BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS.       111

Association is thus blent with natural beauty in wreathing about the Riven Tower a distinct and powerful interest for the imagination; while the extraordinary duration of the pile in so apparently insecure and threatening a state, when, to the eye, it seems as though the next gust of wind heaving its ivied drapery must inevitably prostrate it to the earth, cannot fail to attract the notice of the curious in gravitation, from whose law it appears to be so singularly exempt.

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PLATE: ISTENIA, NEAR THERAPIA..

ISTENIA.

"-- in famed Attica such lovely dales
And rarely seen; nor can fair Tempè boast
A charm they know not; loved Parnassus fails,
Though classic ground and consecrated most,
To match some spots that lurk within this lowering coast."
                                    BYRON.

THE beautiful little village of Istenia, called by the Greeks Mirgheun, and principally inhabited by that nation, is situated in one of the prettiest spots on the Bosphorus; although the opposite shore is rocky, sterile, and fantastically flung together; the edge of the water at the base of the dusky chain of hills, being, however, fringed with houses, and gay with trees.

The Moorish fountain, which forms the subject of the accompanying sketch, is of an extremely graceful character, and built of a marble whose whiteness is almost dazzling. It occupies the termination of the main street of the village, where it touches upon the channel; and is entirely overshadowed by the far-stretching branches of a glorious maple-tree, which after spreading its gay green canopy over the dome and richly-wrought roof of the fountain, finally mingles its leafy honours with those of two other trees of the same description, beneath whose shelter the cool wooden terraces of a couple of coffee-kiosques have been erected.

Crowds of caiques dance on the heaving current within twenty paces of the fountain; the transparent nets of the fishermen hang in festoons from the branches;