GARDENS OF SHALI.MAK.

fine structures., standing within large enclosures and
encompassed by lofty walls, within which are baths,
menageries, stables, and various other subsidiary
buildings. In this quarter of the city are several
handsome mosques, and here is the celebrated Musjid,
where, in 1739, the sanguinary Persian conqueror
Nadir Shah sat and witnessed the massacre of the
unfortunate inhabitants.

The gardens of Shalimar, made when the modern
city was built, are said to have cost upwards of a
hundred lacs of rupees, or above a million sterling.
They were originally surrounded by a high brick
wall, and occupied a space above a mile in circum-
ference. They are now so completely in ruins that
scarcely a vestige of their former magnificence remains.
From the southern wrall of these gardens, as far as
the eye can reach, the champaign presents nothing
but one vast surface covered with splendid ruins, the
remnants of the former Indraprastha.* The whole plain
is crowded with these magnificent remains. Mosques,
mausoleums, palaces, observatories, pavilions, colleges,
baths, seraglios, lie heaped in mighty confusion,
showing, in the lapsing glories of their decay, what
must have been the grandeur of that city which they
contributed to adorn during the period of its strength
and of its pride. Even Upper Egypt, so rich in
memorials of former greatness, can exhibit nothing
superior to the monumental relics that lie scatter-
ed over the plains on which ancient Delhi originally
stood. But though this once magnificent capital
has passed away and is now little more than a me-

* Indraprastha is the Sanscrit name of old Delhi.