Description
THE sketches which are here collected and reprinted were some of the records of many journeys at the time the writer's avocations led him to travel almost yearly across cites. They were labors of love, written during the intervals of graver occupations, and the author trusts that the work may reflect some of his own keen enjoyment in the cities of India, and some of their serene charm and Oriental enchantment. The papers headed Bombay, Delhi, and Calcutta appeared in the Pall Mall Magazine, and the permission to reprint and use the illustrations is hereby gratefully acknowledged. It remains to thank those from whom the writer has had the privilege of receiving advice, and who have assisted him in the dull task of proof reading and correction. The spelling of Indian words is bound to cause great difficulty ; but in a book of this kind it would be out of place to follow always too closely the somewhat pedantic official system of transliteration, which has proved a stumbling-block to ordinary English people, and a great non-conductor of interest.