52 GARDENS OF THE PLAINS— AGRA 



could reach, there were flower gardens of a similar 

 kind. In the neighbourhood of Peshawar, during 

 the spring, the flower-plots are exquisitely beauti- 

 ful." A judgment which still holds good, as those 

 must agree, who, like Babar, have passed through 

 Northern India in spring-time : the brief northern 

 spring, when even the exposed, dusty bungalow- 

 gardens are lit up by the wonder of the rose 

 bushes, ending as the first blast of the burning 

 summer winds blows out the roses' fairy lamps of 

 red, pink, white, and yellow. 



Across the river Jumna, and on the same side 

 as the Ram Bagh, is the tomb of I'timad-ud- 

 Daulah (the Lord High Treasurer), one of the 

 most beautiful of all the Mughal garden-tombs. 

 This exquisite mausoleum, the first example of 

 inlaid marble work in a style directly evolved 

 from the Persian tile-mosaics, was raised by the 

 Empress Nur-Jahan to the memory of her 

 father, Mirza Ghiyas Beg. Her remarkable 

 Persian — or, according to another account, Turki 

 — family, had such an influence on Mughal art 

 during its most brilliant period that their relation- 

 ships are worth remembering. Ghiyas Beg, who 

 became the Lord High Treasurer of Jahangir 

 and afterwards Wazir or Prime Minister, had 



