Royal travellers have often embraced traditional modes of transport while abroad. In this photograph, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales prepares to ride an elephant during a visit to India in 1875–6. His four-month tour of the subcontinent spanned modern-day India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal and covered almost 10,000 miles. During this time the Prince travelled by steamship, train, ceremonial barge and on horseback, among other modes of transport. The official diary of the tour described how on one occasion the Prince was transported by an elephant 'of extraordinary size', with 'a howdah [seat] of surpassing splendour, which shone like burnished gold in the morning sun, and which was either made of gold or of silver gilt [...] covered with a golden canopy'.