44 A Sportswoman in India 



On February i7th M. and I left Mian Mir and 

 went off to Peshawur, where we stayed with my 

 sister and her husband, W. R. Merk, C.S.I., who was 

 then Acting-Commissioner vice Sir Richard Udny. 

 From the flat roof of the Commissioner's bungalow, 

 the best bungalow in Peshawur, we had a fine view 

 of the whole country round, and at last saw in all 

 its reality the far-famed frontier, embodiment of a 

 word which had been printed as a newspaper heading 

 in England larger than any other word for months 

 past. The cantonments lay in front of us to 

 the west ; the walled native city was behind us ; 

 the racecourse on our right ; while all round Peshawur 

 stretched a well-cultivated plain almost entirely bordered 

 by hills. Those lying on our right, particularly, and 

 those facing us, looked beautiful enough in the bright 

 sun, all the topmost peaks white with snow ; but as 

 we rode or drove nearer them the grey crags and 

 the dark defiles become defined, and mountain after 

 mountain assumes an impenetrable and a dreary aspect. 



No one could live in Peshawur and be unconscious 

 of that Debatable Land only thirteen or fourteen miles 

 distant, nor help peopling with Afridis, Yusufzais, and 

 other hill tribes, those weird heights forming their 

 fastnesses which had been the scene of so many 

 struggles with the British. One little break in the 

 chain, the entrance to the Khyber, interested us more 

 than any other spot. 



The Peshawur Vale is so much enclosed by moun- 

 tains that it is hardly odd that it should develop into 



