Constantinople of To-Day

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854 edition. Excerpt: ... XXX. BUYUK-DERE.--SWEET-WATERS OP EUROPE. Buyuk-dere, seen from the terrace of Therapia, is one of the most charming pleasure villages in the world. The shore curves at this place, and describes a semi-circle, into which the waters pour, to subside in gentle undulations upon the beach. Elegant habitations (among which is discernible the summer palace of the Russian Embassy) rise upon the borders of the sea, at the foot of the hills which form the channel of the Bosphorus. The rich merchants of Constantinople possess there country houses, to which, every night, they are conveyed by steam-boat, to be re-conveyed to their places of business every morning. Upon the terrace of Buyuk-Dere, after sunset, the Greek and Armenian ladies, superbly dressed, promenade. The lights of the caf6s and the houses blend in the water with the silvery wake of the moon and the reflections of the stars. A breeze, laden with perfume and freshness, sighs gently, and waves the air like a fan moved by the invisible hand of Night. Orchestras of Hungarian musicians give to the echoes the waltzes of Strauss; and the bulbul sings the poem of his loves with the rose, hidden beneath the tufts of the myrtles. After a day of heat, the frame, re-animated by this balmy air, feels a delicious sense of being; and it is with regret, that one retires to rest. The hotel recently opened at Buyuk-Dere (and rendered necessary by the number of visitors), is well kept. It has a large garden, in which the branches of a superb plane-tree expand themselves, among the boughs of which is established a little bower, wherein I took my breakfast, shaded by a parasol of leaves. As I was admiring the size of this tree, I was told, that, in a plain at the end of the chief street of the village, ..