The Happy Valley : Sketches of Kashmir and the Kashmiris/W. Wakefield. Reprint. First published : London, 1879. New Delhi, AES, 1995, xii, 300 p., maps, $26.

    From the preface: "During my sojourn in India, in the service of her majesty, as a medical officer to the forces, I had the opportunity of constantly meeting and talking with numerous friends and travellers, who had visited Kashmir. From their observations, joined to what I gathered from the somewhat scanty literature treating of that country, I was fairly well acquainted with the subject of these pages before I had the good fortune to visit the Happy Valley for myself, and verify the ideas I had formed from hearsay and books. This event took place in the summer of 1875, and although our visit was short, we travelled over great part of the valley, saw the objects of interest most worthy of attention, and examined closely into the manners and customs of the inhabitants.

    From what we saw; and from that which I had previously gathered, the following pages have been written, and I venture to lay them before my readers as being descriptive of Kashmir and its inhabitants. I do not do so with the object of providing any intending tourist with a guide-book, for the descriptions of roads and distances are not minute enough to fulfil that purpose, which, indeed, is already provided for in the reliable Hand-Book of Dr. Ince, to which I was myself much indebted when in the country, and have been equally so during the progress of the present work. My design has rather been to present to those who have never visited the country, and perhaps, will never have that pleasure, a short and general description of the routes to Srinagar; the history, manners and customs of the inhabitants of this beautiful province; and a sketch of the various places and objects of interest to be met with in the space of a short tour."

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