VISIT TO THE PRINCE GOVERNOR. 
UOi- 
portieri.^ The splendour of those days is now greatly altered, for 
ruins surround the palace, and the greatest part of its once magnificent 
buildings are themselves in almost total abandonment. \Ve were led 
through long arched avenues, in which were dispersed a scanty train 
of servants, and at length were introduced into a court, where we 
found the Prince, in a detached building forming part of the palace, 
erected by the famous Nadir Shah, and seated on the very same spot in 
the apartment which that conqueror had formerly occupied. The com¬ 
parison between the former and the present occupants, which was na¬ 
turally excited in our minds by the occasion, made the Prince appear 
but a diminutive personage in our eyes, although he had very agree¬ 
able manners, and a countenance expressive of great goodness. 
There is a circumstance in Chardin’s account of Casvin, which does 
not agree with his general accuracy. He says, three leagues from that 
city is a high mountain called Alowvent. Seeking for a high mountain 
at that distance was in vain, for the highest point of the nearest range 
was comparatively low. The mountain of Alwend, to which he evi¬ 
dently alludes, is situated near Hamadan, and distant at least 120 
miles. I settled the bearing of Karaj from Casvin with precision, from 
the top of a ruined mosque, called the Mesjid Bolaghee; for a cape 
which projects from the range of Albors, which is seen from a consi¬ 
derable distance and marks the site of that place, bears from the 
mosque S. 59° E. From this same summit may be seen a considerable 
part of the city, and the whole extent of the royal buildings. The 
Prince has erected a high polygonal tower, for the purpose of taking 
the air, and looking about him; and although we could not help re¬ 
flecting that he would have done better to restore some of the fine 
buildings which were now in ruin, than to build new, yet his tower was 
not an unpicturesque object, and no bad specimen of his taste. If it 
were seen in an European country it would be taken for an observa¬ 
tory. Such, in fact, it may be called now; but it is to observe things 
below, and not those above. 
* Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, Svo. ed. vol. ii. p. 383. 
