FEROZ SHAH'S GARDENS 5 



built round Delhi — or rather round Ferozabad, 

 as the Delhi of his day was named. Of all the 

 hundred gardens, to-day not one is left. All 

 their fountains, tanks, and terraces are gone, 

 merged into the sandy plains that sweep up 

 to the ruined walls of the city the gardens 

 once surrounded ; but throughout Northern 

 India there remain many old canals dating from 

 the time of Feroz Tughluk. Nearly two centuries 

 later, in the year 1526, Mahomet Babar made 

 his final conquest of Northern India, and fixing 

 on Agra as his capital, commenced among other 

 buildings the construction of the Ram Bagh on 

 the banks of the Jumna, the earliest Mughal 

 garden, as far as I know, still existing in India. 



In Persia and Turkestan the art of building 

 irrigated gardens was at that time very fully 

 developed, and had behind it an ancient history 

 and long unbroken traditions. 



The writings of the early Persian poets, so 

 full of evident delight in the flowers and gardens 

 of their day, are well known in Europe : the 

 Gulistans — ^rose gardens — of Sadi bloomed long 

 ago — ^almost two hundred years before Chaucer's 

 " sweitie roses rede " scented the summer air. 

 " The Rose Garden " is the actual title of the 



