DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5073#0188
BTEDDEE.S*.
177
and more varied and elegant than the best things of the
kind in Venice, not excepting even the flooring of St.
Mark's. In the centre of the terrace, against the wall,
a beautiful little fountain still played, but some of the
bits of mosaic had dropped out here and there and were
replaced by delicate sprays of Ught and tender maiden-
hair fern, bending down to the crystal stream, which
seemed to brighten up under the smiles of the green
fronds — a mark of ruin certainly, but sacrilegious
Would have been the restorer's hand that should pluck
°ut those graceful wreaths that hung there, hiding the
decay of past splendour in their own sweet freshness.
Off this terrace were several rooms, the ceilings, doors,
and shutters of which were most elaborately painted in
"right patterns, the gilding sadly dimmed, but enough
remaining to show what charming Httle bowers, fit for
^afry princesses, they had once been. From this we
Passed into the inner apartments, and went through the
bath-rooms: they were considerably finer than any other
thing of the kind we saw in the East, excepting one or
y° of the principal houses in Damascus: they were en-
tirely of mosaic in marble, everywhere, except under each
°untain where porcelain tiles of a very fine make were
Sed: there were plants — oranges, lemons, roses, &c—
growing in every room except the hottest, and fountains
trickling or playing everywhere; and the large siesta
hall was divided down the middle by slender, clustered
columns supporting a hundred vaultings. Many of these
r°oms opened into gardens of lemons and oranges that
once were doubtless very charming, but they showed
tue want of care and the rude hand of the Turkish
s°l<lier more than the palace itself.
The colonel of the ugly soldiers quartered there was
Sone to Damascus, but after we had reposed some time
VOL. i. N
177
and more varied and elegant than the best things of the
kind in Venice, not excepting even the flooring of St.
Mark's. In the centre of the terrace, against the wall,
a beautiful little fountain still played, but some of the
bits of mosaic had dropped out here and there and were
replaced by delicate sprays of Ught and tender maiden-
hair fern, bending down to the crystal stream, which
seemed to brighten up under the smiles of the green
fronds — a mark of ruin certainly, but sacrilegious
Would have been the restorer's hand that should pluck
°ut those graceful wreaths that hung there, hiding the
decay of past splendour in their own sweet freshness.
Off this terrace were several rooms, the ceilings, doors,
and shutters of which were most elaborately painted in
"right patterns, the gilding sadly dimmed, but enough
remaining to show what charming Httle bowers, fit for
^afry princesses, they had once been. From this we
Passed into the inner apartments, and went through the
bath-rooms: they were considerably finer than any other
thing of the kind we saw in the East, excepting one or
y° of the principal houses in Damascus: they were en-
tirely of mosaic in marble, everywhere, except under each
°untain where porcelain tiles of a very fine make were
Sed: there were plants — oranges, lemons, roses, &c—
growing in every room except the hottest, and fountains
trickling or playing everywhere; and the large siesta
hall was divided down the middle by slender, clustered
columns supporting a hundred vaultings. Many of these
r°oms opened into gardens of lemons and oranges that
once were doubtless very charming, but they showed
tue want of care and the rude hand of the Turkish
s°l<lier more than the palace itself.
The colonel of the ugly soldiers quartered there was
Sone to Damascus, but after we had reposed some time
VOL. i. N