Agra revived the memory of its bygone glories when, in November, 1866, twenty-six sovereign princes and a great number of feudatory chiefs came to meet Sir John Lawrence

in durbar, as representative of Queen Victoria. Levées, grand dinners, and fêtes were the order of the day; the Taj was illuminated with the electric light; the Jumna reflected the blaze of innumerable fireworks; the English army manoeuvred before the illustrious visitors; several feudatories were invested with the insignia of the Star of India; and then,

at the Imperial Durbar, on the 20th, Maharajahs and Begums and the crowd of inferior ranks listened to an eloquent speech from the Viceroy, unfolding the new order of things, and exhorting all to govern with wisdom, to encourage civilisation, and to prove themselves worthy friends of Her Majesty. For a month longer Agra was alive with the festivities.

attendant on this inauguration of a new era.

DELHI.

A hundred and fifteen miles to the north-west of Agra stands Delhi, on the right bank of the Jumna-a city of which the history is the history of India. According to Hindu legends, three cities- Madhanti, Hastinapoora, and Indrapêchta-succeeded each other on this site before Delhi. The ruins of Indrapêchta were ten centuries old when King Dilvu founded Delhi, in 57 B.C. Since then the city has been often destroyed and rebuilt, and fresh sites have been chosen, so that a plain of thirty miles along the banks of the Jumna is bestrewed with ruins. In 1193 it was seized by Mohammed of Ghor, and the Patan dynasty was founded there. In 1398 it was desolated by the great Tamerlane, and in 1526 it was seized by Baber, the founder of the long line of Mogul sovereigns. Akbar removed the throne to Agra, but in 1631 Shah Jehan built the present city, close to Old Delhi, and made it the royal city. Shahjehanabad-City of the King of the World—is still the Mohammedan name for it. In 1739 the Persian usurper Nadir Shah marched to Delhi, massacred thousands of the inhabitants, and bore away plunder to a fabulous amount, including the celebrated Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-noor diamond now in the possession of the British Crown. The Mogul Empire now rapidly declined, and for a time the Mahrattas held Delhi, till defeated by Lord Lake in 1803. Till 1827 the restored emperor nominally ruled, pensioned by the English Government. At that date his pension was increased to £150,000, but his authority was contracted to the limits of his palace, where some thousands of his relatives and servants swallowed up his pension. In 1857 came the Mutiny. Shah Mohammed Babadour, ninety years old, appointed officers and resumed imperial state. In September, after a ten days' siege, the British troops recaptured the city, and the old monarch was tried and transported for life, and the sovereignty declared extinct. The city was much ruined by the siege, but has in great degree recovered its former importance.

Delhi, enclosed by red sandstone walls, is seven miles in circumference. The defences, which were erected by Shah Jehan, have been much improved by the English. The East India Railway enters the city by a magnificent bridge across the Jumna. The streets are in many cases narrow and tortuous, but there are ten main thoroughfares well drained, metalled, and lighted. The principal street is the Chandni Chowk, or Street of Silver, threequarters of a mile long and seventy-four fect broad, which is lined with gay bazaars and generally thronged with busy crowds. It extends from the Gate of Lahore to the great gate of the Palace. In the uniformly square shops are piled up Cashmere shawls, Bashampore gauzes, arms from the Punjaub, lacquer-work from Scinde, and carved casket-work from Shekawuttee. One long row of shops is occupied by the bankers. Shoemakers, with elegant slippers and silk-embroidered shoes; hatters, with strangely-fashioned turbans and caps, to suit the various castes and classes; goldsmiths, with elaborate specimens of artistic work;

pastry-cooks, kneading their tempting wares in sight of the public-all these and many others, in their distinct groups, help to make the Chandni Chowk an intensely interesting thoroughfare.

Delhi has ever been famous for its architectural glories. It is, of course, impossible here to enumerate the buildings, ruins, columns, arches, and other structures of this historic locality. The Palace of Shah Jehan and the Jumma Musjid, or Great Mosque, call for a brief description. Such works as Mr. Fergusson's "History of Indian and Eastern Architecture " will supply full details.

The Fort or Palace of Shah Jehan resembles a city in miniature, its high red walls being a mile and a half in circumference. The Dewani-Am, or Hall of Public Audience, is a large and lofty hall, in which stands the marble throne whereon sat Shah Jehan, with his face toward Mecca, as Vicegerent of God on earth, to receive the homage of his subjects. The Dewani-Khâs, or Hall of Private Audience, is the most ornamented of all Jehan's buildings. It overhangs the river, and its poetical design and elaborate delicacy of execution are beyond all description. Around the roof once ran the famous inscription, "If there is a heaven on earth, it is this, it is this!" The pavement is of jasper; the pillars and arches are ornamented with wreaths and flowers in precious stones; the ceiling was entirely covered with a rich filagree-work of silver, which was torn down and melted into seventeen lacs of rupees by the Mahrattas in 1759. The harem and private apartments of the palace covered more than twice the area of any palace in Europe. The halls we have mentioned, and one or two others, are all that are now left of the wonderful palace of which Bernier and Tavernier gave such simple yet graphic accounts. What we now see were the " 'gems of the palace, it is true," says Fergusson, "but without the courts and corridors connecting them they lose all their meaning and more than half their beauty. Being now situated in the middle of a British barrack-yard, they look like precious stones torn from their setting in some exquisite piece of Oriental jeweller's work and set at random in a bed of the commonest plaster."

Close beside the Chandni Chowk, on some rocky rising ground, stands the Jumma Musjid, the highest building in Delhi. It was raised in nineteen years by Shah Jehan at a cost of ten lacs of rupees, when food and labour cost far less than now. A red sandstone colonnade encloses a magnificent paved terrace commanding a view of the whole city. On this terrace stands the splendid mosque, with its three white marble domes and its graceful minarets. Travellers unite in praising the "chaste richness, elegance of proportion, and grandeur of design" of this building. This mosque was the head-quarters of Mohammedan revolt in 1857, and it only just escaped demolition. For some years the Mussulmans were not allowed to go near it.

Terrible indeed were the scenes that took place in Delhi during the sepoy rebellion of 1857, when, after the outbreak at Meerut, the mutineers made their appearance at the gates at early morn. The houses of the European residents were plundered, and their inmates murdered, and by eight o'clock the rebels held the whole city, except the Magazine and Main Guard. The Magazine was blown up, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the rebels. At the Main Guard the native troops threw off their allegiance towards