Mussoorie
Mussoorie, like other hill resorts in India, came into existence in the 1820s or thereabouts, when the families of British colonials began making for the hills in order to escape the scorching heat of the plains. Small settlements grew into large stations and were soon vying with each other for the title of “queen of the hills.” Mussoorie’s name derives from the Mansur shrub (Cororiana nepalensis), common in the Himalayan foothills; but many of the house names derive from the native places of those who first built and lived in them. Today, well-to-do Indians own the old houses and estates, many of who follow the lifestyle of their former colonial rulers. In most cases, the old names have been retained.
Take, for instance, the Mullingar. This is not one of the better-preserved buildings, having been under litigation for some years; but it was a fine mansion once, and it has the distinction of being the oldest building in Mussoorie. It was the home of an Irishman, Captain Young, who commanded the first Gurkha battalion when it was in its infancy. As you have probably guessed, he came form Mullingar, in old Ireland, and it was to Ireland that he finally returned, when he gave up his sword and saddle. There is a story that on moonlit nights a ghostly rider can be seen on the Mullingar flat and that this is Captain Young revisiting old haunts.
There must have been a number of Irishmen settling and building with names such as Tipperary, Killarney, Shamrock Cottage and Tara Hall. “The harp that was once in Tara’s Halls” must have sounded in Shimla too, for there is also a Tara Hall in the old summer capital of India.
As everywhere, the Scots were great pioneers in Mussoorie too, and were quick to identify Himalayan hills and meadows with their own glens and braes. There are over a dozen house names prefixed with “Glen.”
The English, of course, went in for castles, there’s Connaught Castle and Grey Castle and Castle Hill, home for a time to the young Sikh prince, Dalip Singh before he went to England to become a protégé of Queen Victoria.
Sir Walter Scott must have been a very popular writer with the British in exile, for there are many houses in Mussoorie that are named after his novels and romances like Kenilworth, Ivanhoe, Woodstock (later an American mission school), Rokeby, Waverly, The Monastery. And there is also Abbotsford named after Scott’s own home.
Dickens lovers must have felt frustrated because they could hardly name their houses Nicholas Nickleby or Martin Chuzzlewit but one Dickens fan did come up with Bleak House for a name, and Bleak it is even to this day.
Mussoorie did have a Dickens connection in the 1850s when Charles Dickens was publishing his magazine Household Words. His correspondent in India was John Lang, a popular novelist and newspaper proprietor, who spent the last years of his life in Mussoorie. His diverting account of a typical Mussoorie “season,” called “The Himalaya Club,” appeared in Household Words in the issue of March 21, 1857.
It is well over 50 years since a person lived in the parsonage and its owner today is Victor Banerjee, the actor, who received an Academy Award nomination for his role in David Lean’s A Passage to India. Victor doesn’t mind his friends calling him the vicar.
This naming of places is never as simple as it may seem. Let’s take Mossy Falls, a small waterfall on the outskirts of the hill station. You might think it was named after the moss that is so plentiful around it, but you’d be wrong. It was really named after Mr. Moss, the owner of the Alliance Bank, who was affectionately known as Mossy to his friends. When, at the turn of the century, the Alliance Bank collapsed, Mr. Moss also fell from grace. “Poor old Mossy,” said his friends, and promptly named the falls after him.
