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[Illustration: Interior of S. Sophia. Showing the Sultan's pew and the stairs to the pulpit.]
_The Story of the old Capital of the Empire by William Holden Hutton, Fellow of S. John Baptist College, Oxford. Illustrated by Sydney Cooper_
_London: J. M. Dent & Co. Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street Covent Garden, W.C. 1900_
This superb successor Of the earth's mistress, as thou vainly speakest, Stands 'midst these ages as, on the wide ocean, The last spared fragment of a spacious land, That in some grand and awful ministration Of mighty nature has engulfed been, Doth lift aloft its dark and rocky cliffs O'er the wild waste around, and sadly frowns In lonely majesty.
I was the daughter of Imperial Rome, Crowned by her Empress of the mystic east: Most Holy Wisdom chose me for her home Sealed me Truth's regent, and High Beauty's priest. Lo! when fate struck with hideous flame and sword, Far o'er the new world's life my grace was poured.
A word of introduction is necessary to explain the nature of this sketch of the history of Constantinople. It is the holiday-task, very pleasant to him, of a College don, to whom there is no city in the world so impressive and so fascinating as the ancient home of the Cæsars of the East.
It is not intended to supersede the indispensable Murray. For a city so great, in which there is so much to see, a guide-book full of practical details is absolutely necessary. For this I can refer the reader, with entire confidence, to Murray's _Hand-book_--and to nothing else. But I think everyone who visits Constantinople feels the need of some sketch of its long and wonderful history. I have myself often felt the need as I wandered about the city, or spent a long evening, during the cold spring, in the hotel. I have endeavoured, as best I could, to supply what I have myself wanted. I do not pretend to have written a history of the city "from the earliest times to the present day" from the mass of original authorities of which I know something. I have used the works of the best modern writers freely, and I should like here, once for all, to express my obligations. I may venture to say that the list of books I here insert will be found useful by anyone who wishes to go further into the history than my little book is able to take him. The ordinary standard books are Professor Bury's edition of Gibbon; Mr Tozer's edition of Finlay's _History of Greece_; Professor Bury's _History of the Later Empire_; Von Hammer's _History of the Turks_; and the Vicomte de la Jonquière's sketch of the same subject.
