"Views in the Himalayas...

Anne Eliza Scott, (1810-1892) was the eldest daughter of Colonel Tobias Kirkwood of Weston, Somerset. In 1838 she married Leiutenant William Lloyd Lewis Scott of the East India Company Bengal Army in Bath, Somerset, and in the following year accompanied him on his return voyage to rejoin his Regiment in India.

Some ten or so years later, Mrs. Scott was informed that the Governor-General, (at that time, the newly appointed Lord Dalhousie) and some other parties, had expressed a wish for some correct views of scenes in the Himalayas familiar to the everyday traveller. Recognizing in this an opportunity to "employ her time profitably and satisfactorily in the service of her poorer brethren" [sic]., and also to exercise her talents in a good cause, she resolved to try to satisfy the demand in aid and support of The Lawrence Asylum, Sanawar which in those early days of its foundation, relied entirely upon charitable donations, subscriptions and public contributions. In the preface of her book of drawings which she subsequently published, Mrs. Scott writes -"...with this object in view I commenced the undertaking, though with slight prospects of success; delicate health, limited hours, and the rainy season, materially interrupting the progress of the drawings, which required to be finished on the spot. However, it pleased God to aid (me) most signally in surmounting all these difficulties..."

During the years 1850 and 1851, she journeyed extensively throughout the Simla Hills, and made several pencil and crayon drawings on lithographic plates from which 15 were selected for her large folio book, "Views in the Himalayas". The plates depict scenes sketched from hillstations, staging bungalows and viewpoints along the old bridle route from Kalka to Shimla and on the Hindustan & Thibet road to Mahasu, Narkanda and Kot Garh that she visited. The printed lithographs were hand coloured by Thomas Picken, W. Walton and W. Simpson after Anne Eliza Scott; published in 1852 by Messrs Henry Graves & Co., and sold by Messrs Allen & Co. in London, and by Messrs Ostell & Lepage of Calcutta in India. (As a matter of interest, the "Dalhousie Copy", a rare first edition purchased in 1852, property from a "Scottish Estate", was sold at a London auction quite recently for the sum of £9,375)

The images displayed in this album are taken from a copy of the book in the personal collection of Mr. S.P. Lohia, an enthusiastic and passionate collector of this art form, and are reproduced here with his kind permission and by courtesy of SPL Rare Books - Lohia Foundation. The plates were photographed by Antiquarian Photographer Louie Fascioli, London, England.