434 
THE MIRADOR. 
eyes, yet remains in the Maidan Shah, lonely and disregarded. 
Were it in any place of England, after so long a time of neglect, 
we should find the stem moss-covered, and the dank grass at its 
foot; but in this pure climate, all appears fresh, and unimpaired, 
till the hand of man sullies its fair surface. — A sort of perpetuity 
in the existence of inanimate objects, after the living beings who 
constructed them are entirely passed away, which produces a 
much sadder impression on the spectator, than when viewing 
the age-marked ruins of our climates; whose mouldering ap¬ 
pearance of decay seems hastening to join them to the dust 1 of 
the founders. Whilst these Persian sports of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries, so like those of our own festivities of the 
same period, were going on with the equestrian orders; the 
lower ranks took their share of May-game, on the same ground, 
and under the same royal eye ; wrestling, tumbling, and exhibit¬ 
ing a variety of other feats of strength and agility. 
A saloon opened from the Mirador, on the side where alone 
it was not all window ; and this interior chamber might vie 
in splendour with the utmost magnificence I had seen in any 
of the palaces of the Heste Beheste. Besides the ornaments of 
gold, and mirror, and arabesque wreathing, its walls were hung 
with groups of dancing-girls, of every country and action. 
Amongst other pictures, were the whole length portraits of 
a lady and gentleman, in the European habits of the age of 
James I. or his son, our first Charles; probably the production 
of some artist in the suite of the Holstein ambassadors; or, more 
likely, the portraits of Sir Robert and Lady Shirley, who re¬ 
sided at the Sefi court during the reign of James ; and, in fact, 
died here : but where buried, memory at present does not bear 
any record. 
