’These ponies do not lead very happy lives, and, here as elsewhere, a
    diminution in the sufferings of the brute creation will be one of the
    blessings attending the introduction of a railway system.’

At Allahabad he inspected, among other things, the works which were in progress for making a railway bridge across the Jumna.

This is (he wrote) in some respects the most interesting of that class of engineering operations which has been already mentioned:  because whereas in other cases clay has been found beneath the sand, and the foundation wells have been sunk into it, no bottom has been discovered to the sand which constitutes the bed of the Jumna; and the wells in question are required to stand firm in this most unstable of all foundations.

[Sidenote:  Cawnpore.]

From Allahabad Lord Elgin proceeded by railway to Cawnpore; where, on the 11th of February, he took part in the impressive ceremony of the consecration of the Well, and other spots in its vicinity, containing the remains of the victims of the dreadful massacres which occurred at that place in 1857.[1]

He had intended from this point to visit Lucknow:  but finding that time would allow of his doing this only in a very hasty manner, which he thought objectionable, he invited some of the principal Talookdars to come over to see him; which they accordingly did, under the guidance of Mr. Wingfield, the Chief Commissioner of Oude.

[Sidenote:  Agra.]

From Cawnpore Lord Elgin journeyed, again by rail, to Agra, the ’key of Hindostan.’  The following description of his arrival there is borrowed from his private secretary, Mr. Thurlow:[2]—­

’Arrived at the railway station, Lord Elgin met with a reception worthy of the East.  The road, thickly lined with native troops, crossed the Jumna by a bridge of boats, and wound along the river’s bank beneath those lofty sandstone walls; then, mounting a steep hill and leaving the main entry into Agra Fort upon the right, the Taj remaining to the left, it led, through miles of garden ground, thickly studded with suburban villas, to the Viceroy’s camp, that occupied the centre of an extensive plain, where tents were pitched for the accommodation of the Government of India, and an escort of ten thousand men.  Beyond these were ranked, according to priority of arrival, the far-spreading noisy camps of those rajas the number of whose followers was within some bounds; and beyond them again stretched miles and miles of tents containing thousands upon thousands of ill-conditioned-looking men from Central India, and the wildest part of Rajpootana, the followers of such maharajas as Jeypoor, who marched to meet the Viceroy with an army of thirty thousand strong, found in horse and foot and guns, ready for the field.’

The six days spent at Agra Lord Elgin was ’disposed to rank among the most interesting of his life.’