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DESCRIPTION OF THE COURT. 
as many strips as we had had tugs in our passage. Leaving the 
throng behind, we turned under a narrow and dark arch-way, 
to a low and very small door, and entered through it at once 
upon the quarter of the palace. It shewed a spacious area, shaded 
with trees, and intersected by water. In the centre, stood the 
splendid edifice where his Majesty was to sit to receive the 
homage of his subjects. We were led towards the southern 
aspect of this place, the grand saloon fronting that way, where 
the ceremony of royal presentation was to be performed, and 
were carefully stationed at the point deemed the best for seeing 
and hearing the Great King. Before his Majesty appeared, I 
had time to observe the disposition of the scene, in which this 
illustrious personage was to act so conspicuous a part. 
Rows of high poplars, and of other trees, divide this immense 
court, or rather garden, into several avenues. That which runs 
along the midst of the garden is the widest; enclosing a narrow 
piece of still water, stretching from end to end, and animated 
here and there, with a few little^cifs d'eau ; the margins of which 
were spread with oranges, pears, apples, grapes, and dried fruit, 
all heaped on plates, set close together, like a chain. Another 
slip of water, faced diagonally the front of the palace ; and its 
fountains being more direct in the view of the monarch, were of 
greater magnificence and power, shooting up to a height of 
three or four feet! a sublimity of hydraulic art, which the 
Persians suppose cannot be equalled in any other country. 
Along the marble edges of this canal and fountains, were also 
placed fruits of every description, in pyramids; and between 
each elevated range of plates, with these their glowing contents, 
stood vases filled with flowers, of a beautiful fabric, in wax, 
that seemed to want nothing of nature, but its perfume. In a 
