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close at hand. The roadway proweds past a tree, paved round the roots with marble, under whose shade the king used to sit on fair- days. dressed in the yellow robes of a fir/Mr. The Eastern Lakhi gate, so called from its having cost a Iii/:1; of rupees, gives aceess to a magnificent open square. known pro-eminently as the Kaisar high, and surrounded by the residences of the ladies of the harem. In the month of August, a great fair used to be held in this square, to which all Lucknow was admitted. Proceeding past the stone Béradari, now fitted up as a theatre, and under the “'cstem Lakhi gate, which cor- rfiponds to its eastern namesake, the visitor reaches a building knoa-n as the Kaisar l’asand, surmounted by a gilt hemisphere. This palace was erected by Roshan~ud~daula, minister of Nasiruddin Ilaidar; but \l’djid Ali Shah confiscated it, and gave it as a residence to his favourite concubine, Mashult-us—Sultzin. Finally, a second Jilaukhana leads once more into the open street.
Since the British annexation, but little has been done in the way of architectural improvement. though charitable dispensarics, schools, and other works of public utility have been largely undertaken. The late Mahfinija of Balra'mpur, Sir Dighija'i Singh, K.C.SL, has also founded a capacious hospital on a plot of high ground adjoining the Residency, with beds for one hundred patients.
Art/trimme—Summurizing the chief architectural features, Lucknow thus contains two noble mosques, one Imambara of imperial dimen- sions. four tombs of regal splendour (those of Saddat Ali Khan, of hlushid Ztidi, of Muhammad Ali Shah, and of GhazLud-din Haidar), together with two great palaces, or rather collections of palaces (the Chattar Manzil and the Kaisar thigh). Besides these larger works, it also comprises a whole host of royal garden-houses, pavilions, town mansions. temples, and mosques. Almost every building owes its origin to the late reigning family. The nobles of the court and the merchants could not display their wealth with safety in any other form than the erection of mosques or tombs. It was dangerous for any but the king’s immediate relatives to live in a handsome mansion. Since the annexation. however, the nobility of Oudh have built a large number of town houses. They generally possess an imposing gateway, as one main feature of the facade, consisting of arch within arch, rising from the same base. and covered with a modem oriental profusion of gaudy colouring.
Lucknow contains the most debased examines of architecture to be found in India. Portions of the Kaisar Bagh consist of decoration in the very worst style which prevailed during the last century in Europe, and which, when banished from England, took refuge in India. “No caricatures of architecture,’ says Mr. Fergusson, writing of this city. ‘are so ludicrous or so bad as those in which Italian details are
