ABSTRACT
The mountain capital of the Indian Empire is, at the present moment, as chilly as it is fascinating. If you decide to pay a eeting visit to Simla in the tourist, or cold, season you will be amply repaid. Mr Brook at the outset of his successful saponaceous career convinced himself of the advisability of openly acknowledging there were limitations to the capabilities of his soap. “It won’t wash clothes!” has been dinned into our ears with such persistency that we turn away from the reiteration of his talkative monkey with the rmest belief in the excellence of its other recommendations. And so it is with Simla. Its historic interest commences, for you and me, in 1819, when the Assistant Political Agent for the Hill States, Lieutenant Ross, erected a thatched cottage on the mountain side. In 1828 the rst permanent residence was built by Lieutenant Kennedy, who succeeded Ross; the rst Commander-in-Chief to visit Simla was General Stapleton, Viscount Combermere, who arrived in 1825; while the rst GovernorGeneral to summer here was Lord Amherst.
