The summer capital of the Raj, Simla came to be known as "the workshop of the Empire". A visitor awed by this hill-town wrote, "Every pigeonhole contains a potential revolution, every office box cradles an embryo of war or death". The heady mixture of mountain air, political power and social snobbery attracted all manner of people to Simla: ambitious careerists, calculating matrons, enigmatic adventuresses, bored wives and dashing roues, often with disastrous results. A letter home lamented "the pure atmosphere and foul rumours, ruined prospects, guilty passions, frivolity, intrigue jealousy, madness remorse unmitigated".
