AN IDEAL SITE 191 



d'eau in various forms and fish ponds are in 

 great number, and there is a lofty cascade which 

 in its fall takes the form and colour of a large 

 sheet, thirty or forty paces in length, producing 

 the finest effect imaginable ; especially at night, 

 when innumerable lamps, fixed in parts of the 

 wall adapted for that purpose, are lighted under 

 this sheet of water." 



As in the case of nearly all these Kashmir 

 gardens, the lowest terrace is destroyed by the 

 highway, and Achibal Bagh is much smaller than 

 it was in Mughal days. But nothing can spoil 

 the natural loveliness of this river, gushing out 

 of the honeycombed limestone cliff, just at the 

 point where the mountains intrude farthest on 

 the plains. It is an ideal site. If I were asked 

 where the most perfect modern garden on a 

 medium scale could be devised, I should answer 

 without hesitation, Achibal. Nowhere else have 

 I seen such possibilities for the combined 

 appeal of a stately stone - bordered pleasance 

 between ordered avenues of full-grown trees, 

 and a natural rock and woodland upper garden 

 with haunting, far-reaching views, where the white 

 wild roses foam over the firs and the boulders, 

 rivalling the " sheet of water " Bernier praised. 



