Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/225

 CHAPTER LI.

RUINS OF DELHI.

"VEDI NAPOLI, E POI MORI."

"I'll thank you for your name, Sir."

Happiness of being alive—March from Meerut to Delhi—Method of Stealing a Camel—Delhi—The Church—Monument erected to Wm. Frazer, Esq., B.C.S.—The Canal of Paradise—Mimic Warfare—Tomb of Humaioon—Fort of Feroze Shāh—Masjid of Zeenut al Nissa—Masjid of Roshun-ool-Dowla—Datisca Cannabina—Mimosa Scandens—Washing by Steam—The Kutub Minār—Ancient Colonnades—Kutub kā Lāt—Unfinished Minār.

1838, Feb.—With the Neapolitan saying, "Vedi Napoli, e poi mori," I beg leave to differ entirely, and would rather offer this advice,—"See the Tājmahal, and then—see the Ruins of Delhi." How much there is to delight the eye in this bright, this beautiful world! Roaming about with a good tent and a good Arab, one might be happy for ever in India: a man might possibly enjoy this sort of life more than a woman; he has his dog, his gun, and his beaters, with an open country to shoot over, and is not annoyed with—"I'll thank you for your name, Sir." I have a pencil instead of a gun, and believe it affords me satisfaction equal, if not greater than the sportsman derives from his Manton.