BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS. 96
PLATE: A BENDT in the Forest above Belgrade.
A BENDT IN THE FOREST OF BELGRADE.
" A lovely spot half sunshine, and half shade,
Where flickering boughs a shifting picture made;
And tranquil waters, 'mid the general hush,
Gazed on the sun until they stole his blush!"
THE village of Belgrade, formerly called Beil Gorod, (a word signifying, in the Slavonian language, White Fortress,) is situated at the termination of the Great Bendt, or Reservoir, which forms the subject of the accompanying sketch. Nothing can exceed in beauty the situation of this mountain-hamlet, nestled in a green valley bright with turf and flowers, and traversed by a sparkling stream, which after winding gracefully for two or three miles through the plain, finally empties itself into the Bendt.
The heights by which the valley is encompassed are a portion of the chain of the Lower Balcan, and are, in this immediate neighbourhood, richly clothed with stately forests of chestnut, maple, oak, and other noble timber; while the glen itself is studded with groups of beech-trees, whose soft and fantastic outlines cut gracefully against the sunny sky, and whose flexile and leafy branches throw their long and refreshing shadows across the grass, and the dancing ripple of the pigmy river.
But Belgrade, beautiful as it undoubtedly is, is nevertheless much changed since the year 1717, when the talented Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, courting its shades in the sultry months of June, thus wrote to the immortal bard of Twickenham.
"The heats of Constantinople have driven me to this place, which perfectly answers the description of the Elysian fields. I am in the middle of a wood, consisting chiefly of fruit-trees, watered by a vast number of fountains famous for the excellency of their water, and divided into many shady walks, upon short grass, that seems to me artificial, but, I am assured, is the pure work of nature, and within view of the Black Sea, from whence we perpetually enjoy the refreshment of cool breezes, that make us insensible of the heat of summer.