Home › Contents › Cities of India
Cities of India
HE poet Moore, in rets of Lahore, made the city altogether his romance of like a place of enchantment." "Lalla Rookh," Not to be forgotten among the attracrepresents his tions of Lahore are the Gardens of Shah heroine and her at- Jehan, the Shalimar, or "House of Joy." tendants as reach- The poet represents the bridal festivities ing, in due course, of Lalla Rookh and the disguised mon- "the splendid city arch of Bokhara as being celebrated in the of Lahore, whose imperial palace here. On the occasion of mausoleums and the Prince of Wales' visit to Lahore, a shrines, magnifi- splendid fête was given in these gardens, cent and numerous, where Death ap- when the trees sparkled with Chinese peared to share equal honors with lanterns, and the fountains flung into the Heaven," had a powerful influence on her imagination. "The rajahs and omras in her train, who had kept at a certain distance during the journey, and never enair their illuminated columns. From Lahore, we may make an excursion to Jummoo, the capital of "flowery Kashmir." camped nearer the princess than was Alighting at Wazirabad, we transfer strictly necessary for her safeguard, here ourselves to a dâk garry, a kind of box on rode in splendid cavalcade through the four wheels, supplied with a comfortable city, and distributed the most costly pres- elastic bed, and drawn by two countryents to the crowd. Engines were worked bred horses, in charge of three men. in all the squares, which cast forth Along a half-formed road, where boggy showers of confectionery among the peo- places are simply covered with reeds and ple; while the artisans, in chariots adorned straw-through miles of boulders and with tinsel and flying streamers, exhibited shattered stones-down deep ravines echobadges of their respective trades through ing with the clash and clang of tumultuous streets brilliant with life and pageantry. waters-we make our way, at the rate of six The palaces, and domes, and gilded mina-miles an hour. The journey is not want-
