They
are the gems of the palace it is true, 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 settings
in some exquisite piece of Oriental jeweller's work and set at random
in a bed of the commonest plaster' (Fergusson, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p.
312). Since Fergusson wrote an immense amount of work has been done
in restoration and conservation, but it is difficult to obtain a
general view of the result.
The books about Delhi are even more tantalising and unsatisfactory
than those which deal with Agra. Mr. Beglar's contribution to Vol. IV
of the _Archaeological Survey Reports_ is a little, but very little,
better than Mr. Carlleyle's disquisition on Agra in that volume. Sir
A. Cunningham's observations in the first and twentieth volumes of
the same series are of greater value, but are fragmentary and
imperfect, and scarcely notice at all the city of Shahjahan.
Fergusson's criticisms, so far as they go, are of permanent
importance, though the scheme of his work did not allow him to treat
in detail of any particular section.
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