I’ve been doing lots of reading for the Woodstock history project, including some books that may be interesting even to non-Woodstockers. I was excited to finally lay hands on the journal of Fanny Parkes, an Englishwoman who lived in India from the 1820s to 40s. She was the first person to write about Mussoorie and Landour (the Himalayan town which is the site of the school), so is quoted in many of my sources, but her book has been out of print since 1850. It has now finally been republished (under the title “Begums, Thugs & White Mughals”), thanks, I suspect, to William Dalrymple, author of “White Mughals” (another source I’m using). Fanny was an amazing woman who travelled extensively in India and enjoyed everything and everyone she encountered, at a time when it was becoming unfashionable among the British to like anything much about the country they were taking over. Her book is rich in detail about life in India in those times, an excellent source for all kinds of research.
For current news for Mussoorie and Uttaranchal, see The Garhwal Post.
Begums, Thugs, and White Mughals – The Journals of Fanny Parkes, selected and introduced by William Dalrymple (Originally published in 1850 as “Wanderings of a Pilgirm in Search of the Picturesque, during four-and-twenty years in th tEast; with Revelations of Life in the Zenana”)
