Digital Rare Book:
The Himalayan Districts of Kooloo, Lahoul, and Spiti
By Alfred Frederick Pollock Harcourt
Published by W.H. Allen & Co., London - 1871


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Image:
Nagar Castle, Kulu - 1869

Watercolour by Alfred Frederick Pollock Harcourt (1836-1910) of Nagar Castle at Kulu in Himachal Pradesh, dated c.1869. The image is inscribed on the front in water-colour: 'A.F.P. Harcourt'; and on the back in pencil:' Nuggur Castle. Kulu. Kangra District.' Harcourt wrote in his book 'The Himalayan districts of Kooloo, Lahoul, and Spitti', (1871), "Nuggur Castle, the old place of residence of the Kooloo sovereigns, is situated on a rising knoll on the left shore of the Beas, than which river it is about a thousand feet higher. Off the main building, which, there can be little doubt, once contained the principal apartments of the rajahs and their establishments, stretch a range of kitchens and out-offices, the separate approach to which is by a long flight of steps, that from below are lost to sight in the deep gloom of the passage, and at the back stands a square serai of two storeys, with an open interior courtyard...Nuggur castle, occupying as it does, such a commanding site, cannot fail, from its great size, to attract the notice of the passer-by even at some distance off, for the windows of the upper storey are certainly nearly forty feet above the foundations, and below these the ground slopes rapidly away at a very steep incline for several hundred feet." Harcourt served with the Bengal Infantry in India from 1855 to 1889, and was made Assistant Commissioner for the Punjab around 1868-70. He found the Punjab Hills a particularly inspiring landscape for painting and drawing.

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