THE DELHI SHALIMAR BAGH 107 



not prevent their further deterioration. Bishop 

 Heber, who was at Delhi in the winter of 1825, 

 remarks : " The Shalimar gardens, extolled in 

 Lalla Rookh, are completely gone to decay." 

 The good bishop seems to have forgotten for the 

 moment that the Shalimar of Moore's Lalla 

 Rookh was the original Shalimar garden, not its 

 copy at Delhi. 



The garden, being a royal one, was confis- 

 cated and sold after the revolt of 1857. It 

 consists at present of four parts, two of which 

 still have the appearance of a garden ; the others 

 have been given over for cultivation. The de- 

 pressions of the three principal tanks mentioned 

 by Muhammad Salih and the long water-channel 

 connecting them can still be traced. They lie 

 outside a fine mango grove which shades the 

 highest pool, a picturesque tank overgrown with 

 lotus ; and a half -ruined baradari, called the 

 Shish Mahal, stands at the south-west corner of 

 the garden. 



We can follow the decline and ruin of what 

 once was one of the finest ornaments of the 

 capital of Hindustan. " It will hardly take a 

 century more " as Dr. Vogel remarks at the 

 close of his report written in 1904 " and the 



