A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF CONSTANTINOPLE. CONSTANTINOPLE, the capital of Tur- || tributed so much to raise the importance key, finely seated on the European bank of the Bosphorus, was raised on the ruins of the ancient Byzantium by Constantine the Great, as a more commanding situation than Rome for the seat of empire. This indeed it was; and had its inhabitants possessed the same noble energy by which their ancestors of Rome obtained their wellmerited fame, it would have remained to this day, probably, the seat of Christianity, and might have enlightened with its pure ray the benighted intellects of Asia. It is indeed impossible to describe the impression made on the mind on first beholding this celebrated place. The seven hills, crowned with an equal number of imperial mosques, the amphitheatres they form covered with a multitude of houses painted of various colours, the gilded domes, the pyramidical cypresses combined with the slender and elegant minarets, surmounted by the shining crescent; the excellent port, however fierce the storm, offers a certain protection to all vessels that can gain it, running up between two slopes covered with superb buildings. The hotels of Pera, the palace of the Sublime Sultan, the noble Bosphorus, the rich shores of Asia, with Scutari, all contribute at once to distract and delight the beholder. of traffic throughout the city, they are never permitted to enter the gates without undergoing the humiliation of walking barefooted. Their number is estimated at 20,000. The Turks will generally exaggerate in all things which will increase the fame of their capital, and declare that its inhabi tauts exceed a million, when 500,000 appears a more just calculation. For the || same reason they will attempt to make you believe (without any regard for their own veracity) that there are 72,000 mosques, when they do not amount to more than 220, with about 300 chapels! The most regular part is the Besestien, inclosed with walls and gates, where the merchants have their shops excellently ranged. In another part of the city is the Hyppodrome, an oblong square of four hundred paces by one hundred, where they || exercise on horseback. The Meidan, or Parade, is a large and spacious square, the general resort of all ranks. On the opposite side of the port are four towns, but considered as a part of the suburbs, their distance being so small that a person may be easily heard on the other side: they are, named Pera, Galata, Scutari, and Tophana. The antiquities of this famous city are numerous; and the walls, which usually first attract the antiquarian's eye, are not the least worthy of attention. Those ruus ning across the peninsula as far as the old fortress of the Seven Towers, are in ap pearance more venerable than any other of the Byzantine curiosities; and though raised by Theodosius II. time and repeated earthquakes have given them but a tottering appearance, for its triple wall has its embrasures scarcely injured. It was through this wall, at Top Kapoussi (or the Cannon-gate), that the victorious Mahomet made his public entry into Constantinople. The Delphic column of bronze from which it has been said Mahomet struck off with his battle-axe the serpents' heads forming its capital, has been long esteemed one of the most antique relics in the world. Gyllius proves it to be the column formerly supporting the Platean tripod at Delphi, which makes its age 2,400 years. The travellers of the last century disagree as to the Goth-like act of Mahomet; it at present appears seven feet above ground, finely twisted, of equal thickness at top and bot tom, with the hollow part filled with stones. The mosque of St. Sophia, built by JusIn Pera the foreign ambassadors and all tinian, and as such formerly a Christiau the Franks, or strangers, reside, not being church, has been esteemed (but we think permitted to live in the city. Galata also unjustly) to exceed St. Peter's, at Rome, in is mostly inhabited by Franks and Jews, grandeur. In poiut of curious construction on which account it is a place of great it may surpass, but its architecture is metrade; but although the latter have condiocre. In it are suspended the two ban ners carried before Mahomet at the taking || the Kháduns, or favourites of the Sultan; of the city; and a niche in the sanctuary, the household of each of whom is composed with a large chandelier on each side, is of from a huudred and fifty to two hundred the repository of the Koran. By the side of these beauties. The exact number of of another mosque is the tomb of Constan- Kháduns is a mystery; the last account of tine the Great, the flat stone which covered the Harem limits them to seven; but this it only being destroyed. calculation seems to be much overrated, as it would furnish the Sultan with thirteen hundred concubines. The Odalisques of the present Grand Signior do not amount to more than three hundred, which will supply with the usual attendants but two favourites. M. de Tott seems to think that the annual expence of each female's dress does not exceed ten guineas. However small a sum this may appear over and above simple The city is built in a triangular form, with the Seraglio standing on, or forming a point of one of the angles. When we speak of the Seraglio we do not mean the apartments in which the Grand Signior's women are confined, as is sometimes imagined, but the whole inclosure of the Ottoman palace, for the word Scrat, from which it is derived, means absolutely a palace. The wall which surrounds this immense building is thirty feet high, having battle-nourishment, the late Grand Vizier Bai. ments,`embrasures, and towers in the style of ancient fortifications. There are in it nine gates, but only two of them magnificent; and from one of these, the Baba Hoomajun, or Sublime-gate, the Ottoman court takes the name of the Porte, or the Sublime Porte, in all public trausactions and records. This palace is so extensive that it is said to occupy the whole of the ground on which Byzantium stood. The treasures contained in it, and the different pavilions in the gardens, are prodigious; in that of the Landing-place is a silver sofa, on which the Sultan reclines on particular occasions, amongst which is the taking leave of his Generals before they set out ou great expeditions. Indeed the furniture is distinguished not by its variety, but the richuess of the materials of which it is composed: Silk, and cloth of gold, are substituted for cotton and woollen stuffs; fringes are strung with pearls and inferior jewels, aud the walls are wainscotted with jasper, mother-of-pearl, and veneered ivory. But even this shrinks to insignificance upon entering the Audience-chamber, where the Sultan receives the ambassadors seated on a throne as resplendent as the mines of the East can make it. Of the Harem forming a part of this palace, we know but little, and this, as all things within it are profound secrets, must be uncertain. The Imperial Odalisques, or concubines, within it, are employed in attendance on ractar formed the horrible design (of course by the instigation of the then Sultan) of drowning more than a hundred to lessen the establishment, though till that time they had usually been removed to Eski Seraï, the old Seraglio. The city of Constantinople suffers repeatedly by fires, which do not often begin by accident, on account of this peculiar law, that a fire which has continued burn« ing au hour, thrice proclaimed by the ringiug of bells, forces the Grand Signior to the spot, where he distributes mouey to those who exert themselves; and it is on these occasions (if disliked) he must bear the continued revilings of meu, women, and children. This is the means the people often employ, with success, in obtaining a change of ministers. To provide against these repeated dan gers, two towers are placed at separate parts of the city for their prompt discovery, and when the cry of Yangen-var! a fire, is heard from the centinel, the patrole em ploy themselves in acquainting the inhabitants of their danger. That a custom and law so injurious to this fine city should exist, is a matter of concern to all its admirers, especially as water is not obtained for its subjection as at London, but is forced to be brought from distant fountains; and it is thus the valuable curiosities already cited, and other embellishments, are ever at the mercy of mercenary incendiaries. C. W. ESSAY ON DRESS. II. brought in the short mantle, and therefore had the name of court-mantle. In his time the use of silk was first brought out of Greece into Sicily and other parts of Christendom. Richard I. in his first and second broad seals, has longish hair, no beard or whiskers. John in his broad seal, has short hair, large whiskers, and short curled hair. The ladies in the three last mentioned reigns wore long cloaks from their shoulders to their heels, buttoned round the neck, and then thrown over the shoulders, hanging down behind. THE first clothes we read of were im- || Stephen observed the same fashions. Henry mediately after the fall, when “Adam and Eve sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves aprons." A poor sort of covering! but when God turned them out of Paradise he provided warmer clothes for them; "Unto Adam and also unto his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin, and clothed them."-After this, garments of knit-work, then woven clothes, came into use. At Cæsar's arrival, the Britons in the south part of the isle were attired with skins; but as civility grew under the Romans, they assumed the Roman habit. The English or Saxous, at their first arrival here, wore long jackets, were shorn all over the head, excepting about the crown, and under that || an iron ring. Afterwards they wore loose and large white garments, with broad borders of divers colours, as the Lombards. || Somewhat before the conquest they were all gallant, with coats to the mid-knee, head || shorn, beard shaved, face painted, and arms laden with bracelets. But totus homo in vultu est, as the whole man is seen by his face, it will not be amiss to observe, that Edward the Confessor wore very short cropt hair, whiskers and beard exceeding long. William the Conqueror wore short hair, large whiskers, and a short round beard. Robert his eldest son, it is well known, used short hose, and from thence called Courthose, Courtoise, Curtis : on his monument, yet extant at Gloucester, he is pourtrayed with the short stockings of mail reaching scarce up to the place where some garter below knee; no breeches, but a coat, or rather shirt, of mail, instead of them. However, breeches and stockings are new terms, and, in the sense we now understand them, different things, being at first one and the same, all made of one piece of cloth, and then called hose. William Rufus wore the hair of his head a degree longer than his father; but no beard or whiskers. In 1104, Serlo Bishop of Seez, preaching at Carenton, before King Henry against long hair, caused him and all his courtiers to get their hair cropt as soon as they left the church; and accordingly Henry I. in his broad seal (as appears in Sandford) has no hair, beard, or whiskers. Henry III. wore whiskers, and a short round beard. The same King returning out of France in 1243, commanded it to be proclaimed all over the kingdom, ut qualibet civitate vel burgo quatuor cives vel burgenses honor abiliores ei obviam procederent in vestibus pretiosis et desideratibus; his design in which was to obtain presents from them. Edward I. wore short hair, and no whiskers or beard. Edward II. continued this fashion. Edward III. in his first and second broad seals, has long hair, but no beard or whiskers; in his third broad seal, shorter hair, large whiskers, and a twopointed beard; and on his monument in Westminster Abbey, a very long beard. The same King, in our common prints of him, is generally pictured with a sort of hat on; but as hats are a deal more modern, wherever I see him drawn with a hat on, 1 conclude that picture to be a counterfeit. And indeed it may be questioned, whether there are any pictures of any of our kings painted before his time now extant. Philippa, consort to this king, according to her monument at Westminster, wore a pretty sort of network cawl over her hair, with a long end of the same hanging down each ear. In this reign I conceive it was, that history says, "the Commons were besotted in excess of apparel, going some in wide surtouts reaching to their loins; some in a garment reaching to their heels, close before, and strutting out on both sides, so that on the back they make men seem women, and this they call by a ridiculous name gown. Their hoods are little, tied under the chin, and buttoned like the women's, but set with May, 1555, Sir William Cecil, being then gold, silver, and precious stones. Their at Calais, brought, as appears by his MS. Jerripippes each to their heels, all jagged. || diary, three hats for his children. These They have another weed of silk, which they are the first hats I have yet read of, and it call paltocks, without any breeches. Their should seem, at their first coming in, they girdles are of gold and silver; their shoes were more worn by children than men, and pattens snouted, and piked above a who yet confined themselves to caps. finger long, crooking upwards, and fastened to the knees with chains of gold or silver. In 1369 they began to use caps of divers colours, especially red, with costly linings; and in 1872 they first began to wanton it in a new round curtail weed called a cloak, in Latin armiclausa, as only covering the shoulders. Queen Elizabeth wore no head-d ress but her own or false hair in great plenty, extravagantly frizzled and curled; a bob, or jewel, dropped on her forehead; a huge laced double ruff, long piked stays, a hoop petticoat, extended like a go cart; her pet. ticoats prodigious full; her sleeves barrelled and hooped from the shoulders to the elbows, and again from the elbows to the wrists. In one picture of her she is drawn as above, with five bobs, one on the forehead, one above each ear, and one at each ear. This Queen is said to have been the first person in England who wore stockings: before her time both men and women wore hose, that is, breeches or drawers, and stockings all of one piece of cloth. Sir || Philip Sidney, one of her favourites, wore a huge high collar, stiffened with whalebone; a very broad stiff laced ruff; his doublet (body and sleeves) bombasted or barrelled, and pinked and slashed all over, small oblong butions, and a loose long cloak. The custom of men sitting uncovered in the church, is certainly very decent, but not very ancient. I have seen an admirable drawing of the funeral procession of Dr. Cox, Bishop of Ely, who died in 1581, and likewise of the assembly sitting in the choir to hear the funeral sermon, all covered and having their bonnets But this cloak, as I take it, was no more than a monk's hood, or cowl. Richard II. in his picture in Westminster Abbey, is drawn with short curling hair, and a small curling two pointed beard. Queen Anne, Richard II.'s consort (who first taught the English women to ride on side-saddles, who heretofore rid astride), brought in high head attire, piked with horns, and long-trained gowns. Their high heads had sometimes one point, sometimes two, shaped like sugar-loaves; to which they had a sort of streamers fastened, which wantoned and hung down behind, and, turning up again, were tied to their girdles. Henry IV. wore long hair, whiskers, and a double-pointed beard; in his time the long-pocketed sleeve was much in vogue. || Henry V. wore much the same: in this reign the shoes were remarkably broad, which Camden speaking of, says-" Not many years after, it was proclaimed, that no man should have his shoes broader at the toes than six inches."-Aud women trimmed themselves with foxes tails under their garments, aud men with absurd short garments. Henry VI. Edward IV. Richard III. and Henry VII. wore their hair moderately long, no whiskers or beard. Henry VIII. had short cropped hair, large whiskers, and a short curled beard: his gown furred, the upper part of his sleeves bowed out with whalebone, and open from his shoulders to his wrists, and there but toned with diamonds: about his neck and wrists short ruffies. Queen Mary wore a close head-dress, with a broad flat long end or train hanging down behind; strait sleeves down to her wrist; there, and on her neck, a narrow ruffle. On the 27th of on. John Fox, the martyrologist, who died in 1587, when an old man (as appears by his picture), wore a strait cap, covering his head and ears, and over that a deepishbrown shallow brimmed slouched hat. This is the first hat I have yet observed in any picture. Hats being thus come in, men began to sit uncovered in the church, as I take it; for as hats look not so well on men's heads in places of public worship as hoods or bonnets, this might probably be the first occasion of their doing so. James I. wore short hair, large whiskers, and a short beard; also a ruff and ruffles. In 1612, Mr. Hawley, of Gray's Inn, coming to court one day, Maxwell, a Scotsman, led him out of the room by a black string which he wore in his ear, a fashion then || Christ Church and Vice Chancellor of Oxford, went in querpo, like a young scholar, with powdered hair, his band strings with very large tassels, a large set of ribbons at his knees, with tags at the ends of them; Spanish leather boots with large lawn tops, and bis hat mostly cockerl. much in use; but this had like to have caused warm blood, had not the King made up the quarrel. Prince Henry, eldest son || of James 1. wore short hair, filleted and combed upward, short barrelled breeches. || and silk thistles or carnations at the tie of his shoes. The young Lord Harrington, this Prince's contemporary, is painted in the same manner, with the addition of eardrops, a double ruff, and barrelled doublet. The great tub farthingale was much worn in this reign; the famous Countess of Essex is pictured in a monstrous hoop of this sort. In conformity to the ladies of that age, the gentlemen fell into the ridiculous fashion of trunk bose, an affectation of the same kind, and carried to so great a height by stuffing them out, that they might more properly have been called the farthingale breeches. After the pan-shaped sort of hat, which had now been many years in wear, came in the sugar-loaf, or high-crowned hat; these, though mightily affected by both sexes, were so very incommodious as that, every puff of wind blowing them off, they required the almost constant employment of one hand to secure them. Charles I. in 1660, appears to have worn a large thick cravat with tassels, a short doublet, large ruffles, short boots with great tops, a very short cloak, and long hair (one lock on the right side longer than ordinary), all pulled forward, and divided like a long wig on each side of his face: soon after he wore a perriwig. There is no end of the whims, vagaries, and fancies in dress which men and women have run into; whole volumes might be wrote on the subject: however, these rude Charles I. wore long hair, particularly one lock longer than the rest, hanging on the left side, large whiskers, a piked beard, a ruff, shoe-roses, and a falling band. His Queen wore a ruff standing on each side and behind, but her bosom open. Sir Francis Bacon, who died in 1626, in his fine monument at St. Alban's, is represent-notes may serve as a sketch of former times. ed with monstrous shoe-roses and great bombast paned hose reaching to the knees. About 1641, the forked shoes came into fashion, almost as long again as the feet, not less au impediment to the action of the foot than to reverential devotion, for our boots and shoes were so long snouted that we could hardly kneel. But as a short foot was soon thought to be more fashionable, full as much art became necessary to give it as short an appearance as possible. About 1650, both men and women had the whim of bringing down the hair of their heads to cover their foreheads, so as to meet their eyebrows. In 1652, John Owen, Dean of Old fables tell us of one Epimenides wlio, after a sleep of fifty years, awaked with amazement, finding a new world every where both of men and fashions. Let this sleep go (as it well may) for a fabulous invention, the effects of it, his amazement,' I am sure, might have been credible enough though the sleep had been shorter by many years. In some countries if men put on those clothes which they left off but four or five years before, and use those fashions which were then in use, they would seem even to themselves ridiculons, and unto many little less thau monstrous. ANTIQUARIUS. FUGITIVE POETRY. THE SURGEON'S WARNING; Now fetch me my brethren, and fetch them with The surgeon, affrighted, said; The parson and the undertaker |