4 ON SOME EARLY GARDEN HISTORY 



no doubt among the earliest forms of gardening, 

 which in later times and in moister climates 

 developed into the well-known charming land- 

 scape styles of China and Japan. 



But it was from the North, from Central Asia 

 and Persia, that the splendid garden traditions 

 were introduced into India, taking root there 

 under the various Mohammedan conquerors and 

 developing into a native style which culminated 

 in the beautiful Kashmir Gardens built by the 

 Mughal Emperor Jahangir and his Persian wife, 

 the Empress Nur-Jahan. 



The Afghans and Pathans showed themselves 

 magnificent builders, as their massive forts and 

 mosques attest. Some of the grandest and most 

 beautiful buildings in India belong to this period, 

 but their surrounding gardens have nearly all 

 disappeared. Those were troublous times ; kings 

 rose and fell with astonishing rapidity, dynasties 

 were no sooner founded than they became 

 extinct, and internecine wars and quarrels left 

 little of the peace and leisure garden -craft 

 demands. Still the comparatively long reign 

 of Feroz Shah from 1351 to 1388 proved more 

 peaceful than those of his predecessors, and a 

 tradition survives of the hundred gardens that he 



