Although not so striking as the famous mausoleums to be seen in Upper India and at Ahmadábád and elsewhere, it is a fine monument. It presents a sad contrast to the graves of the English officers and men who fell at Seringapatam, and who are laid in an adjacent cemetery, the ground overgrown by weeds, and the names on the ugly flat stones barely distinguishable[1].
On the southern side of the left branch of the Káveri, and midway between the Lál Bágh and the fort, is the picturesque Daryá Dáulat Bágh, or 'garden of the wealth of the sea,' for many months the residence of England's greatest soldier (the Duke of Wellington). It was a favourite resort of Tipú, being near the fortress, and is of elegant design. The walls inside are covered with richly-painted arabesques, while outside are a series of frescos representing the triumphs of Tipú over the English. The most remarkable of these designs is intended to delineate the defeat of Baillie at Perambákam, and is a most amusing caricature, that General being shown reclining helplessly in a palankeen, while Tipú on horseback is calmly smelling a rose and giving orders to his troops. The perspective is ludicrous – legs, arms, and heads flying off in all
- ↑ The writer made an attempt to remedy the neglect to which these memorials had been exposed. But the lapse of time and the effects of an Indian climate, added to the rough character of the tombstones and the difficulty of identifying the names on them, rendered any real restoration well-nigh impossible.
