Tyger, tyger burning bright

When Tipu Sultan resisted Britain's colonial expansion, he was painted as a bogeyman and, after he fell, his kingdom was looted with shocking rapacity, but his legacy has long awed the British—not least William Blake and John Keats, as

- Lucien de Guise

WHAT could be more welcoming at the entrance to one's stately pile than a pair of stone lions, pineapples or—bronze cannon?

Although artillery pieces have gone out of exterior-design fashion, they used to make a bold statement at the spectacular Powis Castle in Powys, Wales. With several ferocious tiger heads cast in bronze, there were always clues that they might not have been native to the UK. The two cannons were removed from southern India in about 1799, with the fall of the last dynasty that had resisted British colonialism in the subcontinent. The ruler who died fighting for this cause was Tipu Sultan (1751-99). The ‘Tiger of Mysore’ had long been painted as Britain's bogeyman: an eastern counterpart to Napoleon in the west. The two were allies in their hatred of the British. If Admiral Nelson had not defeated the French in Egypt, Napoleon's next stop would have been Mysore.

Both lost, but only Tipu died in battle, prompting Sir Walter Scott to express a low opinion of Napoleon's exit strategy: ‘I did think he might have shown the same resolve and dogged spirit of resolution which induced Tipu Sahib to die manfully upon the breach of his capital city with his sabre clenched in his hand.’ Partly as a result of this, the consequences for Tipu’s collectables were more serious than for Napoleon's, which had largely been looted from other countries any- way and, as he had chosen to abdicate, were not pillaged wholesale. Tipu's treasures were made in Mysore, then scattered to the winds.