2-979-724 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Ex-King of Oude (Lucknow), 1857. 'The revenues of Oude were very large, and therefore the recently-deposed King lived in the greatest magnificence...Unfortunately for the people of Oude, the King was such a slave to opium and every species of dissipation that the finances and the army fell into the greatest disorder...The [British] public has been amused with a book entitled "Private Life of an Eastern King". This describes the champagne-drinking orgies, the tiger-baiting, partridge-fighting, and sensuality of Nusseer-ud-Deen, a predecessor and cousin of the ex-King of Oude'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.