SOME FAMOUS KABUL GARDENS 69 



gardens of Kabul ; the City Adorning Garden, 

 with a stream eight feet wide running down its 

 centre, which he and his courtiers tried to jump 

 but failed. He says on this day he walked 

 round seven of the famous gardens of Kabul, 

 and adds, " I do not think I ever walked so far 

 before. 



" First of all I walked round the City Adorn- 

 ing, then the Moonlight Garden, then the garden 

 that Bika Begam, grandmother of my father, 

 had made, then passed through the Middle 

 Garden, then a garden that Maryam-makani, 

 my own grandmother, had prepared, then the 

 Surat-khana garden, which has a large chenar 

 tree, the like of which there is not in the other 

 gardens of Kabul. Then having seen the Char- 

 Bagh, which is the largest of the City gardens, 

 I returned to my own abode. There were 

 abundance of cherries on the trees, each of which 

 looked as it were a round ruby hanging like 

 globes on the branches. The Shahr-ara Bagh 

 was made by Shahr-Banu Begam, daughter of 

 Mirza Abu Said, who was own aunt to the late 

 king Babar. From time to time it has been 

 added to, and there is not a garden like it for 

 sweetness in Kabul. It has all sorts of fruits 



