. Winter India . for years, uncared for,and were finally sold for a trifle. It is not necessaryfor any outsider to vent his indignation at this bar-baric proceeding, as Sir James Fergusson has saidit all, with a vehemence none can approach, and hassufiSciently laid the lash of his terrible sarcasm onhis Philistine countrymen. From this Court of the Fish-pond a door admitsone directly to the Diwan-i-Am, or great audience-hall, its marble lattices and inlaid throne splendidreminders of the past, the rows of British cannonand the red-coated sentries beyond sufficient evi-dences of the present. We
. Winter India . for years, uncared for,and were finally sold for a trifle. It is not necessaryfor any outsider to vent his indignation at this bar-baric proceeding, as Sir James Fergusson has saidit all, with a vehemence none can approach, and hassufiSciently laid the lash of his terrible sarcasm onhis Philistine countrymen. From this Court of the Fish-pond a door admitsone directly to the Diwan-i-Am, or great audience-hall, its marble lattices and inlaid throne splendidreminders of the past, the rows of British cannonand the red-coated sentries beyond sufficient evi-dences of the present. We crossed the court andascended the staircase to the Moti Musjid, the PearlMosque, over which three generations of writershave raved as an architectural chef-dceuvre secondonly to the Taj. After all the splendid creationsof Shah Jahan, this in some way failed to producean equal impression, and it gave us a distinct senseof disappointment. The simplicity of the whitemosque, relieved only by the blue and gray veins. AGRA 199 of the marble and the one long inscription inblack inlay, did not appeal. The white court withits mirror tank, the white cloisters, the vista ofwhite arches and columns, and the pale shadows ofthe interior had beauty,—Vereshchagins paintinghad told one that,—but the Moti Musjid gave thechill of the first disappointment in Agra. The tomb of Itamadu-daulah, father of Nur Ja-han, the famous wife of Jahangir, and grandfatherof Mumtaz-i-Mahal, is on the opposite side of theJumna; far above the Taj and from the high rail-way bridge and from the garden terraces one hasstill different views of the Taj. All the roads lead-ing there were crowded one Sunday afternoon withstrings of ekkas and bullock-carts overflowing withwomen and children, and the garden-paths and themarble platform around the marquetry tomb ofthe Persian treasurer were crowded with family par-ties. The women and children were all in their mostbrilliant holiday attire, their jewels and tinsel, fan-t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidwinterindia0, bookyear1903
