vii 
After various experiments, the original MS. and Drawings of this present 
work had the honour to receive his Royal Highness’s most flattering 
approbation, with gracious permission to lay this Fac Simile before the 
public. 
However fruitless the attempt to avert the cavils of criticism, I must 
not conclude these prefatory observations without endeavouring to anti- 
cipate some of the objections that I suppose will be urged against this 
novel application of the most ancient style of ornamented Architecture 
existing in the world.® These objections may perhaps be classed under 
the following heads: 
I. The difference in the climate from whence this style is taken. 
II. The brevity of remarks for so important a subject. 
III. The want of positive data and accurate measurement. 
IV. The want of space for its introduction at Brighton. 
V. The costliness of its ornaments and decorations. 
The first objection will obviously arise from the difference between 
the climates of India and of England : but this would apply with equal 
force against the adoption of Architecture from parts of Greece and 
Italy , 11 which are hotter than those mountainous tracts of Hindustan, 
where the climate differs less from that of England than in the southern 
provinces near the sea coasts. 
In answer to the second objection, I shall observe, that this work 
was not intended as a detailed treatise on Hindustan Architecture, but 
as an Essay describing the reasons for recommending that particular 
style for a particular spot ; where the confinement of the place, the cha- 
racter of the garden, and other circumstances, justify its adoption; and 
it is now before the public to judge how far the beauties and advan- 
tages of the same style may deserve to be extended to other places. I 
may also observe, that, as there was no occasion to discuss more at 
length the inapplicability of Grecian or Gothic forms, when both had 
been previously rejected, it became my duty to compress the subject 
into the narrowest possible compass. 
It has frequently been remarked, that a spirit of party and prejudice 
* Some of the forms here introduced are taken from the ornaments of the subterraneous and excavated 
remains, which being worked in the hardest grey granite, were found by Mr. Danicll to be as fresh as if just 
finished from the chisel of the sculptor; although they are of a date beyond all record, and are mentioned as 
beino- found in the same slate at the time when Alexander the Great conquered India. 
h °The Grecian style was introduced without any attention to the difference of climate; and so rare is the 
combination of fashion with good taste, or the union of genius with common sense, that even to the present day 
we see lofty porticos to shade the north side of houses, where the sun never shines; and ballustrades on the tops 
of houses, where no one can ever walk, and where the slanting roof marks the absurdity. 
