CHAPTER IX. 

 THE STATION 



THE station is one of the oldest in Upper India. 

 It dates indeed from the time of Warren Hastings. 

 It was at first, and for long after, a mere military out- 

 post, advanced a hundred miles and more beyond our 

 then frontier. The houses, such at least as remain of 

 that period, were those of the officers. They are all 

 bungalows, not large, and surrounded by only very 

 moderate-sized compounds. Perhaps their occupants, 

 so far away removed from their fellow-countrymen, 

 found it pleasant to dwell near together. 



I often try and picture the kind of life they led, 

 very tranquil, very calm, no doubt, but terribly mono- 

 tonous — few letters, fewer papers, rarely a traveller — 

 but a life nevertheless in after days perhaps not 

 unpleasant to look back to ; and then what a dim, 

 far-away country England must have appeared to 

 them ! 



At the commencement of the present century these 

 provinces passed under our English rule ; and the 

 station, as I have already mentioned, to some slight 

 extent became a seat of government. It was made 

 the headquarters of several of the chief civil depart- 



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