Read "The Vale of Kashmir" by Esther Singleton online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
(_INDIA_) / ANDREW WILSON
Almost every one longs, and many hope, to see the beautiful Vale of / Kashmir. Probably no region of the earth is so well known to the eye of / imagination, or so readily suggests the idea of a terrestrial Paradise. / So far from having been disappointed with the reality, or having / experienced any cause for wishing that I had left Kashmir unvisited, I / can most sincerely say that the beautiful reality excels the somewhat / vague poetic vision which has been associated with the name. But / Kashmir is rather a difficult country to get at, especially when you / come down upon it from behind by way of Zanskar and Súrú. According to / tradition, it was formerly the Garden of Eden; and one is very well / disposed to accept that theory when trying to get into it from the / north or northwest.