The Seven Cities of Delhi
but after nine years was deposed, and with her brother fled to the protection of "John Company." Hindu Rao had resided for some years in Kishanganj before he bought this house, and here he transferred his hunting cheetas, which were one of the sights. It is a curious fact that the heavy fire directed on this house from Kishanganj, in
1857, came from his former residence. Hindu Rao had died before that time, but the house was still occupied, when the Mutiny broke out, by his relatives. It has since been repaired, and is the property of Government, being used in the unhealthy season, which follows the rains, as a sanatorium for British soldiers from the fort.
At the back of the house is an old "baoli," supposed to date from pre-Mahomedan times, but the other old buildings around are part of Firoze Shah's hunting-palace. Near the "Observatory " is a bench-mark of the Great Trigonometrical Survey; the name has probably been given to the building owing to this circumstance.172
