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Graeme Brooker
and Sally Stone 2
rereadings
interior architecture
and the design principles
of remodelling
existing buildings
© RIBA Publishing, 2018

Published by RIBA Publishing, part of the Royal Institute of British Architects,

66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD

ISBN 978 1 85946 581 3

The right of Graeme Brooker and Sally Stone to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 sections 77 and 78.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior permission of the copyright owner.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Commissioning Editor: Elizabeth Webster

Project Editor: Daniel Culver
Production / Design: Phil Handley, Michèle Woodger
Printed and bound by W&G Baird, Great Britain
Cover image credits:
© Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (front cover);
© Hélène Binet, the New Galleries at St John Soane Museum, London, by Caruso St John (back cover)

While every effort has been made to check the accuracy and quality of the information given in this
publication, neither the Author nor the Publisher accept any responsibility for the subsequent use of this
information, for any errors or omissions that it may contain, or for any misunderstandings arising from it.

www.ribapublishing.com
 ii / iii

Contents
Chapter One: Chapter Two: Chapter Three: Chapter Four:
Analysis Strategy Tactics Case Studies

Acknowledgements Introduction Introduction Introduction FRAC

iv 10 70 112 206
Foreword
v Form and Structure Strategy: Intervention Plane Neues Museum
About the Authors Introduction Introduction Introduction 212
vii 12 71 113
Introduction Case Studies Case Studies Case Studies Zenkai House / House
1 14 73 118 Surgery
218
History and Function Strategy: Insertion Object
Introduction Introduction Introduction The Cement Factory /
22 84 143 La Fabrica
Case Studies Case Studies Case Studies 223
24 86 145
Flatland
Context and Strategy: Installation Light 227
Environment Introduction Introduction
Introduction 98 156 Inujima Seirensho Art
33 Case Studies Case Studies Museum
Case Studies 100 158 232
35
Surface
Proposed Function Introduction
Introduction 167
44 Case Studies
Case Studies 169
46
Openings
Sustainable Adaptation Introduction
Introduction 180
55 Case Studies
Case Studies 183
57
Movement
Introduction
192
Case Studies
194

References
238
Index
241
Image Credits
251
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all of the designers, architects, photographers and clients who
supplied images and drawings and their kind permission to use them, and of course
Liz Webster, Susannah Lear, Daniel Culver and Phil Handley at RIBA Publishing for their
patience, which was never lost, even towards the end of the project.

I would like to thank colleagues at the Royal College of Art for their support, and in
particular would like to acknowledge Ian Higgins’ insightful comments about the cover
of volume 2 in relation to the first book. In addition, I would like to thank the Daiwa
Foundation for its generous support via its funding of extensive research in Japan in
2016. The meetings and interviews in Hiroshima and Takarazuka, with Hiroshi Sambuichi
and Katsuhiro Miyamoto, were incredible opportunities and provided me with many
enjoyable memories. I would like to express immense gratitude to both architects for
their time, extensive knowledge, and kind hospitality. Many thanks also to Takuma
Yoshimi, Maki Matsuura and also to Tatsuya Iketani for assistance in organisation and
translations. I would also like to acknowledge the support from Thomas Bruin of the
Fukutake Foundation, and extend my gratitude for his help in assisting with visits to the
Setouchi Triennale and in particular the Inujima Seirensho Art Museum. Finally, thanks to
Claire and to Mr Osgood, for their composure and resilience throughout the duration of
this project.

– Graeme Brooker

This book has taken a long time: to develop and to write. The architectural world has
massively changed since the publication of the first volume of rereadings. The adaptation
and remodelling of the existing situation is an important and intrinsic part of any project,
while Contextualism – which only a couple of generations ago was frowned upon – is
now considered a valid and essential process. Building reuse, which was once seen
as the poor relation to new-build, is beginning to occupy the centre ground. Extensive
discussions were needed to decide how much of the original rereadings format was
to be retained, and how much was to be developed, changed or even eliminated.
Eventually it was decided that, for the book to be thought of as a second volume, it was
important that it felt as if it was a direct continuum of the first. I would like to thank all of
those countless friends who have been instrumental in the development of the book; I
hope that you have enjoyed the conversations as much as I have! I would like to thank
the Manchester School of Architecture for the highly productive sabbatical that I was
awarded to facilitate the completion of this book; as always I thank Dominic for his great
solidity, and Reuben, Ivan and Agnes for their indulgence.

– Sally Stone
 iv / v

Foreword
This is timely – as was volume 1. Rereadings volume 1 emerged over ten years ago in
2004 and quickly made its mark as a perceptive and intelligent review of how the skill of
putting buildings to reuse was becoming – at last – a field of work worthy of separate
study, separate from architecture and separate from interior design. A wide trawl found
examples of then current projects covering the full breadth of options, from the familiar to
the unexpected, from the gentle to the radical, from the ponderous to the quirky. These
were used as case studies that collectively were to demonstrate that the separation from
architecture was legitimate and useful, and that it was ready for analysis within its own
terms of reference. It had come of age and recognised.

And so with rereadings 2. Fourteen years on, the case is even stronger as we re-evaluate
our built environment differently – more critically and more carefully. Now we hesitate
before ripping down what’s there before we start work, assuming that it has nothing to tell
us and no value; we are able to recognise that the creative minds that were there before
us on our site – with their constraints, struggles and flashes of brilliance – could be a
seed bank; if examined with care, they have the potential to bring forth new life. So
instead of scraping those away as kitchen debris, the existing, with all its problems and
costs, is valued as the probable route to something interesting and useful rather than an
impediment to kick out of the way. This is probably not a sign of humility; more likely a
sign that we are less confident that the less-than-brilliant single voice is the noise we want
to have ringing in our ears and dazzling our eyes.

How much the world has changed in ten years; our place in it feels slippery underfoot,
nothing is clear and trust is hard. We are asked to accept change at a speed that is
outside of our normal human rhythm and our technique for dealing with this is to discard
the flamboyant new that fills the flashy competitive city, after an initial opening of the
eyes, with a self-protective shrug. Instead we are increasingly finding comfort in a form of
new that subtly emerges from the old and is able to hold some of its re-evaluated
qualities. It is a new that bears revisiting, with the knowledge that there is a fine banquet
of ideas for us there should we want it. It offers us some purchase points, clefts to hang
on to, memories to relive and a sense of continuity.

This valuable book is not a handbook, but is an

extension of the atelier method of learning – about
listening, looking and considering. No circumstances
are ever the same, particularly at this level of
complexity involving time, place, context, use,
history…, but there is much to learn. This is not theory
outside of practice, or philosophy outside of reality;
instead this is ‘what can we learn from this – and this,
and this?’ This time the authors have wandered even
further on our behalf, gathering examples from all over
the world, creating a portfolio of over 70 projects. It
Figure 0.1 reveals how all places and citizens are confronted by
Neues Museum, Berlin. the same problems, and the strategies to approach
David Chipperfield them – the tactics – are understandably similar, but
Architects, 2009. nonetheless site and culture specific, and cannot be
 universal. This has enabled an unforced process of categorisation, placing the range of
approaches into a form of taxonomy that carries convincing weight.

The results of reuse have inevitably

become a recognisable and aspirational
style for architects and interior designers –
and indeed clients; an apparently easy-to-
copy look that can be draped over the
banal. A chaos style has emerged –
fragmented, eclectic, deliberately
Figure 0.2 eccentric, made from clashing materials,
Neues Museum, Berlin. textures and ideas; it has tended to coarsen
David Chipperfield what is essentially a delicate process of
Architects, 2009. reading, and rereading. Used as a device
for reducing bulk, curtailing impact,
disguising the big gesture, we see it everywhere as it has fanned out from the bars of
Shoreditch, Sydney and New York, through to the suburban commercial developments
that surround our cities. But as this book shows us, reuse is not a style that can be
slapped on as a veneer. It is a way of thinking intelligently about how the past can inform
the present as a gift to the future. Reuse projects do not conform to the expected; they
can be delicate, witty, dramatic, literate, theatrical, soft or hard. Most designers, and
most architects, perform better when there are restraints wrapped tightly around a
project – whether they be financial, dimensional, political, functional or emotional – and
often structural and historical as well. And since the restraints are always particular, the
results are not a library of options to be plundered; there is no unifying clip-on style for the
lazy. But for those who seek to learn by examining the different ways of approaching this
rich seam, the examples in this book are all worthy of consideration and serious study;
the lessons will be rewarding.

– Dinah Casson, January 2018

Dinah Casson RDI is a designer and founder partner of Casson Mann, interior designers
who, since 1995, have specialised in the design of exhibitions and museum galleries in
the UK, Europe, US and Russia. She has been a teacher and examiner throughout her
working life.
 vi / vii

About the Authors

Professor Graeme Brooker is Head of Interior Design at the Royal College of Art,
London. He has published widely on many aspects of the interior, and in particular
the reuse of existing buildings. His recent publications include Adaptation Strategies
for Interior Architecture and Design (Bloomsbury, 2016) and Key Interiors Since
1900 (Laurence King, 2013). He has co-edited (with Sally Stone) a number of books
on the interior, including the highly acclaimed volume 1 of rereadings (RIBA, 2004).
He co-edited (with Lois Weinthal) The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design
(Bloomsbury, 2013). He is a member of the editorial advisory board of the journals
‘Interiors: Design, Architecture, Culture’ (Bloomsbury), and ‘IDEA’. He is the founder
and director of the charity Interior Educators (IE), the national subject association for all
interior courses in the UK.

Sally Stone is an internationally recognised expert on the subject of the interior and the
interpretation and remodelling of the existing situation. Her writing includes published
books, inclusion in edited books and journals, invitations to speak at international
conferences, and requests to direct workshops. Sally is a Reader in Architecture at the
Manchester School of Architecture, where she is the Programme Leader for the Master
of Architecture. She also leads Continuity in Architecture, a postgraduate studio for
research, practice and teaching, which seeks to find ways to derive delightful, rigorous
and measured responses to complex contexts and historically sensitive environments.
Sally is the co-recipient of the UK Government sponsored Heritage Heroes Award in
recognition of her work to save the magnificently Brutal Preston Bus Station.
 viii / 1

Introduction
Most buildings are resilient. They can series of impediments and obstacles. They
accommodate change, they can evolve, have the necessary understanding to
expand, contract; they can adapt as the create a new future for the building and
needs and priorities of those who occupy those who occupy it.
them become different. It is feasible to
remodel most buildings for a broad range It could be argued that the urban
of circumstances and it is possible for a development strategies of the 20th century
building to have a number of different lives were primarily focused upon the removal of
and achievable reincarnations. Places that existing buildings in order to realise new
are adaptable can generate associations space: a tabula rasa approach. The last 50
with the past and with the future; they years have witnessed the advancement of
create interconnections through time and place-making strategies. Heritage
space. They retain a sense of their previous considerations have ensured that
existence while also providing an architects, designers, urbanists, landscape
opportunity for the next. They possess the architects, and interiorists now prioritise the
mnemonic quality of the already there. realisation of the potential differences within
cityscapes, making distinction and variation
If it is seen as desirable both to retain and a key concern and a primary consideration
reuse the existing building stock, then in the approach to constructing cities,
these structures need to be transformed. buildings and interior spaces: a tabula
Over the last generation, attitudes towards plena approach.
the existing building have radically
changed. Collective memory and the desire Adaptation and reuse is very much part of
for a sense of continuity with the past have the wider debates about the sustainability
meant that the built environment is now of the urban environment. It is in line with
expected to have the quality of adaptability one of the 21st century grand- or meta-
through time, problems and opportunities. narratives. Global challenges, uncertainty
about the future and the need to ensure a
The way in which we live has also radically sustainable and productive future means
developed, and the need to ‘belong’ means that the adaptation of the existing building
that cultural constructions within the built is seen to make a positive contribution to
environment are recognised as important: society and to the individual. Sustainability
identification with a particular place and is a factor that was considered within
community is regarded as beneficial to rereadings volume 1, but has been given a
health and wellbeing. Places that already much more important position and greater
exist, that contain character and prominence within this second book. Care
personality, are desirable. The juxtaposition for the environment and the importance of
of past and present can stimulate creativity lessening the wanton destruction of many
and this can act as a catalyst for growth characterful or precious situations is a
and further development. The architect and social priority.
interior designer can understand the needs
of the new users and combine this with a Volume 2 has also expanded the focus of
thorough knowledge of the existing to the study to include more situations and
create a new and appropriate environment even venture tentatively into urban design.
that is easy to use. They can create order The existing building has a direct
within the complexity of a collection of relationship with its immediate environment,
existing structures. They can rationalise the and any changes that are made to that
 rereadings 2

Figure 1.1 Olivetti

Shop, Venice, by Carlo
Scarpa; a beautiful
exploration of
materials, form and
context.

building will have an effect upon the nature that growing interest and the need for further
of the surrounding location. So for example, clarification of the process of remodelling,
a simple shift in the position of the entrance adaptation and transformation of the existing
can cause a dramatic change within the built environment. It demonstrates the
order of the urban surroundings. The increased awareness of the sustainability
architect and interior designer will need to agenda, and shows a definite emerging
be aware of the consequences of such interest from non European-centric areas of
moves and be prepared to act accordingly. the world in this type of work. The reuse of
Experimental creative arts practices have a existing buildings can now be considered a
role in shaping urban development mainstream subject rather than a
practices. Artists who work directly with the phenomenon. It is an approach that
existing environment can suggest methods prioritises an exploration of consuming less,
of approach. The attitude of the installation exploiting more and utilising what is to be
artist – someone who is unencumbered by found. This attitude values what we already
such factors as programme, drains and have over the relentless and gratuitous
environmental control – might be able to pursuit of something new.
experiment with ideas that are too radical,
inconvenient or costly for the designer. But Volume 1 in some small way contributed to
these can act as precedents, exemplars or this awakening of interest in the importance
provide inspiration for the designer. of the built environment: it very much caught
the zeitgeist of that moment. A decade ago
It is over a decade since the publication of there were very few publications dedicated
Volume 1. This period of time has seen a to the subject; indeed, there were just two
significant and positive change in the that were worthy of recommendation. There
attitude towards the reuse of existing are now numerous books dedicated to
buildings and the status of the adaptation interior architecture, design, and decoration,
industry. This second volume is testament to all of which advocate reuse as the basis for
2/3
Introduction

the principles and processes of reworking the local population, and also other
existing buildings: a testament to its sympathetic groups, such as architects and
growing popularity as a subject and as a historians. These activities were sometimes
field of study. very popular, at other times somewhat
subversive, but in the end they were
The industry is dramatically different from the extremely effective. The campaign was
one when volume 1 was composed. Building successful, and the Bus Station has been
reuse, adaptation and remodelling were still granted a Grade II Listing by Historic
seen as secondary work, but a significant England. This means that any
number of high profile projects along with redevelopment of the city has to consider
this change in attitude have meant that they the presence of a huge Modernist
are now central to all construction. Often masterpiece at the heart of any proposal.
regarded as a less than radical area of the
study in the built environment, preservation, This was a fantastic example of people
restoration, conservation and rehabilitation power, and testament to the importance that
are now considered to be of central concern a particular building or place can have within
within all discourse. As the finite resources of the collective memory of a population. The
the planet diminish, so the reworking of adaptation of the existing is more popular,
existing places and spaces, and the more prevalent, more desired; it has
prevailing attitude towards them, are also become an almost ubiquitous approach to
undergoing a transformation. This current the development and redevelopment of the
interest and growth in popularity of the built environment. Adaptation is now
subject can be witnessed in the considered as a normal part of architectural
development of its award-winning practice. There is a well-developed appetite
capabilities. The RIBA Stirling Prize has for the exploration and clarification of the
been won for the last four years by a reuse processes of this type of work in the built
project. This is a UK-based award, but it is of environment. The architect or designer no
international importance and is one of the longer considers the reuse project to be
few that recognises an individual building something strange within the collection of
rather than a specific architect or designer, different types of assignments in the office
or a body of work. portfolio. It is just another type of project to
be addressed. Therefore, this publication
This change in attitude can be illustrated by should prove to be a much needed
the story of Preston Bus Station. This resource. A lot of practitioners have little
building was discussed in volume 1, and experience of working with an existing
little hope was expressed for its rescue from structure and rereadings 2 will aid the
demolition. This is an important Brutalist understanding and production of this
structure that plays a significant role within process. This discussion of the methods of
the collective memory of the residents of the approach is explored through a collection of
city as well as having an important place inspirational case studies.However, it is still
within the history of architecture. The rescue not a subject that is well considered within
of this building serves as an illustration of the schools of architecture. Interior architecture
change in attitude towards the existing built and design programmes discuss it at
environment and the importance that this length and very well, but given that many
plays in forming the character of place. A architects carry out adaptation projects, it is
series of events that celebrated the building a great omission that moretime is not spent
were organised by many different interested on the subject within academia.
parties. The intention of these was to bring
the plight of the structure to the attention of
 rereadings 2

Figure 1.2 The

marvellously Brutal
Preston Bus Station
was saved from
demolition by active
campaigning from local
and national pressure
groups.
4/5
Introduction

The Book Analysis

Rereadings volume 2 reinforces and The form of the adaptation inevitably
progresses the innovative ideas that were contains a direct relationship with the form
developed in volume 1. The structure of the of the original building. This seems obvious,
original book has been retained, but the but it does defy the Modernist aphorism of
outlook is considerably more international. form following function. Within building
Volume 2 is populated with examples of reuse the physical presence of the new
adaptation drawn from around the world. elements is completely dependent upon the
There is a growing popularity for the type of actual size, shape and organisation of the
building or interior that has a direct old. Thus the form of the remodelled
connection with the society or culture that it building follows the form of the original. It is
is situated within. This awareness of the therefore the responsibility of the designer
individual, the ethnicity and the people of a or architect to fully understand the exact
particular location means that there is also qualities of the existing situation before
a desire to retain much of the culture that embarking upon the adaptation. Without an
has evolved there. The global range of the in-depth understanding of the unique
projects illustrating the process of qualities of the existing situation, it is
adaptation shows how reuse is be impossible to create a coherent and
considered a viable alternative to new-build comfortable remodelling. Analysis is
architectural approaches across the world. divided into five sections; each approaches
the existing building differently and discusses
Volume 2 is organised in almost exactly the a particular, yet influential aspect.
same manner as volume 1. This is a highly
innovative and very effective system for The Form and Structure of the existing
showing the adaptation process and it building are often the easiest aspects to
clearly demonstrates the stages with understand. How does the building stand up?
carefully chosen precedents or case Has it a distinct rhythm or order and what are
studies. This process-driven approach is the relationships between the rooms and
still pertinent and appropriate; it follows the spaces like? The Historical and Functional
practical methods of thinking about reuse factors can sometimes be more elusive, of
and underpins the approach to working course: what the building was used for and
with the existing situation. Thus the book is what had happened to it are very important,
divided into four chapters. The first three but how can that influence the outcome of the
chapters, Analysis, Strategy and Tactics, redesign? The analysis of the Context and
establish the design process for the Environment of the existing building establish
remodelling of existing buildings. The last relationships between the site, its neighbours
chapter contains six in-depth case studies. and occasionally things further away and also
An important change is the inclusion of a discusses the influence that climate can have
significant section within the Analysis upon the adaptation. Without an
chapter dedicated entirely to sustainability. understanding of the requirements of the
This subject was of course included in the Proposed Function, it is difficult to appreciate
first volume, and it could be argued that it is whether a relationship with the original
intrinsically part of every remodelling building can be established. Sustainability is
project, but it is important that this is fully a subject that is at the heart of reuse. It is an
demonstrated and discussed. extremely carbon-friendly approach to reuse
a structure. This can be supplemented by the
attitude of the designer, who can also choose
to carry out the works in a sustainable
rereadings 2

manner, and design the building in such a strategy is realised. The tactics are the
way that it is occupied in an environmentally distinct and discrete systems of
responsible way. organisation that together form the
completeness of the building. The
individual tactics or elements that make up
Strategy the building are always different; each
remodelling project calls for a different
This chapter concentrates on the plan of solution, and so the elements that constitute
action for the overall situation of the that remodelling will therefore be
adaptation. It discusses the formation of the completely individual. These tactics
basic relationship that is established express the very qualities of the building,
between the original building and the new what it looks like, how it sounds, and what it
elements of the adaptation. The approach or feels like. So for example, a strategically
the plan for the building is influenced or placed wall can manifest itself in many
based upon the factors discovered within the different ways: the materials that it is made
analysis of the original situation. This strategic from would depend upon its situation, its
rapport can be catalogued into three general use is distinct and therefore the
classifications. There will always be other appearance is always specific and
approaches, but almost all remodelling individual. There are six categories of
projects can be placed within this taxonomy. tactics introduced in this chapter; each
The three types of strategy are classified section discusses a different type of tactical
according to the degree of intimacy of the element and how it has been deployed.
relationship between the old and the new.
Planes are normally either horizontal or
If the existing building is so transformed that it vertical and can be used to organise and
can no longer viably exist independently and separate space. The category is sub-
the nature of the remodelling is such that the divided into the wall, the floor, the façade
old and new are completely intertwined, then and the soffit. Object discusses elements
the category is intervention. If a new such as furniture or larger scale things that
autonomous element is placed into the can provide a focus or a rhythm to a space.
confines of the existing, and its dimensions The articulation of Light, and the effect of
completely dictated by it (that is, the new both natural and artificial, can radically
element is built to fit), then the category is transform a building. Surface is the use of
insertion. The final classification, that of specific materials to confer identity and
installation, discusses examples in which the meaning. Movement refers to circulation
old and the new exist independently. The new and Opening describes how physical and
elements are placed within the boundaries of visual relationships can be established
the building, the design or the grouping of between places and things.
these elements may be influenced by the
existing, but the fit is not exact and should the
elements be removed, then the building Case Studies
would revert to its original state.
The final chapter is dedicated to the
in-depth analysis of six significant
Tactics examples of remodelled buildings. The
principles discussed are applied to each of
This chapter concentrates on the individual them and the analysis and explanation will
elements or details of the design. It looks at confirm the reputation of the building and
the carefully planned methods by which the those that remodelled it.
 6/7
Introduction

Figure 1.3 Kolumba Rereadings volume 2 proposes that the now perceived as a very sustainable and
Museum, Cologne by form of the resultant building is based viable alternative to the construction of
Peter Zumthor. Within upon the form of the existing building and new-build architecture.
the basement, the that there is an inextricable connection
sharp contrast between between the two. It looks at methods of
the ruined church and approach to building reuse, that is, the
the new elements of the adaptation and interpretation of the
museum are existing from a theoretical point of view.
particularly apparent.
This has led to new ways of examining
and cataloguing the historic urban
environment and has had an influence
upon the manner in which the
construction industry engages with the
existing built environment. Volume 2
reiterates and enlarges upon the
progressive approach that was
introduced in the first book. It uses the
same effective format to structure and
organise the book, thus strengthening
and enlarging upon the theories that were
introduced and developed in rereadings
volume 1.

There is an obvious and increased

interest in the sustainability and heritage
agenda and emerging interest from
non European-centric areas of the world
in this type of work. This has ensured that
the remodelling of existing buildings is
Chapter 1:
Analysis
“The project as
modification tells us
that each situation
offers a specific
truth, to be sought
and revealed as the
essence of the goal,
and as the truth of
both the site and
the geography that
embodies that site’s
particular history.” 1

Figure 1.4 Courtyard of the Kolumba Museum,

Cologne by Peter Zumthor. The new elements are
designed to complete the building and thus they
indicate the extent of the mass of the original.
 rereadings 2
Chapter 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Introduction
Artists, designers and architects who work To look closely at a particular situation can
with the material of existing context strive to cause the familiar to become unfamiliar;
reveal the hidden spirit of a place. Through equally, somewhere unknown can become
a process of exposing and exploiting the recognisable. The initial purpose of this
memories of a situation, and in contrast to analysis will remove any preconceptions
the amnesia of much contemporary and alleviate any assumptions, so that the
production, they seek to interpret these qualities of any built environment are not
meanings and construct an additional layer immediately coloured by supposition or
of consequence that will bestow new value prejudice. This will allow comparisons,
on the place. This approach, which is juxtapositions and correlations to be made.
based upon a perceptive and The architect or designer may look at the
discriminating reading of place, produces urban grain, buildings and spaces, history,
both dynamic and appropriate results. The topography, geology, culture, food,
interior architect, designer and artist all evolution, geography, typologies, climate,
have the opportunity to reflect upon the population, flora, architecture, anti-
contingency, usefulness and emotional architecture, key figures, activities, growth
resonance of particular places through the and decline, narrative, stratification, spatial
examination and appropriation of the development, occupation and definition,
existing situation. the meaning of space and probably many
other things as well. All of these can inform
The use and reuse of an architectural site the adaptation of the site.
creates a direct connection not just with the
present, but also with the past. It is a Carlo Scarpa is generally considered to be
strategy that establishes an explicit the pre-eminent exponent of the art of
relationship with context, not just of the reuse. He practised in the second half of
building and its immediate surroundings, the 20th century, mainly in the Veneto area
but also with the society that constructed it. of Italy. His work can be said to epitomise,
The reading of a building or site can in microcosm, the very character and
uncover a layered and stratified narrative. nature of that particular area. The Olivetti
The understanding of the inherent qualities Showroom in Venice (see page 2) was
and conditions of building or site can constructed in the late 1950s. The narrow
provide clues to the redesign of the place. It single space fronts onto the magnificent St
is through a thorough knowledge and Mark’s Square and is situated next to a long
understanding of the existing condition that dark alleyway. Venice has a direct
the architect or designer can uncover the relationship with water, and Scarpa
meaning within a place. This knowledge exploited this to dramatic effect within the
can be used to activate, liberate and shop. He conceived the interior of the store
instigate a new future for the situation. And as a continuum of the exterior space. The
so the architect or designer who is to elements of the interior were lifted above a
modify, transform or change the building to distinct datum line, to both physically and
accommodate a new use has to adhere not visually account for the regular ingress of
just to the agenda of the new users, but also the acqua alta or the high tide. The display
the intentions of the original building. This counters and the storage cupboards are
act of modification is part of the evolution of raised by about 400mm above the tiled
the building, it as another layer in the floor, the pattern of which is slightly
archaeology of the site. irregular. This suggests that it is continually
moving, and thus the water from the square
10 / 11
Analysis, Introduction

is both welcome and catered for. The stairs for the designer to be completely aware of
to the mezzanine slide into the main body of the needs of the users of the remodelled
the shop, as if offering a step on to dry land. building is discussed within the Proposed
The first floor balcony surrounds the shop Function section. Those who will occupy
interior, and this allows a view back onto the the new spaces may not be completely
watery floor, and through the plate glass aware of the best method of arrangement or
window into the square. The idea of current thinking as they are likely to be
movement is very much part of the manifesto blinded by the presentism of their existing
of the Modernist movement, so this places organisation.
Scarpa in both Venice and the 20th century.
The interior demonstrates a relationship Rereadings volume 2 introduces a new
between a specific place and its section: Sustainable Adaptation. It can be
surroundings, and relates the complex story argued that to reuse a building is an
or narrative of the place. incredibly environmentally friendly act –
after all, the structure and the infrastructure
are in place, consequently saving energy
Structure and materials. The building itself may also
play an important role in the collective
This chapter will contain five sections. The memory of the area, therefore its adaptation
first four will reinforce the argument that and reuse strengthens the livelihood and
was developed in the first volume, while the general wellbeing of the community. The
fifth introduces the sustainable advantages concept of the sustainable interior can be
of adaptation. further enhanced if the designer constructs
a building that can be used in a sustainable
History and Function will concentrate upon manner, in that the users or inhabitants are
the idea of recollection and expectation that encouraged to act in an environmentally
is implicitly contained within any building friendly manner while they inhabit the place.
and how this can be harnessed and This can involve simple measures from
interpreted within the adaptation of the windows that open, heating and cooling
structure. Context and Environment argues that can be manually controlled, to
that the situation in which a building is specifically placed meeting points within
located has a definite influence upon the the interior.
character of the existing and by association
the remodelled structure. These may be To remodel a building in a sympathetic and
things immediately surrounding the original successful manner, the designer needs to
structure, and embrace the three- be able to anticipate the needs of the new
dimensional construction of the building users and combine this with a thorough
itself, but also include things further away knowledge of the memory and the
and dependent upon the influence of circumstance of the existing.
climate and the vernacular. The Form and
Structure section discusses the manner in
which a building was constructed and the
influence that this will have upon the
redesign. Rhythm, configuration, materials
and detail are all important elements that
contribute to the new and the old. The need
 rereadings 2
Chapter 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Form and Structure

Introduction completely rebuilt. De Blacam and
Meagher conducted the restoration work
The form of the building and the manner in and also made two notable interventions.
which it was once occupied has a direct The first was the rather extraordinary
connection with the character of the decision to construct a full-sized replica of
remodelled structure. It is obvious that this Adolf Loos’s Kartner Bar in the former
influence can affect the manner in which Senior Common Room above the Dining
the architect or designer approaches the Hall. The second was to insert a somewhat
design problem. To actively embrace the timeless structure to support and organise
qualities of the existing will inevitably create the atrium. This elegant three storey timber
a sympathetic and appropriate response. installation is composed of an exposed
frame, which supports a series of long
The width of a room can be dictated by the screens. The sequence of balconies
size of the beam that supports the floor or provides access to the different levels,
ceiling above. Until relatively recently, trees while the long timber shutters can be
were the construction material that dictated closed to allow for privacy and acoustic
the organisation of a building. The beam in control. The rhythm of the structure has a
most buildings would have originally been direct relationship with the size of the timber
made of timber and depending upon which beams, which are necessarily large to
type of wood is used, there is generally a accommodate the great span and the vast
comfortable size of about three to five weight that they have to carry. The
metres, with an optimum of up to 12 metres. simplicity of the structure is complemented
Of course the advent of steel and concrete by the robustness of the elongated shutters,
meant that must larger spans could be which are smooth on the atrium side and
bridged, but the beam does get fatter the show the frame and diagonal bracing on
greater the width to be crossed. The rhythm the balcony side. The effect of the tall
of rooms can create distinctive buildings timber structure and randomly open
and interiors. The typical townhouses of shutters is quite dramatic, and somewhat
Northern Europe have an unmistakable reminiscent of Shakespearian performance
rhythm to the structure. The repetition of the spaces. The structural rhythm of the interior
façades of these terraced houses is
unambiguous and can either be extremely
plain and simple, or highly decorated. The
façades of the great buildings that face
many market places in Flanders are
incredibly fine; they are almost completely
perforated as all of the structural integrity is
Figure 1.5 The Dining held within the cross walls and the timber
Room at Trinity beams.
College, Dublin by de
Blacam and Meagher. The interior of the Dining Hall at Trinity
The new insertion is College in Dublin was severely damaged
timeless and robust, by fire in 1984. The exterior of the rather
something which neat classical building built in 1760 by
reflects the forceful Hugh Darley survived relatively unscathed,
nature of the original and much of the panelled refectory was
building. saved, but the atrium needed to be
 12 / 13
Analysis, Form and Structure

appears to be completely appropriate to number of the victims, as well as the concept

the simple classical language of the of Jews as “People of the Book”. The
building, especially the open ceiling of the unopened and unopenable books symbolise
atrium. the untold stories of their lives. The double
doors are cast with the panels inside out,
The form of the remodelled building can be and have no doorknobs or handles. They
predicated upon the precise form of the suggest the possibility of coming and going,
original building. The designer can but do not open. The roof of the structure
choose to adhere exactly to the contains the moulding of a ceiling rose, a
parameters of the existing and quite typical detail from the houses lining the
exactly fit the new interior into the existing square. This ingeniously hides the drainage,
space. The artist Rachel Whiteread takes as the roof slants very slightly to this central
this approach to quite an extreme: she point and allows the rainwater to be
has completed a series of pieces of work siphoned away. The monument is located on
where she fills a building or interior with the North East side of the square, and its
sprayed concrete then removes the walls orientation was determined by the position of
of the original structure. This method an excavation. The proportions of the
makes solid the space of the room, it memorial are based upon the rhythm of the
makes hard what was air, makes the books. These were cast in 20 volume
negative positive, and while doing so lengths, and 350 of these line the structure.
exposes the patina of age and of wear. A The regularity of this quite brutal pattern
relatively small project in Vienna is the increases the impact of the sculpture; it
Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial, also intensifies the deliberate sense of discomfort
known as the Nameless Library. and tragedy.

The monument is an inverted library By reflecting upon the nature of the existing
constructed from concrete, and it appears situation, the architect or designer can
as if it is the casting of the insides of a small actively use the qualities of form, rhythm,
book-lined room. It is a single space that has structure and materials to create a new
been made solid, the dimensions are building, one which contains both the sense
derived from those found in a room of the old while embracing the needs of the
surrounding the square. The shelves of the new.
memorial appear to hold endless copies of
the same volume, which stand for the vast

Figure 1.6 The

Nameless Library in
Vienna by Rachel
Whiteread remembers
the many missing
Jewish people as
unopened books.
 rereadings 2
Chapter 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Delft University of Technology

Location Function Remodelled Designer
Delft, the Lecture theatre 2009 MVRDV
Netherlands

A large installation can be constructed to sit inevitably there will be space left over and
quite comfortably within an existing space surrounding it. If the sizeable installation is
such as an internal atrium or courtyard. simply placed in the centre of the room,
Balance needs to be achieved between the then there is little hierarchy within the
magnitude and scale of the new element adjacent area. If the object is positioned
and the size of the open space that it is to off-centre, this leaves different sizes of
sit within. Too large and the equilibrium is horizontal space to accommodate a variety
upset and the space appears to be of distinct uses.
cramped and too compressed to meet the
Figure 1.7 The vivid needs of the users. Vertical positioning is also something that
staircase is deliberately needs to be considered especially if the
placed off-centre, thus If the installation is too small it is installation is to be occupied. If the users
releasing the rest of the overwhelmed and can appear to be can access the top level of the installation,
space in the hall for inconsequential. The position of the new they can develop a completely different
other activities. element also needs to be considered, relationship with the upper areas of the
14 / 15
Case Study

existing building than they would otherwise

have from ground level.

The Why Factory is a three storey bright

orange structure positioned in the covered
courtyard of the School of Architecture at the
Delft University of Technology. Local
architects MVRDV designed it to house the
independent research unit which was
actually founded by the practice. Studios,
meeting rooms and research facilities are
carefully hidden within the orange ziggurat,
while the large steps up the exterior of the
structure allow the whole space to be
transformed into an auditorium. The steps,
which act as seats, are also used for
presentations, exhibitions, and even
graduation ceremonies. The central location
and distinct orange colour means the
installation has become a landmark within
the complex of buildings, and as such also
functions as a beacon or way-finding device.
 rereadings 2
Chapter 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Hasselt University Faculty of Law

Location Former function Original date Original Designer Designer
Hasselt, Belgium Prison 1855 Édouard NoAarchitecten
New function Remodelled Ducpétiaux
Faculty of Law 2012

73,5
x
178

73,5
73,5

x
178
x
178

73,5
x
178

73,5
73,5

x
178
x
178

d b 91 x 216

73,5
73,5

x
178
x
178

73,5
x
178

73,5
73,5

x
73,5

178
x
x

178
178

73,5
73,5

x
73,5

178
178
x
178

73,5
x
178

73,5
73,5

x
178
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178

+0

5m

Any understanding of the past is University’s Faculty of Law, the sense of

determined by the manner in which the irony was not lost upon them. They relished
information about the previous age is the ambiguity that this created, and
interpreted. All histories are partial; all immediately referenced W.G. Sebald. He
contain an act of translation or decoding. It had explored the notion that a building or
is impossible for the historian to provide place contains the quality of being open to
anything other than their own opinion; that more than one interpretation; that
is, to narrate their own interpretation of the appearances can and do lie, deceive, and
events. When a building is reused, an distort.
element of narrative uncertainty or
mnemonic ambiguity is always introduced. The academic Mark Richard McCulloh
Figure 1.8 Plan of the The story of the building is always open to discusses this:
Faculty of Law clearly interpretation and the designer can exploit
shows the panopticon that uncertainty.When noAarchitecten were Sebald weaves the fabric of his
arrangement of the approached to convert the former prison in narrative out of intertwining digressions
prison. Hasselt into the new home for the on the present and the past, out of the
 16 / 17
Case Study

strange threads of perception, memory, open town, with several entrances and
and dream, and, finally, out of the exits, squares, streets, courtyards and
experiences of travel in a here and now an unexpected roof garden for which the
that is alternatively mundane, lyrical, prison wall acts as no more than a parapet.
and uncanny. 2 The individual cells were preserved as
study rooms. Particular marks decorate
The buildings, which were organised into the walls, the ghosts of the lines by
the traditional prison panopticon, were built which prisoners counted out the almost
in 1855 on the recommendation of the then innumerable days of their sentences,
inspector general of prisons, Édouard thus preserving the memory of the former
Ducpétiaux. A hundred prisoners could be function. Glass rather than solid doors
accommodated in back-to-back cells. were installed in these intimate spaces.
These were spread out in four wings around The interstitial spaces, the gaps between
a central octagonal base, which housed the the rooms and the walls, the places
observation post. The occupants had no where surreptitious activity may or may
idea whether or not they were being not have once taken place, have been
observed, and it was impossible for them to preserved. These intermediate spaces are
experience or even understand the for conversation, for collaboration and for
complete building. The labyrinthine nature romantic collusion. By utilising the form
of the organisation of the buildings ensured and structure of the existing, a radical
that the prison itself had the quality of transformation of the buildings has been
existing very much as a separate world completed without losing the memory of the
behind the great containing wall, as an previous use, but also without invoking the
independent city within the actual city of true ghastliness of the experience.
Hasselt. It closed in 2005.

The solid brick prison wall, which was

part of the city’s collective memory, was a
symbol of exclusion. The architects were
aware of this strange connection that the
barrier had with the local consciousness,
and felt that it was important to reverse this
meaning and create a new connection with
Figure 1.9 Aerial view of the city: to construct something welcoming
the building. The out of that which was once impenetrable,
interstitial spaces to ensure that visitors, instead of feeling
between the wings intimidated, felt privileged.
become places of
chance encounter. The form of the original building dictated
the organisation of the new elements; it
Figure 1.10 The centre informed the position of the large spaces
of the building, which and the smaller ones. The existing
once held the composition was uncompromisingly
surveillance point, has precise and the architects were able to use
been transformed into this structure as a guide to the placement
a bright and accessible of the new elements of the faculty of law.
foyer. The building became a small, bright and
 rereadings 2
Chapter 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Young St Lane Offices

Location Former function New function Designer Remodelled
Edinburgh, Mews houses and Commercial office Malcolm Fraser 2008
Scotland Lawyers’ offices space Architects

A substantial building may not require cleaned and new large paned windows
significant remodelling if the structure is still were inserted into the existing openings;
intact and the new function will fit relatively the deep plan of the new interior was
easily into the existing container of the provided with plenty of natural light and
walls. The adaptation may be an ingenious ventilation.
collection of quite modest and
unpretentious moves that use the However, the floor-to-ceiling heights of the
structural integrity of the existing to original mews cottages were woefully
support the new elements. inadequate for 21st century use.
Contemporary office space needs
Malcolm Fraser Architects adapted three provision for under-floor cabling, controlled
derelict mews buildings and a Victorian lighting and sufficient ceiling height to
lawyers’ office in Edinburgh into light and ensure that the open space of the deep
Figure 1.11 The spacious open-plan offices by adding a plan is comfortable. The required space
remodelled collection series of new metal roofs. The original was achieved floating a new roof over all of
of buildings climb Craigleith stone walls of the buildings, from the structures. This served to tie them
through the undulating which much of Edinburgh was constructed, together, thus creating a single integrated
terrain of the area. had great inherent strength. These were entity which not only facilitated the office
 18 / 19
Case Study

space but also modestly signalled the

change of use. The new roof was
constructed from grey zinc, perfectly
reflecting the predominant colours of the
area. The vertical circulation was placed in
a new glazed structure that was attached
to the rear of the building. This timber and
steel staircase tied the different levels
together. A small and contained courtyard
garden, accessed by a stone staircase,
completed the project.

This is a simple project that unassumingly

uses the natural qualities of the buildings
and the area to facilitate the needs of
new users.

Figure 1.12 The

collection of buildings
are united with a single
roof element.

Figure 1.13 Cross

section through the
new offices shows the
difficult relationship
between the individual
elements.
 rereadings 2
Chapter 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Discharge / Recharge
Location Former function Remodelled Designer
Bergkamen, Apartment block 2013 Office for Subversive Architecture
Germany Christoph Rodatz

Buildings are often taciturn; they can be uncommunicative. Gordon Matta-Clark

secretive, reticent and unforthcoming. They questioned the relationship between the
can be solid and impenetrable and it can spaces in a building when, with just a
be difficult to understand the nature of the chainsaw, he cut holes into the body of the
structure. The interior can be awkward too; structure.
walls can be much greater than simple
partitions. Projects like Conical Intersect, which was
Figure 1.14 The literally a conical shaped aperture cut
installation celebrates The organisational method can mean that, through two townhouses in Paris,
the life of the disused by virtue of a circulation system that immediately established a relationship
tower block by discourages interaction, spaces that are between the previously separated adjoining
illustrating how it was immediately adjacent to each other are spaces, and also provided a view onto the
once occupied. hidden, inaccessible, and street outside.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
Highness will consign them either to the tender mercies of the
executioners, or the bastinado of the farrashes, or even perhaps
immediate liberty.
Many servants, with their masters’ pipes of gold or silver, and
dressed sumptuously, if domestics of the wealthy, smoke or chatter.
A knot of thin and forbidding-looking priests, of sourest looks, some
wearing the blue turban (marking the supposed descendant of the
prophet, or Syud), take as a right, hardly acknowledging it, the salute
of each passer-by, and favour me, an unbeliever, with ferocious
sneers, drawing back their flowing garments to avoid contact, an
action which I resent by doing likewise. Here the curtain is raised,
and the greatest man in Ispahan (I speak of some years ago), whose
word to the priests and mob can give endless trouble to the king—
the “Imām-i-Jūma,” or high priest, and head of the law, for he was
both—appears, followed by two other priests of high rank. His turban
is dark blue, almost black; all bend and salaam to him. I stop to give
him a military salute. He is an old patient of mine; he smiles and
speaks in a stage whisper, saying to the other priests what a very
superior unbeliever I am. I hurry on, and, passing through many
passages, come to my dispensary over the jail.
Three hours are occupied in seeing patients, then back through
the ruined bazaar, “Bazaarcha baland,” a lofty but empty arcade of
shops, having a second story above them, the whole roofed in and
beautifully finished as to the brickwork. Cool and dim, this silent
bazaar opens into the Char Bagh, and I return as I came, in the hot
sun, to breakfast; then siesta, tea, afternoon ride, dinner at eight,
perhaps a rubber, and so the days go on.
Or I have a day in the town, and lunch at my dispensary on bazaar
food—slices of mutton off a sheep roasted whole; brilliān, i. e.
chopped and seasoned meat; pillaws of rice, with various meats;
kabobs, or chopped and seasoned meat roasted on skewers, and
served hot with herbs between two flaps of bread, also hot; a bowl of
sherbet, i. e. syrup and water, with blocks of ice in it; grapes or
apricots as dessert; then my water-pipe is handed to me; the whole
—and the plentiful leavings give my servant and the groom a
substantial breakfast—costing a shilling.
 Then, mounting, I visit the calico-printers, and see the elaborate
printing by means of blocks—some of them over three centuries old
—of the curtains for which Ispahan is celebrated, covered with
strange pictures of peacocks, elephants, soldiers, lions, etc., in all
the colours of the rainbow, and fast, too, on a white ground.
Or I sit and chat with the artists on the upper story of the
caravanserai Gulshan, who each in his little room is hard at work on
some bookcover or pencase, or possibly is illustrating a manuscript
copy of Hafiz or Saadi, and chatting with whom I learn a good deal of
the inner side of Persian life. I look over the work of my artist friends,
who do not press me to buy, but who do descant on the falling off in
art in Persia.
Or I take a look at Houssein Khari, who has a factory for false
antiquities. Here I see, among heaps of sham, at times something
real and good; but Houssein Khari does not sell the good things, only
the rubbish. As I go he ironically holds out to me a jade teapot,
requesting me to buy it for one hundred pounds. I see that the age of
bargains is over, and retire.
Or I make a visit to my friends the Baabis. Here, however, I have
to eat such a tremendous breakfast that a siesta is needed, and I
only am allowed to start homewards at six, after pipes and tea have
been taken, and much information extracted from me.
Or a professional visit is made, and I come across bits of Eastern
life in out-of-the-way quarters of the huge and ruined town.
Or I call on the hakim-bashi, or head doctor, my friend, and hear of
his troubles in ruling the Jews, editing his newspaper—for he is the
editor of the Ispahan Gazette—in establishing the new or modern
college, of which he is the head and the prince the patron.
Or I take a long ride through the bazaars, to the disgust of my
servants, who do not care to be seen as an unbeliever’s servants in
the fanatical heart of the city.
Or, riding to the maidān, I look out in the early morning for a cheap
horse, which the brokers offer for sale here each day, and see the
furious riding of the Persian buyer trying his steed. This maidān, or
“place,” is, I think, over a quarter of a mile long by a furlong wide. In
the centre is a small circular brick platform, on which is a high pole,
with projecting pieces for the feet, and a pulley at top. Here criminals
used to be hoisted by the feet, and then allowed, the rope being cut,
to be dashed head foremost to the ground. At the foot of this pole
take place the numerous executions, though the Governor of
Ispahan is not fond of shedding blood.
When the new Mission at Gulhaek was being finished in the time
of the late minister, Mr. Alison, he instructed the builder to make “a
place for a flagstaff,” and a huge pole having been procured, it was
set up, and the architect smilingly presented the work to his
Excellency.
Mr. Alison looked at it and tapped his forehead, and, turning to the
architect, said—
“I think I have seen somewhere something like this” (there was
then an execution pole in Teheran exactly like the one in Ispahan,
but with a higher and larger brick platform).
“Yes, yes,” replied the smiling Persian, of course, “the Dar”
(execution pole). “I have tried to copy it exactly; very imposing, is it
not? Strikes the eye at once.”
No praise came. His Excellency turned away, and the pole was
earthed up over the brickwork, leaving an ornamental mound, now
covered with shrubs and roses.
The ordinary way of execution is by throat-cutting; the victim, clad
in shirt and drawers only, is led into the square; unless a celebrated
criminal, only a few loafers crowd round; a pipe is smoked by the
culprit, and he is told to kneel; he does so, and the executioner,
coming behind him, cuts his throat with a short curved knife. As a
rule the body lies where it falls, and the relatives, on payment of a
small fee to the executioner, are allowed to remove it next morning.
Blowing from a gun is a common form of death when it is wished to
strike terror into the hearts of evil-doers; I have known it done once
at Ispahan, the criminal being a Khan accused of rebellion. This man
had been some months in prison under sentence of death; day by
day he found means to bribe the minister and the Governor, and his
execution was delayed; at length his funds being exhausted he was
actually brought out into the maidān, and the cannon loaded in his
presence; but he had still a little money left, which he paid, or rather
his friends did, and he was taken back to prison; this was his last
penny; the next day he was blown from a gun.
Just after my arrival in Teheran a notorious female dancer of
considerable personal attractions, and only seventeen years of age,
was brought before the queen-mother, who was celebrated for her
intrigues, charged with visiting the houses of Europeans. The girl did
not deny her crime, and, feeling her danger, became desperate,
reviling the queen-mother, and saying that they were fellow-sinners.
The queen-mother immediately obtained an order for the girl’s death,
and caused her, to be first handed over to her own servants’
mercies, and then to be rolled in a carpet and jumped on by the
farrashes till she was dead.
In the Governorship of the Zil-es-Sultan at Shiraz curiosity took
me, with some of the rest of the telegraph staff, to see two men
blown from guns; the roof of the doorway of the telegraph-office
commanded the maidān, or square.
One man was led out and blown from a gun; a second was then
brought forward, and they prepared to lash him to another gun; but
as he was very short, a good deal of time was lost in getting some
bricks, which were piled in a heap for him to stand on; he was then
lashed to the gun, the executioner advanced with a port fire, the
priming fizzled, but the gun did not go off—they had forgotten to load
it; the man was unbound, the artillerymen went for more powder. I
ran across the square to try and beg him off from the prince, being at
that time in high favour. He kept me chatting, and in the meantime I
heard the report of the gun which killed the poor fellow. About this
time a man was blown into the air from a mortar by the Zil-es-
Sultan’s order in the square at Shiraz.
When I was last at Shiraz twenty highway robbers were caught by
the Governor, Khosro Mirza, the king’s uncle; nine escaped death by
bribery, but eleven were walled up alive.
 Fourteen hollow pillars, four feet high, built of mud bricks, were
each built around a small hole in the ground, thus leaving a cavity six
feet deep.
One morning we heard that eleven men had been walled up in
them alive; it appeared that three of the fourteen men were
reprieved, that the farrash-bashi (chief carpet-spreader literally), or
principal of the police of the Governor, was ordered to wall up eleven
men, and that, fearing a disturbance, it was done suddenly. At
midnight he, with a force of some two hundred soldiers, four
executioners, and numerous farrashes, marched the eleven highway
robbers in irons some mile and a half through the deserted streets to
a place outside the town where the pillars stood. They were
accompanied by several masons whom they had impressed, and a
donkey-load of plaster of Paris. It seems that the farrash-bashi had
received from the friends of one of the robbers forty pounds (one
thousand kerans) to allow him to escape, so on the road he seized
on a poor porter, intending to wall him up and let the robber go. Day
dawned ere they reached the place, and fortunately for the porter a
crowd assembled; among them were some who recognized him; the
farrash-bashi was forced to let him go, for had he carried out his
intentions Khosro Mirza, the Governor, would not have spared him.
Each robber was placed in a pillar alive, then loose earth was poured
in up to his chest, then a quantity of earth was hurriedly mixed with
the plaster of Paris, water was added, a kind of mortar made, and
the top of each column was plastered over having the man’s head
enclosed in a mass of mortar which, had there been enough plaster,
would have set, at once destroying life. Unfortunately the plaster was
insufficient in quantity, no more was to be had; the mud did not set,
and many of the men were alive and crying for water at the end of
two days. The Governor on hearing this sent the executioner to put
them out of their misery, which he did by opening the top of each
column and cutting their throats. As my wife and I came home from a
ride we passed the columns freshly plastered; this was in 1877.
Just prior to my first arrival in Persia the “Hissam-u-Sultaneh,”
another uncle of the king, had burnt a priest to death for a horrible
crime and murder; the priest was chained to a stake, and the matting
from the mosques piled on him to a great height, the pile of mats
was lighted and burnt freely, but when the mats were consumed the
priest was found groaning, but still alive. The executioner went to the
Hissam-u-Sultaneh, who ordered him to obtain more mats, pour
naphtha on them, and apply a light, which after some hours he did. A
terrible death!
On another occasion a young slave who had shot his master’s son
by accident was “crucified,”[17] lived fifty hours, and was then put out
of his misery. There was no cross—the men are nailed to walls. I
was passing one day the outer wall of the “ark” or citadel of Shiraz; I
saw a small crowd, I rode up, the crowd made way, and I found a
poor fellow, very pale, standing with his face to the wall; a horse-nail
had been driven through each foot, also through each of his hands,
which were extended on the wall, and three more nails had been
driven through his chest into the wall; he groaned occasionally, and I
was informed he had smoked and drunk water offered him by
compassionate bystanders.
He lived thirty hours, and the executioner took him down then, and
put him out of his misery. His crime was that he had stolen a jewelled
horse necklet of the Zil-es-Sultan’s; this in the eyes of Persians is
high treason.
The sentence, however, was not the prince’s, then a mere boy, but
his minister’s. He is now averse to blood, although he is given to
making severe examples to avoid continual executions. With some
Governors there are executions weekly, and this in such a sparsely
populated country as Persia, is even more sad than the occasional
cruel examples made by Khosro Mirza, the late Hissam-u-Sultaneh,
and the Zil-es-Sultan, to avoid continual bloodshed, which I believe
to be the true reason of their occasional great severity; and this
policy is successful, for in their governments crimes of violence are
unusual, their severity being deterrent; and the total of their
executions very much smaller than that of the so-called merciful
Governors. In justice to these three Governors this must be allowed,
that the cruelty is much more apparent than real.
 It is to be noticed that executions are not nearly so frequent now,
as on my first experiences of Persia.
 CHAPTER XIX.
MY JOURNEY HOME AND MARCH TO SHIRAZ.

Julfa quarters—Buy a freehold house—I ornament, and make it comfortable—

Become ill—Apply for sick leave—Start marching—Telegram—Begin to post
—Reach Teheran—Obtain leave—Difficulty at Kasvin—Punishment of the
postmaster—Catch and pass the courier—Horses knock up—Wild beasts—
Light a fire—Grateful rest—Arrive at Resht—Swamp to Peri-Bazaar—Boat—
Steamer—Moscow—Opera—Ballet—Arrive in England—Start again for
Persia—Journey viâ Constantinople—Trebizonde—Courier—Snow—Swollen
eyes—Detail of journey from Erzeroum to Teheran—The races—Ispahan—
Leave for Shiraz—Persian companions—Dung-beetles—Mole crickets—
Lizards—Animals and birds—The road to Shiraz—Ussher’s description—
Meana bug legend again.

Finding my quarters in Julfa extremely inconvenient and small, I

bought a little house and did it up after my own ideas of comfort. The
place was originally two houses and formed the quarters of two
sergeants, but by purchasing both houses, which I got for sixty
pounds, freehold, with an indisputable title, I was able to make a very
comfortable place indeed.
I had two large and airy summer rooms, cool in the extreme, and
admitting currents of air in every direction. A large anteroom opened
into a smaller room, when the doors were closed nearly air-tight, with
a large fireplace. This was my winter room; and in it I made a shutter
opening into the anteroom by which meals were served without
opening the door: these arrangements were needed, as Ispahan is
bitterly cold in the winter. There were two cool upper rooms, one of
which by a grated window looked on the street over the doorway.
Besides this there were three warm and sheltered bedrooms on the
ground floor of fair size, for winter, all with fireplaces. There was
much good dry cellar accommodation, a good kitchen and servants’
quarters, a small garden in the outer courtyard shaded by trellised
vines, and I planted about fifty fruit-trees, which cost from
threepence to sixpence each, in the inner one. The whole was
surrounded by a high wall of some twenty feet, built of mud bricks;
around the inner side of the parallelogram formed by this outer wall
were built the rooms. There were heavy wooden outer doors, and
within them a large arched doorway where the business of the
house, with tradesmen, forage-sellers, etc., was conducted. I had
also a room for my dispensary, and a granary.
And all this freehold for sixty pounds! Is it not a poor man’s
paradise?
On completing my purchase I proceeded to spend four hundred
kerans, or sixteen pounds, in painting, plastering, wall-building;
whitening or staining pale blue the interior of the rooms (the building
was happily in thorough repair), paving my anteroom, six by four
yards square, with white and blue encaustic tiles, kargilling or
plastering with mud the whole outside of walls, roof, and rooms;
putting in two windows of coloured glass, and painting, gilding,
plastering, and decorating my dining or living room, and my best
bedroom de haut en bas. In fine, for about eighty pounds, I had a
freehold house, wind, water, and cold proof, with large and cool
quarters in summer, or warm in winter, a paved courtyard; and the
happy feeling that I was in my own place and could do what I
pleased to it, and that anything that I did was not a case of sic vos
non vobis.
The superintendence of my alterations gave me pleasant
occupation, and, like Robinson Crusoe, I felt time slip quickly away.
But I had hardly been a year in the house when I went home on
leave, and ultimately the place was sold by auction for sixty pounds
with all my improvements! A friend of mine in 1880 wished to
purchase it, but the then owner declined one hundred and sixty
pounds for his bargain.
About September I had a severe attack of typhoid fever, and
became on my convalescence extremely depressed. I could not
regain my strength, and I applied for sick leave to England. I was told
to march up by easy stages to Teheran and appear before a medical
board. I started with my cook and a groom, and each evening I
nearly made my mind up to go no further, so utterly done up did I
feel. In this depressed condition I arrived at Kashan: here I got a
telegram from Colonel S⸺, the Director, telling me that he was
leaving Teheran the next day with Sir A. Kemball, the British
Resident at Baghdad, who was going home on leave by the last
steamer, that of course I could not catch that, and so he kindly
invited me to stay in Teheran with him till I was myself again and able
to return to duty.
This news upset me altogether; I had determined to march to
Teheran, and had hoped that by that time I should have got strong
enough to post to the Caspian, catch the last Caspian steamer, and
so home viâ Russia.
So impressed was I with the stupid idea that I must get home to
get well, that I made up my mind at once to try and make a push to
catch the Colonel and Sir A. Kemball. Tired as I was, I took a post-
horse at once—I had not enough money with me to take two (in
Persia one carries as little cash as possible). I told my servants to
get home as well as they could.
I determined to push on coûte que coûte. Leaving Kashan at dawn
I got to Kūm, twenty-one farsakhs (seventy miles), by ten at night,
and I felt fit to die, for I couldn’t eat or drink, my stomach retaining
nothing; eighteen hours in the saddle brought me to Teheran, twenty-
three farsakhs, or seventy-seven miles. I got to Colonel S⸺’s
house, only to find him gone. I had a bath, I still could eat nothing; I
borrowed money and lay down till the afternoon, when I went before
a medical board, who seemed to look upon my quick ride to the
capital as a sort of certificate of perfect health, and I feared that my
leave would not be granted. However, my appearance, my staring
eyes and shaven head were in my favour, and leave was given me;
but I was told that, as I must miss the steamer, it was useless. These
steamers cease running as soon as the mouth of the Volga freezes,
and a telegram had come to say the next one would be the last.
At five the same afternoon I mounted, having a bottle of claret, the
only thing I could take, a tin of soup and some tea with me, also a
brandy flask. I knew my only chance was to keep on. As I came to
each stage I found the time Sir A. Kemball and Colonel S⸺ had
preceded me was greater and greater, but they slept—I did not—I
kept on, with the feeling that, as Giles Hoggett says, “it’s dogged as
does it.” I rode all night and got to Kasvin, twenty-five farsakhs
(eighty-eight miles), in fourteen hours. Here I had a difficulty in
getting horses. The liberal presents given by Colonel S⸺ and his
party had roused the extortionate feelings of the holy man in charge
of the post-house (he was a Syud and a noted rascal). At first he
would not give me horses at all, telling me there were none, and to
go and rest, as I was ill; but I was determined. I submitted to the
swindle of paying five kerans for a so-called permit for horses; this I
carefully kept, promising myself to administer a thrashing should I
ever return.
This I had the satisfaction of doing, when in robust health, some
five months afterwards. And I duly thonged the Syud, to his
astonishment and disgust, for I was so changed he did not recognise
me. He then of course called me “aga” (master) and held my stirrup
when I mounted.
After a delay of about four hours I got away from Kasvin, and I was
now gaining on the party in front; but I was doubly unfortunate: the
Colonel’s large party took seven horses, and more if they could get
them, and I was preceded by the courier, who, a hale man, had
started two hours in front of me. Thus the horses I got were doubly
tired, but I kept on with the obstinacy of a sick man, though at times I
think I was half delirious. I could eat nothing, and the only thing that
had passed my lips since leaving Kashan, where I took soup, was a
little claret; an attempt to breakfast in Teheran had made me very ill
indeed. I arrived at a post-house, got two new horses, gave a
present to my former guide, and on I went. I was too ill to talk, and
my disinclination to speak caused an amusing incident at one place.
The guide, thinking me a “new chum” who did not understand the
language, amused himself the greater part of the stage by calling me
“rascal,” “dog,” “son of a burnt father,” etc. This same fellow stole my
matches and emptied my claret-bottle. I could have wept, but was
too ill to thrash him or even remonstrate.
 I kept on, never stopping more than the time to saddle. Night came
on, and on getting to Rustumabad I was delighted to find the courier
asleep, giving his two tired horses a rest. I took two others, also tired
ones, and on I went, leaving him peacefully slumbering. We were
now in dense forest—it was pitch dark; the horses previously tired by
the rapid riding of Colonel S⸺’s party, and the return journey from
the long and bad stage of six farsakhs, they having gone before my
getting them about forty miles. When I got some ten miles into the
forest, the poor beasts refused to move. The guide was, or
pretended to be, in great terror of wild beasts, repeating “Jūniver,
jūniver!” (“Wild animals!”) to me continually. Of the presence of these
there was no mistake, from the continued noises and roarings,
though we saw none. There was nothing for it but to dismount. My
matches being stolen, I tore out some cotton wool from my quilt,
mixed it with a little powder from a broken cartridge, and fired my
revolver through it. We soon had an enormous fire. How I enjoyed it
and the rest! The damp of the swamps—it is as damp here as it is
dry in the middle and south of Persia—had seemed to enter my
bones; and how I had longed for rest. Now I got a little for the first
time, lying on my quilt, my head on my saddle-bags, before an
immense fire, which the guide fed with broken trunks and boughs. I
enjoyed a sensation of delightful rest I have never felt before or
since. I even managed to eat a little soup, and the guide made tea in
the tin. How I revelled in it, for I knew I must catch the Colonel by
breakfast-time, before he could leave Resht, and consequently not
lose the last steamer. I reluctantly left the fire as soon as the horses
could move, and we plodded on in the dark. We got to Koodūm
before dawn, and into Resht to M. M⸺’s house by nine, where I
found the Colonel and his party at breakfast.
Thirty-one farsakhs, over long stages and bad roads, in twenty-two
hours (one hundred and eight miles), or one hundred and ninety-six
miles from Teheran in forty-one hours, was good travelling on tired
horses, and for a sick man.
Colonel S⸺, who was astounded at seeing me, supposing me
four stages beyond Kashan, must, I think, have looked upon me as
an impostor. He was very cold indeed.
 I tried to eat some breakfast, but failed, and left on a bad horse to
cross the swamp with the rest of the party for Peri-bazaar. It was
some miles through a nasty swampy road, the fine chaussée there
now is, not then existing.
My horse fell four times, and rolled me in the mud, for I could not
help myself. We got into the boat which was to take us to Enzelli (or
the steamer—I forget which), and then I went off into a series of
faints. Now, as a man can’t sham faints, I suppose the Colonel came
to the conclusion that I was really ill. Anyhow, he was most kind to
me; and as he went on with us as far as Lenkoran, on the Caspian,
both he and Sir A. Kemball were lavish in kindness and attention.
I was very wretched indeed, for the spurt being over, I utterly broke
down, and I fear I proved a wretched fellow-traveller to Sir A.
Kemball, with whom I went as far as Petersburg. Of the Caspian
journey I remember nothing. I had a week’s rest in my berth, during
which I lived on wine and broth, only moving when I was obliged, or
when we changed steamers.
When we got to Moscow we went to the Grand Opera and saw a
Russian patriotic opera, called ‘A Life for the Czar.’ The music was
pretty, the dresses interesting. It was well played and well sung by
Russian singers. Another night we saw ‘La Muette di Portici’
(Masaniello) in Italian; and the third time we went, a grand ballet in
five acts, that lasted four hours—oh! and I had a cricked neck at the
time.
From Moscow to Petersburg is a run of twenty-four hours in a
straight line, for when the railway was about to be constructed the
then Emperor Nicholas, having the plans placed before him, took a
pen, and, drawing with a ruler a straight line between the two places,
indicated the route he wished, with a smile. At enormous expense
every difficulty was surmounted, and the direct route was made. It is
literally from Moscow to Petersburg, and no large town is touched.
This is the story; the map says nearly a straight line.
I went home direct by rail from Petersburg, getting to Brighton
November 1st, 1868, was in bed three weeks, and an invalid for
three months. However, I got the balance of my sick leave cancelled,
and came back to my duties before it was over.
On March 5th, 1869, I again set out for Persia, viâ Marseilles,
leaving London at a quarter to eight a.m. I got to Paris at six p.m.,
took a cab for the Lyons station, caught the mail which left at a
quarter past seven p.m., and arrived in Marseilles on the 6th at noon.
Being very tired, I went on board at once, and succeeded in getting a
state-room all to myself; slept till four. At five p.m. we started in a
tremendous sea, dead-lights up, and the violin (planks fixed with
cords to prevent the table equipage leaving the table) at dinner. The
steamer was one of the Messageries Maritimes, the Illysse, screw,
two hundred and eighty horsepower.
The next day (the 7th) we entered the Straits of Bonifacio at four
p.m., where the weather was fine but cold; passing Garibaldi’s house
in Caprera, a small white building, Corsica, and Sardinia; then the
“passage of the Bear,” so called from there being a figure formed by
nature at the summit of the lofty rocks somewhat like a bear. The
scenery of Corsica and Sardinia seems very desolate and rocky.
Monday morning, Italy—fine and warm. Tuesday, 9th, at ten p.m.,
came to Messina; saw nothing. Half-past five next morning we
started. Wednesday, very rough all day; only four at dinner; awful
night; rounded Cape Matapan at eleven p.m. Wind, which was before
in our teeth, then in our favour; impossible to sleep from cries of the
sick and continuous smashing of crockery.
Thursday, 11th.—Splendid day, fair wind; reached the Piræus (port
of Athens) in a lovely sun; water blue, smooth, and clear. Unable to
go to the Acropolis, as our captain said we might start at any
moment (you see it well in the distance). I saw the railway opened.
The Queen was present; she is pretty, and very gracious. Left same
day at five p.m.; awful night.
March 12th.—Very fine, fair wind. Saw the supposed site of
ancient Troy. Supposed tombs of Hector and Achilles two large
tumuli. Lovely scenery down Dardanelles. Stopped an hour at
Gallipoli.
 March 13th.—Arrived at Constantinople at seven a.m. Went to
Hôtel de Byzance—much better than Misseri’s; to the bazaar—hot,
noisy, and interesting. I had a Turkish bath; much better than the
Persian ones. They give you clogs to keep your feet from the hot
floors, and wicker cages with couches in them to smoke your hubble-
bubble and drink your coffee in, after the bath.
Monday, 15th.—Left Constantinople by the French boat for
Trebizonde.
March 20th.—Reached Trebizonde; breakfasted with Mr. G.
Palgrave, our well-known consul, and his wife; started with the
courier for Erzeroum at seven the same evening.
The first few stages were muddy and uneventful; we soon came to
snowy passes; here my eyes got swollen, and I could barely follow
the courier. When we reached Erzeroum (23rd), after having been
several times stopped by snow, and once nearly lost in it, I was led
into the house of Mr. Taylor, our consul. I could just see a dim form
and hear a kind voice.
March 24th.—Next morning I could not open my eyes, they were
so swollen. The tatar who came with me is in the same state. This is
caused by the snow; my head is also swollen, and my face all
swollen and puffy.
The Persian chupper (or post) was to start in the afternoon, and I
decided to go on, but when I found that after leeching my eyelids
they were still closed, I was only too glad to accept Mr. Taylor’s kind
invitation to stop. I was a prisoner to the house for five days, and at
the end of that time I could open my eyes.
Erzeroum is a terribly cold place, although there are double
windows and stoves all over the house, and though the skin-covered
doors shut tight by means of a weight, it is impossible to keep warm.
The snow in the town is four to twelve feet deep. It is supposed to be
the coldest place in Turkey, and is on a snow-covered plain,
surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Only four months in the
year are surely free from snow.
 Mr. B⸺, the Chancellier here, tells me that the Erzeroumis are
so sharp that there are no Jews. A colony once came, but finding
that the natives weighed the eggs and bought only the heaviest
ones, they left the place in disgust.
Of course the state of my eyes prevented my seeing anything of
the place, but I shall never forget the cold. Of my journey from
Trebizonde to Erzeroum I have few details,[18] and my blindness
prevented my writing up my diary.
I reached Teheran on the 13th of April, and meeting M.
Sergipatoffski, one of the attachés at the Russian Legation, three
stages out, I hurried in just in time to be present at the races got up
by the Europeans, of which he advised me.
Being too wayworn and dirty to be introduced to the ladies, I saw
the principal race decided in my posting dress. Here I saw one
hundred pounds offered to my chief, Mr. B⸺, for his chestnut
horse, Arkansas, who walked off with the big race as he pleased. Mr.
B⸺ refused it, but the animal was not good for much afterwards.
I looked forward to a good rest, but on the 15th I had, after a two
days’ stay, to start on duty at nine p.m., getting to Ispahan after a
heavy journey in sixty-three hours (rain came down nearly the whole
time. Distance, two hundred and seventy-two miles) on the 18th of
April. My colleague, Dr. C⸺, whom I had gone thus hurriedly to
attend, was seriously ill, but soon got on his legs.
Early in June I left under orders for Shiraz, marching at night, on
account of the heat. In this mode of travelling one sees little of the
country. For distances and stages see Appendix.
In this journey, on my second stage, I met a poor prince, Abbas
Kuli Khan, who was travelling with his little daughter, aged nine, and
a companion, Hadji Ali Akbar, a priest. This priest was a great
sportsman, and a very amusing companion. Abbas Kuli Khan was a
relative of my friend Abu Seif Mirza, of Hamadan, and introduced
himself. He was one of the large number of poor princes of Shiraz.
His pension from Government was very irregularly paid, and he was
travelling with “kajaweh” (covered paniers) for his little daughter, and
a pony on which he and the priest rode alternately. The roads from
the commencement of the famine were very unsafe, and they were
as glad to increase the force of my caravan as I was to get a
reinforcement of two determined well-armed men. The little daughter
delighted in the tremendous name of Bēbē Sakineh Sultan Khanum,
and was very like a pet monkey, being mischief personified. The
presence of these people broke the monotony of the fifteen days’
march to Shiraz.
One thing that attracts one’s attention when marching is the road-
beetle. These insects seem to be perpetually employed in moving
the balls of horse or camel dung to their nests off the road. They
exhibit wonderful instinct in their manœuvres to effect this object,
and to bury the balls; they also bury themselves at the same time.
Their search for the balls of dung is conducted on the wing, and they
never seem to touch anything else. When found, the insect alights
and proceeds to roll the ball by main force, either standing on its
hindmost legs and rolling it as we do casks, or at times placing its
head to the ground, and propelling the ball by the hind legs. Many of
the insects are trodden underfoot by horses, as they seem impelled
by a passion to bury the dung regardless of external circumstances.
They vary much in size, from a Barcelona nut to that of a walnut.
Through the activity of these insects very little horse-dung, save that
which is trodden, is seen on the roads. They work summer and
winter, and as one marches in the sun, with one’s eyes on the
ground, one is astonished at the myriads of these beetles.
At times, too, for about two days in spring, the ground teems with
mole crickets. For two days around Meshed-i-Mūrghab, in the
neighbourhood of Shiraz, there were such numbers that one would
be seen in each space two yards square for several miles; two days
after, though I searched for them, I could not find one. Near Ispahan,
too, some fortnight afterwards, I found them innumerable, and next
day I again failed to find a single individual in the same place. Do
they all come out at once, i. e. in one or two days?
Lizards are very numerous in some places, and their varieties
infinite; the dry, stony plains swarm with them in hot weather. They
are generally small, but I have seen them over a yard long. The little
fellows simply run a yard or two to escape the horse’s hoof, and then
remain motionless to avoid observation. One often thus loses sight
of them when attempting to watch them, so like in colour are they to
the plain. The dogs on first starting on a march generally chase, kill,
and eat them. They invariably vomit after it, and quite tire themselves
out; as the journey tells on them, however, they cease to notice the
lizards.
Jerboa rats are very frequent, particularly in the south of Persia,
while one very occasionally sees a “Gūr-ken,” or grave-digger (Meles
canescens), and still seldomer the porcupine.
On the march antelope are frequently seen, and at times cross the
road close to one. I have also twice seen wild asses in the distance,
and moufflon in the hills. Sand-grouse (Bagh-a-ghulla)—so called
from their cry, which it well expresses—ravens, hawks, eagles, owls,
vultures, and fly-catchers innumerable—these latter sit in rows on
the telegraph-wires, and are of gorgeous plumage—are often seen,
and flocks of pigeons and partridges; while ducks, teal, widgeon,
mallards, cranes, and herons, with single and double snipe, wild
geese and cormorants abound near water, as do frogs, who
generally announce its whereabouts at night. There is little enough to
be seen in a march from Ispahan to Shiraz, and the greater part of
the journey was done at night to avoid the heat.
Kūm-i-Shah, a large city, with many shrines and a great resort of
pilgrims, is not seen much of by the tired traveller. Yezd-i-khast, or
Yzed-khast, is elsewhere described by me, and Abadeh is little more
than a large village; while Dehbeed, the coldest place in Persia, save
in the high mountains, has merely a telegraph-office and post-house,
the caravanserai being in ruins. Beyond this, one comes to Mūrghab
and the tomb of Cyrus, of which the description by Ussher will be
found when a march from Shiraz to Ispahan is given in detail. Then
the Persepolis plain, with Persepolis (Takht-i-Jemshid) and Naksh-i-
Rustam on the opposite side of the valley.
To those who desire to get a graphic and correct account of
Persepolis, I would recommend Ussher’s ‘Journey from London to
Persepolis,’ p. 533. All that can be said about it is said by him, and,
being no archæologist, it would be impertinence were I to attempt a
description. I have often passed it, and when marching have
frequently visited it; but my curiosity was always exceeded by my
anxiety to either reach Shiraz, or proceed on my journey to Ispahan.
Accurate as he is, I regret to see that Ussher perpetuates the
legends of the Meana bug, winding it up with the pathetic sentence,
“All vital energy fading away from the emaciated frame, the victim
perishes at the end, a prey to the fatal venom” (p. 654, ibid.).
 CHAPTER XX.
SHIRAZ.

Entry into Shiraz—Gaiety of Shirazis of both sexes—Public promenade—Different

from the rest of Persians—Shiraz wine—Early lamb—Weights: their variety—
Steelyards—Local custom of weighing—Wetting grass—Game—Wild animals
—Buildings—Ornamental brickwork—Orange-trees—Fruits in bazaar—Type
of ancient Persian—Ladies’ dress—Fondness for music—Picnics—Warmth of
climate—Diseases—The traveller Stanley—His magazine rifle and my
landlord’s chimney—Cholera—Great mortality—We march out and camp—
Mysterious occurrence—Life in a garden—The “Shitoor-gooloo”—Bear and
dog fight—The bear is killed.

After a fifteen days’ march over desolate plains without any sign of
vegetation save sparse gardens round some few of the villages and
the green valley of Yezdicast (or Yzedcast as the natives call it), the
view of Shiraz is certainly grand and pleasing. Suddenly, after a
twenty-mile march from the last stage, the greater portion of which
was between rocky hills with nothing to please the eye save a little
turf and a few straggling trees around the tiny stream of beautifully
cool water known throughout the east as the Ab-i-Rookhni, and
alluded to by Moore as the “Rookhnabad,” the vast plain of Shiraz
bursts upon one’s view with the garden-surrounded city at one’s feet.
Of course distance lends enchantment, and it looks so clean and
so cool, particularly after fifteen days’ marching, that a strong
contrast is presented to most Persian towns whose mud walls as a
rule are seen from afar.
Shiraz is, however, as I said, embowered in gardens and
cultivation. On the right, the Bagh-i-No, or New Garden; on the left,
the Bagh-i-Jahn-i-ma, the Garden of my Soul, full of cypresses,
which give, from their peculiar deep green, a coolness to the scene
very rare in Persia; little oases of garden can be seen in the well-
cultivated and smiling plain beyond the whitish city, and within the
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