PRESENT STATE OF DELHI. 4.47 



Khass in former times has been adorned with exces- 

 sive magnificence, and though stripped and plundered 

 by various invaders, still retains sufficient beauty to 

 render it admired. I judge the building to be a hun- 

 dred and fifty feet in length, by forty in breadth. The 

 roof is flat, supported by a great many columns of 

 fine white marble, which have been richly adorned 

 with inlaid flower- work of beautiful stones : the cor- 

 nices and borders have been decorated with a great 

 quantity of frieze and sculptured work. The ceiling 

 was formerly incrusted with a work of rich foliage of 

 silver throughout the whole extent, which has been 

 long since taken oft' and carried away. The delicacy 

 of the inlaying in the compartments of the wall 

 much to be admired ; and it is matter of heartfelt re- 

 gret to seethe barbarous ravages that have been made 

 in picking out the different cornelians, and breaking 

 the marble by violence. Around the interior of the 

 Dewaun Khass, in the cornice, are the following lines, 

 engraved in letters of gold, upon a white marble 

 ground : 



"If there be a paradise upon earth, this is it — *tis 

 this, 'tis this.'* The terrace on which the Dewaun 

 Kbatiab is built is composed of large beautiful slabs of 

 white marble; and the building is crowned at top with 

 four pavillions or cupolas, of the same materials. 



The royal baths, built by Shah J eh an, are situa- 

 ted a little to the northward of the Dewaun Khass % 

 and consist of three very large apartments surmount- 

 ed by white marble domes. The inside of the baths 

 is lined, about two thirds of the way up, with mar- 

 ble, 



