(fonte citata da J.J.lowes, The road to Xanadu, 1927 )
Ecco come descrive il paesaggio del Cashmere J.Rennel ("Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan" (1793)):
The valley or country of Cashmere, is celebrated throughout upper Asia for its romantic beauties, [and] for the fertility of its soil. ...It is...surrounded by steep mountains, that tower above the regions of snow; and...its soil is composed of the mud deposited by a capital river, which originally formed its waters into a lake...until it opened itself a passage through the mountains....The author of the Ayin Acbaree dwells with rapture on the beauties of Cashmere...Only light showers fall there:these, however, are in abundance enough to feed some thousands of cascades, which are precipitated into the valley, from every part of the stupendous and romantic bulwark that encircles it....In a word, the whole scenery is beautifully picturesque; and a part of the romantic circle of mountains, makes up a portion of every landscape. The pardonable superstition of the sequestered inhabitants, has multiplied the places of worship of Mahadeo [whose image it was that appeared in the cave], of Bishen, and of Brama. All Cashmere is holy land; and miraculous fountains abound....To sum up the account of Cashmere, in the words of [Abul Fazil], 'it is a garden in perpetual spring'.
ed ecco il paesaggio nel Kubla Khan di Coleridge:
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
Coleridge si ispira anche al paesaggio del abissino descritto da Bruce
fonti "ispiratrici" del poema di Coleridge citate nel libro di Lowes:
Purchas (Old man of the Mountain) • Purchas (Xamdu) • Bartram • Bruce • Rennel