The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-20 00:00:00

.EMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STAN

INDIAN FORTRESS.---We did not reach the rock
until the afternoon of the next day, and upon my
arrival I found that a good house at its foot, in which
some of the Rajah's family usually resided, had been
emptied for my reception. I followed the Rajah up
the stairs, or rather steps, to the upper room, where
one of his attendants immediately presented me with
a plate of small, thin, fancifully stamped pieces of gold,
made from the gold dust collected on the banks of the
Indus and other rivers in the country, and another
plateful of similar silver pieces, which I showered
down from the balcony upon the crowd below. After
that was exhausted, we threw down several bits of
cloth for turbans, &c., and we all laughed heartily at
the furious vociferations and scrambling that took place,
even before they had descended. The Indus
was visible from my window, and I then turned
to enjoy the view of it for the first time. It
approached through a sandy plain, from the eastern
end of the valley, and here, nine miles from the en-
trance, it washed the end of the rock within musket-
shot of me, in a noble stream of more than 150 yards
in width. The rock, or killah, as it is called; is about
two miles in length, and the peak over the east end
rises about 800 feet above the river. The whole of
this superb natural fortress, situated in the middle of
the valley of Iskardo, which is 19 miles long and
seven in width, rises with, in most places, mural
sides, from a buttress of sand, loose stones, and broken
rocks, excepting at the western end, where it slopes,
but steeply, on to the plain ; and on the east and north
it is washed by the deep and rapid torrent of themighty
Indus. The Gylfo's castle is built upon a small fiat
about 300 feet above the river. A wooden mosque
and state prison form part of the building. The
castle itself is of stone, with wooden framework, and
is strongly fortified against musketry. The zigzag by
which it is approached is also divided by gateways
and wooden towers. Defences of the same kind are
built on different parts of the rock. There is a look-
out-house on a peak a little above the castle, and
another on the summit above that. In my humble
judgment it could be made as strong a place as Gib-
raltar, which, in general configuration, it would much
resemble, were the east and west end of the killah
to change places.--. Travels in Kashmir, Ladak,
Iskardo, cke., by G. T. Vigne.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS DOROTHEA OF
ZELLE.—In Dr. Doran's " Queens of the House of
Hanover," there is this graphic account of the way in
which her marriage was procured by the Electress
Sophia, and which, though it may have come from
herself, may not be on that account the less true :
" It had suddenly come to the knowledge of the Elee-
tress that Augustus of Wolfenbuttel had made his re-
appearance at the Court of Zelle. Coupling the know-
ledge of this fact with the remembrance that Sophia
Dorothea was now 16 years of age, and that at such a
period her marriage had been fixed, the mother of
George Louis, addressed herself at once to the task of
putting her son in the place of the favoured lover.
She ordered out the heavy coach and heavier Mecklen-
berg horses by which German potentates were wont to
travel stately and leisurely by post some two centuries
ago. It was night when she left Hanover : and,
although she had not further to travel than an ordi-
nary train could now accomplish in an hour, it was
broad daylight before this match-making and match-
breaking lady reached the portals of the ducal palace
of Zelle. There was something delightfully primitive
in the method of her proceedings. She did not despise
state, except on occasions when serious business was
at hand. The present was such an occasion, and she
therefore waited for no usher to marshal her way and
announce her coming to the Duke. She descended
from her ponderous coach, pushed aside the sleepy
sentinel, who appeared disposed to question her, ere
he made way, and entering the hall of the mansion,
loudly demanded of the few servants who came hurry-
ing to meet her to be conducted to the Duke. It was
intimated to her that he was then dressing, and that
his Highness would soon be in a condition to descend
and wait upon her. Too impatient to tarry, and too
eager to care for ceremony, she mounted the stairs,
bade a groom of the chamber point out to her the
Duke's room, and, her order having been obeyed, she
forthwith pushed open the door, entered
i the apart-
ment, and discovered the dismayed Duke n the most
neglige of deshabilles. She neither made apology nor
would receive any ; but, intimating that she cape on
business, at once asked, Where is your wife The