Sir Edwin Lutyens was the designer behind the building
and the gardens. Lutyens’ original idea was to lay down two separate
gardens, one for the Viceroy and the other for the public. However, he
ended up designing the Mughal Garden for Lady Harding.
After carefully studying the Persian and Indian miniatures as well as
the gardens at Taj Mahal in Agra and Shalimar Gardens in Lahore and Srinagar,
Lutyens combined the formal Mughal style with that of an English garden.
The gardens are a beautiful blend of Mughal canals and terraces at different
levels and European flower beds, lawns and privet hedges.
W. R. Mustoe, O.B.E of the Horticultural Department was responsible for
all the planting done in the gardens in the initial years. With his help,
Lutyens was able to transform a desert into an oasis by 1929, when the
building was ready for occupation.
The Garden's Features
The gardens comprise three parts: the first is the 'Rectangular Garden'
immediately behind the main building. The second is the 'Long Garden',
which leads on to the third section – the 'Circular Garden'.
Lutyens combined the soft English borders, small flower beds and lawns
to produce a virtual paradise. The skeleton is formed of four waterways,
two north to south and two running from square basins immediately below
the windows of the main house. In these basins and at the four intersections
are the unique fountains consisting of three-tiers of huge red-sandstone
discs that draw inspiration from lotus leaves.
The slotted margins of the lotus leaves direct the water flow from step
to step in alternating falls. From the four waterways a network of lesser
channels extend to other areas. The waterways are patterned with red-sandstone
edges and plots of lawns alternating with chequered flower beds –
creating a wonderfully landscaped garden.
The garden spreads westwards from the Rectangular Garden to the Circular
Garden through the Long Garden, which is the only part of the garden with
no water channels. Over here, Lutyens designed a delightful Pergola, on
which bougainvillaea creepers grow. On the sides, it has separate beds
of roses with small trimmed hedges of Ingadulets, creating an effect of
coloured knots on a vast carpet.
The gardens end quite simply in the round pool in the middle of a sunken
circle. Around the pool are massed segmental and tiered flower beds attracting
butterflies. This part is the Circular Garden, also called Pearl Garden
and Butterfly Garden.
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