126 GARDENS OF THE PLAINS— LAHORE 



unkind fate which kept the lovers apart nearly- 

 half their lives. One would hesitate to repeat 

 it, but that no account of Indian gardens or 

 garden - craft would be complete without some 

 further mention of the Empress who shares with 

 Babar the credit of having designed and inspired 

 so many lovely Mughal pleasure-grounds. 



It was at Akbar's City of Victory, during one 

 of those f^tes — a Paradise Bazaar — when the 

 strict Court relaxed its regulations, that the 

 young Prince Sehm, as he was then called, first 

 saw the daughter of his father's Persian minister. 

 He was quite a boy, playing with some favourite 

 pigeons, when he came across the little Mihr-an- 

 Nissa (Queen of Women), sitting forlorn on the 

 edge of a garden fountain, deserted doubtless 

 in the excitement of the mock fair where all 

 the prettiest of the nobles' wives and daughters 

 were acting as traders, bargaining with the 

 Emperor and the Begams in the most approved 

 bazaar style. Azizam Bibi, the little girl's mother, 

 one may be sure was chief among them all, 

 selling for its weight in gold the attar of rose 

 which she is said to have invented. 



So the children were forgotten. And the boy, 

 growing tired of his pigeons, gave them to the 



