198 
THE KING^S COACH. 
we succeeded to render serviceable, and then the Ambassador presented 
it to His Majesty in great form. 
It was first necessary to knock down part of the wall of our court-yard, 
to get it into the street, and then it was dragged with considerable difficulty 
through the narrow streets and bazars to the King’s palace, where the Am¬ 
bassador, attended by the Grand Vizier, and all the principal officers of the 
State, were in readiness to exhibit to the King. His Majesty walked 
around the carriage, examined it very minutely, admired its beauty, cri¬ 
ticised its contrivances, and then got inside, leaving his shoes at the 
door, and seating himself with much satisfaction upon the velvet cushions. 
Mirza Abul Hassan Khan, the late Persian Envoy, Feraj Ullah Khan, 
(the Chief Executioner,) some of the Secretaries of State, and other per¬ 
sonages of rank, all in their court dresses*, then fastened themselves to 
it, and dragged His Majesty backwards and forwards to his great delight, 
which he expressed by some good remarks on the conveniency of 
carriages, and the ingenuity of Europeans, who had brought them to 
such perfection. The circumstance that surprised the Grand Vizier 
the most, was that it could go backwards as well as forwards. The 
King kept his seat for more than half an hour, observing that there 
would be very good sitting-room for two, pointing to the bottom 
of the carriage as the place for the second. When he had smoked his 
kaleoon within it, he descended, and made the Ambassador a very hand¬ 
some acknowledgment for so magnificent a present, and ordered the 
Ameen-ad-Dowlah to purchase six large horses to draw it; however 
we learnt shortly after that it was put into a warehouse, where it was 
bricked up, where it has been ever since, and where it is likely to 
remain, f 
* This circumstance will bring to mind the ready obedience of the Persian nobles to 
Cyrus,' who throwing oft' their robes, in their costly vests and embroidered drawers helped to 
disengage the carriages of his army, where they had been stopped in a narrow pass. — See 
Anab. lib. 1. c. v. 
t It is mentioned by Pietro della Valle, that when he was at Ispahan, the English gave 
a superb carriage to Shah Abbas, who did not take so much notice of it, as the present King, 
and did not even seat himself in it. He looked at it once; it w’as then put away, and never 
seen after. 8vo. ed. vol. iii. p. 285. 
