Across India; Or, Live Boys in the Far EastOptic, Oliver
General
Across India; Or, Live Boys in the Far East
Optic, Oliver
India -- Juvenile literature
"An attempt was made to check the advance of the rebels eight miles from
the city; but it was a failure, with the small available force, and two
days later the enemy attacked the British at the Residency. Three times
the brave defenders beat back the assaults of the assailants. These events
on the spot you have visited occurred between the last of May and the first
of July. It was not till the twenty-second of September that Havelock and
Outram arrived, and captured the Alum-Bagh, which we shall visit this
morning. It was a terrible summer that the beleaguered people and their
brave handful of soldiers passed; and Tennyson has commemorated Lucknow in
his immortal verse.
"But the coming of Havelock was not the end; for the rebels besieged the
place again, and it was near the middle of November before Sir Colin
Campbell arrived, with a considerable force. He captured the Alum-Bagh,
and, leaving in it a force of three thousand five hundred men, he escorted
the women and children and the civilians to Cawnpore; but returned in March
to subdue the rebels. For a week he fought them, drove them from the
intrenchments in which they had fortified themselves, and the mutiny was
ended, as I related to you on board of your ship."
The carriages were at the door as soon as the party had breakfasted. They
were driven to the cemetery, where they saw the grave of Lawrence, whose
memorial is that "He tried to do his duty." In the Alum-Bagh, which means
the Queen's Garden, was the grave of Havelock. It was here that Outram had
his camp and fortifications for the defence of Lucknow during the absence
of Campbell.
The Kaiser Bagh, or Caesar's Garden, contains some of the principal sights
of the city, which the viscount pointed out and described. It is a forest
of domes and cupolas; and the company halted at the pavilion of Lanka,
which a French writer called the least ridiculous of the structures in the
enclosure, though the professor insisted that it was quite as bad as the
worst. It had an abundance of cupolas with arabesque domes; but the edifice
looked like a shell, for the veranda, with lofty columns supporting the
roof, appeared to take up the greater portion of the enclosed space.
The most grotesque feature was at the entrance. A flight of broad stairs
led to the principal floor, over which was extended what looked like an
imitation of the Rialto bridge in Venice, with a small temple under the
middle arch and at the head of the stairs. The top of the bridge was on a
level with the flat roof, and the two side-arches started from the ground.
The building was handsome in some of its details; but the professor said it
was an "abomination," and Dr. Hawkes called it "queer." The various
edifices are now occupied by the civil and military officials.
"Where does the name of this place come from?" asked Captain Ringgold.
"Kaiser Bagh seems to be half German."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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