BEGLIER BEY.       59

The private apartments, which separate the harem from the state wing of the palace, are the very embodiment of comfort; two of them are lined with wickerwork, painted cream-colour - the prettiest possible idea, executed in the best possible style.

"The harem is, of course, a sealed book; for, as the ladies of the Sultan's household have never been allowed to indulge their curiosity by a survey of that portion of the palace appropriated to Mahmoud himself, it can scarcely be expected that any intruder should be admitted beyond the jealously-barred door forming their own boundary." (*)

The Bath of this imperial residence has already been described in an earlier portion of our work; and we have now only to notice the extensive and princely gardens, which rise, terrace above terrace, to the very summit of the mountain which overhangs the palace. Each terrace is under the charge of a foreign gardener, and arranged according to the fashion of his own land; but the finest portion of the grounds contains a noble sheet of water, called the Lake of the Swans, whose entire surface is frequently thickly covered with these graceful bird, of which the Sultan is so found, that he sometimes passes hours in contemplating them as they glide over the still water; and, in the words of Wordsworth,

"Swim double-swan and shadow."

Boats, gaily gilded and painted, are moored under the shadows of the magnolias, willows, and other beautiful trees which form the framework of the lake; and about fifty yards from the bank stands a pretty, fanciful edifice, called the Air Bath, - an elegant retreat from the oppressive heats of summer; whose roof, and walls, and floor, are alike formed of marble, wrought in marine devices; and whose fountains, trickling down the walls, pour their waters over a succession of ocean-shells, marine divinities, sea-weds, and coral reefs; and keep up a constant current of cool air, and murmur of sweet sound, perfectly charming. Inferior apartments branch off on either side from this beautiful saloon, and altogether it is as pretty a toy as ever exhausted fancy in its invention.

A gilded kiosque glitters amid the group of cypresses and plane-trees by which the last height is crowned; and the artist has ably portrayed the magic beauty of the scene which is mapped out beneath him as he stands beside the boundary-wall of the palace garden. The undulating shores, belted with houses, and sheltered by richly wooded hills, - the castle-crowned rocks, - the gleaming sails of the passing vessels upon the channel, - and, far away, the "storm-tossed Euxine," lashing its billows as if in scorn against the fortress-barriers that bristle its shores - all combine to form a picture well calculated to arrest the eye of the painter and the admiration of the tourist.

(*) City of the Sultan.