I earnestly exhort you, therefore, to persevere in the course on which you have entered; and I promise you while you continue in it the sympathy and support of the British Government.
At Umballa Lord Elgin left the camp with which he had been travelling, and struck up, nearly due northwards, into the Hills. The 1st of April found him at Kussowlie, from which point he visited two places which greatly interested him—the 'Lawrence Asylum' and the Military Sanitarium at Dugshai.
[Sidenote: Lawrence Asylum.]
The 'Lawrence Asylum' (he wrote) is an institution originally established and endowed by the late Sir Henry Lawrence, but now transferred to Government, and maintained on an enlarged scale. It receives and educates the children of European soldiers, both male and female; and, considering what they are exposed to while they remain with the regiments, or are left as orphans, it is an immense boon to them, physically and morally. I found about 600 children at the institution; and, so far as I could judge on a transient inspection, the condition of things generally seemed satisfactory. Looking to the returns, however, it did not appear that the sanitary state of the school was quite as good as it might be, considering the fineness of the climate; and I desired that some inquiries might be made on this head. It is probable that the children may in many cases bring bad constitutions with them; but it also appeared that the dormitories were somewhat crowded, and that the uneven character of the surface rendered it difficult to provide playgrounds—both of which circumstances may be unfavourable to the health of the children.
[Sidenote: Dugshai station.]
The Military Station of Dugshai is situated on the pinnacle of a mountain about 7,000 feet high. It looks bare and bleak, from the total absence of trees; but the 42nd Regiment, now quartered there, had all the appearance of health, and there were few men in the hospital. The bad cases were those of men who had contracted at Agra, when they were stationed in the plains, dysentery and fever of a serious type, which were constantly recurring. The troops quartered on these hills not only enjoy a congenial climate, but are also kept out of the way of much mischief which they encounter on the lowlands. On the other hand, it appears that they suffer a little from want of occupation. It is curious to hear that hunting for butterflies is a favourite pastime of the British soldier at Dugshai. The colonel, however, informed me that the library and reading-room were much frequented by the men; he observed also that many of the patches of flat ground which lie scattered among the precipitous crags on which the station is perched, had been converted by them into gardens.
[Sidenote: Simla.]
On the 4th of April,—Easter Eve—he reached Simla, which was to be his home for the next five months. His impressions of this 'paradise of Anglo- Indians' were given shortly afterwards in the following words:—
The houses which form the settlement are situated on three or four heights, which are the crest of a mountain that lies among other mountains of about the same elevation, scattered around it in groups and rows, intersected by valleys, and closed in on the north by a range covered with everlasting snow, and glittering from morning to evening in the rays of a tropical sun. The hills on which Simla stands are well clothed by trees, not of great stature generally, though of much beauty; ilexes of a peculiar kind, deodars, and rhododendrons being conspicuous among them; but there is little wood on the surrounding mountains. No doubt the special charms of Simla are enhanced by this contrast: and perhaps also by the character of the scenery which the traveller meets on the whole route from Calcutta.
Nothing can he well imagined more uninteresting. On leaving Lower Bengal, even the luxuriant tropical vegetation which distinguishes that part of India disappears,—and the rest of the journey is performed through a country perfectly flat, and apparently barren; for notwithstanding occasional groups of trees, and good crops here and there, the wide-spreading dusty plains give but faint indications of the fertility which cultivation and irrigation can no doubt evolve from them. Even when the mountains are approached, and the ascent commences, the same character of barrenness attaches to the scene, for their sides are almost bare of trees, and there is little to relieve them, except the patches of vegetation which lie snugly in the valleys, or creep in terraces up the slopes.