The visitor to Delhi will be repaid if he can devote a week to the City and the neighbourhood. It is impossible here to give any adequate account of the objects of historic and architectural interest. No visitor should be without Mr H. C. Fanshawe's Delhi Past and Present, a work of great interest. The value of the text is enhanced by good maps and excellent illustrations. In the Civil Station, which lies to the north of the City and east of the Ridge, is Ludlow Castle, from the roof of which General Wilson and his Staff watched the assault on 14th September, 1857, when Delhi was retaken. Ludlow Castle is now the Delhi Club. Between it and the northern rampart of the City, a defence against the Mahrattas built by British officers fifty years earlier, grim fighting took place on that historic day when the little British and Indian force, till then rather besieged than besiegers, was at last strong enough to attack. Here are the sites of the four batteries which breached that rampart, and here is the grave of John Nicholson and the statue recently erected in his honour (page [190]). The Ridge to which the little army had clung obstinately from May to September in scorching heat and drenching rain, undismayed by repeated assaults and the ravages of cholera, starts about half-a-mile to the west of the Morí bastion, at the north-west corner of the city wall, and runs north by east to Wazírábád on an old bed of the Jamna. Ascending to the Flagstaff Tower one looks down to-day on the Circuit House and the site of the principal camps at the great darbár of 1911. Here was the old Cantonment and its parade ground, on which the main encampment of the British force stood in 1857. The position was strong, being defended by the ridge on the east and the Najafgarh Canal on the west. It is open to the south, where are the Savzí Mandí (Vegetable Market), now the site of factories, and the Roshanára Gardens. It was on this side that the mutineers made their most dangerous attacks. The road along the Ridge from the Flagstaff Tower passes the Chauburjí Mosque and Hindu Rao's house, which was the principal target of the City batteries and was gallantly held by Major Reid with his Sirmur Gurkhas, the Guides, and the 60th Rifles. Beyond Hindu Rao's house is one of the stone pillars of Aşoka, which Firoz Sháh Tughlak transported to Delhi. Still further south is the Mutiny Memorial. As one reads the tale of the losses of the different regiments one realizes in some measure the horrors and the heroism of which the Ridge was witness.
Fig. 143. Delhi Mutiny Monument.
'In memory of the officers and soldiers, British and native, of the Delhi Field Force who were killed in action or died of wounds or disease between the 30th May and 20th September 1857.'
'This monument has been erected by the comrades who lament their loss and by the Govmt: they served so well.'
Fig. 144. Kashmír Gate.
The City.—When visiting the City from the Civil Lines it is well to follow the road, which passing the Kudsia Gardens leads straight to the Kashmír Gate, one of two places in India (the Lucknow Residency is the other) which must stir with grateful pride the heart of the most phlegmatic of Englishmen. The road from the Gate to the Fort and the Jama Masjid is rich in memories of the Mutiny. It has on its left S. James' Church, with memorial tablets within and outside the shot-riddled globe which once surmounted its dome. Further on are the obelisk to the telegraph officers who stuck to their posts on the fatal 11th of May, and on a gateway of the Old Magazine a record of the heroism of the nine devoted men, who blew it up, losing five of their number in the explosion. Passing under the railway bridge one comes out on the open space in front of Sháhjahán's palace fort, which was finished about 1648 A.D. To the beautiful buildings erected by his father Aurangzeb added the little Motí Masjid or Pearl Mosque. But he never lived at Delhi after 1682. The palace is therefore associated with the tragedies and squalor of the decline and fall of the Moghal Empire rather than with its glories. In 1739 it was robbed of the Kohinur and the Peacock throne by Nádir Shah, in 1788 it saw the descendants of Akbar tortured and the aged Emperor blinded by the hateful Ghulám Kádir, and on 16th May, 1857 the mutineers massacred fifty Christians captive within its walls. When viewing the public and private halls of audience, known as the Diwán i 'Ám and the Diwán i Kháss, it is however natural to think rather of scenes of splendour such as Bernier described when Aurangzeb sat in royal apparel on the Peacock throne with a king's ransom in the aigrette of his turban and the rope of pearls which hung from his neck. On such an occasion, the pillars of the Diwán i 'Ám were hung with gold brocades and the floors covered with rich silken carpets. Half the court outside was occupied by a magnificent tent and the arcade galleries surrounding it were decked with brocades and covered with costly carpets. The marble Diwán i Kháss with its lovely pillars decorated with gold and precious stones is surely the most splendid withdrawing room that a monarch ever possessed. There is nothing in the Moorish palace at Granada which can for a moment be compared with these two halls. For a description of them and of the other buildings in the Fort the reader must refer to Mr Fanshawe's book. In the Viceroyalty of Lord Curzon and since much has been done to restore their surroundings to some semblance of their former state. But the heavy British barracks occupied by the little garrison are very incongruous with the remains of Moghal grandeur. Leaving the Fort by the Southern or Delhi Gate and turning to the right one is faced by the Jama Masjid, another monument of the taste of Sháhjahán. The gateway and the lofty ascent into this House of God are very fine. The mosque in the regular beauty and grandeur of its lines, appealing to the sublimity rather than to the mystery of religion, is a fitting symbol of the faith for whose service it was raised. South of the Jama Masjid in a part of the city once included in Firozábád stands the Kalán or Kála Masjid with low cupolas and heavy square black pillars, a striking example of the sombre architecture of the Tughlak period. A narrow street called the Daríba leads from the Jama Masjid to the wide Chándní (Silver) Chauk. The Daríba was formerly closed by the Khúní Darwáza or Gate of Blood, so called because here occurred that terrible massacre of the citizens of Delhi which Nádir Shah witnessed from the neighbouring Golden Mosque. Besides its width there is nothing remarkable about the Chándní Chauk. But the visitor in quest of silver work, jewellery, or embroidery will find there many shopkeepers ready to cater for his wants. It was while passing down the Chándní Chauk in an elephant procession on 23rd December, 1912, that Lord Hardinge was wounded by a bomb thrown from one of the houses. From the Chauk one may pass through the Queen's Gardens and Road to the opening in the wall where the Kábul Gate once stood and so leave the City. A tablet in the vicinity marks the spot where John Nicholson fell.