Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/58

 a well wooded and watered garden, of twenty-five or thirty acres in extent,outside the walls of the town, upon which the Government of India contemplate building an English Residency. Not only — putting aside all political considerations — will it be a great boon to the Consul-General and his staff to have well-built English houses in which to reside, in lieu of a rambling and unimposing Persian abode, but the comfort and enjoyment of being beyond the walls of the town cannot be over-estimated. Inside the walls it is difficult for European gentlemen, and quite impossible for European ladies, to move a yard in public, either on foot or on horseback, without being accompanied by an escort of ferashes or foot and cavalry soldiers on horseback, and it is difficult under such conditions to get rid of the feeling that one is more or less of a state prisoner, nor are the chains the less galling because they are so heavily gilded.

During our stay at Meshed Iwas presented to the Governor-General of Khorassan, His Highness the Rookem-ed-Dowleh, brother of the Shah, whom in face and figure he much