PREFACE 



This first sketch of the Mughal " Paradise 

 Garden " will, I fear, make but a limited appeal 

 to English readers, as a recollection of one of my 

 earliest Indian experiences vividly but vainly 

 reminds me : — On a long railway jovirney north- 

 ward, the tedium of which had been pleasantly 

 beguiled by a fellow-passenger's wide knowledge 

 of the history of the country through which we 

 were passing, the train, after thundering over a 

 broad sandy river-bed, rushed past some buildings 

 buried in a wood ; leaving a blurred, but entran- 

 cing vision of red enclosing walls, high tiled gate- 

 ways, and slender marble minarets, rising through 

 the densely clustering palms and forest trees of 

 a great garden. " What is that ? " I exclaimed 

 with delight, pressing my face to the darkened 

 sun-proof window-pane. But here my kindly 

 informant altogether failed me. " I really don't 



