312 Rui/al (lardens of Lcthoir. 



Embassy to Cabul, — yet as those gardens described were nol 

 of the class of the Hanging Gardens, and, as during a residence 

 in India, I was fortunate enough to make one 'of an embassy 

 to Lahore, where 1 viewed the il^ill'^^t or Royal Gardens of 



the Moghul emperors, situated between three and four miles east 

 of the city of Lahore, in the Punjab, or Country of Five Waters, 

 — considering a description of them may afford pleasure to your 

 readers, who, no doubt, have heard of the splendid Hanging 

 Gardens of Babylon, said to have been erected by order of Ne- 

 buchadnezzar to gratify his wife Amytis ; and, though the gar- 

 dens to be described in this paper are nut of that splendid cha- 

 lacter, yet they certainly belong to the same class, thereby dif- 

 fering from the Royal Gardens generally found in India. 



The embassy to Lahore, (headed by Mr. C. T. Metcalfe, Am- 

 bassador from the Honourable East India Company to Runjeet 

 Sing, Chief of the Punjab,) had been encamped upon the plain, 

 on the north-east side of the city of Lahore, and immediately 

 opposite the palace of the Moghul emperors, that part of ii 

 erected by Arungzebc, towering above the rest of the build- 

 ings, and are particularly striking and deserving of notice for 

 the many very beautiful latticed windows of white marble which 

 it contains, the marble being wrought into an open work, re- 

 sembling the trellis or open work of the ivory boxes which come 

 from China. On Tuesday, lOth January, 1809, we quitted 

 this plain, and entering the city, passed the eastern quarter, 

 and through the Dilhee gate, which, as well as the walls gene- 

 rally, and this far-famed city itself, is decaying very fast under 

 the hand of time, and its frequent accessary neglect. At a dis- 

 tance from the city, of a little more than three miles east, the 

 road being bordered here and there with Mangoe groves, we 

 arrived at the Shah Leemar gardens. The extreme length of 

 these gardens, from south to north, is about five hundred yards, 

 by a breadth of one hundred and thirty, or one hundred and 

 forty. Mr. Metcalfe having obtained permission for his suite 

 to view these gardens with him, we entered the west side of 

 the northern or lowest garden, under a pretty good arched gate- 

 way, which appears to have been the only entrance from the 



