412 
THE PALACE OF FORTY PILLARS. 
glass. Prodigious quantities of the latter decoration being in¬ 
laid, in a thousand shapes and places, over almost every part of 
these structures, and all shining at once under the rays of the 
sun, the dazzled sight seeing nothing but indistinct forms of 
splendour, may excuse the ejaculation of admiring wonder with 
which, I confess, I hailed the first view of these extraordinary 
mansions. 
The Cliehel Setoon , or Palace of Forty Pillars, was the favourite 
residence of the latter Sefi kings ; and certainly, when we turned 
into the grand avenue, and the palace broke upon us, I thought 
description was put to silence. Indeed, words can seldom give 
any thing like a just idea of very intricate objects of sight; but 
for the satisfaction of my readers, curious in comparing the taste 
of times and countries, I shall attempt some detail of this Per¬ 
sian Versailles. The exhaustless profusion of its splendid ma¬ 
terials, reflected, not merely their own golden or crystal lights 
on each other, but all the variegated colours of the garden ; so 
that the whole surface seemed formed of polished silver and 
mother-of-pearl, set with precious stones. In short, as I said 
before, the scene might well have appeared an Eastern poet’s 
dream, or some magic vision, in the wonderful tales of an 
Arabian Night. 
When we drew near, I found the entire front of the building 
open to the garden ; the roof being sustained by a double range 
of columns, the height of which measured eleven Persian yards, 
(a Persian yard being forty-four inches ;) hence they rose up¬ 
wards of forty feet. Each column shoots up from the united 
backs of four lions, of white marble; and the shafts of the 
columns rising from these extraordinary bases, were covered 
with arabesque patterns, and foliages, in looking-glass, gilding, 
