58 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



whom he loved above them all ; and it is to the 

 romance of that marriage that the world owes its 

 possession of that one unrivalled work of architec- 

 ture, the Taj Mahal. They were great and powerful 

 men, these Moguls, and some of them were among 

 the wisest and most enlightened of monarchs. 

 Akbar the Great stands preeminently above them 

 all. He reigned from 1556 to 1605, and it is said 

 that in physical strength and prowess, personal 

 charm, benevolence of character and broadness of 

 views, he was the greatest of living men. But with 

 all his strong and statesmanlike qualities he was a 

 true artist, and it is to his refined taste and appre- 

 ciation of the beautiful that we are indebted for 

 many of India's greatest monuments. It was he 

 who removed his capital from Delhi to Agra, and 

 spent his life in making it the most beautiful city in 

 India. 



I spent the first day of my stay at Agra rambling 

 through the big Fort, which was begun by Akbar, and 

 which, always excepting the Kremlin at Moscow, 

 is without doubt the grandest citadel in the world. 

 It is a city in itself, being two miles and a quarter 

 in circumference, with walls seventy feet high and 

 thirty feet thick, and protected by a correspondingly 

 broad and deep moat. The palace which it incloses 

 wanders over a vast extent of ground, each succeed- 



