The fact remains, whatever may be the cause, that architecture has never
been advanced much beyond the mere domestic in very mountainous regions,
with the exception of the mediaeval strongholds, which formed the nucleus
of every town or village, where a _point d'appui_ was required against
invasion, for the protection of the community.
Breakfast, followed by a prowl among the ruins and a short space for
sketching, gave the sun time to pour his beams with quite unpleasant
insistence into the confined fold in the hills, where we began to gasp
until the ladies mounted their ponies, and we took our way down the valley,
crossing the river below Wangat, and keeping along the left bank to
Vernaboug, where we camped, the only incident of any importance being the
sad loss of Jane's field-glasses, which, carried by her syce in a boot-bag,
were dropped in a stream by that idiot while crossing, he having lost his
footing in a pool, and, clutching wildly at the pony's reins, let go the
precious binoculars.
This morning we were up betimes, Mrs. Locock having ordained a bear "honk"!
This was, to me, a new departure in shikar, and truly it was amusing to
see the shikari, bursting with importance, mustering the forty half-naked
coolies whom he had collected to beat. A couple of men with tom-toms slung
round their necks completed the party, which marched in straggling
procession out of the village at dawn.
A mile of easy walking brought us to the rough jungly cliffs, seamed with
transverse nullahs, narrow and steep, which bordered the river.
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