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in 1800 under the personal care of the   romantic
Captain Kirkpatrick, (Hashmat Jung).
" Its magnificent Corinthian porch (orig*
inally flanked by sphinxes'replaced later by lions)
must have struck the imagination of the wealthy
nobles of Hyderabad ; for in the city palaces of
the Shams-ul-Umara family we can still trace its
influence, and also at Jahan Numa which belongs
to them. At a later period portions of the Chow
Mahalla Palaces were built in a similar style.
All this showed a gradual advance towards a
foreign style which was in recognised good taste,
but Hyderabad still managed to preserve its
Eastern character within its walls. And this was
amply safeguarded by the great architectural
monuments which have stamped that character
upon it for all time : The Char Minar and the
stately arches on the four sides of it, and the grand
Mecca Mas] id flanked by the long lines of the outer
courts of the Nizam's Panch Mahalla Palace. They
symbolise and give life to past grandeur ; they
picture history ! The unique Char Minar occupies
the centre and dominates the city, and from it
radiate roads and streets and lanes in various
directions, in which there is something that takes
the eye by surprise : an undesigned, jumbled
picturesqueness—contributed mainly by tiny
* shops displaying much gaudy colour and glitter
on ,their fronts. Passing through some of fhe
more important streets, where the palaces of the
older nobility are still standing in a state of
pathetic dilapidation, the observer is struck with