Excerpt from In Foreign Lands: Some Sketches of Travel in Asia, Africa, and Oceania

For the shape of Kashmir is such that the bottom of the chief valley is a flat plain, while the mountains which encircle it are full of winding glens. These are the beauties of Kashmir. By each of them you may ascend the mountain chains; if you persevere you may cross them and leave Kashmir behind you; or you may ascend one of them and cross the spur Of the mountains and return to Kashmir by the next. You may do this many times before you have seen all the valleys of the country, and they are all worth seeing; but within the Space of one vacation you must make a choice. Now Kashmir-has been fully explored, and there are many guide books; but they all agree that the Lolab, the Sind and the Lidar Valley are first among their peers. So I started with the Lolah Valley, which is nearest to Baramula.

Cockburn's agency (whom I can recommend) had arranged for tents and stores to await me, together with a head man, Azad Bat, and a cook. They made their salaam-s at the Dak-bungalow, shivering like all the rest of the world, for there had been three days rain, and the weather was chilly. It cleared up next day; we hailed the sun with joy, and, tramp'ing over the Jhelum, dived into the hills.

Nowi had said to myself many times, I will not be victimised by Kashmir; I will not expect anything one way or another; I will wait and see what the place is like. And when I got there, on that very wet day at Baramula, with-nothing visible but pools and pollard willows, and mist and clouds, I said Even now it is. Too early to judge. But two or three hours after I left Baramula, I had permitted a verdict to present itself, and by the evening it was the verdict of all my five senses ratified by that presiding spirit, the manas, which surveys and co - ordinates their reports. I never questioned this verdict all the time'i was in Kashmir, and at this moment I find I have nothing to do but choose emphatic language, and record it.

There are three types of Kashmir scenery, that of the valley, the lower hills, and the snows. That of the valley is not without its own charms, and they are such as the anglo-indian is willing to enjoy. There are fields of grass enamelled with flowers, brooks and pools, and groves of mighty trees. First among these is the great chenar, . That no tree in the world excels for spreading majesty and shade. Give it light and air, rich soil, and water, which it loves, and a single chenar will fill the landscape. Ten men shall not clasp its trunk, and a hundred herons shall lodge within its boughs unseen. Beneath it a company of soldiers may encamp, and no ray of sunlight shall fall on them from mom to eve. It lives from generation to generation; the chenars that burgeon in the Spring to-day were planted by the Great Moghul. They are chief among the arborea-l monarchs of the valley, not even the elms of Bawan match them, nor those poplars that skirt the Srinagar Road, and imprison the sky for sixteen miles.

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