But, although time has had such inconsiderable influence in weakening impressions of this kind, it is believed the case would be far otherwise, viewing the spot memorable for those transactions. The literary traveller, visiting Constantinople, expects to behold but faint vestiges of the imperial city, and believes he shall find little to remind him of "the everlasting foundations" of the master of the Roman world. The opinion, however, may be as erroneous as that upon which it was founded. After the imagination has been dazzled with pompous and glaring descriptions of palaces and baths, porticoes and temples, groves, circuses, and gardens, the plain matter of fact may prove, that in the obscure and dirty lanes of Constantinople ;* its small and unglazed shops; the style of architecture observed in the dwellings; the long covered walks, now serving as bazars; the loose flowing habits with long sleeves worn by the natives; even in the practice of concealing the features of the women ;|| and, above all, in the remarkable ceremonies and observances of the public baths; we behold those customs and appearances which characterized the cities of the Greeks. Such, at least, as far as inanimate objects are concerned, is the picture presented by the interesting ruins of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiæ. With regard to the costume of its inhabitants, we fords a striking example. The art of printing has been scarcely adequate to its preservation; and without it, every syllable had perished. It is only rescued by a very rare work of Bernard de Brevdenback, of Mayence; printed in the black letter at Spice, in 1490. by Peter Drach; and since copied into a volume of Tracts, published at Basil in 1556. This document seems to have escaped not only the researches of Gibbon, but of every other author who has written upon the subject of the siege.

*Athens itself was not very unlike Constantinople in its present state, if we may credit the statistical testimony of Dicearchus, who mentions the irregularity of the streets, and the poverty and meanness of the houses.-Vide Stat. Gracie Geogr. Minor. Hudsoni.

Bazar is the appellation used to signify a market, all over the cast.

Herodotus, speaking of the Persians, mentions their garments with long sleeves: and we learn from Xenophon, that Cyrus ordered two persons to be put to death, who appeared in his presence with their hands uncovered.

Dicæarchus, describing the dress of the women of Thebes, says, that their eyes only are seen; the other parts of their faces are covered by their garments." Βίος Ελλάδος. Walpole's MS. Journal.

"The city of Constantinople, in its actual state presents some of those monuments and works of art, which adorned it at the end of the fourteenth century. They are alluded to in one of the epistles of Manuel Chrysoloras; from which I have extracted the three following passages. In the first we have the very form of the modern bazar. I omit,' says he, the covered and inclosed walks, formerly seen traversing the whole city, in such a manner that you might pass thro' it without being inconve nienced by the mud, or rays of the sun. Εῶ δὲ σκεπαστούς και φρακτους δρόμους διὰ πάσης ποτὲ τῆς πόλεως δεικνυμένους, ὥστε ἐξεῖναι ἄνευ πηλοῦ καὶ ἀκτῖνος πᾶσαν διέναι. In the second, he mentions the cisterns, which are still to be seen, supported by gra pite columps and marble pillars. They were built by Constantine and Philoxenus,

have only to view the dresses worn by Greeks themselves, as they are frequently represented upon the gems and coins of the country, as well as those used in much earlier ages.* There is every reason to believe, that the Turks themselves, at the conquest of Constantinople, adopted many of the customs, and embraced the refinements of a people they had subdued. Their former habits had been those of Nomade tribes; their dwellings were principally tents; and the camp, rather than the city, distinguished their abode. Hence it followed, that with the houses, the furniture, and even the garb of the Greeks would necessarily be associated; neither do the divans of Turkish apartments differ from those luxurious couches on which the Greeks and Romans were wont to repose. At the capture of Constantinople, a certain portion of the city was still retained in undisturbed possession by those Grecian families whose services to the conqueror obtained for them privileges which their descendants enjoy even at this hour;† yet, in their domestic habits, and in all things, except their religious ceremonies, there is nothing which distinguishes them from their fellow citizens the Turks. The temples of the citizens, we further know, were appropriated to the new religion:‡ The sumptuous baths of the vanquished were not less prized by the victors. Few, if any, of the public buildings were destroyed; and, from the characteristic disposition of oriental nations to preserve things as they are, we may reasonably conclude, with the exception of those edifices which have yielded to the attacks of time, of earthquakes, and of fire, Constantinople presents one at least of the cities of the ancients, almost unaltered. Passing thence into Asia, the tra

I omit also the number of pillars and arches in the cisterns.' Καὶ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἐν auτaïs mówi xai àídwy. In the next, the baths are described, which appear to have been as numerous then in Constantinople, as now. But why should I speak concerning the baths; the number of which, were I to relate it, would be incredible ? Τί δὲ περὶ λουτρῶν ἂν λέγοιμι· ὧν τὸ ἱστορούμενον ἐν αὐτῇ γενέσθαι πλῆθος ἀπιστεῖται ; Walpole's MS. Journal

The dress worn by the popes of Rome upon solemn occasions, corresponds with the habits of the Roman emperors in the lower ages: and from a representation of the portrait of Manuel Palæologus, as taken from an antient manuscript, and preserved in Bandurius, (Vid. Imperium Orientale, tom. ii. p. 991. ed. Par. 1711.) it appears that there is little difference between the costume of a Greek emperor in the fifteenth century, and a grand signior in the ninteenth.-The mark of distinction worn upon the head of the Turkish sultans, and other grandees of the empire, of which the calathus was an archetype, is also another remarkable circumstance in the identity of ancient and modern customs.

†They live in a part of the city which, from its proximity to the lighthouse, goes by the name of phanar

Of which the church of St. Sophia is a particular instance: and it may be added, that the crescent which blazons the Turkish banner, is the most antient symbol of Byzantium, as appears by the medals of the city.

veller may be directed to other examples of the same nature, in which the similarity of the ancient and the modern appearance is even more striking: and perhaps the howling dervishes of Scutari, who preserve in their frantic orgies the rites of the priests of Baal,* accommodated the mercenary exhibition of their pretended miracles to the new superstition which pervaded the temples of Chalcedop; exactly as Pagan miracles, recorded and derided by Horace, were adapted to the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion.† The psylli of Egypt, mentioned by Herodotus, are still found in the serpent eaters of Cairo and Rosetta: and in all ages, where a successful craft, under the name of miracle, has been employed to delude and to subdue the human understanding, the introducers of a new religion have, with considerable policy, appropriated it to the same purpose for which it was employed by their predecessors.

The prejudices of the Christians against their Turkish conquerors were so difficult to be overcome, that while we lament the want of truth which characterizes every narrative concerning their invaders, we cannot wonder at the falsehood; yet, in this distant period, viewing the events of those times without passion or prejudice, it may become a question,' whether, at the capture of Constantinople, the victors or the vanquished were the most polished people. It is not necessary to paint the vices and the barbarisms of those degenerate representatives of the ancient Romans, who then possessed the imperial city; nor to contrast them with those of the Turks: but when it is urged, that Mahomet and his followers, upon taking possession of Constantinople, were busied only in works of destruction, we may derive evidence to the contrary, even from the writings of those by whom they were thus calumniated. Gyllius and Bandurius have permitted observations to escape them, which have a remarkable tendency to establish a contrary opinion: they acknowledge that certain magnificent palaces, temples, baths, and caravanserais, were allowed to remain; and the temple of St. Sophia being of the number, as well as the antiquities in the Hippodrome, the public cisterns, sarcophagi, &c. we may form a tolerable estimate of the taste of the Turks in this respect. It will appear

"And they cried aloud, and cut themselves, after their manner, with knives and lancets." 1 Kings, xvii, 28.

The miracle of the liquefaction of St. Januarius' blood is alluded to by Horace, as practised in his time, under a different name. Hor. Sat. lib. I. 5.

afterward, that the regalia, the imperial armoury, and many other works of magnificence and utility, were likewise preserved. In the sacking of a city, when all things are left to the promiscuous pillage of an infuriate soldiery, a scene of ruin and desolation must necessarily ensue; and, under similar circumstances of previous provocation and subsequent opportunity, it is not to be believed that the Greeks would have been more scrupulous than their conquerors. The first employment of Mahomet, when those disorders had subsided, was not merely the preservation, but the actual improvement of the city of this a striking example is related by Gyllius, who, speaking of the Forum of Taurus, says, that being grown over with wood, and affording a shelter for thieves, Mahomet granted the spot to those who were willing to build upon it. The same author also mentions, that, among other instances of his munificence, the largest baths in the city were erected by him; one for the use of men, and the other for women: neither is it necessary to seek further for information, than the documents which he has afforded, and the authority cited by him to prove that Christians, and not Turks, have been the principal agents in destroying the statues and public buildings with which Constantinople, in different ages, was adorned. The havoc was begun by the Romans themselves, even so early as the time of Constantine the Great; and renewed at intervals, in consequence of the frequent factions aud dissentions of the inhabitants. The city, such as it was, when it came into the possession of the Turks, has been by them preserved, and undergone fewer alterations than took place while it continued in the hands of their predecessors. It does not, however, appear, that the changes produced, either by the one or the other, have in any degree affected that striking resemblance which it still bears to the ancient cities of the Greeks.

Under these impressions, I eagerly sought an opportunity to examine the interior of the seraglio; and, difficult as the undertaking may seem, soon found the means of its accom plishment. The harmony existing between England and the Porte at that critical juncture wheu Egypt was to be restored to the Turks by the valour of our troops, greatly facilitated the enterprize. I felt convinced, that, within the walls of the seraglio, many interesting antiquities were concealed from observation; and I was not disappointed.

The first place to which my observations were directed, was the imperial armoury and here, to my great gratification, I beheld the weapons, shields, and military engines of the Greek emperors, exactly corresponding with those represented on the medals and bas-reliefs of the ancients, suspended as trophies of the capture of the city by the Turks. It is true, my stay there was not of sufficient duration to enable me to bring away any other than this brief representation of what I saw. A bostanghy soon put a stop to the gratification of my curiosity, and I was compelled to retreat; but even the transient view, thus obtained, was sufficient to excite a belief, that other interesting remains of the Palace of the Cæsars might also be similarly preserved. This conjecture was not without foundation: nor is it at all remarkable, that, in a lapse of time which does not exceed the period that has intervened since the armour of Henry the Sixth was deposited in the Tower of London, the reliques of Roman power should be thus disco-, vered. It is only singular, that, during all the inquiries which have taken place respecting this remarkable city, such remains should have been unnoticed. In answer to my earnest entreaty for the indulgence of a few moments, to be employed in further examination, it was explained to me, that, if the old armour was an object of my curiosity, I might have full leisure to survey it, when carried on sumpter-horses, in the great an nual procession of the grand signior, at the opening of the Bairim, which was shortly to take place, and where I afterward saw it exhibited.

Soon after this, some pages, belonging to the seraglio, brought from the sultan's apartments the fragments of a magnificent vase of jasper-agate, which, it was said, his highness had dashed to pieces in a moment of anger. As these fragments were cast away, and disregarded, they came at last into the hands of a poor lapidary, who earned a scanty livelihood by cutting and polishing stones for the signet rings of the Turks. In one of my mineralogical excursions, the merchants of the bezesten, where jewels are sold, directed me to the laboratory of this man, to obtain the precious stones of the country in their natural state. He was then employed upon the fragments of this vase, and very gladly spared the labour which he would

The Turks rarely write themselves: they employ scribes, who stand ready for bire in the streets and afterward apply a signet, which has been previously rubbed over with Indian ink, by way of voucher for the manuscript.