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3 2 4 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. situated about 5 miles from the Qutb at Delhi, is not quite unworthy of the locality in which it is found. Though so late in date (A.D. 1756), it looks grand and imposing at a distance, but it will not bear close inspection (Plate XXXIV.). It stands in a large garden and is raised on a terrace, 10 ft. high and 1 10 ft. square, over arched cells. The tomb is about 60 ft. square, and in the general arrangements of the plan is not un- like that of Humayun. The central room, about 20 ft. square, contains the very handsome marble monument, highly polished though somewhat florid in design. The floor and lower portion of the walls are faced with marble, and it is roofed by a flattish dome at a height of about 40 ft. Round this apartment are four square and four octagonal rooms on the ground floor, with the like arrangement above. 1 Respecting the whole, Mr. Fanshawe remarks: 2 "If the decoration of the corner towers is not successful, the combination of white marble and fawn- coloured sandstone in the centre is pleasing. The plaster decoration of the interior is perhaps more degraded than anything else about the tomb." Even this qualified praise can hardly be awarded to any of the buildings in the capital in which his dynasty was finally established. If mass and richness of ornamentation were in themselves sufficient to constitute architecture, few capitals in India could show so much of it as Lucknow. It is, in fact, amazing to observe to what an extent this dynasty filled its capitals with gorgeous buildings during the one short century of its existence, but all or with the fewest possible exceptions in the worst possible taste. Whatever may be said of the Renaissance, or revival of classical architecture in Europe in the i6th century, in India it was an unmitigated misfortune. The unintelligent vulgarity with which the " Orders " are there used, by a people who were capable of such noble things in their own styles, is one of the most startling phenomena in the history of architecture. One of the earliest buildings of importance at Lucknow, in the Italian style, is the Mansion of Constantia, 3 built by General Claude Martin, as a residence for himself, and only completed after his death. 4 1 Carr Stephen, 'Archaeology of Delhi,' : 1732, and died at Lucknow 1800. He p. 278. commenced his career as a private soldier 2 ' Delhi Past and Present,' p. 246, in the French army ; but, in consequence from which the Plate XXXIV. is repro- > of Lally's severity, deserted at the siege duced. I of Pondicherry, and joined the English 3 So called apparently from the motto i service, in which he rose to the rank of " Lahore et Constantia," adopted by the j Captain. He was transferred in 1776 to General, and written up in front of his j the service of the Nawab of Oudh, and house. ! in 1796 was promoted to be Major- 4 General Martin was born at Lyons in , General. He left a considerable part of