Metcalfe House, had to be thrown forward, in order to command some ravines in front. The Farm piquet was directly in front, and the Cow- house piquet rather to the left — both on the far side of a ravine ; while the Stable piquet was half-left, and some six hundred yards further forward, close to a modern house. Across the river, near some trees, the enemy established a battery to fire on the piquets on this side.
Old Cantonments. — The Alipur Road skirts the Metcalfe Park, which lies to the right — old gateways showing where houses used to stand — and crosses the Ridge in a slight cutting, called the "Khyber Pass." On the left was the Sadr Bazar, or principal bazar of the cantonments. Across the plain, over which the road runs, there still extends a long line of "bells-of-arms," in which the arms and accoutrements of the sepoys used to be locked up ; the officers' houses stood on the near side, the "lines" of sepoys' huts were beyond, and further on still were the parade grounds, abutting on a deep drain, which draws off the water from a swamp at Najafgarh, some miles away. This cut was a great protection to the camp during the siege, running, as it did in that year, nearly full.
About three miles beyond the cantonments
