Therapia

Therapia was the home of the British Amabassador to Constantinople, Sir Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. On 25 August 1848, three days before the date of the present watercolour, Lear wrote to Chichester Fortescue from Therapia, where he had been recovering from a lengthy illness. Feeling a bit better, Lear commented that he was now so hungry he had eaten everything in his room 'but a wax-candle and a bad lemon' (Letters of Edward Lear, ed. Lady Strachey, London, 1907, p. 12). Lear complained that although 'Lady Canning is as kind as 70 mothers to me', the view of the Bosphorous was rather less than impressive. He commented: 'Could I look out on any scene of beauty, my lot would be luminous; bless you! the Bosphorus hereabouts at least, is the ghastliest humbug going! Compare the Straits of Menai or Southampton Waters or the Thames to it! It has neither form of hill nor character of any possible kind in its detail'. Therapia was detached from the 'big Embassy Palace', a small part of which is perhaps visible on the left edge of the present watercolour.