Lot 61
Muir, Sir William
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography
Auction: 11 October 2017 at 11:00 BST
Description
Agra in the Mutiny and the life of W. & E. Muir in the Fort 1857: a sketch for children. [s.l., privately printed?], 1896. First edition, 4to., mounted photographic frontispiece of the Agra Fort and 2 other mounted photographs of the fort, with the addendum slip at p.54, original cloth over bevelled boards, t.e.g., others uncut; Lee, J. The Indian Mutiny: events at Cawnpore, June and July, 1857. Cawnpore: Victoria Press, [n.d.], c. 1886, inscribed by the author to a Mrs Johnson; [bound with] [Idem] A narrative of my travels and visit to England and America in 1883. [s.l., n.d., but presumably at the Victoria Press, Cawnpore]. 8vo., modern quarter calf, cloth boards (2)
Footnote
Note: Sir William Muir (1819-1905), Indian administrator, was stationed successively at in the districts of Cawnpore, Bundelkhand, and Fatehpur. The sepoy Mutiny broke out at Meerut on 10 May 1857 and spread rapidly. Muir, at Agra, where the situation was soon critical, advised vigorous action from the first. Akbar's great fort of Agra became the refuge of the Christians. Moir vividly told the story of his experience for his children in his Agra in the Mutiny (1896). Soon there was neither government nor revenue; but as head of the intelligence department Muir held the dangerous position of centre of communication between the viceroy, Lord Canning, and the civil and military authorities right across India to Delhi, Lahore, and Peshawar, to Gwalior, Indore, and Bombay. (DNB supplement). Lee, the author of the second work, was the proprietor of the Railway Hotel at Cawnpore. The present copy appears to be a separate issue to that published in 1893. The pagination differs from the 1893 copy in the British Library.