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3# CONSTANTINOPLE AND ITS ENVIRONS;
MOSQUE OF SANTA SOPHIA, AND FOUNTAIN OF THE SERAGLIO.
CONSTANTINOPLE.
This is another view of the same objects as were given in a former illustration ; but
they are presented under a different aspect. In the centre of the front is the Fountain
built by Achmet, with its rich display of gilded arabesque, on a bright blue and red
ground; on the left are the various edifices connected with Santa Sophia, the vast aerial
dome swelling above them, and intended to represent a section of the concave firmament;
and on the right is the Baba Hummayoun, or, " Sublime Porte," already described.
From this gate is seen, in perspective, descending the hill, the turreted and battle-
mented walls of the Seraglio gardens, running down to the harbour, and supposed to be
the remains of that very ancient fortification which marked the city of Byzantium, and cut
off the apex of the triangle which it occupied. The street below it is the great avenue
leading from the lower parts of the city to the Seraglio, and many characteristic displays
of Turkish manners are exhibited in it.
When an audience is granted by the sultan to a Frank ambassador, it is notified to him
by the dragoman, and a very early hour is appointed for the purpose. Horses, richly caparisoned, are sent to convey him and his suite; and, before light in the morning, if it be not in
summer, they mount in their grandest costumes. As all the Frank ministers reside in Pera,
they have the harbour to cross, so they clatter down the steep and rugged streets leading
to the water, at the imminent hazard of breaking their limbs, and display any thing but
a grand and dignified procession. Having passed the harbour, they are received in
a small mean coffee-house on the water-edge, where pipes and coffee are presented, after
which they resume their march on fresh horses. There stands a great tree, at the point
where some streets meet; here the cortege are directed to halt, and here they are condemned to wait till the grand vizir, and other functionaries, are pleased to issue from his
bureau, in the Downing-street of Constantinople. The contemptuous manner in which
infidel ministers were formerly treated, here began to display itself. Instead of the respect
with which the representative of a brother sovereign ought to be received, he was kept
standing in an open, dirty street, sometimes under heavy rain, for an hour or more,
without the slightest attention shown, or notice taken of him, except being stared, at or
called opprobrious names, muttered by some fanatic Turk as he passed by. At length
the vizir was seen slowly moving down from his office ; and it was supposed that he would
courteously greet the expected ambassador, and apologize for his delay:—but no—he passed
on with the most imperturbable gravity ; not even condescending to look at the ambassador, or seeming to know that he and his suite were not part of the vulgar crowd. They
were then permitted to move on, and follow, at an humble distance, the vizir up this |
