VIEW FROM MOUNT BULGURLHU.
Reading edition
’Tis hard to quit the East’s inspiring sky, From citron groves and spicy gales to fly; To look on Nature in her brightest dress, Nor heave a sigh for her lost loveliness. MS.
The scene which is spread out before the wanderer, as he stands upon the dusky mountain of Bulgurlhu, with the town of Scutari immediately at his feet, and the city of Constantinople mapped out in the distance in its frame of clear and pellucid water, is one which throughout his after life, be it of what duration it may, he can never cease to remember. He looks down into the mysterious gardens of the Seraï Bournou, far over the glittering Propontis, along the shores of the Bosphorus, into the Golden Horn, upon “St. Sophia’s gleaming dome;” on the seven hills of the imperial city, the gloomy remains of the Seven Towers, the ancient walls of Byzantium, the modern palaces of the Sultans, the fair islands of the Sea of Marmora, and the far-off and snow-crested Mount Olympus, lording it over the fertile plains of Broussa.
VIEW FROM MOUNT BULGURLHU.
W. H. Bartlett. R. Brandard.
London. Published for the Proprietors, by Geo: Virtue, 26, Ivy Lane, 1838.
It is well for those who wish to form a correct idea of such a scene as this, that the pencil of the artist can call it up and place it palpably before them; for mere words could never succeed in creating so bright a vision. Hours are necessary to the traveller to enable him to appreciate all its glory; and it is an additional enjoyment to pitch his tent among the wild thyme and olive-trees of the mountain, and in the midst of the camels, which, after gaining the summit of the height, repose there for a time in some shady spot, as they are on their way into the interior, laden with merchandise from the bazārs of the capital. As these animals are never seen on the European side of the channel, they give a localizing effect to the picture, and the wanderer at once feels that he is in Asia.
This is, perhaps, the most favourable point for contemplating Stamboul in all its extent, and fully comprehending its extraordinary magnificence as a whole; its singular outline, its ocean-girdle, where the blue waves seem to follow lovingly whithersoever the sinuosities of the shores invite them; its thousand domes, and its shaft-like minarets beckoning to the blue heavens, against which they glitter like polished ivory; its forest-trees overshadowing the party-coloured dwellings; its cypress groves stretching down to the water’s edge; and all the blended beauties of the unrivalled locality.
The artist has indeed a rich field for his talent when he gazes around him from Mount Bulgurlhu; but the traveller, although he may idly heap expletive on expletive, until his praises swell into hyperbole, must ever fail in conveying by mere verbal description, a correct impression of so bright, so varied, and so beautiful a panorama.