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ino- two large minarets, and many wonderful inscriptions. The 

 situation, upon the river Sabermatty, is remarkably healthy, and 

 you may here provide yourself with the productions of every part 

 of the globe." 



" all now obscur'd 

 " By sordid moss, and ivy's creeping leaf; 

 " The princely p.ilace, and stupendous fane, 

 " Magnificent in ruin, nod! Where time 

 " From under shelving architraves, hath mow'd 

 " The column down, and cleft the pond'rous stone !" 



On every side, nodding minarets, decaying palaces, and 

 mouldering aqueducts, indicate the former magnificence of 

 Ahmedabad. It was then enriched by commerce, peopled by 

 industry, and adorned by wealth. Long wars, unstable and op- 

 pressive governments, and the fluctuations of human establish- 

 ments, have brought it to a state of decay from which it seems 

 doomed never to recover. 



From the appearance of these scattered rains, I have no doubt 

 that Ahmedabad once extended near thirty miles; London, with 

 its environs, is not much less, and ancient history, sacred and pro- 

 fane, astonishes us with the extent and magnificence of Nineveh 

 and Babylon. Josephus describes the former as an exceeding 

 great city of three days journey; twenty miles a day was the com- 

 mon oriental journey for foot travellers. Diodorus Siculus, and 

 other authors, make its extent more than sixty miles; it contained 

 habitations for six hundred thousand inhabitants; with the gardens 

 and pastures usual in eastern cities. 



Babylon, but little inferior to Nineveh, was styled the glory 



