Ebook Narrative of the Visit to India of Their Majesties, King George V. And Queen Mary

India. What does this name signify to ninety-nine out of a hundred of us beyond a triangle, coloured red, upon the map of Asia? We are told that the said triangle measures nineteen hundred miles in length from north to south, and about the same in breadth, at its widest point, from east to west; and that it contains an area rather larger than that of Europe west of the Vistula. The statement conveys little to us. We accept it as undoubtedly true, and, if we look at a map of India superimposed upon one of Europe on the same scale, we are perhaps a little staggered. But we in our little island are accustomed to reckon by acres, not by thousands of square miles; and, strive as we may against the tendency, we find ourselves always attempting to apply our own puny standards to things Asiatic. We hear of great rivers, and instinctively recall the Thames at London Bridge, forgetting that a great Indian river in flood would fill the space from Westminster Abbey to the Crystal Palace.