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2 desired Herr Schofft to furnish him with a specimen of his
3 abilities, by sketching a portrait of the baii ; which he accord-
4 ingly did, in pencil, and the likeness was a striking one. The
5 result was, that the maharajah and several of the principal
6 persons of the court sat to him for their portraits, and Herr
7 Schofft accordingly met with great respect and consideration.
8 I may mention here, that Herr Schofft had kept copies of
9 these portraits, and that on his return to Europe he painted, from
10 these and other sketches which he had taken, a large picture of
11 the Durbar of Lahore, which is considered to be his masterpiece,
12 and which was purchased from him by Louis Phillipe, and
13 is still, I believe, at Paris.
14 In the centre of the city of Umritsir is a gigantic reservoir
15 of water, from the midst of which rises a magnificent temple,
16 where the Grunth (the holy book of the Sikhs) is read day and
17 night. Around this sheet of water are the houses of the maha-
18 rajah, the ministers, sirdars, and other wealthy inhabitants. The
19 square itself is called Durbar Saheb. At the time of Runjeet
20 Sing and Sheer Sing, the scene which presented itself at this
21 temple, when the court was at Umritsir, was of the most
22 brilliant description, and at certain periods all the notabilities
23 of the Punjab were to be seen collected together in all the
24 splendour of oriental pageantry. During our stay at Umritsir
25 it happened that the inhabitants gave an invitation to the
26 court to visit the sacred temple at night time,* when it was
27 gorgeously illuminated ; and Sheer Sing honoured me with
28 his commands that we should accompany him, sending us
29 a richly caparisoned elephant for our accommodation. Sheer
30 Sing inquired of my friend, Herr Schofft, if he could take
31 for him a drawing of that brilliant scene. He answered in
32 the affirmative, but proposed to the maharajah that it would
33 be better if the scene was sketched under the effect of day-
34 light instead of the imperfect one of the illumination. He
35 was accordingly ordered to adopt that suggestion. On the
36 following morning we went to the house of the Baii Goormuck
37 Sing, who had promised, on the previous evening, to send