TOP - HANNÈ.       73

The cannon-foundry, which gives its name to the locality, terminates the battery at one extremity; and above it, on the side of the hill, stand the remains of the Galata Serai, which having been grievously injured during the great fire of Pera, from an Imperial palace, has now degenerated into a college for the pages of the household. A handsome barrack bounds the suburb on the side next the harbour, and the Top-hannè pier is the great landing-place for caiques plying from Scutari, and the villages on the Bosphorus. But the especial boast of this pretty spot is the fountain in the fruit-market, the celebrated Kilidge Ali Pasha Djiamini, or Fountain of the Mosque of Ali Pasha, a French renegade, who built the temple bearing his name, which stands on the western side of the square.

Rich as Constantinople avowedly is in fountains of various architecture, the whole city cannot boast another of equal beauty and workmanship; its elaborate arabesques are beyond praise, and when the sun-light touches them, almost look like jewels. Its proportions are perfect; and it stands in the centre of an unencumbered space, pouring out its dense volume of water into a capacious basin of glittering marble, and producing an effect highly scenic. On one side rises the mosque to which it belongs - a heavy pile, with thick and stunted minarets - a memorial of the days when a Christian, after denying his God and forswearing his faith, might still enjoy the confidence, and earn the honours of the Moslem; days now gone for ever, and looked back upon with surprise by the Osmanli themselves, who have learnt to feel that services based upon apostasy, and zeal whose germ was falsehood, are alike hollow, worthless, and untenable. On the other hand is situated the elegant Kiosque of Halil Pasha, with its lordly portal and gold-latticed casements - an embodiment of the fairy-palaces of the Arabian Tales; and all around and about are piled the luscious fruits of Europe and of Asia. As this is the great market for the growers of Scutari, the islands of Marmora, and all the Asiatic villages on the channel, the display may be imagined; poles of perfumed melons are heaped beside pyramids of grapes, which look as though they were carved in amber; delicate pasteks, green an glittering as emeralds, are contrasted by golden pomegranates; pistachio-nuts, lemons, quinces, oranges, and apples, are scattered in all directions; while the downy peach, and the plum, blushing through its own bloom, tempt the touch of the wanderer at every step. The Moslem merchant is there, gravely squatted upon his mat, with his yellow slippers lying beside him, and his chibuque, charged with the potent tobacco of Latakia between his lips, quietly awaiting a customer; while the restless Greek is hear him, now trilling a romaika - now cursing, in the name of his saints, the tardiness of the byers - now mumbling a prayer to the Panagia ,(*) as his fitful humour serves;

(*) Virgin.