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0433 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / Page 433 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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jungle-like thickets of the garden seemed rather to belong
to one of those half-ruined villas once tenanted by Moghul
or Sikh grandees which during years gone by had furnished
me with cherished haunts in the country around Lahore.
In the end I decided that a kindly fairy had chosen for my
delectation to reproduce, in distant Cathay and in a climate
recalling Kashmir, that delightful old garden of Shah
Balawal, with its shady terraces and gaily stuccoed little
shrines, which was my favourite refuge during Lahore
times. Maharaja Sher Singh, with more than one of his
courtiers, had been murdered there, and old friends who
cheered me with their visits used to call it my 'tomb.'
Would that I could have greeted them also at this its
Cathayan replica!

On an airy terrace overlooking spring and lake as well
as much of the fertile land across the river, I had my tent
pitched. The roof of a small belvedere which had long
ago lost doors, windows, and other encumbrances of a
sedentary civilization, furnished welcome shade. A walled
garden behind, with thick clumps of fruit-trees, on which
the apricots were just ripening, secured desirable privacy.
Outside it to the west, under majestic old elms which
seemed to rival the plane-trees of Kashmir (Fig. 229),
was my reception hall, a large and elegant temple all in
wood, with a fine carved roof and gracefully curved eaves
over its verandahs. Its architect had evidently thought
more of providing a convenient place for social gatherings
than a home for divinities; for whereas the images,
grotesque figures in stucco and of recent make, occupied
a modest alcove to the north, the main body of the
structure was given up to a large hall without any
religious use.

The whole was as airy as one could wish, the open-
work screens forming the sides having long lost their paper
covering and all doors their panels. The little garden
parterre, full of marigolds, sunflowers, and peonies, through
which the hall was approached, had suffered less from
neglect than the buildings and supplied a gay patch of
colours. A small dwelling by its side, half ruin half wood-
shed, accommodated Chiang-ssÅ­-yeh, ever content with his