C. M. Villiers Stuart Gardens of the Great Mughals

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. This first sketch of the Mughal Paradise Garden will, I fear, make but a limited appeal to English readers, as a recollection of one of my earliest Indian experiences vividly but vainly reminds me: - On a long railway journey northward, the tedium of which had been pleasantly beguiled by a fellow-passenger's wide knowledge of the history of the country through which we were passing, the train, after thundering over a broad sandy river-bed, rushed past some buildings buried in a wood; leaving a blurred, but entrancing vision of red enclosing walls, high tiled gateways, and slender marble minarets, rising through the densely clustering palms and forest trees of a great garden. What is that? I exclaimed with delight, pressing my face to the darkened sun-proof window-pane. But here my kindly informant altogether failed me.