Rose's decision was generously and frankly approved (March 30th, 1858) by Lord Canning.
Not having been able to obtain any plan of the city and fortress, and being provided only with an old and erroneous map of the country round, Sir Hugh Rose had to reconnoitre all the positions and defences about Jhánsí, to a considerable distance. 'We arrived before the city at 7 a.m. on the morning of March 20th,' says a writer already quoted. 'The General and his staff rode off to reconnoitre. We were short of water, firewood, and grass; there was not a tree to give shade to the troops, and we remained out in the open till the return of the General at 6 p.m.'
The fortress of Jhánsí stood on a high rock, over- looking a wide plain, and with its numerous outworks of masonry presented a very imposing appearance. The walls of granite, from 16 to 20 feet thick, were protected by extensive and elaborate works of the same solid construction, all within the walls, with front and flanking embrasures for artillery fire, and loopholes, some of five tiers, for musketry. Guns placed on the high towers of the fort commanded the country all around. One tower, called the
worth while to challenge a statement contradicted by the correspondence which passed. He merely wrote on the following year (June 26th, 1863) in a public despatch: 'I had always foreseen the difficulties of besieging Jhánsí with my inadequate force, which led the Viceroy and Lord Clyde to give me the option of not attacking it, but it was impossible to obey my orders to march to Kálpi, by Charkhári, and leave such a stronghold as Jhánsí untaken in my rear.' And there he left the matter.
