Rae Bareilly is the head-quarters of the local authorities in the Byswara district, and is considered to be one of the most healthy places in Oude.  It is near the bank of the small river Saee, in a fine, open plain of light soil, and must be dry at all seasons, as the drainage is good; and there are no jheels or jungles near.  It would be an excellent cantonment for a large force, and position for large civil establishments.  The town is a melancholy ruin, and the people tell me that whatever landholder in the district quarrels with the local authorities is sure, as his first enterprise, to sack Rae Bareilly, as there is no danger in doing it.  The inhabitants live so far from each other, and are separated by such heaps of ruins and deep water-courses, that they can make no resistance.  The high walls and buildings, all of burnt brick, erected in the time of Shahjehan, are all gone to ruin.  The plain, around the town, is open, level, well cultivated, and beautifully studded with trees.  There is a fine tank of puckah masonry to the north-west of the town, built by the same Reotee Ram, and repaired by some member of his family, who holds and keeps in good order the pretty garden around it.  The best place for a cantonment, courts, &c., is the plain which separates the town from the river Saee to the south-east:  they should extend along from the town to the bridge over the Saee river.  The water of this river is said to be excellent, though not quite equal to that of the Ganges.  There is good water in most of the wells, but in some it is said to be brackish.  The bridge requires repair.

January 2, 1850.—­We halted at Rae Bareilly, and I inspected the bullocks belonging to the guns of Sobha Sing’s regiment and some guns belonging to the Nazim.  The bullocks have been starved, are hardly able to walk, and quite unfit for any work.  Some of the carriages of the guns are broken down, and those that are still entire are so rotten that they could not bear a march.  This regiment of Sobha Sing’s was as good as any of those commanded by Captains Magness, Bunbury, and Barlow, while commanded by the late Captain Buckley;* and the native officers and sipahees trained under him are all still excellent, but they are not well provided.  Like the others, this regiment was to have had guns permanently attached to it, but the want of Court influence has prevented this.  They now have them only when sent on service from one or other of the batteries at Lucknow, and the consequence is that they are good for nothing.  Sobha Sing is at Court, in attendance on the minister; and his adjutant, Bhopaul Sing, a near relative of the Rajah of Mynpooree, commands:  he seems to be a good soldier, and an honest and respectable man.

[* Captain Buckley was the son of Colonel Buckley, of the Honourable Company’s service, a good soldier and faithful servant of the Oude Government.  His mother, widow, and son, were left destitute; but on my earnest recommendation, the King granted the lad a pension of fifty rupees a-month.]