DESCRIPTION OF SCINDIAH'S NEW PALACE AT GWALIOR.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 805, 20 January 1877, Page 3

DESCRIPTION OF SCINDIAH'S NEW PALACE AT GWALIOR.

« The following,” says the Times of India, 11 ia ;i description of Bciadiah’s new palace at Gwalior, in which he entertained the Prince of Wales when H H.H. visited Central India; < There is no doubt the Maharajah’s new palace and grounds at Gwalior aro the handsomest of their kind in India, The Prince and suite pronounced this opinion, and in all probability Gwalior will in time attract sightseers in much the same way as Daihi, Lucknow, and Agra. The building has been erected in the Phoolbagh, and has been named Jye-in-dur-bhovan, or the abode of the Illustrious, The Palace alone covers an

area of 124,771 square feet, exclusive of the inner square, which is 321 J ft by 821 ft. The palace is doubled-storied throughout, and m some places has three and four stories Its highest parts measure 106 ft from the 'round. The first story is of Tuscan, v,ha second Italian Doric, and the •bird Corinthian architecture. The interior of the Durbar hall measures 97ft Sin in length, 50ft in width, and 4lft in height. Its roof is arched with solid stone slabs, each measuring 21ft in length, winch enabled the architect to make the ribs so prominent. They run from one end of the hall to the other, and rest at each end on double Corinthian columns, which form a colonnade all round the interior of the hall. The roof is magnificently painted and the whole hall is lavishly gilded.’ Upwards of 5,000,000 gold leaves were used for this work. The wab's have been almost hidden by gigantic mirrors, and the huge chandeliers which hang in the centre are the largest over imported. The staircase is entirely of glass and marble, and is handsome in the extreme. In addition to the large ruby chandelier which hangs between the wings of the staircase, statuettes and other ohjets de vertu adorn the room, which is roofed with stone slabs, each 30ft in length. The room on the opposite side is roofed in the same way. The two rooms which flank the Durbar hall are furnished superbly. One is the banquet hall, and the other contains the costly gold and jewelled throne and canopy, and the portraits of her Majesty the Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales. This room is a sort of ante-room to the Durbar hall. Another room contains a life-sized oil painting of H.H. Scindiah, and has some very costly fittings. All the apartments are beautifully carpeted. The palace itself cost a little above eleven lakhs of rupees, but the garden walls, iron railings (all cast in Gwalior), the garden furniture, glass staircase, and chandeliers, have cost nearly nine lakhs more. The area of the garden and palace park is above one square mile. The grounds are tastefully arranged, and the water runs here in a stream, falls like a crashing cataract there, and springs up in a hundred places in lively fountains. The water which feeds the garden streams comes down in a caual for a distance of fifteen miles.”