Art Treasures of Kinloch Castle: WORLD TOUR No. 10. Delhi, Amritsar, Lahore, Peshawar, Khyber Pass

DELHI * AMRITSAR * LAHORE *

KHYBER PASS * PESHAWAR

GEORGE BULLOUGH – WORLD TOUR 1892-1895

Written from first-hand research and illustrated from his personal archive by George W. Randall,

Co-founder in 1996 and former Vice Chairman Kinloch Castle Friends’ Association.

(Article 10 of 28 Published in the Accrington Gazette 4 July 1896 - Time of visit January 1893.

FORT JUMROOD, PESHAWAR
(Photograph marked: Shepherd No. 1386 - George W. Randall Archive)
From Album IV * Image 30 * Edited from full size 10½ x 8½ inches.

The original photograph depicting three tribesmen against a background of Fort Jumrood

with the Khyber Pass in the distance was taken by Charles Shepherd in the 1860’s

and is numbered 1386.

Fort Jumrood is located in a rugged landscape on the approach to the Khyber Pass

eleven miles west of Peshawar along the Grand Trunk Road, one of Asia’s oldest
major trade routes. Constructed in eight stages and stretching 1,553 miles from
Kabul in Afghanistan to Chittagong in today's Bangladesh, for over
two millennia the road has linked
South Asia via India to Central Asia, the gateway to Europe.

A region with a long history of conflict, this area of the North-West Frontier Provinces
remains a much troubled part of the world.

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BULLOUGH AND MITCHELL’S ROUTE TO THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER PROVINCES OF INDIA IN 1893 - AGRA, DELHI, AMRITSAR, LAHORE, RAWALPINDI, PESHAWAR, FORT JUMROOD / KHYBER PASS.

(Map of India Railways - Imperial Gazetteer Atlas of India - Oxford University Press * Environment & Portal Society)

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George Bullough (right) and his companion, Robert Mitchell, depart Agra by train and proceed to Delhi before travelling on to Amritsar, Lahore,
Peshawar and the North-West Frontier Provinces via Rawalpindi.

Here they are escorted by mounted cavalry into the Khyber Pass and Fort Ali Musjid before returning to Peshawar.

Twenty photograph albums in the library at Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland,

record the places they visited one hundred and twenty-five years ago.
A selection have been used to best illustrate Mr. Mitchell's recollections.

The late 1800's was a world at the height of the Victorian Era, a very different world,

a world now beyond living memory.

In this article, number 10 of 28, published in the Accrington Gazette on 4 July 1896,
Robert Mitchell recounts their visits in January 1893
to cities, sites and areas the historical and modern day ramifications of which
continue to profoundly affect and influence life and events in the twenty-first century.

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KASHMIR GATE, DELHI

From Album IV * Image 3 * Edited from full size 9½ x 7½ inches.

(George W. Randall Archive)

The Kashmir (also Kashmere, Kashmiri) Gate was built during

the thirty year reign of Emperor Shah Jehan, 1628-1658.

One of the historic walled city’s original fourteen gateways

it is so named because the road leads due north to Kashmir.

The storming of Delhi’s Kashmir Gate took place during the

1857 Indian Uprising against the high-handed rule of the

British East India Company* operating

as a sovereign power responsible to the British Crown.

Just after sunrise on the 14^th September 1857 the gate was

stormed by a nine hundred strong force under the command of

Colonel George Campbell of Her Majesty's 52^nd Regiment

of Light Infantry, comprising: two hundred men of his

own Regiment, 250 Kumaon Battalion Gurkha Rifles and

500 1^st Punjab Infantry (Coke’s Rifles).

Covered by fire of Her Majesty’s 60^th Rifles and “under close

and destructive heavy enemy fire,” twenty-nine year old

Lieutenant Duncan Charles Home and twenty-six year old

Lieutenant Philip Salkeld of the First Bengal Engineers,

led a suicidal mission comprising a small group of British and

Indian sappers to place gunpowder charges against the gate.

The subsequent explosion sufficiently breached the gate to allow

Campbell’s 3^rd Column, despite strenuous opposition

from the enemy's infantry and heavy artillery,

to charge through and enter the city.

Born on 10 June 1828 at Madhya Pradesh, Central India,

Lt. Home survived the assault unscathed only to die “by the

accidental explosion of a mine” less than three weeks later

on 1^st October at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, North India.*

(* from Find A Grave Memorial)

Lt. Salkeld was born at Fontmell Magna, Dorset, England, in 1830,

the seventh child of the Reverend Robert and Elizabeth Salkeld.

He joined the Bengal Army in June1848.

Severely wounded in the arm and leg he was stretchered to a military

hospital where he died on 10 October and interred on the Delhi Ridge.

He is remembered by a memorial cross

in St. Andrew’s churchyard, Fontmell Magna.

Both were awarded the Victoria Cross,
the United Kingdom’s highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy.

* The British East India Company was incorporated by royal charter

granted by Queen Elizabeth the First on 31 December 1600.

Headquartered in London it was dissolved on 1 June 1874

when its operations were transferred to the British Crown.

On 1 January 1877 Queen Victoria was proclaimed

Empress of India.

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LAHORE GATE, DELHI

From Album IV * Image 2 * Edited from full size 9½ x 7½ inches.

(George W. Randall Archive)

The Lahore Gate is the principal entrance to the Red Fort, commissioned by
Emperor Shah Jahan in 1639 when he decided to move his capital city
from Agra to Delhi. The three storied gateway is flanked by semi-octagonal
towers each crowned by open octagonal pavillions.
Completed in 1648, the Red Fort was the residence of Moghul dynasty
emperors for two hundred years until 1857.
Deriving its name from its red sandstone walls, the octagonal fort covers
almost 255 acres and is enclosed by a wall, punctuated by bastions and turrets,
varying in height between 59 and 108 depending on the defensive
nature of the terrain upon which it is built.
The Fort's interiors were finely decorated in marble.
In 1739 Emperor Nader Shah of Persia (modern day Iran) invaded India;
attacked, easily captured and plundered the Fort of its contents including
the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Nor diamond. (See Note 2.)
Eight years later Nader Shah was assassinated. In 1813, after passing
through several hands the diamond was given to Ranjit Singh,
founder of the Sikh Empire, for his help in placing Shah Shuja
back on the throne of Afghanistan.
Following the conquest by British forces of the Punjab in 1849,
Sikh Empire property (which included the diamond) was confiscated.
Transferred to the East India Company Treasury in Lahore,
the diamond was presented to Queen Victoria in 1850 and
exhibited at the Great Exhibition the following year.
Today, as part of the British Crown Jewels,
it is on public display at the Tower of London.
The Red Fort was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2007.

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KUTUB MINAR, DELHI. (Bourne 1371)

From Album IV * Image 20 * Size 9½ x 7½ inches.

(George W. Randall Archive)

Qutbuddin Aibak (1150-1210), founder of the Mamluk dynasty and first

sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, commissioned and laid the foundation stone of

this 240 foot high, ultimately five storey minaret in 1199 to celebrate the

victory of Mohammed Ghori over the Rajput king, Prithviraj Chauhan,

seven years earlier. His son-in-law, Shams ud-Din-Aibak Iltutmish,

ruler from 1211-1236, completed three more storeys.

In 1368 (1369 also recorded) lightening completely destroyed the fourth storey.

Firuz Shah Tughluq, 19^th emperor of Delhi carried out repairs,

replaced the fourth story and added a fifth. The minaret has five projecting balconies

supported on ornamental corbels.

The first three stories are of red sandstone, the later additions a combination

of sandstone and white marble.

The exterior is covered with the most intricate inscriptions.

The Qutab Minar is the tallest such minaret in the world.

See Note 5.

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THE PALACE. DELHI. INTERIOR OF DEWAN-I-MASS. 1350
(Bourne 1350 - lower left)

From Album IV * Image 5 * Size 12 x 9½ inches.

(George W. Randall Archive)

The Palace of Dewan-i-Mass or Hall of Audience was where
Emperor Shah Jahan and his successors received their subjects
and heard their grievances.

Built of pure white marble, the 100 by 60 foot hall is divided
into twenty-seven bays by engrailed arched columns
decorated with gold and coloured inlay.

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PUBLIC AUDIENCE HALL - BASE OF THE PEACOCK THRONE

From Album IV * Image 6 * Size 9 x 7 inches.

(George W. Randall Archive)

In the centre of the Audience Hall stands a marble platform
on which the Peacock Throne was placed.
Over the arches of the hall is an inscription in Persian, saying,

If there be paradise on earth
It is this - It is this - It is this !

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GOLDEN TEMPLE, UMRITSAR. 407

From Album IV * Image 27 * Edited from full size 9½ x 7½ inches.

(George W. Randall Archive)

The first Sri Harmandir Sahib - the abode of God - better known as the Golden Temple,
situated in the middle of the man-made Pool of Immortality, was completed in 1577
under Sri Guru Ram Das Ji, (1534-1581), the fourth of the ten Gurus of Sikhism
and founder of the Holy City of Amritsar.
The temple was repeatedly destroyed by Muslim armies and rebuilt.
In 1757 and again in 1762 it was destroyed again, this time by Ahmad Shah Abdali,
founder of the Durrani Empire and credited as the founder of modern day Afghanistan,
and the pool filled with rubbish.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh, 1780-1839, as founder and leader of the Sikh Empire,
rebuilt the temple utilising marble and copper in 1809 and overlaid the
sanctum with gold leaf in 1830. The Golden Temple as it has become known,
is spiritually the most significant shrine in Sikhism.