most agreeably. Mr. de L——
dined with us, and we received visits from
Sir E. L——and his son, and from Mr.
G——, the Austrian consul-general, a gentleman
of great research, and a well-known
antiquarian, who had resided at Athens for
the last forty-five years. Mr. F——, a very
intelligent Scotchman, and a resident here
of twenty years' standing, brought us Sir
W. Gell's and some other works on Greece,
which they all looked over with us, and drew
out an itinerary for some expeditions into
the Morea. So much for our première soirée
d'Athènes.

I must not omit, in the list of our adventures
to-day, our having passed, on the road
from the Peiraeus, the most beautiful woman
I ever beheld, carrying her infant in her
arms. Her profile was perfectly Grecian,
and she united great brilliancy of eye to the
utmost clearness of complexion. In the

latter respect she was like Lady H——n,
when still Miss W——y, whom she also
resembled in height.

I should have thought her age at least
twenty-five; but in this country, we are told,
that even the old-looking women are not
more than thirty, so that it is as difficult to
judge of ladies' ages in Greece, as it is unpolite
to do so in England.

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CHAPTER IV.

Excavations at the Parthenon—Recent surmises relating
to Greek architecture—Curious bas-relief
—Head-dress worn by ancient Greek warriors—
Expense of restoring the fallen columns—A proposal
from an English gentleman to raise one at his
expense.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10TH.

WE did not
forget our appointment with M. Pittakys,
who shewed us over the Parthenon in the
most detailed and satisfactory manner.

He had been instrumental in excavating
some very interesting inscriptions; one of
which, on a marble tablet, contained the
public record of the expenses incurred by
the people in building the temple of Erechtheus.

The whole sum was not computed
to be above 20,000 l., which, considering the
size of the building, seems a mere trifle.

Minney succeeded in obtaining a lead
pencil, or rather plummet, a great many of
which, with colours, &c., in a wooden box,
had just been dug up in what had evidently
been formerly the habitation of an artist.
>From various data they were supposed to
have lain there about two thousand years.

It is really quite surprising to observe the
effect which the Greeks contrived to throw
into all their buildings. The Parthenon
strikes one as being larger every time one
sees it.

Mr. G——s gave us an interesting account
of the discoveries of an English architect on
this subject. He found, in studying the
ancient authors with attention, that all the
great Grecian buildings were in a very slight
degree irregular in their construction; and
this seems to have been the secret which

enabled them to furnish models which the
whole world has been since unable to imitate.

For instance, all their buildings receded
slightly in the centre; the columns were made
to incline, and to swell rather towards the
middle, &c. The degree was very small, merely
extending to perhaps a portion of an inch in
a great number of feet; but this is said to
have been the cause of the extraordinary and
beautiful effect observable in their buildings.

The Englishman on his arrival found, to
his mortification, that a German architect
had, by actual measurement of the Temple
of Minerva, discovered the same fact, but
was at a loss to account for the irregularity
till it was explained to him by the learning
of the other. It is to be hoped they will
amicably agree in laying before the world
the result of their labours.

Our curiosity was also gratified as to the
manner in which the ancients contrived to
erect their columns of so many blocks, and

yet with so much art that the divisions were
invisible.

A fallen column explained the mystery;
it seems that in the centre of each block was
a square cavity filled up with olive-wood,
of which some original pieces are still to be
found; in this wood was a peg, made to fit
into a corresponding hole in the next block,
which was turned round on this pivot, till,
with the addition of water, so much of the
marble was ground into dust, as completely
to fill up the interstice.

A very curious bas relief, the date of which
was antecedent to the time of Pericles, shewed
us that Napoleon was not the first warrior
distinguished by wearing a little cocked hat.
In the foreground of this group is a very
graceful equestrian figure, with an Anglesey
seat and helmet, and behind him are three
soldiers, whose heads are protected by what
very much resembles the cocked hat in which
Buonaparte is usually represented.*

* “In Carey's drawing,” says Colonel Leake, “several
are represented with the broad-brimmed, low-crowned
hat, called the Arcadian Pilus, but none of them are
in the Elgin collection.”

M. Pittakys is a perfect enthusiast, but
most simple in mind and manners, as well
as in his descriptions. He calculated that
the expense of restoring each magnificent
column, so far as replacing les tambours as
he called them on their pediments, would
not exceed five hundred drachms, about 20l.
Lord A——y proposed raising one, on condition
of his own statue being placed on it,
an offer which I suspect M. P——took in
good earnest.

Nine temples, it is affirmed, existed formerly
in this confined area; but one must
imagine most of them to have been of the
small though graceful proportions of that of
the Nike, to have allowed space for the processions
and religious ceremonies.

The day was oppressively hot, and we
only got home in time to dress for Sir E.
L——'s, where, besides his intended son-in-law,

we met Capt. G——, R.N., of this
station, whose account of Mrs. R——y's
spirit of enterprise, in pursuing her travels
as far as Sennaar, was very amusing.

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CHAPTER V.

Expedition to Cape Colonna—Crocuses on the rock of
the Areopagus—Monument to Philopapas—The
rostrum of Demosthenes—Palace of Adrian—Temple
of the Winds—Attending church at Athens—
Groves of Academus—Military band—The King
and Queen of Greece in the Hyde Park of Athens
—Dancing the romaika—Romantic adventures.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11TH.

—Lord A——y
and George set off at six in the morning
on a day's expedition to Sunium, now Cape
Colonna. Minney, the doctor, and myself,
took our usual afternoon's walk to the Acropolis,
where I am writing this journal, from
the Propylaea, while they are wandering
about, making sketches.

AREOPAGUS ROCK FROM WHICH ST PAUL PREACHED TO THE ATHENIANS
London Pubd by Henry Colburn 13 Gt Marlborough St 1841.

After having watched the sunset, we made
our way up the sixteen steps cut in the rock of
Areopagus, which Dr. Wordsworth believes
to have led to the exact spot whence St. Paul
preached. On it we gathered crocuses, a
flower we little expected to have met with in
such a position, and at such a season of the
year.

We had a few visitors in the evening, and
we were all much surprised by the return of
our travellers, after only eighteen hours' absence,
perfectly delighted with their whole
excursion, which afforded abundant matter
of conversation for the rest of the evening.

They had ridden thirty miles through a
most romantic country, full of interesting
remains, and abounding in little hollows
covered with trees and shrubs of every variety,
the scent of which was almost oppressive.

They went out in a boat to see the temple
to the greatest advantage. It stands on the

summit of a rock 600 feet above the level of
the sea, and forms a landmark which is
visible from an immense distance.

They said that from whatever point they
looked at it, from sea or land, it always
gave them the impression of being far larger
than it actually is. On their return, which
was by water, they were glad to partake of
the boatmen's fare, which was humble
enough, as it consisted of plain bread and
water, but both were excellent.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12TH.

—With the aid
of a steady donkey I got up to the monument
of Philopapas, whence is the finest view
of the Parthenon, as well as of the Peiraeus,
&c.

We descended from thence to the Pnyx,
an object of the highest interest, which had
been excavated by Lord Aberdeen, and
which is very distinctly marked by rows of
steps cut in the rock, and a terrace on a
level below, capable of containing five or

six thousand persons, on which we could
clearly discern the spot where the rostrum
of Demosthenes is said to have formerly
stood; a sight which roused all the classical
enthusiasm of the gentlemen of our party.

A little further on, but in a situation
which does not command a view of the sea,
we were shewn what is called the new Pnyx,
which is said to have been chosen on that
very account by the thirty tyrants, for the
scene of their debates.

We next followed the line of the Agora,
which took us to the remains of a statue of
Erechtheus, king of Athens, recently discovered
by Sir E. L——, and distinguished
by its terminating in a fish's tail. From
thence we proceeded to the Stoa, or portico
of the palace of Hadrian, against the remaining
columns of which the Turks have
built a mosque.

We returned by the Temple of the Winds,
supposed to have stood in the centre of the

Agora, and which was surmounted by the
figure of a Triton, whose movements would
of course have great influence on the commercial
affairs of the Athenians.

The temple itself is nearly perfect, and of
an octagonal form. On each of its sides a
figure representing some one of the winds is
sculptured, and in a very spirited manner.
Mr. G——and Sir E. L——came to us in
the evening, to talk over our sight-seeing of
the morning.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13TH.

—We went to
church at Sir E. L——'s; a very limited
congregation of thirty-six people. From his
room, by the aid of a glass, we could distinguish
the king and queen in the palace
opposite. She is very pretty, and was leaning
most affectionately on his shoulder.

We went afterwards to the so-called groves
of Academus, where however not a tree now
remains, but the view of Athens from thence
is beautiful. In the midst of it the Turks

had built a small mosque, now deserted; and
on the right and left our eyes were refreshed
by the first appearance of vegetation I had
seen, proceeding chiefly from mulberry trees,
which afforded from the brightness of their
foliage a great contrast to their neighbours,
the gloomy olives.

We went back to hear the music at the
Hyde Park of Athens, a very dusty road on
a piece of bare land or down, less picturesque,
if possible, than Salisbury Plain.

The band was very indifferent, but all
Athens were assembled there, and the king
and queen appeared on horseback; she all
smiles and gaiety, and he much better looking
than he had been described to us, and
dressed in the Greek costume, which he has
lately assumed in compliment to his people.

I fancied him a younger, but unfavourable
likeness of Lord Durham; but Lord R——y
pronounces him to be a handsome likeness of
Macready, and I believe we are both right.

Mademoiselle Botzaris' (the maid of
honour) animated and beautiful countenance
seemed to me to eclipse that of her
majesty.

In one barouche was a party of Greeks,
which we particularly noticed; it consisted
of two gentlemen and three ladies, all handsome,
but especially the one who was acting
bodikin, perhaps only because she was the
youngest. We thought her a likeness of
Lady H. C——n, but on a larger scale, and
with a most fascinating smile. The real
Greek cap is so little becoming to a woman,
that it requires very decided beauty to carry
it off.

In our road home to dinner we were
attracted by the sound of music, and stopped
at a café, before which two men were very
actively engaged in dancing the romaika,
which is very graceful, but has much of the
character of the tarantella and the bolero.

Dined at Sir E. L——'s; no ladies except

Mrs. G—— and Mrs. N——, both
Armenians, and the latter the heroine of a
very romantic adventure. She had been
run away with by her husband, who, having
chanced to fall into Lord Byron's society,
had made up his mind, it seems, to distinguish
himself in the East by some bold
enterprise in love or war.

He therefore commenced operations by
making love from his own window to the
inhabitant of the opposite one, and made
such good use of his time that a communication
was shortly opened between them,
and the lady agreed to attempt her escape,
which she at length effected in the disguise
of a midshipman.

Having surmounted difficulties of every
description, and managed to compromise
half the authorities of Constantinople in their
flight, they were at length overtaken by the
lady's brother, from whom they had the
satisfaction of learning that their interesting

adventure had been wholly uncalled for, as
his family would not have offered the
slightest opposition to a match which the
relative fortunes and position in society of
the parties rendered so perfectly suitable.

We found Mrs. N——a very piquante,
agreeable little woman, but not looking in
the least like a lady of romance.

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CHAPTER VI.

Account of an interesting Syrian tour—The miracle
at Mount Horeb—New view of the Pnyx and the
Peiraeus—Projected excursion in the Morea—
The villa and garden of Comte B.—Ruined chapel
at the foot of Mount Hymettus—Dr. Bendiner—
An Attic villa—A Greek artist.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 14TH.

—Our friends
being emancipated from quarantine, we sat
at home the whole morning, greatly interested
in the description which Lord R——y
gave us of his Syrian tour.

He differed much from Sir Andrew B——d
in his account of its perils and difficulties,
which may arise from the different seasons at
which they travelled, as well as from the
changes in political affairs, which of late

have proved the chief drawback to the
security of the roads.

The sight which appears to have made the
deepest impression on Lord R——y was the
rock of Mount Horeb, cleft by the rod of
Moses, the chasm in which, he said, was of
such a peculiar character that it was not to
be accounted for by any effort of human art,
or by the shock of an earthquake, or in fact,
by anything less than supernatural agency.*

We acted as ciceroni to the travellers in
the afternoon, and took them to the Acropolis,
where by dint of scrambling over loose
stones and rubbish, we obtained a new view

* The stone to which tradition has attached the
sanctity of being the self-same rock that poured forth
water at the touch of Moses's rod, possesses a peculiarity
which would in any place attract attention,
and if beyond the reach of fraud, would require some
miraculous interpretation. It is a block of pink
granite, standing apart, of irregular form, of about
ten feet high, and is intersected diagonally by a vein
of lighter coloured stone, which presents the appearance
of a band about a foot broad, and is equally
visible on each side. This band is indented by several
orifices of the depth of a few inches, of which the
under margins are smooth, and have all the appearance
of having been submitted to the action of running
water. These indentations exist on both sides of the
block, but are strictly confined to the vein of lighter
material that intersects the granite.—Extract from
Lord Claude Hamilton's Journal, and inserted with
his kind permission.

of the Pnyx and the Peiraeus, which quite
rewarded our exertions.

We all dined together in the most sociable
manner, and spent the evening as we had
the morning, in tales of travel, till Lord
A——y, George and M. de L——decided
that it was time to profit by the evening
breeze, and to sail for Epidaurus, which was
the point from which they were to commence
their projected excursion in the Morea.

I had settled with Mrs. G. to accompany
her, in King Otho's cutter, to Nauplia,
whence we were to get across to Argos,
when we were to join the other party; but,
on second thoughts, I was deterred by the

uncertainty attending the period of our
return, for which we must necessarily be
dependent on the wind.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15TH.

—Minney and
I ventured to ride some little Thessalian
horses, belonging to Sir E. L——, to the
villa of Comte B——, a Milanese refugee.

The garden is very well laid out, and a
creation of only three years, which shews
the rapid progress of vegetation here when
the slightest culture is applied. The walks
through treillages of vines were quite lovely,
and the luxuriance of the fruit was such as
quite to weigh down their branches.

Pomegranates were also very plentiful, as
well as other extremely graceful plants.
After the barrenness and dust of Athens
and its immediate neighbourhood, this garden
seemed quite an oasis.

The evening I spent alone in reading
M. de Marcellus' agreeably written account
of Jerusalem.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16TH.

—We again
rode out with Sir E. L——to a ruined chapel
at the foot of Mount Hymettus, from which
we had a fresh, but always beautiful view of
Athens.

Mons. Chacaton spent the whole morning
in drawing, in spite of the wind, dust, and
glare; and brought home a sketch of that
beautiful view of the Parthenon from Philopapas
which we all had so much admired.

Dr. Bendiner, our physician, had spent
his morning somewhat differently. Interested,
as he was, in the magnificent ruins of
Athens, his whole heart was evidently in his
own profession.

He came up to me on my return, with his
eyes sparkling with such delight that I
thought he had at least discovered the little
finger of the golden Minerva. His salutation
however, “Je viens de decouvrir un vrai
lépreux,” soon undeceived me.

It seems that the king's physician

had taken him to see an unhappy man
afflicted with this disorder, who was dwelling
by himself in a sort of cave near Academus,
and who had been lately robbed of all
his little store by some brigands, who had
cruelly taken advantage of his helplessness
and isolated situation.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17TH.

—We rode
to Academus with Lord R——y and Sir
A. B——1, and on our return passed
by a house worthy of notice, as having
been the occasion of drawing forth a most
glowing and spirited description from the
eloquent pen of Mr. George R——.

To use his own words as nearly as possible,
“It is a lovely Attic villa, admirably
suited for the occupation of any nobleman or
gentleman possessed of a large fortune and
classical reminiscences, situated within the
precincts of the ancient Academus,” &c. &c.

It was impossible to let slip an opportunity
of viewing such a villa, so we boldly

encountered the perils of a nettle garden
attached to it, and also “within the precincts
of the Academus.”

Having passed this, we came to the
building itself, which we found to consist
of a tower containing three stories, and as
many rooms, each eight feet square, and
communicating with the others by means
of a trap-door and a ladder; the space for a
staircase having been, rather unaccountably,
omitted in the original design; though some
supposed it might have been contrived by
the proprietor himself, to put him in mind
of his former profession, as he had been
purser to Captain Robert Spencer. The
only pieces of furniture which we could
discover in the sitting room were two pictures
of his late master. The house was
at present uninhabited, its last occupier
having been driven out by mal aria.

Sir E. L——shewed us in the evening
some extraordinary productions of the pencil

of a Greek, Col. M——, who has also illustrated
the late war and revolution in Greece
in the most primitive style, the soldiers being
occasionally drawn as large as the buildings;
and, in the battle of————General
Church's horse being made about the size
of a man-of-war.

Still they are interesting, as being probably
the only original illustrations of the
Greek war; and some of them really offer
a resemblance to the early paintings of
Cimabue. Indifferent as they are, the like
of Marathon might be invaluable.

Col. M——is quite an enthusiast, and his
first sheet is a dedication to their majesties
Louis Philippe, Queen Victoria, and the Emperor
Nicholas. Their portraits are also
attempted; and it is evident that, “quoique
brave comme son epée,” he is no courtier,
for it is impossible to imagine anything
more un-flattering than the one intended for
our queen, who is made to look very much

as if she had flourished in the last century.
On the opposite side of the same sheet
stand King Otho and Queen Amilie, little
less hideous.

Sir E. L——has promised, at the gallant
Greek's request, to forward this modern
specimen of the fine arts to Lord Palmerston,
for her majesty's acceptance.

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CHAPTER VII.

The Convent of Daphne—Visit to Princess S—
—An excursion—The tomb of Agamemnon—Start
for Corinth—Verd Antique—Bracebridge Hall—
The Protestant Cemetery—The Maid of Athens—
Our last Athenian ride—Schools of the American
missionaries.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18TH.

—We rode again
to Comte B——'s garden, to introduce Lord
R——and Sir Andrew B——. The Comte
told us that his patience was severely tried
by his Athenian gardeners; for that in spite
of three years' training, if his vigilance did
but relax one moment, they invariably relapsed
into their primitive modes of culture.

We dined again with the party of the

day before; and the only occurrence of today
worth noting was, that the gentlemen
were presented at court, a ceremony which,
including departure and return, lasted almost
a quarter of an hour.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19TH.

—We took
our longest and prettiest ride to the ruins
of the Convent of Daphne. The sea shews
itself at the foot of the mountain which
separates the Peloponnesus from Attica. The
convent has now become a station house;
and on looking down on the sea from hence,
the latter appears completely imbedded in
mountains; and one might have supposed
it a calm and placid lake in Switzerland,
instead of a branch of the occasionally
stormy AEgean.

Minney's horse became a little frisky on
our return; and on her referring to Sir
Edmund's Bavarian groom as to the cause
of his wonted equanimity of temper being
disturbed, his explanation was, “Er hat

ein stein im munde.” Minney translated
this into his having a stone in his mouth,
which puzzled us all extremely, particularly
when on asking him to be so good
as to take it out, he answered that it
was “ganz unmöglich,”—quite impossible.
We therefore satisfied ourselves that poor
Minney's German was in fault; but on
asking our doctor, she had the triumph
of announcing to us that it was a familiar
German expression, answering to “le mors
au dent.”

Sir E—— and his son drank tea with
us, and the evening passed off so agreeably,
that we found ourselves far advanced into
to-morrow morning before we separated.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20TH.

—Mr. L——,
the clergyman, performed the service at
the ambassador's; after which we came
home to pass the hottest hours of the day,
and I then proceeded to pay my first real
Greek visit to Princess S——'s, where I
found the pretty Marie, promised to the

Lord Palmerston of Greece, who is a sallow-looking
gentleman, nearly thirty years older
than his fianceé. The eldest daughter,
Helène, who is married to a cousin, is extremely
handsome, and her beauty much
more Grecian than that of Marie.

The arrangement and furniture of the
house bespoke an acquaintance with English
and French comforts; and a beautiful portrait
of the Prince C——, the father of the
lady of the house, enabled us to recognise
him in our drive. He was the very type
of oriental and patriarchal beauty, and
costumé, as his picture represented him, in
a dress more resembling the Turkish than
the actual Greek. At the promenade to
day we met general Hesse and Count Victor
Zichy, who were just out of quarantine,
after having performed their mission of
compliment to the young sultan on his
accession.

We went on the road towards Corinth
in hopes to meet my lord and my master,

but only met their baggage, they themselves
having taken to boating, and having had, in
consequence, the usual allowance of calms
and contrary winds, which kept them at
sea fourteen hours.

We found them arrived, however, on our
return, and perfectly delighted with all they
had seen and done. The excitement of
recounting their various adventures kept
them from feeling their fatigues; and the
recital was some compensation to us for
having been debarred the pleasure of visiting
with them places of such interest. They
had, it seems, led a complete life of bivouac
during their six days' absence; but as their
servant, Jean, was a tolerable cook, they
had, at least, fared well in general.

Having landed at Epidaurus, the first
place they visited was the remains of
Hiero, an ancient town that may have been
a fashionable watering-place, built for the
convenience of those who frequented the
baths of Esculapius in the neighbourhood.

Its amphitheatre is still to be seen, built
against the slope of a hill, and was said to
have contained 30,000 spectators. From
thence they rode to Napoli di Romania,
the acropolis or Palamidhi of which they
compared to Edinburgh Castle, and spoke
with the greatest delight of the views from
thence, over the rich plains of Argos and
the beautiful gulf of Napoli.

The next day they started for Argos,
halting on the road thither to inspect the
ruins of an old Cyclopian fortress, at Tiryns,
which was more perfect than those they had
seen in the Greek colonies in Italy.

Argos they found a straggling town, of
three or four thousand inhabitants, containing
a few good houses. The ruins of
the old town lay on a hill above, on the
rugged sides of which are still to be traced
the remains of its theatre, where, after heavy
rains, coins are frequently brought to light.
The fort or the acropolis, which is perched,
as usual, on a rock overlooking the whole

neighbourhood, was built by the Venetians,
as was that of Napoli. Some Roman baths,
of considerable size, also attracted their
attention.

George was here received by an old
military friend who had become a resident
proprietor in Argos, and who was possessed
of the best house in the place.

Fortunately, however, their guns had abundantly
provided them with the wherewithal
for soup and supper, which fortified them
in some measure for the horrors of the night,
sleeping, as they did, on the ground, in a
little cabin, and overrun by rats and vermin
of every description. In the morning they
proceeded to Mycenae, the head-quarters of
Cyclopian architecture.

The fortress here was very large, and
vast masses of its débris were to be seen
scattered about, as well as the ruins of
the town itself; but the building which

called forth the most curiosity and discussion,
was one dug out and excavated by Lord
Elgin.* It is called by some the tomb of Agamemnon,
by others the treasury of Atreus.

There were two other buildings of
similar construction, but not so perfect;
this one is very much the shape of an egg,
with a flat bottom, is of fine workmanship,
and will probably last for ever. It was
formerly lined with brass; and some bronze
nails have been even of late years taken
from its walls. A cavern adjoining was

* Since this work has gone to press, I have learnt
that when Lord Elgin visited this interesting monument
of antiquity, there were still remaining many
beautiful bas reliefs, and other pieces of sculpture.

The most remarkable of these were carried away by
Lord Elgin, and deposited by him with his other
marbles in the British Museum. They were, however,
cast aside, and lay for many years, as it was supposed,
lost. A distinguished antiquary endeavoured to recover them; and, after repeated inquiries, discovered
that they had been thrown away as rubbish, and
broken up for the use of Mr. M'Adam!

lighted up by their guides with good
effect.

On leaving Mycenae, their way led them
up a valley, through which ran a clear
stream, with its banks lined with the finest
oleanders and arbutus in flower; but their
people had not had the good sense to prepare
their luncheon in this inviting spot, to
their great annoyance. They made a détour
to Nemea, which is situated on a plain surrounded
by mountains, one of which resembled
in form that which overlooks Cape Town.

At Corteria, a small village where they
again joined the high road, a sort of corn
and cattle fair was being held, which had
brought together a concourse of about fifty
people, and the scene, they said, appeared
quite bustling, compared with the solitude
and desolation of the places they had lately
visited.

At starting for Corinth their gendarme
examined his pistols, and seemed to apprehend

an attack from brigands; and on
arriving at a narrow pass with high shelving
rocks overhanging the road, he called out
to some one above, when immediately two
peasants appeared on the look-out, and made
a sort of signal. They of course expected
an instant attack, but nothing further occurred
to alarm them, and they were much
amused at the end of their ride to find out
that the supposed robbers were only gardes
nationaux.

They at length reached a hill, commanding
a view of the Acropolis of Corinth and
the gulf of Lepanto, just as the sun was
setting behind the Spartan mountains.
This effect they described as magical, and
the more so, perhaps, because momentary.
Beneath them lay the plain of Corinth,
glittering in the golden rays of light; to the
right, Corinth itself, with its acropolis
rendered more than usually striking by a
rainbow; on the left the gulf of Lepanto,
with the bold lofty mountains behind it, and

its waters of the deepest blue. But in a
few minutes the sun had sunk beneath the
horizon, and with it vanished all the
splendour of the scene, which the travellers
described as the most remarkable for
splendour of colouring they had ever witnessed.
Corinth they found a sorry place;
not a vestige remaining to remind them
either of its ancient glories, or of the
apostle's preaching there, with the exception
of what remains of one temple, and the trace
of the canal once attempted to be cut through
the isthmus.

At Kalamaki they imprudently took boat
for Megara at one o'clock in the day, and
had the satisfaction of being landed near the
same spot at three the next morning. They
were, however, repaid by witnessing a most
magnificent meteor, which for a short space
lighted up the whole horizon, they said, as
if by an immense rocket. Megara is an inconsiderable
place, chiefly remarkable for
the beauty of its female population. Its in-

habitants are very fond of the ancient Greek
names, and in the house in which George
lodged was a Pericles and a Solon. They
returned by way of Salamis, and partook of
the hospitality of a convent on the island.
Crossing from thence to the plain of Athens,
they passed over the scene of the celebrated
battle of Salamis, and rejoined us towards
nightfall, to our great delight.

Jean produced almost a block of what was
supposed to be Verd Antique, which he had
picked up near Napoli di Romania; but,
alas! on sending it the next day to the
statuary's, it turned out to be of the most
ordinary grain, and the quality iron. Still
Minney and I are almost as much over-whelmed
by his good intention, as Jean
must have been with the weight.

MONDAY, 21ST OCTOBER.

—Set off on a
ride to Mr. B——'s villa, which commonly
goes here by the name of Bracebridge Hall;
but I was attracted by the fine light gleaming
on the columns of the Temple of Jupiter

Olympus, which I admire excessively, in
spite of Mr. Grossius, and all the other savans
of Athens, who universally depreciate the
graceful Corinthian architecture, as belonging
to an age whose taste had been perverted,
and will only allow us to express our admiration
of the pure Doric.

We rode to the Stadium through the bed
of the Ilyssus, which is not above ten or
twelve feet wide, very stony and slippery,
and quite dry during the summer and
autumn months. The outline of the Stadium
is clearly to be traced, as well as the
raised gradins, and the platform from which
the prizes were delivered to the successful
competitors. An excavation in the rock was
shewn us, which is supposed to have served
as a den for wild beasts in the days of the
Romans, for the combats of animals were
never tolerated by the more civilized Greeks.

We found ourselves close to the Protestant
Cemetery, which is as yet thinly populated;
the Guardiana, a very handsome Greek, is

married to an Englishman, and surrounded
by a large family, who answered to the names
of Themistocles, Aristides, Demetrius, Helen,
and Lycurgus.

Some families have lately imported a dancing-master
into Athens, an event of no
small interest here; and we were much
amused by an account of a rënion at Mrs.
Black's, (the original Maid of Athens,) for
the purpose of instructing some of the
younger branches in the art; where Mrs.
S——, a Scotch lady, observed that little
Epaminondas——improved rapidly in his
quadrilles, but dear little Plato Black put
all the rest out in his dos-à-dos. Our last
dinner at Sir E. L——'s was most agreeable,
as had been all the others.

TUESDAY, 22ND OCTOBER.

—We took our
last Athenian ride, and revisited, with the
exception of the Acropolis, all the most interesting
remains, including the supposed
prison of Socrates; the authenticity of which
being questioned, Mr. L—— offered the

convincing remark, “If this be not the
true prison, where else is it?”

In the evening we gave a farewell dinner
to our Athenian friends, which was wound
up by our sallying forth at midnight to see
the Parthenon by a beautiful moonlight,
which had the usual effect of adding new
charms to the ruins, as well as of increasing
their size.

We were much struck while on this expedition
by the sudden appearance of a bright
pink light on a pale grey cloud; I might best
describe it perhaps as a lengthened blush,
and it was as new to the rest of our party as
to ourselves. The Custodes alone seemed
to be in the secret, and unanimously declared
it to portend some change of weather,
though unfortunately they could not quite
agree as to what, one holding it to foretel
great heat, another excessive cold, and the
third being as strongly persuaded that it
could portend nothing but rain.

We were told the next day that it was
probably the reflection of a meteor, which
had been observed about the same hour,
from the deck of a steamer, whilst doubling
Cape Matapan.*

WEDNESDAY, 23RD OCTOBER.

—We had
the happiness of receiving a most satisfactory
account of the children, but this pleasure
was damped by hearing that the wound
which poor Mr. J——m received at the
Tournament had assumed a most alarming
appearance, and that he was in imminent
danger.

Minney and I went to see the admirable
schools established by some American missionaries,
Mr. and Mrs. Hill, for Turkish
and Greek children of all ages and classes
of society. They began their work of education,
as they told us themselves, in a

* We afterwards ascertained that this was the distant
effect produced by a very remarkable appearance
of aurora borealis, accounts of which we found in all
the newspapers.

vaulted cellar, and under every species of
discouragement, about seven years ago; but
by perseverance their school now numbers
seven hundred boys and girls, who are lodged
in separate houses of the best description in
Athens, but so far united as to form one
establishment. Even the four hundred
children who belong to the poorer classes
are educated in a style of comfort very
superior to many of our English schools.

The class which was more immediately
superintended by Mrs. Hill herself was
composed of about fifty girls, young ladies I
may call them, from ten to fifteen, not one
without a considerable share of beauty, and
looking as happy as they were busy. Music
had made considerable progress in the community;
but Mrs. Hill told us that throughout
the whole of Greece, till within the last
two years, that science appeared to have been
quite forgotten, and that as yet no Greek
professor had been formed, though from
their natural and general quickness of character

this would not long be the case, as
already several young women had become
great proficients.

The greatest proportion of the first class
of girls were from Constantinople—a remarkable
fact. I never saw such a collection of
pretty, clean-looking, and merry children,
and I longed to run off with a laughing,
black-eyed, dimpled Demosthenes.

I missed seeing Miss Baldwin, who is
described as a most interesting person, and
who carries out Mrs. Hill's plan admirably.
I asked Mrs. H—— if the religious part of
the education was not attended with great
difficulties, to which she answered, that they
had met with none, and that she believed
that in no school in England was more
general religious instruction afforded; that
no reasoning on the Scriptures was allowed
on the part of the children, and no illiberality
or suspicion shewn towards them.

She thought that the same system might

be carried on in Ireland, were cavilling
wholly discouraged, and no attempts made by
either protestants or catholics at conversion,
or, what was perhaps more dangerous, the
licence allowed children by their instructors
of using opprobrious epithets, such as
heathens, idolaters, and heretics, to their
playmates.

We called on Sir E. L——, to take our
leave of him, and at the same time to make
acquaintance with Lady L—— and her
daughter, who had just arrived by “The
Mahmoudiè,” the same packet which is to
take us away.

After a hasty meal, sadly disturbed by the
fear of arriving too late, we drove down to
the Peiraeus, and found that our immense
exertions had given us a quarter of an hour
to spare, for stowing away our baggage comfortably.

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CHAPTER VIII.

“The Mahmoudiè”— Her passengers—Syra—The
British consul—Present state of Greece—Mis-government
— Conduct of King Otho towards
England — Count A. — Evils of Bavarian rule
—Re-embark on board the “Prince Metternich”
—Smyrna — The bazaar — Again at sea — The
French fleet—The young pacha.

“THE Mahmoudiè” proved a most excellent
steamer, and, in point of space, superior
to our dear “Prince Metternich;” the captain,
if possible, as obliging, and the Giovanni
much more so, — very few passengers on
board; but a poor Smyrniote lady, with three
very troublesome children, made up in
quality what was wanting in quantity.

Lady L——had indeed warned us to prepare
our minds for a squalling child; but she
had told us nothing of the severe sufferings
of poor Madame Delta, who, between fear
and sickness, never allowed us a moment's
repose; so that our good cabin and excellent
beds were completely thrown away
on our tired limbs; and even poor Minney
could not close her sleepless eyelids on the
writhings and groans of the unfortunate
Madame D——, whom I should have pitied
more had she not begun her voyage on a
cigar and raw apples!

THURSDAY, 24th OCTOBER.

—Arrived very
early off Syra, which is situated much in
the same manner as Algiers is described to
be, but more surrounded by mountains.
It is a most picturesque-looking town, built
on a steep hill, which is divided by a valley
from another which rises still higher above
it; the valley forming a religious separation
between two sects as well as a

physical one. It is a very flourishing place,
full of bustle and business.

We followed our captain's advice, and
remained on board during the thirty-six
hours which we were condemned to lie at
anchor off Syra. We went on shore however
for a short time, and were much disgusted
at the dirty and wretched appearance
of the interior of the town.

We called on Mr. W——, our consul,
who owns a very comfortable house; his wife
is a Smyrniote, and was dressed in the costume
of her country; the daughters looked
like French young ladies, one of them very
handsome, with a pretty little smiling
niece, who seemed to speak as many
languages as she was years old.

Mr. W——is a very intelligent person,
and a remarkable linguist; he shewed us some
pretty paintings in oil by a Mr. G——, a
young English artist, who was just returned
from Egypt. One, the interior of a harem,

and the portrait of almost the only handsome
woman he had seen during his stay in
Africa.

Mr. W——had lately found in Milo a
very graceful little figure in a tomb of very
remote date. It represented a female playing
on a musical instrument of a perfectly
original character. The material was of
terra cotta; but the ornaments, bracelets,
and necklace, retained their original gilding
as freshly as if they had just come out of
the artist's hands.

* * * * chose to be very much
amused at my inviting our half-hour's acquaintance
to drink tea with us on board
“The Mahmodiè,” that I might shew them the
impressions of the Daguerreotype, of which
they had heard, but had not seen any of the
results. As the sea was a little rough the
young ladies did not venture, but Mr. W——
and his friend, Mr. G——, arrived punctually;
and, from their conversation, we

learnt many interesting particulars of this
part of the world.

The population of Greece at the last
census was, by their account, somewhat
under 700,000; its revenue ten and a half
millions of drachmes. The king had been
inclined to extravagance; but lately, re- trenchments have been adopted, and thus
means have been found sufficient for the
actual expenses of the government. Various
were the attempts made by the ministers,
at one time, to appear ruined, at another,
flourishing; but all their attempts were
adroitly frustrated.

The country is becoming depopulated
and impoverished by bad government; an
island that formerly paid only six hundred
pounds taxes to the Turks, is now compelled
to pay six thousand a year to its
present rulers. We learnt that within the
last seven years sixty-five thousand Greeks

had left their country, and gone into the
Turkish dominions, where they are now
well treated.

The land taken from the Turks has not
been legally granted to any one, and the
consequence is, as might be expected, that
no one will lay out money on estates, for the
possession of which no security is given
him. Some Englishmen bought land in
Negropont, but in consequence of taxation,
it brings in only one and a half per cent,
instead of eight, which it should do in such
a country.

Their army is in a wretched state, and is
very ill-disciplined. Capo d'Istria had kept
terms with the old palicari (banditti), and
had retained them in the service, hoping to
succeed sooner or later in forming an army
out of this noyau, who had fought in the
war of the revolution.

The conduct of Otho has driven some of

them into revolt; the consequence of which
has been the massacre of great numbers,
and of the rest, ten thousand old soldiers
have been driven across the frontier into
the Turkish dominions.

Insults have been publicly offered to
our countrymen—British subjects have been
imprisoned, and two have been even suffered
to die in confinement. An English
groom was taken up for being found intoxicated
in a café, and various of our
Ionian subjects have been injured or impeded
in their affairs. All this seems to
have been done for the purpose of disgusting
a sagacious, intelligent, and active
minister.

There are still about seven millions of
Greeks in the Turkish dominions, and in the
two principalities. One able head directing
them from Greece might unite them all, and

might form, indeed, a sufficient counterpoise,
should the Turkish dominions in Europe
come to an end; but from such a king and
such a government nothing can be expected,
either of advantage to the people or of credit
to the rulers.

We were told that there have recently
been great attempts made by Russia to gain
over the priests to acknowledge the patriarch
at Constantinople as the head of their church,
thus effectually to possess itself of the mind
of the country, to impede all improvement,
and to assimilate it to Moldacia or Wallachia.
But the king's eyes are said to be at last
open to these dangers, and this seems to
have been the first glimpse of intelligence
that has broken upon him.

It was wished that the object of the treaty
by which their government was constituted

should be carried out, but patiently and
moderately. Liberal institutions were promised,
and not a despotism.

Count A——g commenced his career in
office by the institution of trial by jury, and
by granting to the people the election of their
own municipal officers in towns and communes.
He then wished that a council
should be formed, which might admit the
Greeks into a share of the government of
their own country, and enable them to suggest
what they might think or know to be
conducive to its interests. But this project
was nipped in the bud by the abrupt dismissal
of Count A——g without sufficient
reason, while he was on board a British man-of-war,
on his return to the country after a
few months' absence.

The trial by jury has since been abrogated,
and torture has been introduced in criminal
and political causes. Great cruelties have
been exercised in transporting parts of the

population from their own province to some
other one, even though there may have long
existed a bitter enmity between them and
the inhabitants of the place they are sent to;
and, finally, a private ordinance has been
promulgated, forbidding the departure of
any Greek from his native land, without
leaving, as pledges, his wife, his children,
and his property. To such a state is Greece
at present reduced. The produce of the
loan is said to have been chiefly distributed
amongst the handful of needy Bavarians who
rule this unhappy land, and which finally
finds its way, with little deduction, to the
bank at Munich.

Modern Athens has been rapidly built
up, as has been the Pyraeus, where the
capital ought to have been placed. Syra,
however, looks like a rich and thriving community,
as does Patras, which possesses an
extensive commerce, and where land, our

gentlemen were told, is valuable, the
common price being eight years' purchase,
and varying from that to as high as
twenty-five years' purchase, if in a good
situation, and one that admits of being
irrigated.

FRIDAY, 25TH OCTOBER.

—We left “The
Mahmoudiè,” and got on board our old friend
the “Prince Metternich,” where we felt quite
at home, and found the little Deltas rather
less noisy. We passed between Myconi and
Tino, both islands seemingly very fertile, and
on each were numerous white villages scattered
about. We left Delos on our right,
where no remains now exist of its once celebrated
temple of Apollo.

SATURDAY, 26TH OCTOBER.

—At six in
the morning, we passed the English fleet
at Vourhla Bay, where it had just arrived,
on being withdrawn from Tenedos on the
approach of winter. At about eight, we
arrived off Smyrna, which we found as riant

and gay as can be conceived; the sight of
the verdure of its tall cypresses, and of a
few palm trees, &c. was very refreshing,
after the disagreeable aridity of Athens and
Syra.

We landed at a kind of market-place,
where about fifty huge camels were quietly
resting themselves, while their owners were
bargaining. Soon after landing, we went to
Mr. B——, our consul, who good-naturedly
offered us his pink-turbaned and yellow-shod
Dragoman to conduct us to the
bazaar, while Lord A——y rode up to the
castle, which commands the town completely.
Mr. B——also gave us an armed
janizary to protect us, should any insult be
offered.

Thus escorted we set out, and passed
through narrow, dirty, and ill-paved streets
to the bazaar, at every step meeting with
something new and interesting, and pleased
even with the odour of the tobacco, with

which the air was thoroughly impregnated,
as being a preservative from worse inflictions.

The bazaar itself amused and interested
us exceedingly. Everything so Oriental
and un-European;—here, a knot of Turks
sitting in front of their shops on a raised
platform, all smoking, yet at the same time
puffing off their goods to veiled women;
there, one writing a bill from right to left,
resting it on his knee; here, a string of
camels; there, a man loaded beyond measure;
every variety of costume and character, black
slaves, and Moolhahs, and Arab-looking
men, on horseback; and such a dense mass
of foot-passengers that it seemed quite
perilous to encounter them, particularly as
it is their custom not to get out of the way
for any one. To crown all, there is such
a Babel of confused cries and noises continually
sounding in the ears from camel-drivers
and venders of orgeat, and a thousand

other things, that it is difficult to hear
oneself speak, much less make oneself
heard by others.

We went into a mosque which contained
nothing remarkable, and then wound our
way to a silk merchant's; and while Minney
and I were bargaining, George sent for a
chiboque and some coffee from a neighbouring
café, and sat in great state to gaze
on the striking scene around him. Such
were the novelty and excitement of it that I
did not feel fatigued, though I had been
walking for three hours.

While we were resting ourselves at a most
comfortable hotel, the Pension Suisse, Mr. Van
L——p, the Dutch Consul General, came and
calledonus, and we returned with him to visit
his sister. His house was perfectly Oriental,
with the open verandah round the court.
Soon after our entrance, we were served with
coffee and sweetmeats à la Grecque, which

were admirable; I thought I had never
tasted coffee in such perfection.

Our shopping, or rather the payments
for our purchases, joined with this visit,
made us so late that we nearly lost our
passage, as we only returned in time to see
the “Metternich” smoke and paddle off
without us, and to hear Lord A——y calling
out to us to follow in the “Stamboul” the
next day. Our agony of mind was intense;
but after hard rowing, the “Metternich”
condescended to slacken her pace, and we
reached her breathless with agitation, having
abandoned our breakfast, provisions of
fresh milk and fruit, to the boatmen. The
weather continued enchanting, and we remained
late on deck, passing Mytilene
about ten at night.

SUNDAY, 27TH OCTOBER.

—After a most
comfortable night, Minney and I being the
only ladies on board, we were roused at six

in the morning by a message from the captain
to tell us that the French fleet was in
sight.

On coming on deck, we found ourselves
opposite the plains of Troy, with nine
French ships of the line, and an English
frigate, the “Tyne,” lying in Besika Bay,
where we also stopped, to take in wine and
fresh fish.*

The sea now began to be thickly studded
with ships, and we soon reached the Dardanelles,
the entrance to which was not so
striking as I had expected. A good many
Turks had come on board at Smyrna; some
who were charged with sixty large baskets
of melons, (a present from the Pacha of
Magnesia to the Sultan,) did not take the

* We heard it said at Smyrna, that the young officers
of the French squadron, when there, strut about the
cafés, declaring that they only require two hours and
a quarter to take Sir Robert Stopford and all his fleet
into Toulon!

slightest notice of anything which was going
on, but continued smoking their pipes in
the most imperturbable manner. We
stopped off the town of the Dardanelles,
where the son of Youssuf Pacha came on
board, attended by a numerous suite.
Youssuf's government had just been transferred
to Constantinople, and he was sending
off this portion of his establishment
with quantities of hard and un-Turkish looking
furniture, in the shape of chairs and
sofas.

The young Pacha was an uncouth lad, of
about fourteen, dressed in the modern costume,
which contrasted most unfavourably
with the dress of the Moolhah who accompanied
him, and whom we observed
performing his devotions and ablutions
three times in the course of the day. The
boy prayed with him, kneeling on the same
carpet; and both, every now and then,
touching the ground with their heads, being

turned towards Mecca. They seemed quite
in earnest, and did not regard our presence
in the least.

A boat had put off to see the boy safe
on board; at one end were half a dozen
women, closely veiled, with, probably, his
mother amongst them; in the centre was a
venerable old man, the Pacha himself; and
then came the rowers. We looked at the
famous Sestos and Abydos in passing with
great interest.

In the course of the day, we shewed the
little Pacha our pictures, and some of M.
Chacaton's drawings, which he was curious
to see; but he betrayed very little observation
or intellect, though he pored over
them for half an hour. At length, he
said he thought Minney's portrait very like
her. As his attendants would not allow
themselves to pay the additional price of a
bed for the little nobleman, who looked
very cold, he rolled himself up in his rug

and lay down on the deck. They brought
their own provisions with them, which we
suspected must have fallen somewhat short,
as we observed one of the attendants pick
up from the deck, which was, by-the-bye,
pretty well begrimed with soot from the
chimney, little pieces of biscuit which we
had chanced to let fall. We presently
reached Gallipoli, and were before sunset in
the sea of Marmora.

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CHAPTER IX.

Approach to Constantinople—Impressions on landing
—Turkish carriage—Lodgings—The Burnt Column
—Dancing dervishes—Excursion on the
Bosphorus—Mosque of Aioub—Turkish tombs
—Mosque of Solyman—Mosque of Sultan Achmet
—The Brazen Column—Tree of Justice.

28TH OCTOBER.

—We were roused at five
in the morning with the pleasant intelligence
that we were fast approaching Constantinople;
and we hastened on deck,
though shivering with cold, that we might
catch the first beauties of the far-famed
Golden Horn.

At the dawn of day, or what should have

been so, a thick fog presented itself to our
eager gaze, through which neither the
minarets nor the domes of the several
mosques could be discerned, with the exception
of that of St. Sophia, which produced
on us the same impression which I
should conceive would be made on a
foreigner landing at the Custom-house, and
thence viewing St. Paul's for the first time
through a November fog. The dampness
and chilliness of the atmosphere had produced
in us feelings so corresponding to it,
that we could not help asking one another,
“Can this be the city we have taken such
pains, and come so far to visit?”

Lord A——y and George landed at eight,
and spent nearly two hours before they
could obtain lodgings for us in the quarter
allotted to Franks. On leaving the ship,
we had much difficulty in reaching the
shore, owing to the innumerable boats which
were passing to and fro in every direction

on the Golden Horn; the number of
those in use is said to amount to many thousands.

A portentina, which is a kind of sedan,
conveyed me through dirty streets, and a
very extensive cemetery, to Pera, where our
lodgings were situated, and which we found
very inferior even to those about which we
had so grumbled at Athens. Hotels, we
understood, were not to be met with at
Pera, but merely boarding-houses, at which
tables d'hôte are kept, which, moreover, we
found to be by no means so well served as
they ought to be.

The best of these establishments is Mademoiselle
Roboli's, at which we unfortunately
failed in procuring apartments. As, however,
the reporters of two London Journals
had taken up their quarters there, we
comforted ourselves with the reflection
that we should at least be free from the
apprehension of seeing our observations

on people and things appear against us in
print, as otherwise might possibly have
happened.

As soon as our bouillon was despatched,
Minney and myself proceeded to the bazaar
in a Turkish carriage, without either springs
or seats, in which, as the usual precaution
of spreading mattresses and comfortable
cushions had been neglected, our inexperienced
bones were exposed without protection
to all the horrors of a continual jolting up
and down the most ill-paved streets imaginable.
Our araba, as this sort of carriage
is called, was drawn by a pair of horses, and
painted in a picturesque though somewhat
gaudy style.

We were probably less struck by the
sight which presented itself to us at the
bazaar, from having been prepared by that
of Smyrna for all its solemn bustle, and
striking varieties of costume.

It being near the fast of the Rhamazan,

(the MahommedanLent,) the eagerness of the
Turks to obtain ready money was such that
they were willing to let us have things at a
third of the price which they would at first
ask. The reason of this eagerness to sell
is, that they are in the habit of indemnifying
themselves during this period of fasting
for their strict abstinence from food between
sunrise and sunset (for the more
devout abstain even from smoking) by the
most unbounded indulgence in every kind
of festivity during the night.

In passing through the streets, we observed
many of the finest mosques and residences
of the grandees, and amongst other things
took particular notice of the Porphyry or
Burnt Column, so called from its having been
nearly consumed by the fire of 1779. It
is now supported almost entirely by iron
cramps. It bears a Greek inscription, was
originally of immense size, and still remains
a striking record of Roman magnificence in

the days of Constantine, of whose palace it
is supposed by some to have formed a part;
the palace itself extending from this spot to
the mosque of St. Sophia.

At seven o'clock, we found a small party
assembled at the table d'hóte, and among
them a very intelligent Scotch couple,
Captain and Mrs. C——, who had made the
voyage from Vienna, and who spoke very
favourably of the accommodation on board
the Danube steamers, when compared with
the accounts we had received of them
on inquiring at Vienna respecting the
different modes by which we might prosecute
our travels. I believe the extreme
civility and attention of all the Austrian
employés in the steam-boat department
make up a good deal for any inconveniences
one may have to put up with.

OCTOBER 29TH.

—On the return of the
gentlemen of our party from the Turkish
bath, which they described as most luxurious,

we went to see the very curious performance
of the Dancing Dervishes. They
continued spinning round, for at least half
an hour in the same attitude, with both arms
extended, and at length stopped simultaneously
on a signal from a priest, who had taken
no share in the tee-totuming. He
then assisted each devotee in putting on a
large cloak, after which they all fell on
their faces, and kissed the ground, in which
position they remained some time, while
the chief Dervish appeared to be repeating
an exhortation. All this was accompanied
by a monotonous but not unpleasing
sound of music proceeding from a pipe and
tabor.

We then rode on towards the customhouse,
where we embarked in one of the
light, but somewhat dangerous, caiques,
and in about an hour and a half we reached
the Sweet Waters of Europe, which flow in a
pretty valley, shaded with cypresses, and in

which is situated one of the Sultan's summer
kiosks, the approach to which is carried
over two wooden bridges.

The earlier part of our voyage almost
reminded me of an expedition to Greenwich,
owing to the crowd of boats and
shipping in this part of the Bosphorus, and
to the continued density of the atmosphere,
which corresponded but too well with that
of our own dear country.

Such being the state of the weather, it
was not surprising that on our first arrival
we were disappointed with the general effect
of the city. In vain did we look for the anticipated
succession of minarets, and palaces,
and gilded domes sparkling in the sun, of
which last I had formed very magnificent expectations,
drawn from my remembrances of
the Church des Invalides, which was the
only specimen of them I had yet seen
during my travels.

We landed at the Validia, so called from

the celebrated mother of Mahomet IV., who
is buried here, and who, from her vigorous
government during her son's long minority,
and her after-influence on his counsels, has
always been considered an eastern Catherine
de Medicis. Adjoining is the mosque of
Aioub, (Job,) where is performed the ceremony
(a very interesting one, as well as
most imposing and magnificent,) of investing
the Sultan with the sword of state on his
accession to the throne. The investiture
takes place in presence of the Ullemas and
Muftis, and is the formal declaration that
he is intrusted with supreme power as the
successor of Mahomet.

Several other Sultanas and Sultans are
here buried. Their tombs are gaily and
beautifully painted; and many of them are
surmounted by what in France would be called
Jardinières, supported by columns, and inclosed
with gilt wires, so as to add the
beauties of an aviary to the charms of the

flowers and shrubs with which they are
filled.

The reason of all this care being bestowed
on objects which usually inspire us with far
other sentiments, is the wish of gratifying
the spirits of their departed friends (which
they suppose to be still hovering round the
spot) with the pleasures they so dearly
loved while on earth. Nor is this idea of
the Mahommedans, vain as we know it to be,
by any means destitute of grace and beauty;
and with all our superior knowledge it
would not be amiss were we to take a
lesson even from them, in the tender and
enduring regard they shew to the memory
of their dead.

We finally landed at Tophana, after a
most beautiful, though cold, expedition,
having gone nearly the entire length of the
Golden Horn, and passed the ruins of the
Palace of Belisarius, said to have been built
and inhabited by Constantine the Great,

and which on our slight appercu of its
character and colouring reminded us much,
and not unnaturally, of those we had seen
at Rome.

OCTOBER 30TH.

—We went first to the
mosque of Sulyman the Magnificent, which
is the finest in Constantinople, though not
so interesting as that of St. Sophia. It is
comparatively modern, as it cannot have
been built above 300 years. The architecture
is somewhat of a Moorish character,
and the edifice covers a large space of
ground; but the exterior presents no very
striking beauty of sculpture or ornament.

The preparations for the illumination attendant
on the Rhamazan, consisted merely
of a shabby collection of little glass lamps,
like those used at Vauxhall, hung at great
intervals on wires across the mosque, which
produced a most meagre effect. The floor
was entirely covered with rich carpeting,
but in a sad dusty state.

The adjoining burial place of the two
Sulymans, and three of their favourite Circassian
slaves, was very singular, and I am
almost tempted to say comfortable, as the
circular apartment in which the tombs have
been erected is perfectly well aired, lighted,
and carpeted, having well-stuffed divans
surrounding the walls. On each Sultan's
tomb were placed his turban, heron's
feather, and the cashmere which he had
worn round his waist, together with a fine
copy of the Koran. In the chapel were two
wax tapers of about twenty feet in height,
which were lighted during a short time each
day, and were said to last a whole year.

The roof was pointed out to us as studded
with diamonds, but it would have required
an imagination far more brilliant than were
the stones to have enabled one to give credit
to the assertion.

We proceeded to the magnificent mosque
of Sultan Achmet, at which the Sultan

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generally attends prayers on state occasions,
but they would not suffer us to penetrate
further than the porch; for high in the air
above us was at that instant unfortunately
heard the sonorous cry of the muezlim,
summoning the faithful to prayers.

We had thus, however, an opportunity
afforded us of admiring at our leisure the
magnificent court which forms the principal
entrance of the mosque, and round which
are built lofty arcades of great beauty, supported
by fine antique columns of porphyry
and granite. Under these arcades are handsome
and well-supplied fountains, which
serve for the ablutions so strictly enjoined
by the Koran, previous to entering the
mosque, or, indeed, to the performance of
any act of devotion.

This external edifice adds an elegance to
the principal structure, which materially
increases the beauty of the whole. I do
not remember to have seen this construction

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applied to our churches in Europe, except
in the case of the old convent of St. Augustine,
at Milan.

As we were leaving the spot, we met a
little man actually sinking under the burthen
of a far heavier person than himself, whom
he was carrying on his shoulders. This
evolution was explained to us to be an act
of police, the larger of the two having committed
some breach of the peace: all agreed
that we had never before witnessed so literal
a take up.

The Atmeidan or Hippodrome, as the
Place in which this mosque is situated is
called, is very handsome, and of considerable
extent. It contains the granite obelisk
of Theodosius, the broken pyramid of Constantine,
the date of the erection of which
we could not correctly ascertain; and close
to them is the low but celebrated brazen
column, formed by twisted snakes, and
thought to have anciently composed part of

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the tripod at Delphi, whence it was removed
to Rome, and subsequently brought
to this spot by Constantine.* The popular
tradition about the disappearance of the
serpents' heads which originally formed the
summit of the column, is, that Mahomet II.
at his triumphant entry into Constantinople,
in order to shew the strength of his
arm, felled them with one stroke of his

* Sir John C. Hobhouse says, “Only one of the master-pieces
which adorned this sacred spot (Delphi)
can be said now to remain; but this is by far the
most ancient and the best authenticated Grecian relic
at present in existence.

“The triple twisted serpentine column of brass,
where three heads supported the tripod, dedicated by
the Greeks after the battle of Plataea to Apollo, is
still to be seen, though mutilated, in the spot to which
it was conveyed from Delphi by Constantine, to adorn
the hippodrome of his new capital. The column, as
much of it as is seen above ground, is now about seven
feet in height, and of a proportionate thickness. It is
hollow, and the cavity has been by the Turks filled up
with stones.”

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weapon; which sacrilege was immediately
followed by the scourge of the plague, from
which their dominions have never since
been free. Thus strangely do the superstitious
Turks attribute to a relic of Grecian
idolatry, the idea of sacredness which justly
belongs to whatsoever is dedicated to the
service of the Almighty.

Not far distant is the large Plantain,
which they call the Tree of Justice, from
disputes having been formerly heard and
adjusted under its spreading branches. So
exposed is this situation to the rays of the
sun, that one could form a good idea how
grateful must be the shade afforded by such
a tree, at any but the present season of
the year.

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CHAPTER X.

Visit to Scutari — Barracks — Kiosk — Procession of
the Sultan to prayers — His appearance — Greek
watermen — Palace of the British Embassy —
Prince G——e of C——e and Prince de J——
Visit to the mosque of St. Sophia—Slave Market
—An Abyssinian beauty—Our Consul General.

OCTOBER, 31ST.

—We rode to Galata,
where we embarked for Scutari, but arrived
too late to see the Howling Dervishes. We
proceeded to visit the Barracks of Selim,
which are of very large dimensions, being
capable of containing ten thousand men;
and from which situation the view is of
remarkable extent and beauty, embracing

105

the Seraglio Point, and the entire length and
breadth of the Golden Horn. Even the
dim outline of the snow-capped Olympus
was discernible from this spot.

Adjoining the barracks is a beautiful
kiosk, situated on the verge of a rock,
overlooking the Propontis, and which was
much frequented by the late Sultan, whose
desire was to have been removed there
during his last illness, from a superstitious
idea that the climate of Asia would prove
more efficacious to his recovery than that of
the Seraglio Point, which is immediately opposite,
but in Europe.

On landing at Galata, upon our return,
we met Lord F——y, and Mr. L——n,
who, not being aware of having any acquaintance
or fellow-countryman at Pera,
were on the point of taking advantage of
the fine day to embark for Therapia. On
meeting us, however, they agreed to postpone
their expedition, in order to witness

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the young Sultan's procession to the
mosque the following day, which happened
to be the Mahommedan Sabbath.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST.

—We set off
very early to secure a good station at the
Mosque of Lalileh (the Tulip), which was
the one selected for the young Sultan's first
procession to prayers by land, for hitherto
he had always gone in a state caique.

Nothing could less answer one's ideas of
eastern magnificence than this procession,
which consisted merely of a dozen led
horses, though these were handsomely and
richly caparisoned, followed by a suite of not
above thirty or forty officers of rank, and a
body-guard, who were but a mean-looking set
of men, little superior to the ordinary Turkish
troops. They have adopted the European
dress; but this being ill-fashioned, ill-made,
and still worse put on, gives them a
very slovenly appearance.

Last of all came the Sultan himself,

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Abdul Medjed, (son of the Most Glorious,)
riding alone through the entrance porch of
the mosque. He had the distinction of a
magnificent diamond aigrette in his scarlet
fez, and of a large jewelled clasp, which
fastened his long brown cloak tightly about
the throat. The cloak itself covered the
back of his horse, and nearly touching the
ground produced almost a grotesque effect.

Although but sixteen, Abdul Medjed
looks at least ten years older; he has a
sallow complexion, with a most melancholy
expression of countenance, which you could
hardly call either interesting or disagreeable.
The most striking point about him
was his extreme apathy to all surrounding
objects; his eyes seemed rivetted between
his horse's ears; he never bent in the least
from his erect position; and even in descending
from his horse, every movement
seemed like that of a piece of clockwork.
This, however, is considered as a proper

108

attribute of regal dignity; but one felt surprised
at its early attainment by a prince,
who, till now, had never emerged from his
school-room, or rather the harem nursery;
for from his very birth he has been completely
a state prisoner.

We returned by the Bazaar, which we
always contrived to make out to be our
nearest road home as it certainly was by
far the most amusing one. We afterwards
took a walk in the desolate and overgrown
garden which formerly belonged to the palace
of the British Embassy; but which,
since the destruction of the house by fire in
Sir R. G——n's time, has been totally neglected.
One cannot help regretting that
Lord P—— should not have encouraged
the rebuilding of the palace; as it hurts
one's national vanity that England should
be only represented at Pera by the consulate.

Our walk occupied us till the time came
for embarking in the charming caique which

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Lord P——had sent for us. We were rowed
by twelve well-looking men, who wore the
Greek vest and scull-cap, and who, from
being handsomely appointed servants of the
embassy, afforded a most favourable contrast
to the rest of the lower orders among the
Turks. This remark, also, generally extends
to the appearance of the watermen
on the Bosphorus.

Two full hours elapsed before we reached
Therapia, as we had to contend against a
very contrary wind. We found the hotel
much more comfortable than our lodging-house
at Pera, but situated most inconveniently
for us, being nearly a quarter of an
hour's walk from the Embassy; and as neither
portentina nor donkey, nor in fact any
legs were to be procured as substitutes for
our own, we were obliged to trudge on foot
and in darkness, as the wind had extinguished
the flambeaux borne by the footmen
of the Embassy, on a perfectly November

110

evening, and stumbling every moment over
the broken pavement of the streets, to
what is called (by courtesy) the Palace, the
outward appearance of which more nearly
resembles that of a wooden barrack. The
contrast, however, which presented itself to
us on entering was most delightful.

We were ushered into a drawing-room
completely fitted up with English chintz;
and the comfortable arm-chairs and sofas, as
well as a blazing coal fire, produced on us a
most reviving effect, which was not a little
heightened by Lord and Lady P——'s courteous
and hospitable manner of receiving us.

In the evening we had a good deal of conversation
and a little whist; and we much
regretted being obliged to return to Pera at
so late an hour. This arose from our supposing
that the following morning was the one
chosen by the Prince de J——for viewing
the mosque of St. Sophia, for which a firman
is granted to any illustrious personage visiting

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Stamboul. It is considered as an acknowledged
privilege of all foreigners, who
may be there at the time, to profit by these
occasional permissions, and follow in the
train of the distinguished possessor of the
firman, who is not circumscribed as to the
number of his suite.

Prince G——e of C——e, who was
the last illustrious foreigner who had obtained
permission to enter the mosque, had
made the fact known some days preceding
for general advantage; which was a great
contrast to the mystery preserved on the subject
by the attendants of the Prince de J——,
from some of whom our officious hostess
had in vain attempted to extract the knowledge
of the probable day and hour which
would be selected for His Royal Highness's
visit to this (to Christians) forbidden mosque.

It is only within the last few years that
exception has been made in favour of any
one; and great resentment has been felt and

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manifested towards the Sultan Mahmoud
for his impious tolerance toward unbelievers.
On arriving á casa, we were informed that
our return to Pera was as unnecessary as it
had been inconvenient, the Prince de J——
having no firman for the next day.

NOVEMBER 2ND.

—We were hurriedly
roused from our repose at half-past seven,
by a messenger who came to tell us that
Count P——i had arranged with the Prince de
J——'s dragoman that we should join his suite
in their visit to St. Sophia's, but that if we
wished to be in time we must find ourselves
at the mosque by eight o'clock! Our hurry
and confusion may be imagined;—no horses
ready to take us a distance of two miles—
no time for breakfast—no time for anything
but for running, at the risk of our necks,
down the steep and wretchedly paved streets
to the place at which we were to get on
board our caique.

We felt that, in spite of our best efforts,

113

the half hour must be already exceeded,
and that all our haste would only prove the
worse speed; nor could I think of anything
else to trust to, but my proverbial good luck
in always arriving in good time for any
interesting sight, which my procrastinating
propensities had exposed me to the just
penalty of forfeiting.

At the very instant that I was presumptuously
indulging in this impression, the
boat of the Belle Poule shot by us, and
revealed the identical Prince de J——and
his suite rowing towards the quay. We
breathed again, and now first allowed ourselves
to eat the dry toast which we had
snatched from the breakfast table at the
moment of departure.

We landed at precisely the right moment,
escaping the usual number of hours of
attente which visitors by sufferance are
generally exposed to, and which had been
so feelingly described to us at Athens by

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Lord R——y. I was somewhat ruffled at
the French dragoman selecting me (the
only lady of the party) to communicate his
opinion of the deficiency in good breeding
which we had shewn, in neglecting to have
asked to be presented to the Prince's aide-de-camp.

He even endeavoured to obstruct our
entrance to the mosque, with the exception
of two or three of our party whose names
he had imperfectly retained; and the general
insolence of his manner made all my English
blood tingle in my veins to such a degree,
that I had only just presence d'esprit sufficient
to recollect the necessity of qualifying
his communication in repeating it to the
gentlemen of our party, lest the discussion
should become too serious.

The very great civility of General——,
the Prince de J——'s aide-de-camp, calmed
the general disposition amongst us to feel
ourselves aggrieved, and we proceeded at

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length to make the most of our present
opportunity of seeing St. Sophia to the best
advantage, as well as the other adjoining
parts, which are equally interdicted to
Christians. The beauty as well as the
extent of the mosque excited much more
admiration among us than we had anticipated,
and the interior decorations and
ornament seemed to us much finer than
that of its neighbour Achmet, though this
latter is preferred by the Turks.

We were a little disturbed by the evident
ill-will with which the few Mussulmen, who
still lingered at their devotions, bore our
presence. They scowled dreadfully at what
they deemed the profanation of their holy
place; and one old man went so far as to
scold me into getting up from a stone seat
on which I was resting myself.

The description of one mosque at Constantinople
would serve equally for all the
others, with the exception of this of St.

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Sophia, which, from having been a Christian
church, is strikingly different from the
rest in its structure and general appearance.

Its form is that of a contracted Greek
cross, and consists of a vast cupola, supported
by pilasters of gigantic dimensions;
the space beneath is magnificent. Surrounding
the dome are galleries raised on
columns, which are mostly composed of a
single block of granite; but many of them
betray evident marks of the action of
earthquakes, being much out of the perpendicular.

The galleries themselves are very high;
and when standing in them you are not far
removed from the base of the dome. It
was with some difficulty that we ascended
one of them, by means of an inclined plane
contained in a square tower on the outside
of the mosque.

The surface of the interior of the dome is

INTERIOR OF ST. SOPHIA, AT CONSTANTINOPLE
On stone by R.J. Hamerton. Printed by P. Martin, 26 Long Acre

London: Pubd by Henry Colburn, 13 Gt Marlborough St 1841

117

composed of rough mosaic work, formerly
gilt; and we could trace on it figures of
archangels, &c., which seemed to have
adorned the building when a Christian
church in the days of its founder, Constantine,
but which the Turks have done
their best to obliterate. The mosaic work
is altogether very like that of St. Mark's at
Venice; and the floor, which is completely
covered with Turkish matting, is said to be
ornamented in the same manner with the
roof. The galleries are inhabited by a vast
quantity of doves, which are cherished with
superstitious veneration by the Turks.

On looking down upon the interior from
the gallery, wherever the eye rests, the just
and noble proportions of the building are,
I think, quite as striking as those of any
other I ever beheld, not excepting St.
Peter's, (although the diameter of the former
is twenty-five feet less than that of the
Basilica at Rome,) the great room of

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Vicenza, Westminster Hall, York Minster,
or even the Pantheon itself.

On entering the mosque, we were shewn
the pillar noticed by Lady M. W. Montague,
and other travellers, which goes by
the name of the sweating column, which,
singularly enough, is reverenced by both
Turks and Christians; the former attributing
to it certain miraculous healing
powers, which they say arise from the hand
of the prophet having rested on it; the
latter maintaining that ever since the
Christian church came into the hands of
the infidels, the pillar has been endued with
the property of, as it were, shedding tears
in witness of its horror at the profanations
to which it is forced to be a spectator. On
placing the hand on it, it certainly appeared
quite moist and warm to the touch; we
also fancied it in some measure scented,
which inspired a few not unreasonable suspicions
as to the supposed natural phenomenon.

119

The east end of the mosque, which
formerly contained the Christian altar, is
semicircular; and in the wall is still to be
seen a kind of niche in which it stood; but
what seemed very curious to us was, that
the place so marked out was not at right
angles with the rest of the building, but
rather on one side. The Turks have placed
here a sort of reading desk, furnished with
a seat and several books, which are probably
copies of the Koran.

The colouring and tone of this building
is more sombre than that of the other
mosques, which gives it an air of antiquity,
and makes it accord better with our notions
of solemnity.

What greatly enhanced the pleasure of
the whole sight was our having abundance
of leisure to view everything; and by the
great politeness of the aide-de-camp to the
Prince, our French artist, Mons. Chacaton,
was permitted to return the next day under

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the protection of an additional firman, to
make some sketches, in which, however, to
his great discomfort, he was continually interrupted
by the abuse which the Turks,
and especially the old women, did not cease
to pour on him.

The outside of St. Sophia's is, though interesting,
neither so handsome in itself, nor
so conspicuous as that of many other
mosques, which, placed on one or other of
the seven hills on which Constantinople, in
imitation of Rome, is built, present themselves
to the beholder with admirable
grandeur and effect.

We took the slave-market on our road
home, where, however, we saw none of the
disagreeable objects which such a name
usually conjures up in the imagination from
the descriptions one hears of slavery in
other parts of the world. The countenances
of the poor women here expressed nothing
of that extreme dejection at being torn from

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their country and their friends, which one
would naturally look for in slaves; on the
contrary, they seemed quite reconciled to
their fate, and were chiefly excited by hope,
or depressed by disappointment, as they
seemed likely or not to obtain a purchaser;
for, in fact, their only prospect of advancement
in life is dependent upon their
becoming inmates of a wealthy harem,
where its master's caprice may lead to
the lowest slave becoming its mistress.
The Sultana Validi herself is said to have
been purchased from a Georgian merchant
at the Tifflis market. They betrayed, however,
no eagerness to attract our attention,
as it is well known that no Giaours are permitted
to make purchases.

We only saw one female slave of great
beauty, who, though very young, was already
a mother, and had her infant in her
arms. She was described to us as an
Abyssinian, but had much more of the light

122

copper colouring of the far East. Her hair
was smooth and black, her features small
and exquisitely proportioned, and the shape
of her head faultless; so that if the phrenological
criticism on the Venus de Medicis
be correct, that a woman with a head so
formed would be deficient in understanding,
this beautiful little Abyssinian must have
been a perfect idiot.

To me she seemed the personification of
our first mother, and to combine the expression
of youth, beauty, and innocence in the
highest possible degree. So struck indeed
was I, that my mind was at once made up as
to the supreme beauty of light-copper
complexions over all the lilies and roses of
Europe; and from that time I considered
the dispute concerning the colour of Eve as
completely settled.

In another part an old Turk was bargaining
for a negress servant, and was examining
her arm with the closest attention, as a surgeon

123

looks for a vein before applying his
lancet, while she held it out at full length,
shewing her white teeth with a grin that
betrayed the utmost confidence that her arm
possessed all the muscle that could be
required.

The only really melancholy object was a
poor little infant, swathed, as they always
are here, and placed in an upright position
in a corner of a wretched divan, evidently
in a dying state. Its dark eyes were already
glazed and fixed, and the flies were settling
on its poor little sallow face, without a parent
or even a human being near, to attend
on its last moments

I never felt more utterly knocked up than
I was by our incessant pursuit of subjects of
interest for the last thirty-six hours; and it
was only a European bath, for I had not
resolution to make the first essay in a Turkish
one, which enabled me to join our party
at dinner, when we were reinforced by our

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Consul-General, a very agreeable and original
character, who looked extremely like
an English country gentleman who had
never stirred ten miles from his own fireside,
though, in point of fact, he has resided
during the last forty years of his life in the
East. His first official employment was as
purser to Sir Sidney Smith in the Tigre.

One felt that it would be impossible to
select two better contrasted, and more characteristic
representatives of our Embassy
and Consulate-General, than is afforded in
the persons of Lord P—and Mr. C—-.

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CHAPTER XI.

A Greek wedding — Bride and bridegroom — The
ceremony—Dinner at our Consul-General's—The
plague—“The Scavengers of the City”—Turkish
dogs—The Sweet Waters of Asia—Turkish carriages
— Turkish women—Visit to the house of
the Austrian Legation—The Hatti Scheriff.

NOVEMBER 3RD.

—We were preparing to
set off for morning church, when our servant
proposed that, as we had still three
quarters of an hour to spare, we should go a
little out of our way to look in at a Greek
house where a marriage was to be celebrated
according to the rites of his church. We
accordingly acted on the suggestion, but,

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instead of finding it a picturesque noce et
festin of the lower Greek class, it turned out
to be one of a more refined description.

The bridegroom, a well-looking, gentlemanlike
man, came up to us and expressed,
in good French, his hope that we would
condescend to remain during the ceremony.
All our attempts to make him understand
that we were on our way to our own church
seemed lost upon him; and, at length, to
get away became a physical impossibility, so
surrounded were we by the bridal party,
who vied with each other in making us
pretty speeches in tolerably intelligible
Italian.

The bride herself, who was a widow,
and rather a pretty woman, only spoke
Greek. She was named Helen, which
somewhat suited her previous history, as
she had been the cause of great contention
between her former and present husband
The first, whom she had been obliged by

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her parents to accept as a good parti, had
turned out but a mauvais sujet, and had been
killed in a private quarrel; and she had now,
after a whole three months' widowhood, consented
to become Mrs. Dionysius L. P——.

The ceremony itself consisted chiefly in
their walking round and round the very
small apartment, followed by the bishop,
muttering an exhortation, part of which was
evidently of so pathetic a character as to
draw tears from the bridegroom, while the
bride only reddened and bit her lips. Two
little boys also, with lighted tapers, formed
part of the procession.

At length they all stopped, and a couple
of large crowns of artificial flowers, interspersed
with gold tinsel, (not unlike those
worn by our chimney-sweeps on May-day,)
were produced, and placed on the heads of
the contracting parties; but they were so
large and clumsy that they each required the
support of a compére. Again the couple

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were paraded round the room, followed by
the supporters of their floral honours; and
when at last they stopped, the bishop touched
their foreheads with his ruby ring, and made
them drink wine from the same goblet.

A great quantity of paras of the new
Abdul Medjid coinage was then thrown
over them and the rest of the company;
and so abundant was the silver shower, that
it almost amounted to a storm, the elements
of which were eagerly scrambled
for by the children and servants of the
family, which greatly interrupted the gravity
of the ceremony.

Sweetmeats and coffee, with pipes of a
prodigious length, were next brought in, but
all the smoking was carried on as a duet
between the bridegroom and his guest
George: and I found it rather difficult to
control Minney's inclination to indulge her
risible faculties a little at her respected parent's
appearance, sitting gravely as be was,

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téte-à-téte with the bridegroom in the midst
of the room, and apparently a chief object
of contemplation to a large assemblage,
among whom a perfect silence had succeeded
to the late uproar.

We at last found a possible moment for
escaping, which we embraced, declining a
very courteous offer of supping at the
marriage feast.

As we were walking home through the
Pera burying-ground, the fashionable promenade,
we heard very loud cannonading,
which proceeded evidently from the Seraglio
Point, and only learnt, when it was too late
to profit by the information, that it was in
honour of the promulgation of the Hatti
Scheriff of Goulane, on an occasion of no
less importance than the young Sultan's
presenting his people with a new and
liberal constitution.

We had a very merry dinner to-day at
Mr. C——'s, our Consul-General, who entertained

130

us most hospitably. Among
other good things, a roasted pig made its
appearance, which, as he informed us with
a hearty chuckle, he often treated himself
with; it was such a satisfaction to beard
the insolent Turks with the presence of a
pig in their own country, where, whether
alive or dead, it is an unclean animal.

He told us that he had been himself
twice at the point of death from the plague;
and seemed to be a decided non-contagionist,
as he said he had attended the last moments
of poor young Mr. M——, who had been
taken ill and had died in his house but a
few months before, and that his case,
though one of confirmed plague, had proved
an isolated one.

It is singular how indifferent one becomes
on the subject of this dreadful malady when
once in its neighbourhood; for I believe
there is no doubt of its always existing in
some quarter or other of Constantinople or

131

Pera. What we had formerly so dreaded
approaching, we now scarce ever thought
of, though we were living almost over a
cemetery, where no distinction would be
made in the burial of those who died of
plague, from those who were carried off
by a common disease.

The graves are made so shallow that it is
dreadful to remark how much the burying-grounds
are the resort of what are justly
called “the scavengers of the city,” a sort
of animal, half dog, half wolf, which is
constantly to be seen prowling about among
the new made graves. Our doctor describes
the effluvia arising from the Pera cemetery
in the early part of the morning as quite
overpowering, so that one is only surprised
at this quarter being so comparatively
healthy.

There is something very peculiar about
the race of Turkish dogs; they appear to
maintain a complete system of police among

132

themselves, keep together in large troops,
never stray from the limits which they
themselves seem to have established, and
no one of them owns a master. The inhabitants
of the city are obliged to provide
them with water, which they place in
troughs at their street doors; for other sustenance
they depend on the offal which the
Turks trust entirely to their care to remove,
and for this service look on them as public
benefactors, though public gratitude is only
exercised in a very negative way towards
them.

The Turks do indeed abstain, even superstitiously,
from positive dog-slaughter, but
they never think of taking any care to prevent
their horses treading on the lazy animals
as they lie at full length in the road,
basking in the sun; and in every frequented
quarter there is a constant sound of howling
and suffering going on among the canine
breed. Their appearance, however, is so

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savage and unprepossessing, that it is only
when one's horse is about to tread on innocent
blind puppies, that I find my sensibilities
very much called forth.

NOVEMBER 4TH.

—Lord A——and George
took a long ride to the Sweet Waters of Asia,
which they described as quite enchanting.
A large proportion of the female population,
they said, were assembled to enjoy the
beauties of the scene, some of whom were
amusing themselves with smoking in the
shade, while a few pères de families were
playing with their children at some little
distance. Very many of the ladies must
have been of the higher orders, so numerous
were the carriages which they noticed to be
in attendance.

There are three distinct kinds of conveyances
to be met with in Stamboul. Some
are so entirely closed by gilt lattice-work,
that it is impossible to perceive the occupiers;

134

these are considered to belong to the
élite, and are called coochy.

The second class of carriages have on each
side two circular openings, and one in front,
but are without glasses; and you can distinguish
three or four Turkish ladies reclining
in them on soft cushions, covered
with cashmere, silk, or chintz: they are
called talika.

The third kind, of which the name is
araba, is a large, light sort of waggon, capable
of holding a dozen people; it is gilt and
painted, and drawn by from four to ten bullocks,
harnessed two and two, whose tails
are tied up to a sort of shaft projecting from
the front of the carriage. These oxen are
decorated with coloured fringe, ribbons,
bells, and amulets of bright glass beads, for
the purpose of keeping off the Evil Eye.

The coochy seems destined for the wives
of the jealous; the talika for the conveyance

135

of those whose husbands do not care to keep
them in so strict a state of concealment;
while the araba belongs to the bourgeoises.

Everywhere one sees handsome women;
all, at least, who possess fine eyes, or foreheads,
or teeth, or pretty hands, contrive to
display these advantages in despite of the
yashmack (face-covering), supposed to be for
the purpose of concealing the features, which
they do not scruple to shew to Europeans
when no Mussulmen are near.

Minney and I, during the time that the
gentlemen were absent, received a very
agreeable visit from Lady P——, whom we
accompanied to see Madame de S——, the
wife of the Austrian minister, or internonce,
as he is styled.

The house of the Austrian legation is the
only handsome one in Pera that has escaped
fire; and from its interior arrangements and
furniture one might suppose oneself in a
Vienna palace. Madame S——herself is

136

very tall, and more than proportionably
gifted in embonpoint. She has a very small
head, and reminded me strongly of Lady H.
B——g, both in person and manner. Her
conversation shewed a good deal of point,
and she made us regret more than ever that
Lord P——had not included in his suite,
as the French minister had done, such of his
countrymen as were at Constantinople, on
the occasion of his attending the ceremony
at the seraglio the day before.

The hatti scheriff is, in sound at least,
the very beau ideal of justice and moderation;
but is said to be difficult, if not impossible,
to be carried into effect, and utterly unsuited
to the mass of the Grand Seignior's subjects.
But the sight of a young sultan presenting
his people with a constitution abridging his
own despotic authority, lessening the burthen
of taxes and the hardships of conscription,
and entirely abolishing the use of torture,
would have been interesting as a coup

137

de théatre, and can never be repeated with
the same effect.

The spectacle was described as one that
displayed every kind of eastern magnificence;
there were fifteen hundred special
invitations, including all the diplomatic
bodies. All the different classes of the
clergy attended; and amongst them the
Moollahs, in their white robes and high
caps, had a most striking effect. Five
thousand military, with the representatives
of all the national authorities, were also
present; and, in short, whatever was most
brilliant or otherwise remarkable in Constantinople,
was that day collected within
the exterior precincts of the seraglio, to add
dignity and splendour to the scene.

Everything which I heard on the subject
did but deepen the impression of regret in
my mind that the lady ambassadresses should
not have had a place assigned them in the
seraglio, from which to witness the ceremony,

138

in which case Lady P——might
have been attended by the few English
ladies of her acquaintance, including myself,
who were at the moment in this part
of the world.

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CHAPTER XII.

Bargains—The Seraskier's Tower—Panoramic view
—Turkish accommodations—Greek church—
Walls of Ayoub—The Seven Towers—Difference
of sensation produced by the organs of smell and
sight—Prince's Island by sunset—Visit to the
Howling Dervishes at Scutari—Their ceremonies
—Bridge connecting Pera with Constantinople—
Turkish artillery.

NOVEMBER 5TH.

—We rode, escorted by
Lord F——, to the Seraskier's Tower; and
in our way I made some purchases at the
bazaar, where I had the mortification to discover
that my previous bargains from an
Armenian merchant had cost me nearly
double what they should have done.

140

Not that I had much cause for astonishment
at having been overreached, considering
the proverb, “that it takes two Jews to
cheat a Greek, and three Greeks to be a
match for an Armenian;” but the idleness
of the Turks in displaying their goods, and
their repugnance to lay aside their pipes for
the purposes of communication, when
sitting cross-legged on their counters,
makes the agency of the Armenians very
convenient: and as after a certain early
hour the bazaar is as closely barricaded as
a citadel, one is often reduced to the alternative
of either wanting an article, or obtaining
it from the cheating but plausible
Armenian pedlar.

The ascent of the Seraskier's Tower is
very steep, even more so than that of the
Campanile at Venice, and, like that, presenting
at each turn of the stair a new and
beautiful point de vue through the successive
loop-holes. The view from the top really

141

repays one for the fatigue one has undergone,
to say nothing of some most excellent
coffee that is to be procured there; in the
art of making which we profited by this opportunity
of taking a regular lesson.

The panoramic effect from this tower is
finer than that from the Tower of Galata;
and though you here lose the beautiful
object of the Seraglio Point, which lies immediately
underneath it, yet, to compensate,
the sea of Marmora, the Prince's Islands,
and Mount Olympus, are clearly discernible
from hence, with every point, edifice, and
minaret, of Constantinople and its dependencies.

The bright rays of the evening sun tinted
all the beautiful objects around us to a
degree which I never saw equalled; and I
now, for the first time, was willing to admit
that the gorgeous and almost dazzling representations
of those who had visited these
scenes were not overcharged.

142

We were much tempted to linger on to
see the sun sink into the Bosphorus; but
the invariable and barbarous custom of
closing at sunset the Frank communication
between Pera and Stamboul, obliged us to
turn our steps towards our lodgings—I cannot
call home what so thoroughly reminded
me of its absence; for here we had not even
the means of warming ourselves during
these cold evenings. As for fire-places,
there were none in ordinary rooms; and
the kitchen, which might have proved a
resource, was at some distance from the
house. The Turkish substitute for fire,
the manghal (Anglicè, brazier), filled with
wood ashes, was so oppressive and headachy
in its effects, that we were obliged, in self-defence,
to leave it off, and betake ourselves
to bed at an earlier hour than otherwise our
inclination for sleep would have led us to
choose.

NOVEMBER 6TH.

—We sent on our horses

143

to wait for us at the cemetery of Validi, and,
having obtained a broader-bottomed boat
than the caiques usually are, we ourselves
proceeded to make as complete a survey as
possible of various interesting objects on
this side the Bosphorus, taking the road
which led by Ayoub.

Our loquacious cicerone assured us of the
advantage of beginning our route by visiting
a small Greek church, which he insisted had
been built by Constantine, and had ever
since continued a Christian place of worship.
That it had not been a mosque was very
evident, but it offered no trace of antiquity
or interest, beyond being very prettily ornamented;
it reminded me of the little
primitive church still to be seen behind the
Colosseum. We could not imagine our
servant's motive for making this the first
point of our expedition till a plate was
brought, to which we were informed all
visitors and foreigners were expected to

144

contribute; and we then perceived that
Giovanni, like a good churchman and wily
Greek, had obliged us to make this détour
that we might have an opportunity of contributing
somewhat to a church of the communion
to which he himself belonged.

We next landed at Ayoub, and proceeded
to make the tour of the beautifully picturesque
walls of the city. They are of Roman
construction, and though higher, yet considerably
resemble those of Avignon.

They are flanked, at intervals of about
fifty yards, by square towers with battlements,
which, from their partial decay and
the richness of the vegetation surrounding
them, afford the most refreshing studies to
an artist who, like Mons. Chacaton, has
been lately occupied only in dry architectural
drawings of mosques and columns.

We fancied we could trace on the left
flank, near the ancient gate of St. Romanus,

145

the marks of the breach made by Mahomet
II., and by which he entered the city
in 1453.

From hence, after a ride of nearly four
miles along these walls, we reached the
point which commands the view of the
Seven Towers, the Sea of Marmora, and the
outlines of the mountains beyond. The
Seven Towers now present a most uninteresting
object, consisting merely of a whitewashed
pile of building, of which two towers
only remain in any preservation; and on
these are mounted a few cannon, as if to
attest their former importance.

The place altogether looked very unlike
that which afforded so much terror to the
foreign ambassadors but a few years ago, and
where Obreskoff, the envoy of Catherine the
Great, was, from some misunderstanding
with the Osmanli government, kept during
three days in a dry well.

What a change from fanaticism to apathy

146

in their political conduct; which, however,
may be well paralleled by the change from
their striking national costume to a bastard
European dress! On re-embarking a little
beyond the Seven Towers, to which point
our caique came round to meet us, our eyes
were perfectly dazzled by the combination
of beauties which this spot presented.

It was the very scene which we had missed
enjoying on the morning of our arrival at
Stamboul, when the fog so cruelly shut out
every surrounding object from our view;
but in proportion to the gratification of sight,
was the offence offered to our olfactory
organs. In vain we tried to conceal from
ourselves and each other the insupportable
smell which assailed us; and although this
was decidedly the most lovely spot I had
ever beheld, it was impossible to continue
in it.

The indifference of our guides was quite
astonishing. They appeared altogether

147

unconscious of that which gave us so much
annoyance; and coolly answered our inquiries
by informing us that this spot had been
selected as the receptacle of dead horses,
dogs, &c. The vegetation produced by the
cultivation of the trenches at the foot of the
walls was so luxuriant, that it entirely concealed
any disgusting object.

I am only surprised that pestilence is not
oftener produced by such dreadful negligence
and indifference; which is the more strange
among people who consider cleanliness of
person to be a religious obligation.

During our sail from the Seven Towers to
the Seraglio Point, the lovely Prince's Island
lay on our right, the back ground being filled
up by a splendid view of the lofty Asiatic mountains.

The sunset illumined the whole scene,
and the colour of the sea, which was perfectly
calm, was exactly like that of a brightly
tinted opal. Numberless dolphins were

148

disporting themselves in the water, and so
regardless were they of our presence as to
approach within a yard of our boat, making
such high bounds from the surface as to give
us full time to observe the infinite variety of
their hues, which changed momentarily with
the rays of light.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH.

—We waited
for some time for Lord F——y, and Mr.
L——n, who, previously to embarking for
Athens, had settled to go with us to Scutari,
to make a second attempt at seeing the exhibition
of the Howling Dervishes. We had
to wait some time for their appearance, owing
to the difference between our computation of
time and that of the Turks, which constantly
leads to confusion on the part of uninitiated
Europeans.

The ceremony began with what might have
been mistaken for a military exercise, a continued
and, even to us sitters-by, most wearisome
motion of the body, which, for at

149

least half an hour, they bent violently backwards
and forwards to the sound of a kind
of reed pipe. These people are no longer
allowed to indulge themselves in the practice
of inflicting severe wounds on their bodies,
stabbing themselves in the hands, or piercing
their noses with red-hot irons.

Their chanting is correctly described as a
continued howling, and some little neophyte
Dervishes were conscientiously imitating all
the contortions and attitudes of their elders.

Various cripples and invalids of every description
were then brought in, and laid with
their faces downwards on a sheep skin at the
chief Dervish's feet, who by-the-bye had hitherto
set the example of the various turnings
and twistings they were to perform, but had
stopped as soon as his disciples were fairly
in motion. After the sick had been suffered
to remain for some time in their humble
position, the attempt at curing them was
begun by the said Holy Dervish passing his

150

foot over the back and head of the patients
as if he were ironing them, muttering all the
while a species of incantation. The great
mass of the devotees consisted of beggars,
old men, soldiers, and children of all ages.

From the great tediousness and general
monotony of the ceremony, we became so
weary of it as to retire before its conclusion
to the cemetery of Scutari, which appeared
of interminable length, and in which the most
striking monument proved on inquiry to be
dedicated to the memory of Sultan Amurath's
favourite horse. I imagined I perceived, in
the general appearance of the Asiatic inhabitants
of Scutari, even to the very dogs, a
more uncourteous and forbidding expression
of countenance than in those of Turkey in
Europe.

In the afternoon we again rode to the
Bazaars; and while crossing the floating-bridge,
which connects Pera with Constantinople,
(which bridge, by the way, is of immense

151

extent, being, I believe, nearly one
thousand yards in length, as well as of very
modern construction, the Turks not having,
till a very recent period, imagined the possibility
of establishing a communication
between the two quarters of the city by so
simple a contrivance,) we were met, to our
great annoyance, by a detachment of artillery,
whose horses became so unmanageable
in consequence of the noise caused by the
passage of the guns, which made the wooden
fabric resound and vibrate as they were drawn
over it, that even our jaded hacks became
animated by their bad example.

Our attendants, instead of shewing any
anxiety about our several fates, most undutifully
attached themselves to the opposite
party; and, as my little Turk chose to lay
hold of an ungovernable military steed, some
ill-accoutred soldier was good enough to
return the compliment, by checking our
horses with force sufficient to have pitched

152

us into the Bosphorus; and altogether we
reckoned ourselves very fortunate to have
escaped from everything but alarm.

These artillery whom we met to-day are
the only Turkish soldiers who have a martial
bearing, for their European dress is much
against the ordinary troops. It is sometimes
curious to witness the gambols of a
corps de garde, which is often composed of
a set of black boys, half clothed, who have
been accepted in lieu of some fine levied by
the state.

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153

CHAPTER XIII.

Embark for Therapia—Belgrade—House formerly
occupied by Lady Mary Wortley Montague—Disappointment
—A Greek Group—Ancient Plane
Tree—A new Acquaintance—The late Hatti Scheriff
—The Population of Constantinople—Difficulties
of the Turkish Language—Situation of
Therapia—Impertinence—Discomforts of a Winter
in Therapia.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH.

—Owing to a
series of mal entendus, having missed the
caique which Lord P——had most kindly
sent for us, Minney and myself were compelled
to embark alone for Therapia, from
whence we were to go on to meet the gentlemen
of our party at Belgrade, to which

154

village they had already proceeded on horseback.

The place of appointment was the campagne
of Mrs. H——, which indeed formed
our chief subject of interest at Belgrade, as
it is shewn as the house formerly occupied
by my husband's great-grandmother, the
celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montague.
There are some doubts as to the authenticity
of the fact, but it is the best, largest, and
oldest house in the place; and Mrs. H——
tells us, that the family to whom it had previously
belonged had been in possession of
it more than a hundred years, and that it
had been always considered by them as the
identical one in which Lady Mary Wortley
had resided.

On landing at Therapia, we were informed
by the Tyrolese hostess of the Golden
Lion that Captain M——and Mr. B——
had been waiting some time to escort us,
on seridgis (post-horses), to Belgrade, where
they had been invited by Mrs. H——to

155

meet our party; and, to avoid being benighted,
we must set off immediately.

The ride through the forest was very
pretty, but quite of a character to be met
with any day in France or Germany, or even
in some parts of England. I could not help
remarking, owing perhaps a little to the
roughness of my monture, that our six miles
were rather of the longest; but I was told
that we had made a considerable circuit to
see the Bendt, or modern aqueduct, a beautiful
construction of the late sultan's for the
better supply of Stamboul. On arriving at
our rendezvous, rather cold and very hungry,
we found, to our dismay, the house
secured against our entrance by a most substantial
padlock, and that its proprietress
was already on her way back to her winter
house at Pera, which it was necessary for
her to reach before nightfall; so that our
anticipations of a little luncheon and a great
deal of welcome were cruelly disappointed.

156

We were the more annoyed, as we could
only guess at the cause of Mrs. H——'s
absence, and that of the gentlemen of our
party; for the person entrusted with Mrs.
H——'s message of explanation did not
make his appearance.

Captain M——proposed that we should
try our fortunes at a neighbouring campagne,
belonging to another English merchant,
which also proved deserted by all but
the gardener, who hospitably presented us
with a glass of cold water.

Belgrade is completely a Greek colony, and
is not remarkable for much natural beauty;
we learnt, however, from some of its inhabitants,
of whom Captain M—— made inquiries,
that our Lord——and our master
had been seen taking the short road to Therapia.

Near a kind of fountain, not far removed
from Lady Mary Wortley's house, were a
group of very handsome Greeks dancing the

157

romaika to the accompaniment of a drum
and pipe; and the presence of several gilt,
and otherwise prettily ornamented, arabas
containing ladies, evidently on a junket,
gave a very lively effect to the scene.

A little further on, we came to the village
of Baghtche-kem, I think it was pronounced,
where a little inn presented such an attraction,
that we stopped and refreshed ourselves
with some excellent coffee. The place, we
were told, had been nearly depopulated two
years ago by the plague; and the sickly
looks of its inhabitants strongly confirmed
the account we received of its malaria.

A very pretty girl, standing at one of the
doors in her holiday dress, was indeed an
exception; but the vividness of her complexion
was so very striking, that we uncharitably
ascribed the tricoloured combination
of red, white, and very black eyebrows
to the assistance of art, in which both the
Greek and Turkish women are great proficients.

158

Still her features were sufficiently
good to establish for her a very just claim
to a perfectly Greek profile.

Our next object of interest was a magnificent
kind of plane-tree near Buyakdire;
for this seems the general way of speaking
of it, as they consider it only one tree,
though it has several trunks, which are
very distant from each other, and is called, I
believe, by the Turks “The Seven Sisters;”
and is celebrated as being the tree under
whose shade Godefroi de Bouillon pitched
his tent, and Peter the Hermit roused the
enthusiasm of the first Crusaders. But
apart from such historically interesting associations,
the tree itself is of most singular
beauty.

From this point Captain M——pointed
out to us his ship, the “Carysfoot,” which
is now lying off Therapia in attendance on
the ambassador. By this time it was nearly
dark; and the narrow horsepath leading

159

from Buyakdire to Therapia was so slippery,
and so immediately over the water's
edge, that I believe we had rather dangerously
shortened the road to the hotel, where
we made a hasty toilette for our ambassador's
dinner.

I had much agreeable conversation with
my neighbours Lord P——and Mr. S——.
The latter had been for some time a traveller
over Turkey, and shewed great intelligence
and observation. From his name
and connexions, one would be led at once
to decide on his religious faith; but my
endeavours to make out whether he was
Jew or Gentile were quite baffled, as he
quoted, with equal knowledge, texts from
the New and Old Testaments, and did not
hesitate to speak on points both of Jewish
and Christian doctrine.

I wished to convince myself that he had
become a mis-humid from Judaism, as the
example of so intelligent a nephew might

160

tell on his family, whose importance is so
generally acknowledged.

After dinner, Lady P——shewed us
some beautiful embroidery of Turkish
manufacture, in which she employed many
of the poorer class at Therapia; and by
disposing of it for their immediate benefit,
secured them from the extortions of the
sellers at Stamboul.

The subject of the late proclamation or
hatti scheriff was this evening much canvassed.
It begins by an acknowledgment
of the errors of Abdul Medjid's immediate
ancestors, which had brought the country
to its present state of humiliation, and even
to the very brink of ruin. Its articles
guarantee equal protection to the lives and
properties of all classes of the Sultan's subjects,
establish a new method of levying imposts
and taxes, as also a more just method
of recruiting the army.

161

All ranks of people are to be enabled to
hold private property; and a high court of
justice will be established, composed of an
assemblage of the nobles of the empire,
whenever the Sultan shall judge it convenient.

The old Turks have fully made up their
minds, in the four days which had intervened
since the promulgation of the decree,
that it is a dangerous and impolitic innovation;
the young are all anxiety to see it
carried into execution; but it is imagined
that all will end in mere words, leading to
no practical effect, but perhaps that of rendering
Mehemet Ali's army discontented.

Lord P——appears very sanguine as to
the ultimate success of this measure, and
seems alone to believe in the possibility of
the regeneration of the Turkish empire.

He assured us the Turks were both able
and willing to learn; that their army is
again getting into order; and that they will

162

be capable of their own defence; in short,
that this hatti scheriff will call forth public
spirit, and form new men; that England
could settle the Eastern question, if she
thought fit, in two months; that neither
France nor Russia would oppose her, they
being bound by treaties to preserve the
Turkish empire intact; and that the best
plan would be to send a squadron or two
to the coast of Syria, with a supply of arms,
and a few marines to assist; and that
Ibrahim Pacha, having then his communication
and resources cut off by sea, would
be forced to retreat with his whole army.
That Syria would rise in arms against him,
from the detestation in which Mahomet
Ali and his oppressive government are held,
which is chiefly caused by the conscription,
and the army having been two years in
arrears of pay and clothing.

Lord P—— seemed to think that the
powers who had agreed to preserve the integrity

163

of the Ottoman empire, can never
permit so considerable a province as Syria
to be detached from it; nor could they, on
the principle of legitimacy, sanction the
scheme that Arabia, whose land gave the
title to the Caliphat, should belong to any
other than the Sultan, the descendant of the
Prophet, but that Egypt would probably be
left to Mehemet Ali. Lord P——seems
to take the deepest interest in the welfare
of this unhappy country.

To us, the population of Constantinople
appears to be an abject, ignorant, indolent
race—difficult, if not impossible, to be revived
from its present state of decrepitude;
the people accustomed to depend on Providence,
without any exertions on their own
part; unwilling to obey their governors,
and not sufficiently imbued with the
necessity of enlightening themselves, so as
to keep up with the other nations of Europe

164

in the march of civilization; and as they
believe that the day is at hand when fate
has predicted their return to Asia, they seem
to be awaiting this crisis with folded arms,
and without either the power or the disposition
to help themselves.

Lady P——is at present employed in
learning Persian, not being satisfied with
encountering the difficulties of the Turkish
language, which, to acquire to any real
extent, is a task of immense labour.

A Mr. C——ch, a very intelligent young
Englishman, who has resided for some years
at Pera as chancellor to our consulate, and
is said to have a perfect knowledge of
Turkish, told us that his master had
brought him a copy-book in which he was
to insert the several voluminous alphabets,
the study of which the teacher calculated
would occupy him some three years.

The language is divided into many
branches, each of which has a cypher peculiar

165

to itself. Thus one is used in common
parlance; another, I suppose, of a
sacred character, used in recording the
memorials of their dead; another kind still
is reserved for the sultan, and for state
occasions, or the uses of law.

Mr. C—— describes the study as very
interesting, and the language as rich and
forcible to the greatest degree; and assured
us that the best translations of the Koran
and other works quite failed in giving an
adequate notion of their several beauties.

I was cruel enough to take advantage of
my horse having been hired by the day, to
make use of it again in the evening to
transport Minney and myself to our hotel
quarters, where we resolved to remain a few
days in order to profit by the agrémens and
society of the embassy.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH.

—An incessantly
rainy day, which precluded the possibility
of undertaking any expedition, gave

166

us full leisure for making up the arrears of
our various journals, nor did we find it a
disagreeable change from the constant state
of activity in which we had lately lived.

We received a good many visits from
members of the embassy, at least I hope the
billiard table adjoining our apartment was
not the real attraction.

The situation of Therapia is lovely, and
the view from our windows very animated,
from the number of kachankees (pleasure-boats,
chiefly used by Harem ladies) and
caiques passing and repassing. This quarter,
however, is very much exposed to the
wind and sun, and one could not hear,
without much sympathy, the account of
Lord and Lady C——n's anxious sufferings,.
when, during their residence here in the very
heat of the season, their eldest son lay between
life and death in a twenty-one days'
fever.

From all I can gather, this climate is very

167

prejudicial to European children; how much
we rejoice at having, at the last moment, determined
only to bring our more elderly
Minney. We dined with the Secretary of
Embassy, Mr. B——d, who has a ménage
very comfortably monté. Mrs. B——d was
a great invalid, having been a sufferer from
the same species of early autumnal fever as
that which attacked young Lord P——r.

We met at dinner the newly-appointed
French Minister, M. de P——, a most good-humoured,
lively, and agreeable person, who
abounded in very amusing American anecdote,
in which he was ably seconded by our
host, whose colleague he had been during
his mission at Washington.

It is worth while to suffer the discomfort
of our Pera lodging and living, to be able so
fully to appreciate the return to comfort
which our Therapia diners priés afforded.

The night proved very rainy, and as
neither horses, clogs, nor servant were

168

forthcoming, we reached our hotel in high
dudgeon, where we found Giovanni, who
with great nonchalance explained that it was
only at Pera, where he was hired, that we
could expect him to perform regular service,
and that it would suit neither his health nor
habits to be out in the night air, to which
hardship we must recollect he could not be
subject at Pera, where no opportunity was
afforded Madame for going into society.

This cool impertinence was the more
provoking, from being in many points
unanswerable, and from our knowing the
difficulty we should have in procuring a
substitute for him. However, George immediately
dispensed with Giovanni's further
services either in or out of Pera, and at least
we reaped the advantage of being warmed
by this ridiculous discussion, in which we all
took a lively part.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH.

—The day, too
stormy to allow of Capt. M——'s sending

169

his boat for us to attend the church service
on board the Carysfort. It is quite impossible
to guess how the inhabitants of Therapia
contrive to get through the winter
unfrozen, for never did I feel such piercing,
or sustain such unrelieved cold, and we are
told it has not yet reached its winter climax.

Riding to dinner in an evening dress, in
pouring rain, and on a slippery pavement,
without any bad consequences following,
proves how really uncalled for are half the
luxuries which we are apt to consider as le
strict necessaire.

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CHAPTER XIV.

A Turkish execution, and Turkish justice—Fatality—
Character of the Turks—Rechid Pacha's harem—
Expedition to the Giant's Mountain—Magnificent
view—The Giant's Grave — An attack of fever
—Garden of the French Embassy—English newspapers.

CAPTAIN M—— dined at the Palace.
From his lengthened residence in Turkey,
or rather cruise in these parts, he had obtained
great insight into Turkish habits and
customs. He gave us a curious account of
an execution which he had lately witnessed
of a Turkish woman and her Greek inamorato.

171

The evidence against them was so little
conclusive, that the judge had attempted
to save the supposed culprits, till he was
assured by the Turk of a husband that he
would take justice into his own hands, if he
failed in obtaining it otherwise.

The unfortunate pair, therefore, were
condemned, and hung, side by side, to a
beam in front of a warehouse in the bazaar,
selected from its being known to belong to
a wealthy merchant. The object of this
choice is the petition that naturally ensues
for liberty to remove so dreadful a nuisance,
and perhaps a bribe of 100 piastres (1l. of
our money) is offered for this purpose. A
larger sum is demanded; and matters not
being brought to a conclusion, it is deferred
till the morrow.

The next day finds circumstances aggravated;
a larger sum is proposed, and a still
larger required; and the bidding goes on
increasing till perhaps the fifth or sixth day,

172

when the visitation becomes so intolerable
to the rich man and his neighbours, who
are already suffering from the desertion of
their customers, that they make common
cause, and the affair is concluded by the
payment of what is in fact an absolute fine
of, perhaps, 20,000 piastres. How extraordinary
that such a government can be
not merely tolerated, but apparently respected!

Nor is, I fancy, the doctrine of fatality
as much lessened among the Mussulmen as
it is generally reported to be; and though
no stranger could, I think, visit Constantinople,
and not be impressed with the
opinion that the Turks no longer feel the
jealousy of foreigners, which has hitherto
distinguished them, yet this does not arise
from their progress in civilization, nor from
the gradual extinction of their prejudices,
but from mere apathy, springing in a great
measure from the notion so prevalent among

173

them, that it is their kismet (destiny) to be
encroached on by Europeans.

The Sultan's having given up the power of
inflicting instant death has, for the most
part, violently shocked their feelings, and
the property of Greeks and Armenians having
also been made secure to them, these
abrogations of their laws lead to the worst
anticipations among the Turks for the future.

The Osmanlis have the character of being
liberal, generous, and charitable, and old
patriarchal customs still prevail among
them which are highly interesting; for
instance, as soon as the grapes are ripe
and plucked, any poor man may break
through the fence, and turn his cattle into
the enclosure; and on the very next day
after that appointed by the magistrates for
gathering in the olive crops, people have
the right of coming to glean up what may
be left.

If a stranger should enter a Turkish

174

garden, even without leave asked, the proprietor
would give him free permission to
partake of its contents; should he take the
same liberty with a Greek, he would probably
meet with a very different reception.
Their indifference to worldly ills and privations,
and their contempt of death, are
manifested on all occasions. A boatman
would see his nearest comrade fall into the
water without offering him the least assistance,
though perhaps he would go so far
as not to quit the spot till his fate was
decided one way or the other.

Lady P——'s description of Rechid
Pacha's harem, which was the only one she
had ever seen, during her seven years residence
in Turkey, seemed after a century's
interval to be the very counterpart of Lady
M. W. Montague's visit to the lovely
Fatima at Adrianople, although the beauty
of the present fair one was less characterised
by extreme youth.

175

Her diamonds, Lady P—— said, were
magnificent, though in less profusion than
those in Sultan Amurath's time, and the
beauty of three of Madame Rechid's little
boys proved another point of resemblance to
that of Fatima's young family.

Madame Rechid (I wish I knew her
prettier name) was suffering at the time
from the presence of the green-eyed monster,
as Rechid Pacha was on the point of
taking to himself a new and younger bride,
and was about adding to her trousseau some
of the pretty purchases he had made in his
recent visit to England.

He appeared, however, on very tolerable
terms with his older wife, and she told Mrs.
B——-d, who had accompanied Lady P——
on her visit, with an air of most complete
satisfaction, that her eldest son, whom his
father had taken with him to London, had
brought her a piece of English cloth for
her ferigee (vest) of ceremony.

176

The coffee-cups and stands were described
as being of exquisite gold filigree
work, but they could not have vied with those
which were used at the seraglio during last
Sunday's ceremony, and which were composed
of blue enamel, incrusted with little
bouquets of diamonds!

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH.

—Just as the
arrival of Captain M——'s boat was announced,
which was to assist us in taking
the first step of our expedition to the
Giant's Mountain, George's chilly symptoms
of the last twenty-four hours amounted
to so decided a shivering fit, that, in spite
of the fineness of the day, we discouraged
his being of our party. We therefore proceeded
without him in the pinnace of the
Carysfort across the Bosphorus, and landed
at the point of the Sultan's Valley, where
an araba, yoked with white bullocks, which
was in attendance, and which was furnished
with a comfortable mattress, proved to be

177

a conveyance as easy as it was picturesque.
The animals which drew it were, as usual,
laden with talismans and amulets.

I think I never took a more enjoyable drive,
the road lying through a most fertile valley,
thickly studded with magnificent sycamores.
The ascent of the Giant's Mountain is very
gradual, and employs about an hour; and
the hedge-rows, and, indeed, the whole of
this portion of the mountain, were brightened
by the varied colours of the heath, and the
abundance of the arbutus trees in rich fruit,
as well as displaying its early and delicately-tinted
blossom, looking as if it had been
cherished by spring and autumn, while it
had escaped the withering influences of
both summer and winter.

The view we gained by a sudden turn
in our path was unexpectedly beautiful,
though very different in character, revealing
the gloomy countenance of the
Black Sea, with a most picturesque old

178

Genoese castle placed at the very entrance
of the Bosphorus. As we ascended further,
the general prospect enlarged on us, but I
thought it less striking than the first effect of
that old castle, which appeared to be proudly
guarding and overlooking the two seas.

The very beautiful turn of the Bosporus
at this point is so remarkable, that I think
no painter could imagine a more lovely combination
of outline and colouring. Adjoining
the little coffee-house where we remained
to rest our araba cattle, they shewed us what
might be described as either a long slip of
garden or a cemetery, and which was
pointed out as the Giant's Grave, or the bed
of Hercules, upwards of fifty feet long

From the general appearance of the place,
the Giant's Grave must have been of rather
a modern date; it was clear he had been
a great man; but further than this, no
account could we gather of either his birth,
parentage, or education.

179

On our réturn we found our invalid very
uncomfortable and feverish, and his head, in
some degree, affected; so that we lamented
with good reason having left our doctor
at Pera, on the very first occasion which had
offered itself for profiting by his services.

All the descriptions of the first symptoms
of the plague flashed across me, and every
sinister image was conjured up in my mind
during the time I felt the beatings of a most
irregular pulse; but as I could not, of
course, give expression to all my imaginings,
I at once insisted on sending for the
surgeon of the Carysfort, as our own
doctor could not possibly be summoned to
Therapia before five hours were elapsed.

Denino, our courier, therefore went off
in a caique on this mission, and brought
back with him the assistant surgeon of the
Carysfort, a very obliging and intelligent
young man, who decided upon the symptoms
only presenting the appearance of

180

those attending on a chill, which we supposed
George to have caught in the damp
forest of Belgrade, where he sat down to
superintend M. Chacaton's drawing of the
apocryphal residence of Lady M. W. Montague.

Some James's Powders, of which, by the
advice of some of our friends, who had been
Eastern travellers, we had laid in a large
supply, were then administered; and before
night the fever was much diminished,
and my plaguy suspicions entirely removed.

NOVEMBER 12TH, TUESDAY.

—The fever
was quite gone down; and we lamented
that our patient could not venture to profit
by so fair though cold a day, to visit the
very picturesque environs of Therapia. Our
own doctor at length arrived, and approved
of our English treatment, though he evidently
considered it very severe.

We met with every sort of kind prévenance

181

from both embassy and legation; but
we determined on dining upon the produce
of their good cuisines at our own quarters.
I walked with Mrs. B—— in the garden of
the French embassy, which is so pretty in
winter that in summer it must be quite a
paradise. I next paid Lady P——a morning
visit. The view from the drawing-room
of her wooden palace, into which I
was first ushered, was most riant and
animated.

The aimable Polish General C——y, an
attaché to Lord P——, received me, and
indulged his taste for speaking English,
by inquiring, “Whether the domestic had
prevented the lady ambassadress of my
presence?”

I left the palace laden with English newspapers
to delight the heart of my invalid,
with regard to whom our doctor prognosticates
a return of fever for the morrow.
One's great eagerness to receive the papers,

182

when at this distance from home, seems
always followed by some disagreeable intelligence,
which they are sure to convey, of
people and things in England. In our
packet of to-day, that of the Chartist disturbances
greatly preponderates; but though
the account appears quite awful in the
papers, yet, strange to say, not a mention
of them occurs in our private letters.

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183

CHAPTER XV.

Second expedition to Buyakderé—Genoese castle—
Ovid's tower—Wooden kiosks—Our new attendant—
Assemblage of the Turkish beau monde—
The young Sultan unprepossessing in appearance
—Beautiful children—Count N ...—A Turkish
funeral—An Armenian funeral.

NOVEMBER 13TH, WEDNESDAY.

—We were
detained some time from setting out on a
second expedition to Buyakderé, to look at
another view of the entrance to the Euxine,
by George being again attacked violently
with fever, which confirms our doctor in his
opinion of its being of an intermittent aguish
character.

184

We at length set off in a boat belonging
to the Carysfort, whose crew of well-appointed
sailors afforded a great contrast to
those of some Turkish and other frigates
lying at anchor here. Our horses were in
waiting at a summer palace belonging to
M. B——, the Russian Ambassador.

The first part of our road lay through
Brunck-deré, the Valley of Roses, represented
by bare slippery rocks, which,
had we been mounted on English horses,
would have been anything but agreeable.
The miserable pavements of all Turkish
towns, however, accustom their horses to
every kind of clambering, and they are universally
sure-footed.

We soon after attained a position from
which we had a new view of the old Genoese
castle, which formed such a beautiful feature
in our ride to the Giant's Mountain.
To-day it was brightened by there being a
good deal of sea, the waves of which broke

185

over the walls of the citadel in a very impetuous
manner.

We passed a small isolated building, of
which it would be difficult to describe the
character or architecture. Its name alone,
Ovid's Tower, made it interesting, and it is
said to have been inhabited by the poet
during the period of his long exile.

We returned through part of the forest of
Belgrade, where we visited the two modern
Brents, to each of which the sultan attached
wooden kiosks, where he spent many of his
long summer days. He built, at different
times, upwards of fifty of these palace-kiosks
in the environs of Constantinople, which has
been attributed to the influence of a prophecy
made to Mahmoud, that his good star
should predominate so long as he continued
to ornament his capital in this manner.

I found our ride very long, and as usual
proposed restoring at a café in Baghtchekenï,
or “the garden of the valley.” Minney

186

and I dined at Lord P——'s, leaving the
doctor with his patient, or rather patients,
as our landlady, a Tyrolese, claimed him for
fellow-countryman, which, I believe, led to
the discovery of innumerable ills, for the
purpose of consultation and conversation.

She recommended her head-waiter as a
remplaçant for Giovanni, telling us that his
only drawback, as her servant, had been his
possessing a roving disposition, which would
suit our present habits better than her stationary
ones.

Demetrius was a young Spartan, who had
been to Petersburgh with I forget what great
person, and to England for the coronation in
Count Strogonoff's suite. In fact he had
travelled a good deal, obtained good certificates,
and a smattering of the languages of
all the different nations he had visited; but,
having spent his money, was desirous of
following our fortunes for whatever remuneration
we might choose to bestow on him

187

from time to time; and as his honesty and
activity were vouched for by Frau Spilling,
our bargain with Demetrius was soon concluded.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH.

—We profited
by the day which intervened between the
attacks of the ague, to leave Therapia at an
early hour, for the purpose of removing our
invalid to Pera. We heard, on our arrival,
that this day was a sort of Mi Careme in the
Rhamazan, and that the sultan had proceeded
after mosque to what may be described
as the Turkish Corso.

We set out under Lord A——y's escort,
not knowing exactly where we should find
the assemblage of Turkish beau monde, as
we had no longer the advantage of our late
Giovanni's instructions. As we were about
to give up our imperial search in disappointment,
and were threading the mazes of the
bazaar, on our return we came suddenly
upon the whole cortège in the place fronting
the Seraskier's tower.

188

The sultan and his retinue appeared here
to much greater advantage than they had
done in going to mosque the Friday before;
but the impression I then received of his
absence of good looks was quite confirmed,
for there was not even the beauté du Diable
to redeem it.

The talikas and coochys were in great
abundance, and contained smarter dressed
ladies than we had as yet seen, for although
clothed in their unvarying costume, the
yashmac and ferigee, they contrived to
display also their gay inner garment, which
was in many cases richly adorned with
diamonds and other jewellery.

I do not think that there was a carriage
which did not contain children, and these of
a character of loveliness superior to any I
had ever seen before, and from brilliancy of
complexion, luxuriance of hair, and brightness
of eye, reminding me exceedingly of the
style of beauty of the J——m family. Their
mothers appear to lose these advantages

ABDHUL MEDJID.
Published by Henry Colburn, 13 Great Marlborough Street 1841.

189

while quite young, for their complexions
were generally sallow, and hardly susceptible
of improvement even from the rouge,
which they apply in so unnatural a manner.

As we were admiring a particularly well-appointed
equipage, a woman with her child
while crossing the road was knocked down
by it, and actually remained under the wheel
without the slightest assistance being afforded
her, the ladies in the carriage looking on
with the greatest indifference, till Sir H.
W——y, like a preux chevalier, rushed forward
and lifted her up.

He described her hand to have been as
pretty as her grasp was strong and convulsive,
and her eyes to have been most brilliant.
We were too far off to judge of the
justice of this description, but quite near
enough to be stunned by the screams of her
little boy, which increased in proportion as
the danger lessened.

The wheel had entirely crushed her slipper,

190

from which, however, she had had time
to withdraw her foot uninjured, which told
in my mind greatly in favour of the slip-shod
system. The whole scene of the promenade
was excessively lively and pretty, but we
were told that a closer acquaintance with the
individuals composing the throng would
have revealed much impatience for the setting
of the sun to terminate their long protracted
fast—long, even at the present season
of the year—and which in summer (when the
Rhamazan happens to fall in that season) is
almost unbearable, and to the labouring
classes not unfrequently even fatal, though
not the less strictly adhered to, since it is
deemed a transgression even to partake of
the refreshment afforded by a glass of water
or a chiboque.

On getting home we found that quinine
had not produced its usual good effect on our
invalid, whose mal-aise was very much aggravated
by the extreme cold of our apartment.

191

Count N——and Mr. S——I called upon
us to-day. The brother of the former had
lately been the hero of a very amusing
story. In the official position which he
occupied, he had been recently promoted
both in fortune and honours, and was consequently
very desirous to present the
fashionable circle at Pera with a Comtesse
N——. For this purpose he transported
himself to Smyrna, where he considered
that his opportunities of selection would be
more numerous and extensive, and lost no
time in offering his hand, heart, and new
coat of arms to Mademoiselle Z——. She,
however, declined these flattering proposals,
softening her refusal by assuring him of
her conviction, that almost any other
signorina in Smyrna would gladly embrace
such combined advantages.

This afforded the Count great consolation;
and he requested the lady to make
him out a list of what she considered the

192

most desirable Smyrniote partis, which she
accordingly did, and followed up this act of
kindness by undertaking to forward, by her
own interest and her father's servant, any
epistolary proposition which he might
choose to make.

In consequence of this suggestion, he
wrote five letters, the counterparts of each
other, and entrusted them to the first Dame
de ses pensées, to be forwarded as occasion
might require, hoping that four of the
number would prove waste paper. This
might possibly have been the case had not
an officious servant intervened, who, seeing
the five letters lying on the divan, proceeded
immediately to deliver them at their
several destinations.

The fatal consequences that ensued may
be imagined: the young ladies met, and
having communicated to each other the
contents of their several epistles, they agreed
to consider the whole affair as an impertinent

193

mystification, and soon made the
élite society of Smyrna too hot for poor
Count A. N——'s further residence there;
so that, disappointed and crest-fallen, he
was fain to return by the very steamer that
had brought him out on his matrimonial
speculation.

The impossibility of our leaving Stamboul
by to-morrow's packet, in consequence
of its being the day on which the
fever revisits our poor invalid, is a very
tantalizing circumstance, as the simple
change of air proves generally the best
remedy for his disease, and every day's
progress towards the south would materially
improve our climate.

Mr. S—— gave us an account of a
Turkish funeral which he had seen that
morning, and which he said was conducted
with the utmost rapidity, and with very
little regard to the respect which we consider
due to the dead; for, on finding that

194

the grave which they had dug was too
short, acting on their usual system of expediency,
instead of setting themselves to
lengthen it, they actually cut off several
inches from the end of the coffin, completely
exposing the feet of the deceased,
which only escaped mutilation by the body
happening to be none of the longest.

We had also an account of an Armenian
burial from Sir H. W——y. It was that of
a child, whom he described as very beautiful
and richly dressed, with flowers in its
little hand; but to his surprise, after the
service was performed, it was stripped of
everything, save an inner vest, and placed
in a wooden box, preparatory to being consigned
to the earth.

The father, he said, appeared quite
broken-hearted at this part of the ceremony.
One cannot understand why so unnecessary
a despoiling should be suffered at
all.

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195

CHAPTER XVI.

The Grand Seignior's favourite dwarf — The Grand
Vizier—His excessive cruelty — Frequent use of
torture — A Turkish repast — Spieler Lockner—
Kosrow Pacha — “The last of the Turks” —
The late Sultan Mahmoud—The government—
Salaries of the Pachas—The revenue—Expenses
of a Turkish nobleman—Fire at Pera—Officers
of the Belle Poule.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH.

—Under the
guidance of the Consul's celebrated Mustapha,
Minney, Christine, and myself, went
bazaaring at an early hour; but, while stopping
at the counter of a silk merchant, and
as I was concluding my most interesting
purchases, I found myself and my horse
nearly upset together by the push of a

196

Kavass, who was clearing the way for an
important cavalcade, attending on no less a
person than the very least of the Grand
Seignior's subjects, his favourite dwarf.
My first impression, on recovering my
equilibrium, was, that a train as imposing
as that which escorted the Sultan himself
could only be in attendance on his younger
brother, of whom he is said to be extremely
fond. The dwarf looked about five years
old in point of size, but with a shrivelled
countenance. I pointed him out to Minney
as a spoiled, sickly-looking child, dressed in
uniform, with a pair of false moustaches on
to amuse him; but I was well pleased, on
Mustapha pointing out my mistake, with
having an opportunity of beholding the
sublime favourite.

I never saw a countenance in which
haughtiness and arrogance more predominated
than in that of this little being; and it
was very amusing to see the tall Kavass

197

lifting him off his horse, apparently with his
finger and thumb, as the imp's shopping
caprices dictated his movements.

A little further on, we had the good luck
to meet the Grand Vizier, Kosrow Pacha,
who was accompanied by a retinue of about
twenty people. He bowed to us as he
passed, which was a rare exception to the
usual absence of courtesy towards Europeans
among the Mussulmen.

He is a fresh-coloured and healthy-looking
old man, with a very intelligent, though unprepossessing
expression of countenance,
and very round shouldered, or bent, more
likely, by the eighty years which have passed
over him. He has been raised from the
lowest class to the very highest honours, as
so often happens here, having been originally
a Georgian slave.

We heard of a late instance of his cruelty
in the case of a young man who was brought
before him by his master, a silversmith,

198

under suspicion of having purloined some
valuable pearls. Kosrow condemned him
to be put to the torture by the application
of a hot iron to the head first, and then to
the chest of the ill-fated youth; but this
producing no confession, the barbarous
vizier ordered that his head should be
thrust into a sort of box filled with smoke,
and there held during some seconds. The
effect produced was so little short of suffocation
that the poor wretch broke a blood
vessel, and death ensued in less than twenty-four
hours; soon after which, to make the
case still more shocking, his innocence of
the theft was clearly proved.

Torture is of daily occurrence, unless
indeed the late proclamation for its abolishment
has already begun to come into
operation. Captain M—— saw a woman
bastinadoed but a few weeks ago on the
shoulders, which is more common now than
its being inflicted on the feet, since they find

199

that it less impedes bodily labour in this
than in the former way.

We reached home too late for my intended
essay of a Turkish bath, preparatory
to our Turkish repast, for the arrangement
of which we had engaged the services of the
best Armenian cook that was to be found.
The result was highly successful, and, in
European precedence, some of the dishes
would have proved excellent; but beginning
our dinner with puff-pastry, soup in the
middle, and salt-fish for dessert, was rather
a surprise to our digestive organs.

Capoma, a sort of blanc-mange, composed
of the breasts of chicken, finely powdered
and reduced to the most ethereal substance,
with its rose-water sauce, was delicious;
and Backlasan, which in England would
have been described as an Irish stew, was
very appétissant. Everything, too, looked
exceedingly clean, and was served in the
best possible order.

200

The far-famed Persian ragout, called the
Spieler Lockner, or the Devil's Mouthful,
was not forgotten; it was invented by
Veh Bey Yatzee, and was composed of a
fowl stuffed with capsicums, and boiled in
arak. It might well supersede the original
European devil in exciting thirst, and this
the Turks attempt to quench with brandy,
which they affect not to class with wine as
forbidden.

Our doctor would not hear of our sending
his patient more than specimens of our
various plats, and these in homeopathic
proportions, but George found them so good
that he did not at all approve of this tantalizing
system, particularly on this his
unaguish day.

In the evening, we had much agreeable
conversation; amongst other things it was
remarked that there was scarcely a man of
talent among the Turkish grandees, except
Reschid, the reis effendi; and no marvel

201

either, since the great officers of state under
the late sultan owed their elevation to their
good looks, or to some other fancy of his,
equally absurd. Slaves from Circassia and
Georgia are elevated to the highest posts,
and are sometimes placed in command of
both army and navy.

Kosrow Pacha, the present prime minister,
is said to be cunning, false, an intriguant,
and but of moderate abilities. We were
informed that the late sultan had been possessed
of one real friend, the ablest man in
the country, and who, being gifted with strong
sense and great nobleness of character, to
which he had added various attainments
and accomplishments, had fortunately for
the empire obtained a vast influence over
the mind of his royal master. His name
was Perteff Pacha. But the envious and
wicked at length succeeded in ruining him
in the estimation of the sultan, and he was
first sent into exile at Adrianople, and there,

202

about three years ago, strangled by order of
his sovereign.

Thus perished, in the hour of need, one
whom we heard mentioned as “the last of
the Turks;” a man who, had he lived, would
probably, from the elevation of his views and
his commanding talents, have done much
towards the regeneration of his country.

Mahmoud, as is well known, had contracted
the habit of indulging to excess
in the use of strong liquors; and in fact
the malady which carried him off was one
naturally occasioned by his intemperance.

The conversation turned afterwards on
the utter want of centralization in Turkey.
The grand vizier is nominally at the head
of affairs, but in reality all power emanates
from the sultan; to him do the pachas, or
governors of provinces, make their reports,
and from him directly do they receive their
orders, if ever they are troubled with such
communications.

203

We were furnished also with some curious
statistics relative to the newly-organized
system of government. It seems that the
sultan formerly inherited the property of all
persons executed for any crime whatsoever.
These rights were invariably sold to the
pachas sent to govern the different provinces,
and hence, in great measure,
sprung that depopulation, visible in almost
every part of the empire, and the assemblages
of masses of people in the towns,
resolved to avoid the oppressive sway of
these delegated tyrants. But now, in pursuance
of the intention of the late Hatti
Scheriff, the sultan has allotted regular salaries
to all his employés, to check, if possible,
their rapacious plunderings.

Nine thousand a year has been fixed as
the stipend of each pacha with three tails;
the grand vizier has thirteen thousand; the
sultan's brother-in-law, Halil, the seraskier,
eleven thousand; Reschid, the reis effendi,

204

the same as a pacha; all to be punctually
paid. It is said that the first example the
sultan will make, will be the pacha of
Smyrna, who, in a very few months after he
had obtained his pachalic, had collected
eighty thousand pounds.

The public revenue paid into the treasury
amounts to about six millions sterling. The
sultan's privy purse to a million and a half,
out of which, however, he pays his guards.
The whole population, in what remains of
the Turkish dominions, amounts to from ten
to eleven millions.

The expenses of a Turkish nobleman are
immense; besides his harem and its contingent
charges, he keeps perhaps sixty servants,
and as many horses; and as neither he nor
his wives take on them in the least the
direction of their household affairs, the
Ottoman noble is naturally plus mangé than
those of most other countries.

Soon after we had retired to rest, I was

205

awakened from my first sleep by Christine's
entrance, with a request that I would not be
alarmed, which naturally produced in me a
strong feeling of apprehension. She then
proceeded to inform me that a dreadful fire
was raging near us, and all Pera awake.

It was impossible not to congratulate
oneself on the opportunity of seeing a fire,
if one was to take place, and we hastily
went up to the highest story the house we
were in afforded, that we might obtain as
complete a view as possible of the whole
scene.

I could not refrain from having the
doctor disturbed, and still less M. Chacaton,
who would otherwise have slept
through the whole bustle, as I was very
anxious that he should endeavour to profit
by the beautiful effect which was presented
from the top of the house.

The fire was at least a mile distant, and
threw the most brilliant light on a minaret

206

near, causing it to stand out most boldly
from the dark blue background formed by
the smoke. As the flames advanced in the
opposite direction from the minaret, they
reached by degrees the cypresses and sycamores,
whose branches they burst through
before the trunks fell.

Luckily the wind abated in about half an
hour, and we could perceive that the adjoining
mosque had escaped destruction,
though, from the reflected light thrown on
it, it had the appearance of being actually
reddened by the intense heat.

There never was, I fancy, a greater approximation
of the sublime to the ridiculous,
than this incendie produced, when we, its
spectators, (by the only light afforded us,
that of the distant conflagration,) were first
enabled to judge of the generally unbecoming
state of negligé, which our various
and hastily-donned costumes presented. We
had the satisfaction of hearing that only sixty

207

houses were consumed,—a small number,
when we consider that it is wooden houses
we are speaking of,—and no lives lost. It is
remarkable that among the very numerous
fires which occur here, an accident affecting
human life rarely occurs, as the Turks
abandon their wooden houses, and look on
with the greatest nonchalance, while their
property is being consumed.

This fire was at Tophana, off which lay
the Belle Poule, the officers of which, as the
Prince de J——had distinguished himself
greatly by having assisted in putting down
a recent serious conflagration at Pera,
thought the present a good opportunity for
following his example, during his Royal
Highness's absence at Trebizonde, and accordingly
set about pulling down some small
houses, which had, after a severe scorching,
entirely escaped the fire.

This active proceeding so enraged the
apathetic Turkish proprietors, that they

208

vowed by the beard of the prophet they
would force the Francese infidels to build
up again what they had so wantonly and
unceremoniously pulled down.

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CHAPTER XVII.

The Armenian Burying-ground—Letters from Home
—Our invalid—Access of fever—Dr. M‘G ....,
an English physician, at Constantinople, called
in—The young Sultan's nurse—The plague not
considered infectious.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH.

—Having visited
the most interesting environs of Constantinople
by boat and horse, we set out to
walk to the Armenian burying-ground, the
situation of which is lovely, and which contains
a variety of interesting memorials.

One corner seems principally devoted to
English monuments, among which the two
most striking are those of Mrs. Arbuthnot
and Mr. Morier. In this cemetery, one does

210

not meet, as in the Turkish ones, groups of
persons, whose interest seems identified with
the dead, but here the painful contrast presents
itself of tombstones neglected and
overgrown with moss, though originally
more richly sculptured than those of the
Turks.

There was, however, no absence of visitors
to this cemetery, but they were almost
universally Europeans, who, like ourselves,
had chosen this spot as a pretty walk, or to
gratify their idle curiosity in reading the
monumental inscriptions.

We had given up all hopes of the courier's
arrival, when we had the satisfaction to
receive some letters which gave us most
pleasant intelligence of all at home. They
were, however, a month old, owing to the
déour they had made in coming by Athens;
but the Galignanis, which had taken a different
route, were only half that age, and
contained accounts of the deaths of the

211

Dukes of Argyle and Bedford, with the contradiction
of that of Lord Brougham; but
these were the only subjects of interest.

We found that George had suffered
during our absence from very strong paroxysms
of fever, attended with much
delirium. When he was again himself,
he was much amused by the account our
doctor gave of the line it had taken, which
was that of expressing the most indignant
surprise at the sultan's not having called to
make his personal inquiries, and afterwards
arguing with the doctor, whom he asserted
to be ignorant of the fact of Napoleon
having married an Archduchess of Austria.

The doctor's nationality somewhat clashed
with his science on this occasion, for he
acknowledged that George's pertinacity in
arguing upon it was so great, that he could
not resist the wish of attempting to put him

212

right. However, his repeated fever-attacks
seemed so little to lessen in violence, that
I could not help wishing that Dr. M‘G——
should be consulted, feeling as I did the
value of his twenty-five years' experience of
the climate.

So extensive is his practice, that it was
very late in the evening before he could find
time to come to us, but he afforded us the
satisfaction of entirely approving Dr. Bendiner's
treatment, and of recommending its
being persisted in.

Dr. M‘G——'s long residence in Turkey
has not at all affected his English appearance,
and by it he has been enabled to attain a
knowledge of Turkish manners and customs,
such as, I should think, no other European
possesses; for which, indeed, he has great
advantages, as he has constantly attended
the principal harems, and was physician to
the late and present sultans, though to the
latter only while heir-apparent, for since

213

his accession to the throne, his Armenian
nurse has been his doctress, who from that
circumstance has become a very fashionable
hakim.

She is described as very shrewd and intelligent,
and is believed not to confine her
advice to medical subjects, but to be sometimes
the cause of great divisions on state
affairs in the influential quarter of the Sultana
Validi's apartment.

Dr. M‘G——also gave us some curious
particulars about the plague. He had himself
never taken it, but had no hesitation in
touching any one whom he even knew to be
infected.

The wives and near relations of natives
commonly stay with the patient. Many of
these do not take it at all; and many more
conceal the fact of their being infected, lest
they should lose the society of their acquaintance.

Dr. M‘G——had removed poor young

214

Mr. M——n into his bed at the last stage
of the disorder, and took no other precaution
than that of changing his clothes, and keeping
aloof from society as much as was in his
power, for a few days following his death.

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215

CHAPTER XVIII.

Visit to the harem of Nourri Effendi—His daughter
—Magnificent robe—His mother, Madame Nourri
—Harem of Osman Bey—His three wives—Coffee
in the harem — A dejeuné — A Turkish bath—
Amusement of the ladies and slaves of the harem
whilst examining the various parts of English-dress—
Interesting child — Turkish hospitality —
Increase of commerce in the Eastern Turkish
provinces — The Sultan's copper-mines in Asia
Minor.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH.

—Thanks to
the pains taken by Mr. S—— and his interest
with an Armenian banker, we got an
invitation to visit Nourri Effendi's harem;
and, taking with us Madame Roboli for an
interpretress, we set off as early as ten, that

216

we might avoid finding the ladies suffering
from their prolonged fast.

We were received by Sahid Bey, the son-in-law
of Nourri Effendi, (now Chargé d'affaires
at Paris,) and after being called on to
admire his apartments, which were most
incongruously fitted up with a mixture of
bad English and French furniture, we were
conducted by him to his harem.

In a room wholly unfurnished, save by a
divan, stood, leaning against the wall, a very
pretty girl, about thirteen years old, to whom
he had been married six months. She was
the daughter of Nourri Effendi, and was
likely soon to make him a grandpapa.

Her dress was beautiful: a straw-coloured
ferigee, a vest of pink satin, ornamented
with black braid, the sleeves of which were
tight almost to the wrist, but descended
from thence most gracefully to the ground,
giving one quite the idea of a pair of wings;
these, when they are at work, they fold up

217

in the neatest manner possible, and then
contrive to place them quite out of sight, in
the other part of the sleeve.

Her trowsers were of white sarsenet, but
so long as to impede her motions, and give
her a very shuffling gait. She wore neither
shoes nor stockings, and we occasionally
caught a glimpse of a very pretty and white
foot, though not remarkably small.

Upon our expressing admiration at her
dress she became more at ease than at our
first entrance; and, at Sahib's desire, went to
fetch her costume de fête, which was a robe of
lilac cashmere, most beautifully embroidered
in gold, and at the same time so massively,
that it was almost too heavy to hold in one's
hand.

Our admiration of it was so grateful to
Sahib, that he proposed my remaining a
fortnight longer; in which time, he said, he
would get one worked for me of the same
pattern. I hope he meant en cadeau, as it

218

would else have been a politesse à peu de
frais.

As we were to leave Stamboul the next
day he did not detain us longer, but committed
us to his little wife's care, whom he
called Fitmah, and who conducted us to
Nourri Effendi's establishment, which was
in another part of the harem.

On entering a room, surrounded on three
sides by a divan, we were delighted at the
completely Oriental tableau that met our
view. In one corner, comfortably tucked-up
between two feather beds, which were
placed on the divan, lay an old woman,
indifferently clean in appearance, and with
a very unpleasant expression of countenance.
At her feet sat a contemporary, evidently the
nurse of the family, whom we found to be a
very leading character here, and gifted with no
ordinary flow of conversation; altogether, she
seemed the very counterpart of Juliet's nurse,
and amused us not a little by her remarks.

219

I imagine she was a Christian slave, as
she was embroidering, which is a recreation
not permitted to the faithful during the rhamazan,
but a pair of goggles shining underneath
her turban gave her exactly the look
of an elderly Turk.

On the other side, but sitting on the
ground, was Madame Nourri, attended by a
slave, who stood near her. Fitmah was
evidently not her own daughter, and seemed
to stand much in awe of her, which we
did not wonder at, as she had an austere
and forbidding look, and features which
never could have been in any degree pretty,
except indeed her eyes, which, like those of
the rest of her countrywomen, were large
and brilliant.

She took no part in the conversation,
which, so far as it was translated to me,
was very lively, consisting chiefly in messages
from the venerable mother of Nourri
Effendi to her son, on matters connected

220

with herself, her daughter-in-law, grand-daughter,
&c. &c.

Upon my telling the old lady that I had
heard of Nourri Effendi from our ambassadress
at Paris, she became very fond of me,
but his wife's affection did not increase in
the same proportion, and so little pains did
she take to do the honours of the house
to her foreign guests, whose presence in the
harem, as might be easily gathered from the
curiosity and eager attentions of the rest,
was not an every-day occurrence, that we
set her down as perfectly maussade, but I
was afterwards given to understand that she
was enacting the part of a malheureuse de-laissée.

The room was oppressively hot, owing to a
manghal (brazier), on which was perched a parrot,
who seemed to enjoy the warmth beyond
measure. He and a little sister of Fitmah
reigned conjointly as the pets of the harem,
but we were not able to profit much by his

221

sage remarks, which required an interpreter
more profoundly skilled in Turkish than
was Madame Roboli, although she was sufficiently
mistress of the language for the purposes
of ordinary conversation.

On taking our leave of the ladies, we
found Sahib's brother, Osman Bey, (the
Sultan's private secretary,) waiting outside,
having come to invite us to see his harem
also, an invitation which we were too happy
to accept.

His house stood near Sultan Achmet's
mosque, and had all the character of a
Turkish grandee's residence. Attached to
it was a balcony, from which the vine was
still hanging in perfect freshness, but the
effect of the whole, though much more picturesque,
was yet less imposing, than that of
Bey Sahib's palace, which, however, it far
surpassed in its interior arrangement and
style of decoration.

As Osman Bey, from some official engagement,

222

could not conduct us further
in person, he committed us to a black
slave, by whom we were introduced to the
harem, which was fitted up with the same
species of furniture as that we had just left,
but contained many more inhabitants. Standing
at the door were five slaves, of various
hues—black, white, and copper-coloured;
further in the room was an old lady and her
sister, and near them, but sitting on mattresses
spread on the floor, were three beautifully-dressed
women, Osman Bey's wives.

The countenance of one of them was the
most perfectly amiable I ever beheld: her
eyes were really beaming with kindness and
good nature, and she appeared to enjoy exceedingly
the interest we took in the baby
she was nursing, and the praises we bestowed
on it. Her figure did not correspond with
her features, being rather short and stumpy,
but her complexion was most brilliant, and
the texture of her skin like Lady F. E——'s,

223

which is the general character of that of the
fair dames of the East, though they are
much disfigured by a puffy look, which they
derive from the careful exclusion of all fresh
air from their harems when at home, and
even when they have occasion to go abroad,
from their being no less carefully protected
from all the winds of heaven, by their eternal
yashmacs. Their teeth also, though exquisitely
shaped, have the lustre of their
enamel deadened, partly perhaps from the
same cause, which gives an unhealthy look
to their countenances, and partly from their
habit of continual smoking.

The beauty of the most magnificently
dressed of the three ladies was in somewhat
the same style as that of Lady F—y S——t,
but the one whom we found the most conversable
of all did not enjoy external advantages
in the same degree with her
companions.

They looked at my rings, bracelets, &c.

224

with great curiosity and amusement. The
ring I had, with George the Fourth's picture,
had passed at the last harem for my
husband's, to save explanations; but I now
answered an inquiry concerning it, by telling
them that it was the picture of our late
sultan.

This affected one of the elder ladies to
such a degree that she burst into tears,
which was accounted for by her family
having owed everything to their late Sultan
Mahmoud's generosity. I thought this
little trait very creditable; it was such a
proof of natural and spontaneous feeling,
and her endeavours to disguise her emotion
were quite touching.

There appeared to be more blindness than
spectacles in the harem, as at least five persons
had recourse while we were there to a
pair of goggles, which this old lady kept,
together with her watch, in the folds of her
turban. All their turbans disappointed me;

225

instead of graceful folds, they consist of a
fez at the back of the head, plaits of hair,
mixed with muslin embroidered handkerchiefs,
pinned up à capriccio round the face,
and diamond aigrettes, rings, brooches, and
pins stuck into these, without any regard to
symmetry. They do not look so much
amiss, perhaps, when you consider the general
effect of their costume, but on one of
our heads they would, assuredly, at Paris
be thought to be in bad English taste.

The slaves now retired, and presently returned,
bringing in sweetmeats and coffee,
the partaking of which was a long ceremony,
as each lady walked to the door, where the
slaves were still stationed, and brought
back one thing at a time, which they presented
us, in a most unaffected, and, consequently,
graceful manner.

A black slave held the coffee. The tray
on which the silver cups were placed was
covered with a sort of embroidered napkin,

226

of a blue ground, spangled with gold. It
half took away the enjoyment of our coffee
to think how tantalizing it must be to the
rest of the party, to see us breaking a fast
which they so rigorously kept.

After our repast was concluded, I thought
it high time to retire, which they very
strongly opposed, insisting on my assigning
a reason. I pleaded our departure the next
day, and a bath I had ordered at two o'clock;
upon which, they insisted upon ordering their
own private bath to be prepared for me, so
that retreat was impossible.

On our way to the bathing-room, we found
in one apartment an excellent dejeune laid
out on a low table, consisting of at least a
dozen small dishes, and a little silver clasp-knife,
such as we use for fruit, laid beside
each, to be European. The plats consisted
of salt fish cut into small pieces, potted
meats, various kinds of sweetmeat, and a
melon of Cassobar, of so excellent a flavour,

227

that one can never think another worth eating
after it. I think this must have been
the forbidden fruit, and its colour is as
attractive as its taste.

They brought us three very uncomfortable
French chairs, which were so high, that
it was with difficulty we could stoop to the
table; however, we were getting on pretty
well, when all at once the ladies who were
waiting upon us, on a word from a black
slave, flew off with a kind of screech, like a
flock of birds, and disappeared behind a
heavy brocaded curtain.

The entrance of Osman Bey, with our two
European conductors, explained this manoeuvre.
He had heard of the breakfast having
been prepared, and now brought his two
friends to partake of it, retiring himself
almost immediately. The curtain did not
wholly conceal its fair inmates, as every now
and then we caught sight of a bright eye, or
a naked foot, or perhaps a pretty hand was

228

thrust forward to display a diamond ring,
while a sort of suppressed giggling was going
on all the time.

As soon as they perceived we had finished
our dejeune, we received a signal from a
black slave to join them, which we accordingly
did, and found that the bath was
ready. Nothing could be cleaner or in better
order than we found it, and it was conducted
with much more general agrement
than an English bath.

A sort of silken mantle was given me for
a bathing, or rather steaming, dress, and I
was rubbed with soft delightful soap by a
white slave, the ladies amusing themselves
by peeping at us through a window above.
The towels were of silk, and beautifully embroidered.
They seemed much put out by
my declining to wash my hair, and took it
down, chiefly, I fancy, to see if it were my
own. They were much surprised at its being
so long, as their own hair, though thick

229

and of beautiful quality, is of no great length,
nor is it in the profusion of the Greeks.

A black slave was much amused at all
the paraphernalia of my English dress, and
seemed to be very much puzzled over the
stays; the pins she handled very much as
if she coveted them. Neither ladies nor
slaves could master a hook and eye which
was to be fastened, and at length, severally,
gave up the puzzle with fits of laughter.

I then returned to the old lady, with
whom Minney had remained, and I found
they had carried on a busy conversation by
mutual inquiries, and a free use, on Minney's
part, of gezul and pechi to everything she
tasted or saw .

A dear little child, about three years old,
whose name was Adinia, they seemed never
to grow tired of caressing, and so general
were the attentions paid her by all three of
the ladies, that I could not make out to
which of them she was daughter. Her little

230

fez was covered with diamonds, and she did
not at all like its being taken off to shew
her pretty hair.

The tact and intelligence she possessed
were quite extraordinary. Upon my giving
her a little bracelet, at which she had been
looking, she presently returned it with a
very grave face, not supposing that I meant
her to keep it. I gave it her back again,
and, out of joke, one of the ladies took it
away from her, on which she made a great
uproar, but only regained it to return it me
a second time.

On my explaining that it was not of gold,
the old lady smiled, and pinned it on the
child's fez, who seemed perfectly satisfied at
the acquisition of the treasure. It shews at
how early an age they must be taught to
distinguish strangers; or, could such delicacy
have been intuitive?

We at last took leave, but had the greatest
difficulty in getting away, even after

231

having partaken of coffee a second time.
They were very anxious for us to remain
till after sunset, and dine with them; and
had I not thought that our invalid might
become uneasy at our six hours' absence,
I should have been very much tempted to
do so.

They begged us, at parting, to wave our
handkerchiefs from the Vapore, which would
pass under their windows, and the old lady
made me promise to write to her from Inghilterra,
when I reached home. She, poor
soul, looked quite exhausted by her day's
fasting, which at her age must be most
trying; and no exception was made even in
favour of the mamma, who was acting as
nurse, though I had understood that this
was generally the case.

So general was the feeling of hospitality,
that even the slaves all tried to make us
take away the fruit and sweetmeats. After
many last words we departed, and reached

232

home at dusk in our araba, quite delighted
at having seen Turkish domestic life to such
advantage.

We went, in the evening, to take leave
of Mrs. H——, and at her house made
acquaintance with Captain W——r and his
pretty wife. Captain W——r holds a distinguished
appointment in the imperial
arsenal. He was on board the Capitan
Pacha's ship, and was in complete ignorance
of the admiral's manoeuvre, until the fleet
was safely moored at Alexandria. He gave
the Turks the credit of great aptitude for
learning, and of being capable of becoming
smart and good sailors.

We also became acquainted with a well-informed
Italian, who has long been residing
in this country, where he has commercial
relations. He told us that trade in the
Black Sea was so greatly on the increase
that goods to the amount of £1,300,000,
of which the greater part were of British

233

manufacture, were conveyed during the last
year to Trebizonde by the Austrian steamers
alone, from whence they were dispersed into
the interior of the Eastern Turkish provinces,
Armenia, Persia, &c.

He also told us, that an English company
had made an offer to the late sultan of lending
him six millions on easy terms, if he
would consent to place in their hands, as a
security, his copper mines in Asia Minor,
with power to open fresh veins. The sultan,
however, declined entering into the compact,
fearing lest if he should do so he might not
remain much longer maitre chez lui.

These mines are of certain but unknown
value, and are not half worked; they are
situated near Koniah. The late sultan
seems by all accounts to have laboured
hard to cripple his empire; and, in its present
state, from whence can new revenues be derived?
Where is to be found a government
capable of calling into existence new sources

234

of wealth, now that the old ones have been
dried up, by the successive relinquishment
of all those expedients which formerly filled
the coffers of the imperial treasury?

The pachas are no longer able to purchase
their pachalics, as of old; nor can
they afford to make annual payments for
them, for the people in the provinces either
desert the soil entirely, or at least refuse to
cultivate it, not having now even the
slight security they formerly had under
the old-established magistrates, and Dere
Beys, whom Mahmoud removed, without
replacing them by any of his own. By this
act he lost the means also of assembling
again that formidable body of cavalry, which
had performed such feats of valour, and
rendered such signal service to their sovereign.
He lost Greece by the endeavour to
wreak his vengeance on Ali Pacha of Jenina,
and his jealousy of Mehemet Ali has led to
his losing a powerful ally, and to the setting

235

up instead, a formidable pretender to his
throne.

We had a few people at dinner, and what
with the length and interest of our harem-visits,
our leave-takings, and our last purchasings
and payings, we were quite knocked
up, and enjoy the prospects of leaving our
uncomfortable lodgings and this chilly
climate.

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236

CHAPTER XIX.

The Sultan's state caique—Leave Constantinople by
the Stamboul steamer—The harem of the Pacha
of the Dardanelles—Our fellow-passengers—The
Archbishop of Cyprus—Arrive off Smyrna—Apprehension
of plague—The Dutch consul—The
consul's wife—Re-embark—A Jew—Arrive off
Cos—The French consular agent—Famous platane
—The fountain of Hippocrates.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19th.

— After
making our adieu, with regret, to Mr.
C——t, whom we have less chance of seeing
again in England than our obliging acquaintances,
Mr. C——h, and Mr. S——1,
we went to the seraglio-point to look at the
sultan's state caique, a sight we had hitherto
missed, as during the three Fridays which

237

we passed at Stamboul, he always rode to
mosque.

I cannot imagine anything more beautiful
than its effect must be on the water. It
is seventy-seven feet long by only twelve
broad, is rowed by twenty-six men, and has
a sort of pavilion thrown over the part
which he occupies, with red velvet curtains,
richly trimmed with gold embroidery. The
caique itself is white and gold, and on the
prow is a gilt dolphin, on whose back is
perched an eagle. It is described as looking
like a golden snake on the waters, as it
glides along with great rapidity, and by
its side everything else must look coarse
and clumsy.

From hence we went on board the Stamboul
steamer, where we found the ladies'
cabin completely occupied by the harem of
the Pacha of the Dardanelles. We were
immediately pressed to visit the fair Mahometans,
and we found no less than four

238

ladies seated in each berth. Though their
stay was only to be a day, their provisions
and twelve selves completely filled the cabin,
and the overpowering heat, and smell of
melons, seemed to be quite unperceived by
their party; they all looked happy and un-sea-sick,
and the noise and bustle they
made in landing, at five in the morning, was
quite overwhelming.

On going upon deck, nothing could be
more picturesque than the assemblage our
fellow-passengers presented. Two very
handsome Persian princes, cousins to those
we had lately seen in England, were the
most prominent personages; dervishes performing
their devotions, priests of some
other sect chaunting theirs, and a group of
Jewish women similarly engaged, and with
their high head-dresses and uncovered faces
presenting a complete contrast to the closely-veiled
Turkish women.

A French abbé, belonging to a Smyrna

239

seminary, was reciting his breviary, sitting
next a fine specimen of patriarchal beauty
in the person of the Archbishop of Cyprus,
who had just received his appointment; and,
after fourteen years' residence in Europe,
where he had been a pensioner on the Greek
fund, he was returning to Cyprus after
eighteen years' expatriation. His fine white
beard and general appearance was more
reverential than his conversation; although
past seventy he was cruelly lamenting his
single state, as, after attaining the dignity of
deacon in the Greek church marriage is not
allowed.

He very seriously suggested to Minney
and myself, after one good hour's acquaintance,
that we should not extend our voyage
beyond Cyprus, but pass the winter and
keep house for him at his diocese of Larnaca,
and that George should return for us,
or rather to us, after parliament next year.
The only part of this proposition, not perfectly

240

flattering, was, that George should
leave him his Dover chair, as he said he
should then be made so comfortable in my
society. I was obliged to bring forward my
four deserted children as my excuse for
declining this proposition, for no other would
be accepted.

The weather was perfectly beautiful, and
we made a good day's progress, so as to
arrive off Smyrna the next evening, where we
found a portion of the French fleet in harbour,
with two of our own vessels, the
Powerful and the Ganges, Capt. Napier.

The effect of the shipping on a fine moonlight
night, which completely illuminated
the harbour, was lovely, and we were in the
full enjoyment of the favourable change
of climate effected by twenty-four hours'
voyage, when Mr. Brant, our consul, came
on board, and after a little interchange of
civilities, he proceeded to tell us, as an
agreeable communication, that a case of

241

plague had occurred at Smyrna, or rather,
as he added, a strong suspicion; and that,
in consequence, he, the French and Austrian
consuls, had issued des patentes noires, and
that a quarantine of twenty-one days would
ensue at Alexandria, or at whatever port we
touched, and this would be independent of
the ultimate quarantine at Malta, and no
pratique likely to be afforded at either
Beyrout or Jaffa.

Our consternation at this blow to our
Syrian, and indeed Egyptian, expedition,
was indescribable. Lord A——y looked
aghast, our French artiste in despair, and
(as we translated Mr. Brant's information)
appeared quite provoked at the philosophy
with which our Consul bore our griefs. Poor
George, from suffering still from his aguish
attack, had some time before retired for the
night, but he was roused for the purpose of
taking his share of the disappointment, and
we all separated in the lowest spirits, from

242

which Minney alone escaped; as she had
been left in ignorance, to dream of our visit
to Lebanon and Jerusalem.

NOVEMBER 21ST, 1839.

—Almost with the
morning gun arrived our good friend Mr. Van
Lenep, the Dutch Consul General, whose
acquaintance we had made when we had
touched at Smyrna a month before, and he
afforded us the delightful information that
the report of the plague case was so little
established that he had afforded a clean bill
of health to a Dutch vessel, and he felt convinced
that the other consuls would be led
to follow his example. This was immediately
confirmed by our new captain, who
commanded the Austrian steamer, the Seri
Pervas, (Rapid Bird, in Persian,) who informed
us he was in possession of a patente
blanche.

We were so delighted at this intelligence
that we could not regret the fright we had
experienced; we landed, and profited in

243

every way by Mr. Van Lenep's hospitality;
and used his well-appointed donkeys,
together with the luxury of Mademoiselle
Henriette's side-saddle, to take a ride as
beautiful as the day itself.

We went first to the Stadium, which
must have been quite as fine as the one at
Athens, and which commands a view of
the picturesque town, beautifully intermixed
with cypresses and other graceful trees.
We went a little further up the hill to see
the old castle, and passed what evidently
had been a Roman encampment. Underneath
the castle was a very extensive Piscina
of the same character as that at Baiae.
We passed two Roman archways; through
one we had a lovely view of the harbour,
and through the other we counted fourteen
mosques, and caught a glimpse of the
caravan bridge, which is small but very picturesque;
we only saw two camels cross

244

over it instead of the string usually met
with going to Mecca.

We then went to pay Mrs. Moore, the
consul's wife, at Beyrout, a visit, to glean
information for our journey. She is a very
pretty woman, like Lady Fitzharris. Her
mother is an Armenian, and she has the
beautifully Eastern heavy eye, with the prettiest
accent possible. She volunteered accompanying
us to the bazaar, where our
purchases were not numerous, the shops
being shut up by the hungry Mussulmen,
in anticipation of sunset.

We dressed on board our new steamer,
where we had the good luck of having the
ladies' cabin to ourselves; and dined comfortably
and agreeably at Mr. Van Lenep's
whose family made us feel completely at
home; and, owing to our having mutual
connexions, I believe they really enjoyed
our society. It was quite disagreeable to

245

come away with so little prospect of ever
seeing these kind people again.

Before dinner we had been introduced to
an American missionary; he has a very
prepossessing manner and countenance, and
told us when he had left Jerusalem, a fortnight
ago, the rains had begun, and suspicions
of plague were likely to lead to an
interior quarantine. This is very discouraging,
but at Beyrout we may hear
better news.

NOVEMBER 22ND.

—We sailed at half-past
nine in the morning—wind contrary. At
six we dropped anchor at Tchesmee bay,
celebrated for a battle between the Turks and
Russians, in 1778. The south-wind made
us all head-achy, but nothing worse, and
our quiet anchorage allowed us to bring up
the arrears of our various journals.

NOVEMBER 23RD.

—The anniversary of
——was not a day productive of
anecdote. Although we had been sailing

246

all night, the wind was so contrary we had
not advanced more than three knots an
hour, and for twelve hours we have anchored
off Samos, in a snug little bay, surrounded
by a small cluster of islands called
Forni.

A Jew, who had sailed with us from Trieste
to Athens, and with whom we had then
had much religious controversy, confided,
in a very mysterious manner, to Lord A——y
and George, that he was a merchant, chiefly
of sponges, in the Strand, and that his present
expedition to Rhodes was connected
with this merchandise. There was a little
falling off from the sublime in this communication,
for till now we had imagined
him to be employed in some religious matter
connected with his countrymen. However,
his conversation was not the less interesting,
and I found him very tolerant to the protestant
Christians, and his conversation
generally pleasing.

247

He gave me a book to read, on the Jewish
interpretation of the Prophecies, that occupied
some hours of my attention and
interest. I did not know before to how
great an extent the reign of their Messiah
was expected to be of a temporal nature:
their (or perhaps his) idea of the day of
judgment was, that it would take place at
the hour of death. He condemned the
opinion of the Messiah's advent being at
hand; as he said, all prophecy tended to
prove that it was only when the Jews
became worthy and purified from their
dross and iniquity, that they could become
an acceptable people in the Almighty's
sight, and that this was far from being
accomplished, and that their sins had been
of so heinous a nature, that their punishments,
severe as they had been, were very
unequal to their deserts.

He looked at Minney's Pictorial Bible
with great pleasure, and read passages in

248

the New Testament with respect, as containing
so fine a moral code. I lent him
Blunt's Elisha, which he expressed himself
much pleased with, though he, of course,
dissented from the connexion Blunt deduces
from the subject with Christianity. He
gave this little book to a Jewish rabbi on
board, who praised it so highly that he
pronounced it almost equal to an inspired
work.*

NOVEMBER 24TH.

—After making but
slow progress during the night, we arrived
off Cos at mid-day. The island looked
pretty and fertile, but not picturesque, and
we debated whether we should land, when
the consular agent came on board, a M.
D'Avenant, a very civil Frenchman, who
recommended our going to see a famous
platane he believed to be 700 years old;

* The same Jew was afterwards indirectly involved
in the affair of the suspected murder of the children
at Rhodes.

249

but it is reported that it was under its
shade that Hippocrates assembled his disciples.
Its trunk is enormous, and its principal
branches so ponderous that they are
supported by stone pillars, each forming a
sort of crutch; its diameter is seventeen feet,
and a little fountain of somewhat Moorish
architecture gives the whole a very picturesque
effect.

Mons. Chacaton came on shore to sketch
it, and we ordered donkeys, to go and see
the fountain of Hippocrates, so called from
being built over some mineral waters he
first discovered, and of so beneficial a
nature that their reputation attracted many
strangers. The climate is most charming
and temperate, and the present Governor-Pacha,
M. D'Avenant described as being
very humane and unusually disinterested.

M. D'A. has been thirteen years without
leaving the island, and the only events to
vary his existence are the arrivals of the

250

steam-boats. He had a good stock of books.
He dined on board with us, accompanied by
his son, a boy of thirteen, who goes to
Smyrna for his education, and is already in
possession of four of the Eastern languages,
in addition to Italian and English,—excellent
étoffe for a future dragoman. Before
we sailed, M. D'A. sent me a medal he had
found, stamped in honour of Hippocrates,
which will afford me an interesting souvenir
of Stancho (formerly Cos).

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251

CHAPTER XX.

Rhodes—Its architecture—The interior of the island—
Persian prince—The Greek patriarch—Beyrout—
Beyrout women—Singular head-dress—A fresh
passenger—Reading at sea—English, French, and
Austrian steamers.

NOVEMBER 25TH.

—On awakening, found
ourselves off Rhodes; the appearance of
which afforded quite a new character to that of
the other islands; a beautiful white citadel,
the fortifications looking as if they had just
been completed, so little, in this climate, do
three centuries affect the stone. We left
the old port to our right, where the Colossus

252

is said to have stood. The highest tower at
the entrance is of beautiful and graceful
proportions, of stone, but with an entablature
in marble, bearing the arms of the
knights of Rhodes.

On landing we proceeded up the street,
which is very perfect, and composed entirely
of good houses, inhabited by the knights.
The architecture is of the Gothic pointed
arch, with a slight mixture of the Saxon,
and affording some beautiful studies and
effects for an architectural painter. M. Chacaton
employed our few hours' stay with
great zeal, in taking sketches of arches and
windows, over which some very pretty and
interesting escutcheons were inserted; of
the latter, the Portuguese were in the best
workmanship. Near what are now the barracks,
and what was Maitre de 1'Isle-Adam,
the governor's palace, was an entablature of
the royal arms of England. Over the portcullis
we remarked the escutcheon of the

253

arms of Amboise, representing a guardian
angel, with the date of 1482.

A fortnight would not suffice for a zealous
artist to draw the beautiful little objects that
present themselves in this street alone;
and I do not think any one of the modern
travellers, but M. de Marcellus, has done
the beauties of Rhodes justice.

The interior of the island, which we might
have visited had we anticipated the slowness
of our coal-embarking operations, is represented
as perfectly lovely and a sort of Swiss
scenery. Mrs. Wilkinson, whom we went to
see, told us that the campagnes, in the summer,
were all taken by visitors from Alexandria
and Smyrna, who came for the benefit
of the salubrious climate. To judge from
to-day, November 25th, nothing could be
more delightful.

Mrs. W. herself is a Smyrniote, with
one of the most agreeable countenances, and
high-bred natural manner, it was possible to
conceive. She was surrounded by a very

254

large small family, the youngest only a fortnight
old. She told us that they were in the
winter nearly without society, and no physician
of any kind in the place; so much
so, that she vaccinated her own children,
and was guided by an English medical work
in her treatment of them. This system,
assisted by the climate, has certainly succeeded;
for I never saw a more prosperous
family.

She told us that sickness was almost unknown,
and that the cheapness of provisions
made all classes á l'aise. Houses rented for
one hundred piastres (one pound) a year!
One really longed to buy a little estate, if
only to furnish sweet lemons and oranges
for one's desserts. We saw forty-five oranges
sold for a piastre (two-pence farthing, English.)
Mr. Wilkinson is brother to the consul
at Syra, and, as far as we could judge
from his speaking French, seems to possess
his brother's gift for languages.

NOVEMBER 26TH.

—The contrary wind

255

entirely abated, and the little breeze was so
favourable, that we made one hundred and
sixty-seven knots during the twenty-four
hours. For the first time during our voyage
the awning could be put up, and we passed
the whole day on deck with an unclouded
sky; and although, for my particular taste,
the sun was too powerful, yet the soft westerly
breeze prevented our feeling the oppression
of the preceding day's sirocco.

Our poor patriarch of Cyprus was under
our doctor's care, and rather poorly; I believe
partly from the regret of getting so
nearly to the termination of his voyage. I
suspect that at Cyprus there is no Greek national
air of a “Ranz-des-Vaches” character.

Our party, in the evening, represented a
maritime tower of Babel; our Persian
Prince, Mirza Mahomet, (who is a living
illustration of a beautiful young prince in
the Arabian Nights,) attempted to enter into
conversation with us, and to teach Minney

256

some Persian colloquial phrases. Lord
A——y failed communicating with him in
the Turkish he had picked up at Pera; the
captain was equally unsuccessful in Greek;
and at last our servant, Demetrius, proved
the medium of communication in Arabic;
when we learnt that he was on his road to
Alexandria, to join his father and brother on
their pilgrimage to Mecca. This duty once
accomplished, he was bound to the West—
i. e., to Paris and London; and, after that,
to return and marry, and settle at Ispahan.

The passengers on board, sixty in number,
spoke no less than ten different languages—
Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Hebrew,
Italian, Spanish, German, English, French;
and the individual on board most gifted in
languages was Giovanni, the steward; who,
probably, neither reads nor writes, but who
was blessed with the greatest share of
activity I ever beheld. Besides waiting
perfectly on twelve at dinner, he removed

257

all the dishes like a conjuror; we counted
eight decanters and four covers he carried
off at a swoop, and without noise or apparent
bustle. I believe he must have been
pupil to the Escamoteur we heard so much
of at Smyrna, and one longed to bribe him
from his steam-boat service.

NOVEMBER 27TH.

—Before we made our
appearance this morning the poor Greek
patriarch had been carried off by his
relations to Larnaca, and saved our adieux.
We heard of his great unwillingness to
leave the boat, which he clung to as his last
inch of Europe. He had left his estate in
trust to a friend, who had made away with
his little property, so that towards seventy,
the poor old man was returning to his native,
but almost unknown country, only to find
his sole surviving relations, nephews and
nieces, whom he had left children; and
evidently having embraced a profession to
which his feelings were but little assimilated.

258

The day was very fine, but the aspect of
the island offered no temptation to land,
particularly as the climate was described
as aguish. Set off at sunset towards Beyrout,
but the wind rose and we made slow
progress, and the motion made our usual
soirée on deck impracticable. We were not
very ill, and got into our berths as we could,
and remained in them by dint of holding on,
which was not very favourable to our night's
rest.

We rejoiced when we arrived at Beyrout,
on the 28th, where the sea was calm and
favourable to our landing, and the situation
of the town quite lovely. Two ruined
castles, of the middle ages, were beautifully
situated on the point of entrance, for it
cannot be called a port, and the flat-roofed
Syrian houses were of a perfectly different
character to what we yet had seen. We
were very civilly received by Mr. Moore,
the consul, whose house is prettily fitted
up; his sitting-room, in carved open-worked

BEYROUT.
London Pub by Henry Colburn 13, C Marlborough Street 1841

259

cedar panels, and the effect very pretty and
Arabian. Mrs. Moore's little sitting-room,
though rudely executed in painting and
carving, would have afforded a very pretty
and original model for an European boudoir;
and the cedar, with which it was composed,
retained still its agreeable perfume.

We obtained horses as soon as possible,
as, notwithstanding our intention of visiting
Beyrout in a few weeks, we wished to profit
by the fine weather, to see as much as
possible of the Lebanon, and also visit the
grove of Stone Pines, which Monsieur de
Lamartine so poetically describes, and which
is only two miles from Beyrout. The
absence of poetry in our compositions was,
perhaps, the cause of our expectations being
by no means realized.

The forest was very pretty, but the trees
much too diminutive to produce any grandeur
of effect; most of them barely afforded
shade; and the sandy soil was so deep, our

260

kavasses were obliged to take off their
babouches (slippers) to make any progress.
Some of the huts would have afforded very
pretty subjects for drawing; as we saw
fruit piled up against the doors of many,
and the inhabitants apparently awaiting the
hour of sunset, that would, at this season of
the Rhamazan, allow them to begin feasting
on the grapes and water melons, which,
with bread and rice, compose their usual
bill of fare.

This division of the plain is pointed out
as the scene where our St. George gained
his victory over the dragon, and the adjoining
coast disputes with Scanderoon the interest
of being the spot where Jonah was swallowed
by the whale.

The general and peculiar beauty of the
Beyrout women, which so much impressed
M. Lamartine, we unfortunately missed; as
the very few uncovered faces we met with
were particularly ill-favoured. The Turkish

261

yashmack is nothing compared to the absolute
mask of the Syrian women; as they
wear a black horse-ha which quite
conceals their features.

The view we obtained of the general outline
of the mountains of Lebanon, at the furthest
point we reached, was very beautiful; the
verdure and fertility were quite remarkable.
The mountains stood out so boldly, that they
were clearly defined to their very summits;
and it pictured to one's imagination what
must have been the first appearance of the
promised land to the Israelites

We met several women of the Lebanon,
distinguished by their peculiar costume of a
silver or gilt horn, raised at least one foot
and a half high, and placed most ingeniously
on the head, on a sort of velvet cushion.
Its chasing, value, and height, depend on
the rank of the wearer; a veil hangs from
its point, and only one eye is shewn, which
has a very ugly effect; and some wear the

262

horn horizontally. On the whole the
démarche of the Lebanon, women is much
more graceful and erect than that of their
neighbours; and their costume is evidently
continued from the time they were commanded
not “to exalt their horns, and be
not stiff-necked,” for the purpose of repressing
the pride and vanity that might be
individually exercised in proving, by the
height of this characteristic ornament, their
superiority of station. Some other women
wore what appeared like a splendidly gilt
helmet. On examining some for sale, I
found them not to be metal, but of massive
gold embroidery.

There was great temptation at the bazaar
in the shape of bernousses of the richest
texture, and peculiar to the country, being
such as are worn by the emirs amongst the
young druses. The native merchants were
inflexible against reducing their prices, and
after our habits and successful bargaining

263

at Constantinople, we were not at all prepared
for such sturdy resistance, though
two of Mr. Moore's little boys seconded
our efforts, with great perseverance, in both
Turkish and Arabic.

The last report of the road, from Jaffa to
Jerusalem, was so satisfactory, that we
finally determined on our pilgrimage. We
profited by Mr. Moore's hospitality, and
escaped a dinner at sea, which I always
think a matter of congratulation. We
re-embarked at sunset, which was quite
splendid, and gave to Beyrout, and its
castellated approach, the most glowing and
beautiful colouring.

We passed the whole evening on deck,
and found we had a fresh passenger, in
a young French merchant, who had been
lately travelling through Syria, and who
encourages us to believe we may return
from Jerusalem, by Damascus and Balbec,
to Beyrout; and thus secure seeing the
whole line of this interesting country, as

264

well as our more certain passage to Alexandria,
as our captain tells us he cannot
positively undertake conveying us from
Jaffa, as the north-west winds are prevalent
at the end of December, and the roadstead
of Jaffa becomes impracticable. And then
what would become of us?

The only drawback to this agreeable plan
is the necessary breaking up of our comfortable
little society, as Lord A—y is bent
on proceeding to Upper Egypt, for which
this is the favourable season; and I really
cannot hope to find myself on the next
occasion in possession of the two ladies'
cabins of the Seri Pervas, where we have all
the advantages of a private yacht—space,
cleanliness, attention, and an excellent
library of several hundred volumes, including
many classical and modern books
of travels, and some of the best English
novels, which last are nearly the only books
I am capable of reading at sea.

This is the fourth Austrian steamer we

265

have been on board of, and it is impossible
to pronounce which is the best appointed.
The French and English steamers suffer
terribly in comparison; the French are
dreadful—nothing to be met with but
insects and incivility.

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	PAGE
House of Lady M. W. Montague, at Belgrade	Frontispiece
Areopagus Rock, from which St. Paul preached to the Athenians	33
Interior of St. Sophia, at Constantinople	116
Portrait of Abdhul Medjid, the present Sultan of Turkey	188
View of Beyrout	258
View of Jaffa	266
Ramla, (the ancient Arimathea)	271
Exterior of the Holy Sepulchre	280
Mosque of Omar, on the site of the Temple of Jerusalem	298

Bivouac in the Desert	Frontispiece
View of Suez and the Red Sea	129
Portrait of Mehemet Ali	224
Egyptian and Turkish Fleet, at Alexandria	240

Title: Diary of A Tour in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and The Holy Land [Volume 1] [Electronic Edition]

Title: Diary of A Tour in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and The Holy Land [Volume 1]

Diary of A Tour in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and The Holy Land [Volume 1] [Electronic Edition]

Contents

HOUSE OF LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE.