History
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
In conclusion and to understand the appeal of Iran for many members of the Society I cannot do better than quote the words of one of its founder members, Sir Denison Ross, in his Preface to Gertrude Bell's Persian Pictures:
There is a peculiar magic in the air of Persia which inspires all who visit her with poetry and romance: and this is not easily to be explained: for Persia to-day is a country in which very few traces remain to remind the traveller of her past glories. The cities of old Iran have been built and destroyed in the course of her long history, and nature and man seem to have combined to place Persia in our day under the ban of neglect. A score of cities have in turn been royal capitals, and as such have received all the embellishments that powerful monarchs could bestow on them, only to be abandoned and finally left in ruins, and even the ruins have often been ruthlessly destroyed. The country itself is full of vast desolate tracts. In spite of all this Persia casts her spell on every traveller, a spell worked by marvellous sunsets over the undulating deserts, by the glorious gardens the Persians love so well, and, last but not least, of the subtle charm of the Persians themselves, who are all poets and philosophers of nature, whether prince or muleteer.
I am very grateful to Dominic Brookshaw of Wadham College for his help in researching among the Society's Minutes and archives.
DENIS WRIGHT
Haddenham,
August 2001
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12