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Constantinople in the 1820s: a drawing by Claudius James Rich. On the far left, the Sea of Marmara, joined by the waters of the Bosporus. In the foreground, on the Asian shore: the village of Scutari, where Florence Nightingale established her hospital during the Crimean War (1854-56).
"The dogs of Constantinople are among its wonders: these animals are not the property of any individual, but supported by all. Their litters are never destroyed, and they were in former times the only scavengers of the city. They feed upon the offal from butchers's; shops, private houses, carcases of animals, and they may be constantly seen prowling along the edge of the water in search of any headless trunks that may be washed ashore."
--John Murray, pub., A Handbook for Travellers in Turkey (1854).
"It must not be imagined that Constantinople basked in the refulgent gaiety of sun and song; there was nothing Mediterranean about this city, at once fierce, voluptuous and squalid; [it had] a dramatic atmosphere peculiarly its own; like nothing else."
--Lesley Blanch, The Wilder Shores of Love (1954)
