This hall, open on one side to a garden, is entirely built
of transparent white marble inlaid with precious stones, and with
its intricate gilded ceilings, and wonderful pierced-marble
screens it justifies the famous Persian inscription that runs
round it:
"If heaven can be on the face of the earth,
It is this, it is this, it is this."
I always regret that Shah Jehan did not carry out his original
intention of erecting a second Taj of black marble for himself at
Agra, opposite the wonderful tomb he built for his beloved Muntaz-
i-Mahal; probably the money ran out. Few people take in that the
dome of the Taj, that great airy white soap-bubble, is actually
higher than the dome of St. Paul's. The play of fancy and
invention of Shah Jehan's architects seems inexhaustible. All the
exquisite white marble pavilions of Agra palace differ absolutely
both in design and decoration, and Akbar's massive red sandstone
buildings make the most perfect foil to them that could be
conceived.
Lucknow is one of the pleasantest stations in India, with its ring
of encircling parks, and the broad, tree-shaded roads of its
cantonments, but the pretentious monuments with which the city is
studded will not bear examination after the wonders of Agra and
Delhi.
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