SOME FAMOUS KABUL GARDENS 69 



gardens of Kabul ; the City Adorning Garden, 

 with a stream eight feet wide running down its 

 centre, which he and his courtiers tried to jump 

 but failed. He says on this day he walked 

 round seven of [the famous gardens of Kabul, 

 and adds, " I do not think I ever walked so far 

 before. 



" First of all I walked round the City Adorn- 

 ing, then the Moonlight Garden, then the garden 

 that Bika Begam, grandmother of my father, 

 had made, then passed through the Middle 

 Garden, then a garden that Maryam-makani, 

 my own grandmother, had prepared, then the 

 Surat-khana garden, which has a large chenar 

 tree, the like of which there is not in the other 

 gardens of Kabul. Then having seen the Char- 

 Bagh, which is the largest of the City gardens, 

 I returned to my own abode. There were 

 abundance of cherries on the trees, each of which 

 looked as it were a round ruby hanging like 

 globes on the branches. The Shahr-ara Bagh 

 was made by Shahr-Banu Begam, daughter of 

 Mirza Abu Said, who was own aunt to the late 

 king Babar. From time to time it has been 

 added to, and there is not a garden like it for 

 sweetness in Kabul. It has all sorts of fruits 



