PREFACE. 
IX 
What refinement of taste in some of Sir Robert Ker Porter’s 
predecessors may have caused them to change, almost uncon¬ 
sciously, a scrupulous curiosity in observing the progress of the 
art, determined him to copy line by line, defect or beauty ; 
whatever he saw, to pourtray ; transcribing shape of person, 
character of feature, and fashion of apparel, to the minutest 
particle. An ardent lover and sedulous practise!* of the arts, 
from childhood to the present time, his eye and his hand being- 
alike familiar to every detail of the pencil or the chisel, precision 
in these respects is as natural to him, as embellishment to those, 
who may be amateurs of the arts, without having actually studied 
the principle of its schools. Therefore, to such an undeviating 
fidelity of portraiture, the writer of this work avows his claim. 
A similar experience in military objects, assisted his observa¬ 
tions on the arms of the people, ancient and modern, of the 
nations through which he travelled, and greatly facilitated his 
measurements and plans of the sites and elevations of certain 
cities and places of renown and interest. He also wishes to 
state, that the large map of the Persian empire, &c. is laid down 
by himself; chiefly from his own personal observations, assisted 
by those of Major Monteith, of the Madras engineers, who is 
now a resident in Persia; and where their joint personal inform¬ 
ation did not reach, both published and MSS. geographical 
observations were consulted, while the writer was in the East, 
and, subsequently, every thing useful that could be found in the 
Depot Imperial des Cartes at St. Petersburgh. The smaller 
routes are entirely from his own remarks ; and should they, with 
the preceding, meet the attention of Major Rennell, the vener- 
VOL. I. 
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