VI.—INDIA
[CCIV]
Miscellaneous Verses (Calcutta: Sanders, Cones & Co., 1848).
Gunga (l. 49)=the Ganges.
[CCV]
Cornhill Magazine (September, 1868), and Verses Written in India (Kegan Paul & Co., 1889). By permission of author and publishers.
The massacre which suggested this poem took place near Mohundi, in Oudh (June, 1857). The lives of all the English prisoners would have been spared had they consented to profess Mahometanism by repeating the usual short formula.
[CCVI]–[CCVIII]
Indian Lyrics (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1884). By permission of the author.
The Author’s Note on the second is as follows:—‘Over the well rises a pedestal supporting a statue in white marble—the Angel of Pity. Below is the inscription: Sacred to the perpetual memory of a great company of Christian people, chiefly women and children, who near this spot were cruelly massacred by the followers of the rebel Nana Dhoondoo Punth of Bithoor; and cast, the dying with the dead, into the well below, on the 15th day of July 1857.’
As to the third,—
l. 7. peepuls. The peepul (or pepul) tree.
8. poinsianas. The poinciana regia, a flowering shrub introduced from Madagascar.
[CCIX]–[CCXI]
All three appeared first in The Times of India, and are included in Soldierin’ (Bombay: Indian Textile Journal Co., 1899). By permission of author and publishers.
As to the second,—l. 28. sangared. Sangars are temporary stone shelters for riflemen.
As to the third,—During the operations in Tirah (1897) the pass of Saransar (or Saran Sur) was the retreat of the hillmen known as the Lakka Khels. On November 9, a reconnaissance in force was made up the pass. The firing from the heights was deadly and continuous, and, in the evening, when our troops were retreating down the pass, a small party of the 48th (Northamptonshire Regiment) under Second Lieutenant Macintyre and Colour-Sergeant Luck, were cut off and surrounded by the enemy. It was found impossible to save them, and the following morning their dead bodies were found together.
l. 9. Talavera. The 48th are known as ‘The Talavera Boys,’ having distinguished themselves at the battle of Talavera, in the Peninsular War (July 27 and 28, 1809).
[CCXII]
Departmental Ditties (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1886. London: George Newnes, Ltd., 1899). By permission of the author and Messrs. George Newnes, Limited. ‘The Galley-Slave’ is understood to be a mystical name for the Indian Civil Servant.