It stands on a hill overlooking a considerable extent of country, and the visitor who climbs to the top has the greater part of Lucknow at his feet. There is a large court-yard in front of it, and this yard is adorned with mosques and other Moslem structures, and also a miniature lake in the centre, with a bridge over it. There is very little wood work about the building, and it was evidently the intention of the architect and the king that the Imambara should stand unharmed for centuries.
Frank and Fred confessed their inability to describe the building in words, and wisely purchased photographs to enclose to their friends, as the easiest way out of the difficulty. "But the photograph can't show the size of the building," said one of the boys, "and so we must make a few notes." They did so with the following result:
| Length of Imambara | 303 | feet. |
| Breadth | 163 | " |
| Height | 63 | " |
"The central room," said Frank, "is 163 feet long by 53 wide, and it is 49 feet high, with walls 16 feet thick. Then there is an octagonal room 216 feet in circumference, with walls of the same thickness as the other room, and it is 53 feet high in the centre. If this doesn't take away your breath you may think of another room, 54 feet square, and the same in height, and you must remember that this whole building was finished with stone carving, as though it had been intended for ornamenting a parlor."
THE MARTINIERE.
Then they went to the Martiniere, a fantastic building, constructed by General Claude Martine, a French adventurer, who came to Lucknow toward the end of the last century and entered the service of the king. He had nothing when he arrived, but, by careful management of his money and his influence with the king, he was worth a million or two of dollars at the time of his death in 1800. He built this house as his own residence and in his own way, and the building is said to combine more styles of architecture than any other in all India. He was buried in the house, in a tomb under the central dome. At the time of the Mutiny the rebels opened the tomb and scattered the bones, but some of them were afterward recovered and restored to their resting-place.
