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Diary of travels in three quarters of the globe (1856)
Diary of travels in three quarters of the globe - 1856 Author:Ogilvie Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Disheartening Prospects — The Gloomy Bazaar — The Sloppy City—Mosque of St. Sophia—A Melancholy Hospital Spectacle—Disagreeable News from the Cri... more »mea —An Anecdote — Christmas at Constantinople — The Tar and the Pasha—A Ride in the Mud—An English Sailor's Mistake—The Sultan's New Palace. Wednesday, 20th. A dismal, wet day adds its gloomy influence to the usual melancholy which seems to, pervade everything, and weigh heavily upon all sojourners in this dull city. I already begin to wish myself away, but cannot hear of any steamer being likely to proceed to Balaklava immediately. The present disheartening aspect of the war; the constant arrivals of sick and disabled in such overwhelming numbers; the certainty that yet greater sufferings must be encountered ere the severities of a Crimean winter shall be overcome; and the hopelessness of anything of importancebeing achieved before the return of spring, all combine to produce a depression of spirits and positive absence of anything like gaiety, which render Constantinople just now a very undesirable place for a traveller in pursuit of amusement and pleasure. Thursday, 21st. The same miserable weather continuing prevented our undertaking much; fortified, however, with greatcoats, umbrellas, and large boots drawn over the trousers—a common peculiarity of costume here—Major B and myself tramped forth, crossed the Golden Horn by the pontoon bridge to Stamboul, and beguiled some hours loitering about the dark arcades of the gloomy bazaar till the bitter cold drove us home again. Nothing can exceed the filthy muddiness of this sloppy city. It is difficult to conceive where such a perpetual supply of black mire proceeds from. The streets are all paved, though roughly, it must be confessed; and there is but small ...« less