File:P22. Interior of Alumbagh.jpg

English: Plate 22. Interior of Alumbagh.

This sketch is a view of the interior of the “ Allum Bagh,” into which the enemy’s round shot are plunging, as I write, from positions about twelve hundred yards distant. About one hundred balls fall into the garden daily, but as yet (Christmas Day) they have only succeeded in killing a horse, a very thin one, and wounding a single soldier. I must digress here in order to wish my future readers many happy returns of this festive season. There will be warmer rooms and better-provided tables in most houses at home this evening than our tents and oommissariat can afford. We are far away, too, from fathers and mothers, wives and children, and from every domestic tie, to whom many of us will return no more. But, nevertheless, the hallowed festival will be right joyously celebrated in Sir James Outram’s camp to-night; nor will Her Majesty, the old country, or our absent friends, be forgotten in our toasts, albeit the libations of most of us will have to be poured in a no stronger beverage than the ale first brought into repute by that most ancient of topers— Adam.

Sketches & Incidents of the Siege of Lucknow. From Drawings Made during the Siege, by Clifford Henry Mecham, Lieutenant Madras Army, with descriptive notices by George Couper, esq. late secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Oude. First edition, tinted lithographed title with vignette, 27 views on 17 tinted lithographed plates, folio, Day & Son, published 1 Oct 1858.