Sunday 28th April - Delhi

We picked up Pop OK last night.  His flight was about 1/2 hr late, but we were also late reaching the airport.

I am writing this at 7:30 am on Monday morning sitting on a train in wet trousers, after having got up at 4:30! But more of that later.

Yesterday we spent the day in Delhi. A good day in which we got most things done which we wanted to.

We had breakfast at about 8:00; a reasonable bacon, scrambled egg, tomatoes etc. was on offer, along with toast from bread fairly similar to ours which was a welcome change from Pakistan.

Raj - our guide - picked us up at 9 and we set off for ‘The Ridge’, where the British forces had their camp in 1857 during the mutiny.  It is still open ground, as it is now a park which was good to see. However our guide told us that most of the landmarks had gone, particularly the Flagstaff Tower.  We did visit a memorial, erected soon after the siege to commemorate those who died.

It is a red sandstone Gothic tower, around which are several marble plaques, on which are inscribed details of the casualties suffered by the British and Native troops.  There are also plaques to individuals who died including John Nicholson and a Lumsden who may or may not be the Lumsden who formed the guides (I’ll check later).

There was a fine view from the monument across to Delhi, but due to the large numbers of trees and houses it was impossible to get a good feeling for how it looked 145 years ago.  The monument has also been updated to include those who died in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971.

We next went down into the old town and visited the Jamma Masjid, India’s largest mosque.  It is surprising that there are 150 million Muslims in India, that is more than live in Pakistan.

The mosque contains what are said to be a lock of the Prophet’s hair, his footprints, and 2 copies of the original Koran.  Our guide was dubious about this.  The building was built by Shah Jehan and is made of red sandstone, and white and black marble. The resident Imam is the 13th descendent of the first one. The post always remaining in the same family.

We then went to St. Peter’s Church down by the Kashmir Gate.  A fine Palladian building built in 1822, in a central style, with a dome and four columned porticos on each wing. The graveyard was in a bit of a state, with only a few monuments remaining. There is one there to those who lost their lives in Delhi during the mutiny. Another monument is that of Frasier, the first ever agent in Delhi.

The church was built by James Skinner who raised Skinner's Horse.  The church still has an association with that Regiment, which exists still as part of the Indian Army. The graveyard also contains a Skinner family plot secured behind locked iron railings.  The latest to be interred there was in 1988, she died in London and desired her ashes to be interred here.

The interior of the church is clean and very well maintained.  Numerous monuments, including those of many recognisable names from accounts of the mutiny, such as Elizabeth Wagentrieber, daughter of Skinner who managed to escape from Delhi with her husband. There is also the tomb of Skinner himself.  The windows at the alter end of the church contain some fine stained glass.

The whole has recently been renovated with donations from amongst others HM Queen Elizabeth II.

After the church we went for lunch. The restaurant was an ‘old’ (1950s) one near the government buildings.  The Pindi served Indian and Chinese food.  I had my ‘usual’: Karahi chicken with sag, rice and garlic nan.  And very good it was.

After lunch we went up and had a look at Lutyen’s government buildings.  They were all very impressive.

We then went to Humayun’s tomb, again a magnificent piece of early Mughal architecture, where the emperor and about 150 of his family are buried.

We tried to get to the Red Fort, but it was closed so we went to the Kashmir Gate.  This is where the British survivors of the initial massacre at the start of the mutiny gathered before finally fleeing, and also where Delhi was stormed at the end.

The gate was in middle of being renovated and looked like a building site. There is not much left.  The gate is in the middle, with building left and right. That on the left is single storey to front and 2 stories behind. On the right was a range of single story buildings. Through the gate (which had not gates), on the central pillar dividing the two arches was a plaque commemorating those who performed the final assault. It was impossible to identify the main guard or the locations of the batteries, to to see the ridge. The ditch into which the survivors scrambled as they fled their mutinying guard was also gone. I shall have to look at the photos and find a plan of the gate to determine the exact locations of everything, since the surroundings have changed so much.

This visit finished our sightseeing and we returned to the hotel where we had tea in the garden room.

That evening we got a taxi into ‘town’ and went to The Imperial Hotel.   A splendid looking place and very nice inside. We went to the bar and had 2 G&Ts each, which we were shocked to find cost us around £50! We went to the 1911 restaurant and had dinner which surprisingly cost us less than the drinks.