The Sun.
London, England, 1826-10-02 00:00:00

RECOLLECTIONS OF TURKEY.

The nature of my avocation. in the capital of the Ottoman em-
pire brought use so often into personal intercourse with the people
of the country, that I soon became as great a Terinekee as
any of them. It became therefore necessary that I should-have.
a supply of good-looking pipes, as well fur the use of my visitors
as for own enjoyment, and I was directed to one of the principal
CAibooh manufactories in the Turkish part of the town. Here
the dealer no ewer learnt the intent of my intended purchase,
than he sprang up from the mat on which he was squatted in the
middle of the front-shop, welcomed me ' with the friendly word
Bonyooroun, and invited me to sit down on an mire-sopha t
which ranged a great portion of a hack-room. Here' he spread
before me several dozen of amber mouth-pieces of different prices,
.and placed himself opposite to me et the edge of the sopha iu a
kneeling posture (a favourite position with the natives of Turkey),
expatiating with much earnestness on the superior quality of
hie wares. Having selected and put aside the pieces which suited
my taste, I inquired about the price of the whole, and was
asked, as usual, nearly three times the amount that was in-
tended to be taken. Long and tedious would have appeared to
me:the discussion we now entered into, had not the gravity of man-
ner and the imposing gesture of the Oribookgee been a Douro* of
no small amusement. A person unacquainted with the manners
of the country, might have supposed that the most important
article of a treaty of peace between two empires was in negotia-
tion between us. We were interrupted in the midst of our debate
by the entrance of a stranger, whom on the first glance I guessed
to be an Englishman but lately arrived at Constantinople. H.
wore -a scarlet coat, richly embroidered with gold, in the style of
anEnglish aide-de-camp's d rem- ni fo rm, AV itil two heavy epaulettes.
His'countenance announced him to be *hoot the age of two-and-
twenty.: His features were remarkably delicate, and would have
given him a feminine appearance but for the manly expression
of hie fine blue eyes. On entering the inner shop, he took off
his feathered cocked-hat, and showed a head of curly auburn hair,
which improved in no small degree the uncommon beauty of his
face. The impression which his whole appearance mule on my
mini was inch, that it has ever since remained deeply engraven
on it ; and although fifteen years have since gone by, the lap„ of
time has not in the slightest degree impaired the freshnees of the
recollection.

4i was attended by a Janisaary attached to the English
enabasay,l and by a person who professionally acted as a sort of
Cicerone. to strangers. These cavort:stances, together with a
very. visible lameness in one of hid legs, ennvinced me at once he
was Lord Byron. I had already heard otitis Lordship, and of his
late arrival in the sakette frigate, which had come up from the
Smyrna station; to fetch away Mr. Adair, our ambassador to thl,
Porte. Lord Byron had been previously travelling in Epirus and
Asir Minor, with his friend Mr. Ilobhouee, and had become a
great amateur of smoking; he was conducted to this shop for the
purpose of purchasing a few pipes. The indifferent Italian, in
which language he spoke to his Cicevone, anti the latter's still more
imperfect Turkish, made it. difficult for the shopkeeper to under-
stand their wishes ; and, as this seemed to vex the stranger, I
addressed him in English, offering to interpret for him. When
his, Lordship thus discovered me to be an Englishman, he shook
tae: 4)), the hand, and alistited me, with some warmth in
his' manner, that he always felt great pleasure when he met with
a countryman abroad. ilia purchase and my bargain being corn-
pitted, we walked out together and rambled about the streets, in
pleasure of directing
several of 'which I had the his attention to
coins of the most remarkable curiosities in Constantinople, The
peculiar circumstance, under which our acquaintance took place,
established between .us in one day a certain degree of intimacy,
which two or three years frequenting each other's company in
England would most likely not have licoovnidisited. I frequently
adOresSed him by his name, but be did not think of inviriuskaw
I name to learn it, nor of asking mine. His Lordship had not yet
laid the foundation or that literary renown which he afterwards
amptired ; on the contrary, at that time he WAS only known as the
author of his " Hours of Idleness ;" and the severity with which
the Edinburgh Reviewers had criticised that production was still
fresh in thery English reader's recollection. I could not therefore
be supposed to elek his acquaintance from any of those motives of
vanity which hare actuated so many others since; but it was
natural that after our accidental rearontre, and all that pasted

An amateur of the pipe.
t A low sofa raised only two or three inches from the floor
In Turkey the ambiutsadurs and "'twills of foreign powera
are allowed a guard of honour cotuposed of Janisuries, one of whom
usually precedes the foreign dignitary through the streets of the
place in which he resides.