PRESENT STATE OF DELHI. a<i - 



once flourishing metropolis of a great kingdom now 

 in ruins, it may be acceptable; and in this hope it is 

 offered, with deference to the Society; who will 

 judge whether it be deserving of more general dif- 

 fusion by publication with their more important re- 

 searches. 



The extent of the ruins of old Delhi cannot, I 

 suppose, be less than a circumference of twenty miles, 

 reckoning from the gardens of Shalimar, on the north- 

 west, to the Kuttub Minar on the south-east; and 

 proceeding from thence along the heart of the old 

 city by way of the mausoleum of Xuam-u-dee\, 

 on which stands Humaioon's tomb, and the old 

 fort of Delhi on the banks of the Jwmna y to the Aj- 

 Mere-gSLte of Shah Jehanabad. 



The environs to the north-west are crowded with 

 the remains of spacious gardens and country-houses 

 of the nobility, which were formerly abundantly sup- 

 plied with water by means of the noble canal dug by 

 Ali Mir dan Khan, and which formerly extended 

 from above Paniput quite down to Delhi, where it join- 

 ed the Jutnnai fertilizing in its course a tract of more 

 than ninety miles in length, and bestowing comfort 

 and affluence on those who lived within its extent. 

 This canal, as it ran through the suburbs of Mogul 

 Parah, nearly three miles in length, was about twenty- 

 five feet deep, and about as much in breadth, cut 

 from the solid stone-quarry, on each side, from which 

 most of the houses in the neighbourhood have been 

 built. It had small bridges erected over it at different 



3 ;F a places, 



