Day by Day at Lucknow; A Journal of the Siege of Lucknow (Paperback)

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: CHAP. II. Tuesday, 9th. The heat is very great indeed. Mrs. Inglis, the children, and Caroline, always sleep on the roof of the house, and as soon as I awake in the morning I go up there, and we have our chotahagree brought to us, as it is so much cooler than below till the sun rises. The view from the top of the Residency is truly beyond description beautiful, and in the early morning, when the sun begins to shine on the gilded mosques, and minarets, and towers, it is like a fairy scene. The whole of this vast city spread out before one, and on all sides surrounded by beautiful parks and magnificent trees, forms a panoramawhich it would be difficult to see equalled in any other part of the world. We now form a little mess of our own, Mrs. Inglis having the management of it, and we are, in consequence, much more comfortable. Mrs. Boileau, Mrs. Radcliffe, and their children, join us, so that we sit down to dinner a party of twelve. I always long for four o'clock, when the messenger arrives every day with a letter from the camp for me. I write without fail every night to William; Agaib, the bearer, coming in for my letter before I am awake in the morning. He always finds it ready on the table, and the messenger starts with it before daylight, returning with one for me at four P.m. I am not so fortunate as the other ladies, who often have a visit from their husbands; but William does not like to leave the camp even for half-an-hour, so I very seldom see him. He is now in command of the regiment, Sir Henry Lawrence having appointed Colonel Inglis, Brigadier. They are busy working at our batteries and intrenchments, and every thing is being done to strengthen our position. Sir H. Lawrence is indefatigable, and tires out all his staff, who, I believe, have to take it by turns...