I went to bed quite tired, but this morning it was so lovely that I revived and mounted a horse at 7.0 leaving the other two snoring.  I rode up the mountain.  I was rewarded by a most glorious view of the snows, one of the finest I have ever seen.  Between me and them were four or five ranges of lower hills, the deepest richest blue conceivable, and many of their valleys were filled with shining seas of rolling sunlit cloud.  Against this foreground rose a quarter-circle sweep of the snows, wreathed and garlanded with cloud wracks here and there, but for the most part silhouetted sharply in the morning sun.  The grandest mass was in the centre:  Nanda Devi, 25,600, which is the highest mountain in the Empire, and Trisoul, over 22,000.  There were six or eight other peaks of over 20,000 ft.

I got back to the Hotel for breakfast, and from 9.30 to 10.45 we played tennis, and then changed hastily and went to Church for the War Anniversary Service.  The station turned out for this in unprecedented numbers—­churchgoing is not an Anglo-Indian habit—­and there was no seat to be had, so I sat on the floor.  The Bishop of Lucknow, Foss’s uncle, preached.

After the service I waylaid the Revd.  Kirwan and found he was staying with the Bishop, who immediately asked us to lunch.  So Purefoy and I went to lunch—­Guy preferring to sail—­and I extracted quite a lot of useful information from K. Incidentally the Bishop showed me a letter from Foss, who wrote from the apex of the Ypres salient.  He isn’t enjoying it much, I’m afraid, but was quite well.

When we left the Bishop, it was coming out so fine that we decided to ride up and try again to see the snows.  So up we rode, and the cloud effects were lovely, both over the plains and among the mountains; but they hid more than half the snows.

We rode down again to Valino’s, the nutty tea-shop here, where we had reserved a table on the balcony.  Guy was there before us and we sat there till nearly seven listening to the band.  We got back to dinner where Purefoy had secured one of his innumerable lightning friends to dine with us, and adjourned to the Club for billiards afterwards:  quite a full day.

Thursday:  Government House.—­Another busy day.  It was fine again this morning, so we all three rode up to Snow View and got an absolutely perfect view:  the really big snows were clear and cloudless, while the lower slopes and hills and valleys were flooded with broken seas of dazzling cloud.  I put it second only to the Darjeeling view.

After breakfast Purefoy and I came up and played golf.  Guy took fright at the chance of being asked in to lunch here and went sailing again.  A shower made us late in starting, and we only got through twelve holes, after many misfortunes.  I ended dormy five.

Lady M. had been in bed ever since we left, but is up to-day, looking rather ill still.

To-night there is a dinner party.