Mall Road Murree looking South 1861

From the very first days of British rule in Peshawar, the troops were looking for another location to escape the heat, disease and dangers of the Frontier capital. Murree seemed like the perfect choice. Nearly 200 miles away, high on a hillside spur at the edge of the Himalayas, was founded in 1851 to restore the health of troops n Peshawar. The name Murree apparently comes from the word marhi, a place at a high altitude, in a local dialect. It is still said that the East India Company bought the land that comprised Murree for Rs. 50 from a local rajah. The rajah, who could not tolerate what he considered to be lack of modesty on the part of the foreign invader, gave half the money back to the British officer and requested him to buy enough cloth to cover the face and legs of his wife. The following decade brought boom years to Murree. Officers and bureaucrats built rambling Victorian mansions on hillsides culled from forests. Murree became the summer headquarters of the Punjab government in Lahore for five months each year, offering bands, theatre and sport to its residents. The prizewinning Murree Brewery opened. Local affairs were controlled by a handful of civil officials, officers from the Bengal Staff Corps, church associates and merchants; many of them would intermarry.