'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎6] (33/360)

6 THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
carriages to drive the six miles to Resht. My experiences
in Constantinople had only prepared me in a very small
degree for the inexpressible badness of this road, streaming
with mud and water as it was. We bumped in and out of
holes, were nearly overturned at exceptionally bad bits of
the road, and my companion and I had to cling tightly to
one another to save ourselves from being thrown out.
Every moment I felt that our dilapidated vehicle must
perforce come to pieces, or that the insecurely fastened
wheels must succumb to the repeated shocks as we jolted
painfully along, and it was a relief to reach the pretty town
of Resht, embowered in autumnal-tinted trees, the red-tiled
roofs of its houses giving it at a distance much the look of
an English country village.
We drove through street after street of bazaar, the wide
eaves of the houses nearly meeting overhead, and put
up at a romantic-looking hotel, seemingly composed of
stained glass and stucco work, and standing in a garden
of oranges.
The food here was by no means to be recommended ; but
the kind hospitality of Mr. Churchill, H.B.M.'s Consul at
Resht, and his wife, saved us from experimenting overmuch
with it during our two days' halt.
When we left Resht we drove along a charming road
bordered with birches, beeches, oaks, acacias and pollarded
willows, and having its big hedges overgrown with ivy
and maidenhair fern, while handsome little humped cattle
wandered under the trees.
The bridges here were peculiar, going up into a sharp
point in the middle, the steep cobbled inclines being very
slippery for the horses, which, however, galloped up and
down them at a great rate. We passed ' wattle and dab'