File:Fortress Of Gwalior, Taken By General Popham In 1779 - British Library X768-2(16).jpg

English: Plate 16 from Edward Orme's '24 Views in Indostan'. This aquatint is based on a picture by Francis Swaine Ward (1736-1794). The fort at Gwalior stands on a narrow, rocky hill of sandstone which rises abruptly above the surrounding countryside. The original date of its construction is not known, however an inscription within records that a Temple of the Sun was erected in 510 and local legend asserts that it was constructed by Suraj Sen, who was cured of his leprosy by an ascetic called Gwalipa. The British thought the fort at Gwalior was inpenetrable until 1779, when General Popham and his army scaled its walls and gained control of it.

Based on the water-colour painting of Gwalior Fort in Madhya Pradesh from the north-west, c.1790. Although no artist's or engraver's name is attached to that plate, it formed part of a series of aquatints redrawn by William Orme from paintings by Thomas Daniell and Francis Swain Ward 'in the possession of Richard Chase, late Mayor of Madras'. Chase, who was Mayor of Madras in 1800, had obtained a number of Ward's pictures on his death in 1794. As Daniell did not visit Gwalior, the aquatint (plate 11) must have been made from one of Ward's pictures. Although Ward spent his army service in Madras, it is clear that he visited northern India on at least two occasions: the first before his return to England in 1764, the second during his final stay in India between 1773 and 1794. Amongst the paintings presented to the East India Company in 1773 was a view of Sher Shah's tomb, Sasaram (Bihar), obviously dating from his first visit, and in the 'Twenty-four views in Hindostan' are impressions of Calcutta and of Anupshahr (U.P.). Since Anupshahr is about 140 miles due north of Gwalior which was in enemy hands until 1779, it is likely that Ward visited both places during an extended tour of Upper India after his retirement from the army in 1787.

Item number: 20016