352 THE SHALIMAE GARDENS. 



himself could make one out of a hundred 

 speak the truth ;" and true enough we 

 found it. 



Two days' journey brought us to the 

 Shalimar gardens, on the borders of the far- 

 famed lake of Cashmere, and four miles from 

 Seerinugger. The favourite summer retreat 

 of the Mogul emperors, the magnificent old 

 chunar, or plane trees, alone remain in their 

 beauty, to show what the gardens had once 

 been. Summer palaces, baths, tanks, and 

 fountains, still exist in a lamentable state of 

 decay, as marks of former grandeur, and 

 bear out the testimony of many an eastern 

 poet, how lovely were the gardens of Cash- 

 mere, in the times of old. 



Next morning, entering the lake by the 

 canal, which leads from the gardens, we 

 crossed it, and passing into the Jelum, 

 arrived at the city. The lake itself, although, 

 as it were, set in a frame of beautiful 

 scenery, looked like a cabbage-garden afloat, 

 and smelt of fever and ague ; being shallow, 

 it is covered with weeds, but amongst them 



