Christmas Day in Constantinople

For fifteen months, Lady Emilia Hornby lived in Constantinople. Her husband, Sir Edmund Hornby, was the British financial commissioner in the Ottoman Empire during the Crimean War. Her letters home are full of life and colour, giving a vivid description of the very different world she experienced during her stay. 

Here is what she says about Christmas day in 1855.

Ivan Aivozorsky: Dusk on the Golden Horn 1845

The Bosphorus on Christmas-day was particularly beautiful to us, unused now to see outward signs of a Christian people. The almost innumerable European ships were gaily dressed with flags and pennants, which fluttered in the brilliant sunshine...and far in the distance, the Asian mountains glittering with ice and snow. It was delightful to feel the warmth of spring in your caique, and to look upon shining avalanches above the clouds themselves.

Several English and French men-of-war on Christmas morning were taking in from caiques famous stocks of good things to make merry: oranges, dried fruits, grapes, and Turkish sweetmeats, whose name is Legion.

 Lady Emilia Hornby:  In and around Stamboul

Published, 1858