_One of the earliest descriptions of the Patachu temples is by Dr. Rennie, who was the military surgeon attached to the British Legation in 1861, He visited them twice and claims to have been the first Anglo-Saxon to hàve done so. This may possibly be correct, but he was certainly not the first European, for members of the Russian (ecclesiastical) mission had stayed at one of the temples as early 28 1828, as is proved by certain in-Seriptions found on the wall of one of the rooms.
It was, however, not till a few years later that the habit of using the hill temples as a summer retreat became the regular custom among the. foreign community. Freeman-Mitford, an attache of H.M, Legation, stayed at one of the nearer temples, Piyiinssu (Temple of. Azure Clouds) in 1865 and at Tachuehssu (Temple of Great Learning) in the following year. By that time it had already become part of the diplomatic routine. th those days, before the invention of motor cats and before the con-Strüctión öf motor roads, it took nearly half a day and wes quite a business to get out to the hills at Patachu. Today it takes a little over half an hour by fast car. Then, too, up on the Bill slopes óne led amiest the life of a hermit and was quite cub off from the rest of the world, specially as to move out of one's temple meant some pretty stiff climbing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.