ABSTRACT
Simla was British through and through and the creation of the Raj in its nineteenth century heyday. The proverbial Simla life of fetes and gymkhanas, dances, flirtations and performances by the Amateur Dramatic Club, was already in full swing. Curzon's feelings for Simla were improved neither by an earthquake in 1905 which wrecked Lady Curzon's bedroom and sitting room; nor by an equestrian farce that could easily have ended in tragedy at the bottom of a precipice. The Simla climate was, in itself, far from ideal. When the season opened, in April, it could be unpleasantly cold, with hail and sand storms. Simla, so uncompromisingly British, was favoured by an increasing number of rich and prominent Indians; apart from those who were merely because they were in the Government. Simla society had grown to twice what it was in the Lyttons' time; so that Lady Minto found Viceregal Lodge too small.
