Sir Alexander Allan

This uncoloured aquatint is taken from plate 16 of Captain Alexander Allan’s ‘Views in the Mysore Country’. Allan described Outradurg, 31 miles from Bangalore, as “a strong hill-fort, 12 miles from Sawandurg, taken by assault on 24 December 1791, by the detachment of the British army under Lt Col Stuart, which had captured Sawandurg on the 21st of that month”.

His sketch shows the defensive walls of the fort. He wrote: “The position of the six successive walls (on the steep ascent of a rock) which defend the fort on this side, was such as to afford the artillery an opportunity of directing their fire against the parapet of the wall next to be carried, over the heads of the assailants; who, thus supported, escaladed or forced the gates of every successive wall, and in less than an hour were masters of the place.”

Sir Alexander Allan