Nainital :India
Nainital is one of the most popular hill stations in northern India, due largely to its fine setting. It is built around the shores of a mountain lake 1,940 metres (6,365 feet) above sea level and is surrounded by forested slopes. Now the headquarters of the district of Nainital, it was formerly the summer capital of the government of the United Provinces, now known as Uttar Pradesh. Although the East India Company controlled the Nainital area from 1815, it wasn’t until 1839 that an Englishman in the sugar trade, P Barron, stumbled on the lake. Being a good businessman, he immediately recognised its potential and canvassed for its development by publishing articles under the name of ‘Pilgrim’. He also persuaded the local headman to surrender his claim to the lake and the land around it. Barron took the headman out into the middle of the lake in his boat, and offered him the option of accepting the claims of the Company or being capsized with his property intact. As Barron himself wrote:

He looked very blank, said the lake was very deep and agreed to waive his claim in preference to the chance or rather certainty of being drowned if the boat were upset … Being always provided with a book and pencil when in the hills, 1 produced them and the poor man wrote out in it a deed by which he resigned all claim to the lake. As all the Puharees [hill peoplel of Kumaon, however poor, can read and write, as soon as we returned to the shore I exhibited this document to the assembled crowd.

Barren’s house Pilgrim’s Cottage, near the present Nainital Club, was the first to be built. It was soon lollowed by others and il is these bungalows, hotels and imposing civic edifices which dominate Nainital still.