| Description | by William, Viscount Folkestone, later 5th Earl of Radnor (1841-1900) on his trip to India; letters are to his mother & father, commencing from 'somewhere off Cape St Vincent' via Malta, Alexandria, boat to Cairo, rail to Red Sea (this was six years before completion of Suez Canal), Bombay, Ceylon, Calcutta, Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Agra, Delhi, Kashmir, Khyber Pass, Meerut and Lucknow; he was accompanied for most of the time by his friend, Penrose FitzGerald, and hunting was their main occupation; they spent some time staying with the 55th Regiment, with which regiment William's brother, Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie (1842-1909) was serving, and travel around India was much eased by friendship with the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Hugh Rose, a letter from whom is included in the correspondence; rumours about which he writes include the possibility of a second mutiny, Russia invading India and war having been declared against America; also mentioned is a brush with smallpox, pleas for funds, war with Bhutan, his future brother-in-law, Henry Chaplin and Mrs Knottley, the cook at Longford Castle
the sketchbook comprises mainly of pictures of daily and camp life of this trip, but also includes watercolours of the battlefield sites at Delhi Ridge as well as those of the Alma, Inkerman and Balaclava in the Crimea, drawn on a previous journey |