Author: Ganesh Saili
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Ganesh Saili
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 193
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788129112873
Description
The Doon Valley Across the Years takes the reader through fact and fiction, history and legends, myths and folklore of the Doon as it was over the last two centuries and more.
Wedged on four sides by the Shivaliks and Himalayan ranges, the rivers Yamuna and Ganga, is the oasis of the Doon through which innumerable explorers, adventurers and setters have come and gone.
Leaving behind their impressions in words. Most of the early British travellers in the area were invariably government officials, intrepid soldiers or freebooters wandering through the verdant valley: like the Anglo-India family of the Hearseys, who were diddled of their rightful title by the not-so-honourable John Company. F. Bodycot and H.C. Williams editors of the Mussoorie Times, and G.R.C. Williams, whose Memoir of the Doon Stands like a bookmark amongst literature on Dehra Dun.
Of course, foremost among the early administrators was Capt. Frederick Young, who came out an ensign, all of fifteen years old, retiring to Ireland forty-four years later, as a ‘General’. Amongst his many laurels he is today remembered for pioneering the hill-stations of Landour and Mussoorie.
Then there was John Lang, the Australian-born maverick who was no soldier-at-arms. He managed in a life of just forty-seven years, to carve out the time to be a novelist, a Journalist and a bar-at-law, representing the Rani of Jhansi in her succession litigation with the East India Company.
To publish his garrulous essays, the chose Charles Dickens’ Magazine Household Words. The anthology, with its many more interesting tidbits, is sure to take you down the ages of the Doon valley. In spite of the changes that dot the valley, its very essence remains as fragrant as ever.
Contents
1. The Hearseys – Five Generations of an Anglo-Indian Family – Colonel Hugh Pearse D.S.O.
2. A Mussoorie Miscellany – The Rambler (H.C. Williams)
3. Valley of the Doon – A.R. Gill
4. Guide to Mussoorie with notes on Adjacent Districts and Routes into the Interior – F. Bodycot
5. Memoir of Dehra Doon – G.R.C. Williams B.A. (Bengal Civil Service)
6. Guide to Masuri, Landaur, Dehra Dun and the Hills North of Dehra – John Northam
7. Household Words (A Weekly Journal conducted by Charles Dickens) – John Lang
8. General Frederick Young – L. Hadow Jenkins