________________
112
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1874.
of the pilgrims for their daily bread --all this, harmonious and graceful whole, these and and much more, makes up a scene to be viewed many others might be enumerated. But, above in no other quarter of the world. As a spectacle all, interest centres in the now ruined but it is most curious; but soon the eye gets tired carefully preserved Residency, every spot of of the sight and its surroundings, and the tra- which has its history, or is stained with Engveller quits Banaras with but little desire to 1 land's best blood,--the grounds now turned return to it.
into a garden of choice flowers, and cherished Far otherwise is it with Lakhna u in every as such a spot deserves to be. It is a charming sense: we have left the noise and turmoil of whole, and well worthy of a lengthy pilgrimage Ban å ras, its priestsand beggars, its holy places to visit. and unholy smells, far behind, and the mind is Agra is well known and has its Guide-books, free to feast itself with the beautiful in art and but it is impossible to pass over the Taj in nature. Even the elements seem to have com silence. A recent criticism has appeared conbined to favour the place. A somewhat moist demning the work as a whole, on the ground ntmosphere and unlimited command of water that the multiplicity of details destroys the render the lawns and parks green throughout simple idea which the entire building was in the year, and the roses, creepers, and annuals tended to express. I can only reply that he, can bear comparison with the choicest growths who having seen the Tå j can sit down deliberof English gardens. And the whole place is in ately to criticize it, can have no soul for the keeping. Tho wealth of the kings of Oudh beautiful in art or nature. We may object to this was largely expended upon palaces and gardens,
or that detail; but we cannot help falling down and much of the former remains to the present and admiring: it is a pearl in a beautiful setting day. To the critical observer, the strange med- the mausoleum and its surroundings all admirley of Saracenie, Italian, and French art seems ably adapted to form one beautiful whole, unique at first sight somewhat incongruous and upon earth. The visitor should avoid seeing strange; but, as the eye gets accustomed, it re- the T &j, if possible, until after viewing the other cognizes the beautiful symmetry and real har- sights of the place, as after the Taj all lusser mony which is evolved from the whole, and he | luminaries must perforce hide their diminished needs must commend the result. The Chat- heads. tar Manzil is a good illustration of the above There is no more charming excursion than remarks, as also the adjoining Farhad Baksh. one to Fathè pur Sikri, 24 miles from Agra, Built by kings of Oadh as palaces of pleasure, where are the remains of the mosque and palace they have now come to be utilized as Civil of Akbar, built by him in fulfilment of a vow Courts, reading-rooms, billiard-rooms, and ball- after the birth of his son Selim, afterwards rooms. Could the ghosts of Saadat Ali or Haidar- known as the Emperor Jehangir. The mosque ud-dîn revisit this earth, they might be more comprises a grand quadrangle 460 feet by 360, surprised perhaps than pleased at the ultimate or thereabouts, and has a splendid gateway destiny of the "Palace of Delights." Time known as the "Buland Darwaza," all built of would fail to describe the various buildings bright red sandstone. The quadrangle contains of Lakhnau, such as the Martinière with its a gem in the shape of the mausoleum of the rococo ornamentation, its bas-reliefs and fres- saint Shaikh Selim Chishti, all of pure white coes; the great I må m bara or Mausoleum of marble, with perforated screens of choicest Asaf-ad-daula, containing one of the largest design, and with a sloping cornice supported by rooms in the world, 160 feet long by 50 wide, curious carved brackets. The adjoining palace and as many high, all built without a single piece of Akbar is the most curious and quaint com. of woodwork; the graceful Husein Abad bination of quadrangles, porticoes, and adjoining or Mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Shah, third king apartments, all built in the purest Hindu style, of Oudh, with its garden and fountains, its marble without arches, the roofs being solid slabs suppaving and painted windows; the Kaisar- ported on brackets more or less highly carved bâgh, not remarkable in detail, but viewed and ornamented. Here Akbar resided for as a grand square, with a graceful báradări of about sixteen years, and to our modern notions marble in the centre, combining to produce an it is singular to speculate how the greatest po
