Soldier and Traveller (Printed in 1898) Memoirs of Alexander Gardner, Colonel of Artillery in the Service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. With an Introduction by The Right Hon. Sir Richard Temple. GARDNER, Alexander; PEARSE, Hugh (ed.) Published by Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons,Soldier and Traveller. 1898 "First edition of this extremely rare and highly sought-after memoir of the experiences of a freelance in the Peshawar Valley. "An adventurer and soldier of fortune, Gardner (1785-1877) travelled through much of Central Asia and Afghanistan before joining the service of Ranjit Singh in 1832. Edited by Major Pearse, Gardner's memoirs tell in a rough-hewn fashion of his experiences as the commander of Sikh artillery in the 1835 conflict with Afghanistan over control of the Peshawar Valley.Gardner also gives an accounting of the bloody internal struggle for control of the Sikh State following the death of Ranjit Singh. With the imposition of British dominion over the Sikh Kingdom at the conclusion of the First Sikh War of 1846, Gardner's memoirs recede into the record of his retirement years spent in the Vale of Kashmir" (Riddick).