GILPAIGON. 
67 
with this impression of general prosperity in the place, as its 
appearance of perfect repair; there being no ruinous suburbs, 
or dilapidated out-works of any kind, to speak of past opulence 
and present decay : the usual tale told by the mourning genius of 
almost every place, in this once great empire; the mind’s eye for 
ever seeing her seated in the dust by the way-side, “ lonely, and 
wasted with wretchedness.” Gilpaigon has another peculiarity ; 
it is not begirt by fortified walls; which opportunity being em¬ 
braced for the extension of the streets, and the planting of 
gardens and trees round the principal houses, gives a singular 
appearance of freedom, airiness, and luxuriance of shade to the 
town and its cultivated environs. The only bulwarks of military 
strength that it commands, are a couple of towered enclosures, 
about a pistol-shot from the town; and into these, doubtless, 
the male inhabitants would put their valuables, animate and 
inanimate, should any hostile circumstance make it necessary for 
them to take arms. 
The domes of four or five mosques of respectable dimensions, 
greatly embellish the view of the town ; but when we visited 
them near, I found time had committed some spoliation on their 
preservation ; though the style of the buildings, and the rich 
porcelain coating, (while it remains,) must always constitute them 
striking ornaments of the place. Gilpaigon is the provincial 
capital of a khan, who governs the small district from which it 
takes its name. The town itself is supposed to contain about 
two thousand persons. Nearly a couple of farsangs before we 
reached this little rural metropolis, we found the road divide 
itself; one branch leading to the village of Gohikaw, the regular 
halting-place, in the way to Hamadan, and the other to the town 
which we had chosen for our menzil. Gohikaw, with two other 
k 2 
