Agra Fort would seem a strange place to Mark Thornhill and William Muir today.

While it has been transformed into a tourist spot, the army retains 75% of it, leaving visitors with not as much to see as perhaps they would envision, especially those tracing the steps of 1857.

The entrance today is the Amar Singh Gate as Delhi Gate remains closed to the public.

Once inside, it is striking how some views are remarkably unchanged.

Some transformations are evident in the passage of time.

However, others are still the same.

One time, a curious visitor stood in a doorway.

While his footsteps are long silent, the doorway remains.

Another will never leave.

The fourth child of James Colvin, a merchant in the firm Colvin, Bazett&Co, in Calcutta, John Russel was born in 1807.
Sent to England at an early age, he was educated at the East India Company College in Hertfordshire and returned to India in 1826. A young man of some promise, Colvin became private secretary to Lord Auckland in 1836 and served him during the time of the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1837. With the war ending in disaster, Colvin saw his fortunes and favour wane as he was sent to Tenasserim in Burma as Commissioner from 1846 to 1849. In 1853, Colvin had done his due-diligence in Burma and a more favourable Lord Dalhousie appointed him Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces. In 1853, Colvin took up residence in Agra. He was
“..considerable ability; conscientious, painstaking, courteous, and amiable. He was animated by a thorough sense of duty, gave all his energies to the public service, and never spared himself. It is not too much to affirm that had his lot been cast in ordinary times his reputation as Lieutenant-Governor would have rivalled that of the most eminent of those who, before and subsequently, have held that office. But with all his ability, his experience of affairs, and his devotion to duty, Mr. Colvin lacked that one quality, the possession of which is absolutely necessary to enable a man to buffet successfully against the storms of fortune. Mr. Colvin wanted, in a word, that iron firmness—that rare self-confidence—which enables a man to impress his will upon others.”
Colvin died in Agra Fort in September 1857, worn out in body and mind, harangued and hassled by his quarrelsome subordinates and by long, demanding letters from Calcutta, insisting he produce his administration reports for the past year. The records, however, had been burnt and the information Calcutta so urgently desired was lost. While a war raged around him, Colvin was trying to please the government he served.
He died at 5 pm on the 9th of September, 1857 and was buried in the spot he chose for himself – in front of the Diwan-i-Am.

Behind a guarded gateway sits the Moti Masjid, the famed Pearl Mosque. No longer open for visitors, it can be seen from afar.

And so we leave Agra Fort to its ghosts, its revellers and wanderers.