fills a pond, from which the inhabitants obtain a supply. The principal wheels having been broken, and the whole machinery out of repair, it was restored by the English a few years after they obtained possession of the city. Among the ruins of the ancient city, on the E side of the river, are some mausoleums in good preservation: those of the Emperors Homaion and Mahomed Shah, and of Jehanara Begum, daughter of Shah Jehan, are the most remarkable. The tomb of Homaion, who died in 1555, is a square with an immense central dome, and four small domes at the corners. Shere Shah's fort is on a large scale, with high bastions, and lofty and solid walls.-The Togluckabad is also an immense fort, 5 or 6 m. in circumf., with a high and commanding citadel.-The Kutub Minar is an enormous column in the centre of the old city, supposed to have been built by a monarch of that name, who reigned about 1206. It is a round tower rising from a polygon of 52 ft. in diam. and 27 sides, in five stages, gradually diminishing in circumference, to the height of 242 ft. The lowest stage, 90 ft. in height, is fluted into 27 semi-cylindrical and angular divisions, inscribed in an ancient Arabic character with sentences from the Koran. The second stage is composed simply of semi-cylindrical fluting, and rises 50 ft. The third of 40 ft. consists of only angular divisions. Thus far, the pillar is of an exceedingly fine red granite. The fourth stage, rising 23 ft., as well as the last, is of very fine white marble, the blocks being rounded to an even surface. Between each of the stages a balcony runs round the pillar, supported upon large stone brackets; these appear to have been designed chiefly for ornament, but battlements have been erected upon them, as if to prevent those who might go into them from falling. A majestic cupola crowns the whole, springing from four arcades of red granite. A spiral staircase of 384 steps leads to the summit. "It is really," says Bishop Heber, "the finest tower I have ever seen, and must, when its spire was complete, have Deen still more beautiful. The remaining great arches of the principal mosque, with their granite pillars, covered with inscriptions in the florid Cufic character, are as fine, in their way, as any of the details of York minster. In front of the principal of these great arches is a metal pillar, like that in Firoze Shah's castle, and several other remains of a Hindu palace and temple, more ancient than the foundation of the minar, and which I should have thought striking if they had not been in such a neighbourhood. multitude of ruined mosques, tombs, serais, &c., are packed close round, mostly in the Patan style of architecture, and some of them very fine. One, more particularly, on a hill, and surrounded by a wall with battlements and towers, struck me as peculiarly suited, by its solid and simple architecture, to its blended character, in itself very appropriate to the religion of Islam, of fortress, tomb, and temple. These Patans built like giants, and finished their work like jewellers; yet the ornaments, florid as they are in their proper places, are never thrown away, or allowed to interfere with the general severe and solemn character of their edifices. The palace of the present imperial family is at some little distance behind these remains. It is a large but paltry building, in a bad style of Italian architecture, and with a public road actually leading through its court-yard. The staircase within the great minar is very good, except the uppermost story of all, which is ruinous and difficult of access. I went up, however, and was rewarded by a very extensive view, from a height of 240 ft., of D., the course of the Jumna for many miles, and the ruins of Toghlikabad, another giantly Patan foundation, which lay to the SW." "From A the gate of Agra to Humaioon's tomb," says Bishop Heber, "is a very awful scene of desolation: ruins after ruins,-tombs after tombs,-fragments of brickwork, free-stone, granite, and marble,-scattered everywhere over a soil naturally rocky and barren, without cultivation, except in one or two small spots, and without a single tree. I was reminded of Caffa in the Crimea; but this was Caffa on the scale of London, with the wretched fragments of a magnificence such as London itself cannot boast. The ruins really extended as far as the eye could reach, and our track wound among them all the way. This was the seat of old D., as founded by the Patan kings on the ruins of the still larger Hindu city of Indraput, which lay chiefly in a W direction."The cantonments are 3 m. Ñ of the city, couched under a range of sandstone rocks. D. is well situated for carrying forward the trade between the peninsula of India and the countries to the N and W; the inhabitants consequently exhibit a considerable degree of industry and commercial activity, and the shops are crowded with all sorts of European products and manufactures. Cotton cloths and shawls are manufactured in the city, and indigo is produced in the surrounding country. The trade of D. is very extensive in shawls, for which it is a grand mart. A constant intercourse is kept up between this city and Cashmere, whence the splendid fabrics so much prized all over the civilized world are brought in immense quantities, some plain, to have borders sewed upon them, others to be embroidered in silk or gold, whence they derive the name of D. shawls. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the D. needle-work, which is in the highest esteem throughout Asia, and eagerly coveted by the rich of both sexes, the caftans of the men being often of velvet edged with rich embroidery. The goldsmiths of D. are also celebrated beyond those of any other Indian city, and eminently merit their high reputation. It is difficult for persons best acquainted with the chef d'œuvres of European artisans, to imagine the surprising beauty of the D. work,-the champac necklaces in particular, so called from the flower whose petals it resembles. They do not succeed so well in cutting and arranging precious stones, though they are improving very fast, from the instructions native workmen now obtain when in the employment of English jewellers at Calcutta. There are a great many carvers of stone and ivory in D., but they have not attained to anything approaching perfection in their art. [Asiat. Journ.] A considerable trade is also carried on in precious stones, and large black and red cornelians. Since the completion of the canal from Rair to D., flour-mills and saw-mills have been erected in and about the city. The Jumna, like the other great rivers of this country, overflows during the rains a wide extent; but, unlike the Ganges, does not confer fertility at D. In this part of its course it is so strongly impregnated with natron, extensive beds of which abound in all the neighbourhood, that its waters destroy, instead of promoting vegetation; and the whole space between the high banks and the river, in its present low state, is a loose and perfectly barren sand, like that of the sea-shore. [Heber.]—It has been proposed to connect D. with Calcutta by means of a line of railroad passing Mirzapore, crossing the Jumna at Allahabad, and then taking a direct line by Mynpuri to D.; or, as an alternative, proceeding from Cawnpore, by Shuckabad, to Agra; crossing the Jumna at that city, and then pursuing a nearly direct course through Muttra to D. Should such a line ever be executed, it will doubtless be ultimately pushed forward to Kurnal, and the highest navigable point on the Sutledge, and thus connect the two great rivers, the Indus and the Ganges. |
