Taj Mahal
Agra, Saturday night 7 p.m. Feb’y 19/98.
Arrived here in the hotel at 6:30, left Delhi at 9 this morning. It’s been a long ride, tho’ not wearisome. I noted the change on the face of the country here away. The climate is variable & the verdure fresh & green, plenty of water & many patches seemed to be flooded, & wherever water is to be seen then the vegetation is conspicuous, otherwise dried, sandy & scorched. Many parts ploughing was going on vigorously & teems [sic] of oxen ploughing, but they merely scratch the [2:36] surface. The man simply holds the one handle which every plough has & with the other urges them on. The soil looks rich & I expect soon produces crops. Wheat & barley is the chief growths, & these were waving gracefully today, & some ripening (on journey up to Jeypore some districts were harvesting). They grow a very long coarse grass & I saw in Delhi yesterday this is chopped up for the cattle. The natives every where are much the same. Many women with every toe ringed & anklets, barefooted, & the most of them raggedly clad. Here & there we saw the dhooly[1] carriers with women inside, Mahomedan sect, who are not to be seen, & others who don’t use the dhooly have a garment that covers all, made in the piece & 2 squares latticed for them to see through.[2] In Turkey they use a mask but as I’ve described is the fashion here. It’s a white calice or cloth. What great numbers of the nation travel, & crowded into carriages, open from end to end like our old 3rd class but seats across & iron bars divide the compartments, some for women, the seats run end on. Men & women do not travel together. It’s not a pleasant sight to see them packed in, especially the women: miserable (to me) looking creatures, & children with them. No doubt the natives are happy but they seem very brutish in their modes of living. We had 20 minutes at a station today for tiffin & I was greatly surprised to see the stock of C&B’s preparations, a very good assortment. The place was Aligarh,[3] a junction, & tonight I’ve had H&P’s Milk Biscuits, & gruyere at dinner. I noted at Delhi they serve the biscuits warm, this to crisp them as they can’t possibly retain their crispness in this climate. I see they are chiefly in No. 1 & 2 tins, but at Bombay I saw some double tins, these will come soldered.
[2:37]
Just before leaving Delhi this morning I received a letter from Albion, which pleased me greatly. I shall write him tomorrow again & hope to see him next week. Delhi looked very imposing from the railway bridge as we crossed the Jumna.[4] The fort, walls, & mosques were a picture, & I feel pleased to have seen so much of the historic place. As we neared here about 6 tonight we got a charming view of the Taj Mahal with its magnificient minarets & cupulos [sic], so I look forward to viewing its exterior & interior tomorrow. It is a very fine clear night & the Plough & Pole Star is just overhead. I do delight to look up at them & when I see them from the back of our house again I shall always remember the present.
What herds of cattle, goats, sheep, & 1 herd of boar, all being shepherded, we saw today, & every here & there squatters, mud huts & the usual contingent of domestic animals. The poor donkey is a beast of burden here & the small bullock carries big pack loads, & waggons with 3 & 4 yoked in, carrying piled up loads. Some times we see fair big bullocks but rarely & they don’t resemble ours. Bullocks too are used to draw the water for irrigation, & wells are everywhere. The natives make ridges & gutters in the fields to run the water through the growth. All labour both by men & women is done “crooking their houghs”[5] or tailor fashion, the latter especially by shop keepers & indoor workmen, blacksmiths, joiners, masons, road repairers, every one, in fact sits, & I note on roads, especially in cities, they have steam rollers just the same as ours at W. H’pool, the “Invicta”,[6] & on the railway I travelled today, their engines were by Kitson, Leeds, & Hawthorne, Newcastle. Great sight seeing the natives getting out & in at stations. It’s surprising the numbers, & what variety of dress from very, very little to the semi-European swell. One today in knickers, hose, & tawned[7] laced boots. Quite “Mi Lord”. Now I close for tonight. Good night.
[1] A litter supported by horizontal poles used, especially in the past, to transport a single ill or wounded person.
[2] A burkha.
[3] Inserted on facing page: “Aligarh, junction lunch” with arrow pointing to this section.
[4] River that runs through Delhi.
[5] Northern England dialect for “sitting down”.
[6] “The Invicta” was a steamroller produced by Aveling & Porter, the largest British manufactures of road rollers. The rollers bore the famous emblem of the rampant horse of Kent above the invicta scroll.
[7] Tanned