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loo there 1s much to be admired of Muhammadan archirectural
 design of the past. The station (civil and military)
covers a vast flat expanse chequered with straggling compounds
 ; and, like most of the large cantonments of the
plains of India, its huge extent is out of all proportion
to the population it embraces. It may be quoted as a
typical Indian station of Northern India, and as it enjoys
a fairly extended cold weather, it is distinctly popular.
Another important city of the Gangetic basin, Lucknow,
we have left behind us. It lies some 50 miles to the
qorth-east of Cawnpore on the Oudh and Rohilkand
branch. Lucknow is perhaps, by virtue of its climate,
its surroundings, the interest of its Mutiny records, and its
attraction as a centre of sport, the most popular of all
Indian up-stations. Agra and Benares are two other cities
of unfathomable record and endless interest (if no longer
strategically or politically important) connected with the
East Indian system. To reach Agra it is necessary to
leave the main line at Toondla, half-way between Delhi
and Cawnpore. To reach Benares one must branch off
from Mogul sarai, some 1oo miles beyond Allahabad
towards Calcutta. Either city is so full of the beauty of
architectural design, each can boast so many specialities
in art and industry, that it is sacrilege to treat them
simply as geographical points of more or less note in connection
 with a utilitarian railway system. But the ancient
sraditions in which their history is lost; the medizval
romances which hang around them; the glory of that
[ndo-Italian architecture which finds eternal expression in
the Taj at Agra, and the grand creations of Hindu and
[ain workmen at Benares ; the sacred veil which is drawn
round the latter, her Ghats and bathing-places, her temples
and palaces, her art work in brass, copper and silver
—none of these things tell much on the traffic returns, or
make largely for that economic development of which the
railways are the main instrument.
The travelling sightseer (the tourist) as a first-class
passenger does not “pay” (as we have before intimated),
and it is only the thronging crowd of natives, contented