278 SOME GARDEN CONTRASTS 



the welcoming marigold festoons into the 

 Hugli till the sacred river blazed like an English 

 field in the buttercup weeks of Jime. 



The interest, therefore, of the new capital 

 centres in the Badshahi Mahal, the Imperial 

 Palace and its gardens — Government House, 

 to give it the chill Anglo- Indian name. What 

 are public institutes and pleasure-grounds, fine 

 secretariats, alien Gothic cathedrals, Grecian 

 post-offices, Roman forums, beside the Indian 

 home of the Father of his people, the palace 

 buildings of an Emperor who is Vishnu's Vice- 

 Regent upon earth ? 



In a vast continent where temples, churches, 

 mosques, forts, and even palaces but serve to 

 mark and divide men and creeds, all might yet 

 meet in a garden. Hindu and Moslem might 

 both recognise their own symbols there, where 

 the fountain mists and whispering trees would 

 murmur to us of that power, the bhakti, which 

 for all our restless Western cleverness we miss. 

 There Indian women when they came to greet 

 their Queen, or her representative, would each be 

 welcomed by her own flowers and their legends, 

 and the garden would speak for us better than 

 we could ourselves. Laila would be there on her 



