نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [و‎‎٢‎٧‎٧] (١٨١٤/٥٥٦)

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JU y J^TTr -t / ^ TEHERAN n _ 337 /
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should regard such a movement as the voluntary abandonment of a ^
strategical position of no mean advantage, and as an encouragement
to Muscovite cupidity.
Among other semi-European attractions of Teheran at the time
of my visit was the possession of a racecourse and an annual race
meeting. It is true that in neither respect were European
standards rigorously maintained. For instance, there was
no turf; but, as a Persian horse seldom, if ever, treads upon turf in
the course of a life-time, it would clearly have been superfluous to
humour him on this solitary occasion. The gravelly plain outside the
city, which is flat enough and big enough to race upon for a whole
day without stopping, accordingly answered the purpose very well.
Nor was there a ‘ ring ’ at Teheran, betting being an imprudent
venture when the winner was so uniformly apt to be drawn from
the stable of the sovereign. The jockeys were small boys, clad in
loose trousers and coloured tunics. The races were of various
lengths, the most important being the longest, which completed
the circuit of the wall no fewer than six times. Eastwick, who
has left the most minute account of the Teheran race-meeting
that I know, 1 measured the course, and found it to be two miles
minus thirty and a half yards in circumference; so that eleven and
three-quarter miles was the length of what 1 might call the ‘ Cup
course ' at Teheran. This distance he saw covered in what seems
to me the very respectable time of twenty-six minutes twenty-
nine seconds. It must be remembered that in a country where
all movement is on horseback, and where very long distances
require to be covered by that means, endurance is of greater
average value than speed. Nor do the Persians, so far as I know,
advance the ludicrous defence of short-distance speed-tests with
which we are familiar in countries nearer home—that they are
indispensable to improve the breed of the native animal.
In no respect are Teheran and its environs more peculiar, and
in no fashion can the nature and circumstance of Eastern royalty
be better typified, than in the number of royal palaces
and country seats which may almost be said to crowd
the suburbs of the capital. It is as though all the present and past
royal residences in the neighbourhood of London—Kew, Hampton
Court, Chiswick, and Greenwich Hospital, were kept for the sole use
of the sovereign, and in his or her absence were allowed to fall
1 Journal of a Diplomate, vol. i. pp. 263-270.
VOL. I. Z
Negaristan