'A second journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 1816. With a journal of the voyage by the Brazils and Bombay to the Persian Gulf. Together with an account of the proceedings of His Majesty's embassy under Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart. K.L.S. With two maps, and engravings from the designs of the author.' [‎203] (246/516)

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CASVIN.
203
Nakee Mirza, one of the King's sons, and Governor of the town, who
led with him a horse, ornamented with a gold bridle and a Persian
saddle, which he presented to the Ambassador, on the part of his
master. It has been mentioned on a former occasion*, that a bridle of
gold, which means that the head-stall was covered with plates of gold,
was always a mark of distinction in Persia, and such as Astyages gave
to Cyrus, f
Casvin is a larger town in circumference than Teheran, though not
so populous. The Vizier of the Prince, Seid Ali Khan by name, who
appeared to us to possess more statistical knowledge than Persians in
general, assured us, that he had measured the circumference of this
city, and had found it 2000 gez (or yards) larger than the capital;
that it contains 25,000 male inhabitants, females and children not being
counted; and that its manufactures were velvets, brocades, and kerbas,
a coarse cotton cloth.
The city is environed by vineyards and orchards to a considerable
extent, the former of which yield a grape celebrated throughout Persia
for the good wine it produces. The vine-dressers water their vines
once in the year, which is twenty days after the festival of the No
Rooz, about the 10th of April; and the Vizier told us, that the soil,
which is clayey, is so good, that the moisture it then imbibes suf
fices until the next irrigation. Water is a very scarce commodity at
Casvin, and this is confirmed by the great numbers of kanauts which
are to be seen throughout its plain, and which conduct streams from
very great distances.
The Ambassador visited the Prince in a palace built by the Seffies,
who once held their court in this city. The entrance to it is by an
Allah Capi, an immense high gate covered with a cupola, which Delia
Valle, who saw it in its splendour, describes in these words: Non e
depinta ne ornata di oro come quello di Sphahan, ma e grande, con pro-
spetiva di piu maesta, e dentro ha hello, alto, e grande atrio per gli
See Chap. vi. p. 93.
f Cyropoedia, lib. i.
D D 2