Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. DELHI. It was past midnight when the carriage of the Commissioner at Delhi, Mr. M'Neile, conveyed us to his residence at " Ludlow Castle." Mr. M'Neile is the son of one widely known and respected as—I must use the old familiar name—" Hugh M'Neile, of Liverpool." And here I must take leave to express the hope that the number of English who will soon visit India, and the certainty that the Suez Canal will indefinitely increase the number, will induce enterprising persons to open comfortable hotels in all the great cities. The more one feels the generous hospitality shown, as in our case, by fellow-countrymen, the more one realizes the pain and awkwardness of being entertained "like a prince" by gentlemen on whom one has no claim whatever. Meals at all hours; carriages at all hours; ladies, old and young, wearying themselves to add to one's comfort; dinnerparties to meet you, etc., etc.—" It is really too bad !" as the phrase is. Yet at present this cannot be helped. I was only in two hotels in India, one at Beypore and the other at Lucknow; and wretched enough cara- (136) DELHL 137 vanserais I found them. We were therefore very thankful, in spite of the feeling that we were intruders, to find ourselves in such highly-civilized and delightful quarters as those of Mr. M'Neile. This late capital of "the Great Mogul," once so famous and romantic in all its associations, has since the mutiny sunk down into the position of a mere provincial city. Its architectural remains are the only things of present interest. But these will become more and more interesting to European travelers. Old Delhi—called by the natives Shahjehanabad— was built by Shahjehan in 1631. There were former cities of the same name, which were permitted to die out or were destroyed with the...