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LORD CORNWALLIS'S MONUMENT.

perceived from its outward appearance, of any of the eastern buildings which I have seen. Its verandahs are really magnificent, but its desolation is so recent, that it is very far from being a pleasing object on approaching near enough to perceive its decay. It might still at no great expense be made one of the handsomest and best situated houses in India. At the other extremity of the town, and separated from it by gardens and scattered cottages, are the houses of the civil servants of the Company, mostly with ground-floors only, but large and handsome; and beyond these is the military cantonment, ugly low bungalows, with sloping roofs of red tile, but deriving some advantage from the trees with which (very different from the stately but naked barracks of Dinapoor) they are surrounded and intermingled. The most conspicuous object among them is the monument to Lord Cornwallis, who died here on his way up the country. It has a white dome like a pepper-pot, but when the young trees, which are growing up round it, shall have got a little higher, it will not look ill from the river.

Almost immediately as my vessel came to shore, Mr. Melville, who had seen it in its approach, came on board to say that he had given up his own house, and was staying with Mr. C. Bayley, who hoped for my company also. In their agreeable society 1 passed the three days which I remained at Ghazeepoor, and from them obtained so much valuable information that I cannot help regretting I had not time, and have not memory to put down half of it. Some difficulties were felt about a proper place for divine service next day, the place (an old riding-house) which had been used as a church before the station lost its chaplain, being in so ruinous a state that the quarter-master had reported it sometime since to Government as unsafe for any persons to assemble in. A Mr. Watson, a tradesman in the place, however, offered his long room, generally used for auctions, and sometimes for assemblies, which, now that the European regiment was absent, and the probable congregation less numerous than it otherwise would have been, answered the purpose extremely well, being large, airy, and furnished both with seats and punkahs. During our drive this evening I had a nearer view of Lord Cornwallis's monument, which certainly does not improve on close inspection; it has been evidently a very costly building; its materials are excellent, being some of the finest free-stone I ever saw, and it is an imitation of the celebrated Sybill's temple, of large proportions, solid masonry, and raised above the ground on a lofty and striking basement. But its pillars, instead of beautiful Corinthian well-fluted, are of the meanest Doric. They are quite too slender for their height, and for the heavy entablature and cornice which rest on them. The dome, instead of springing

LORD CORNWALLIS'S MONUMENT.

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from nearly the same level with the roof of the surrounding portico, is raised ten feet higher on a most ugly and unmeaning attic story, and the windows (which are quite useless) are the most extraordinary embrasures (for they resemble nothing else) that I ever saw, out of a fortress. Above all, the building is utterly unmeaning, it is neither a temple nor a tomb, neither has altar, statue, or inscription. It is, in fact, a "folly" of the same sort, but far more ambitious and costly, than that which is built at Barrackpoor, and it is vexatious to think that a very handsome church might have been built, and a handsome marble monument to Lord Cornwallis placed in its interior, for little more money than has been employed on a thing, which, if any foreigner saw it, (an event luckily not very probable,) would afford subject for mockery to all who read his travels, at the expense of AngloIndian ideas of architecture. Ugly as it is, however, by itself, it may yet be made a good use of, by making it serve the purpose of a detached "torre campanile" to the new church which is required for the station; to this last it would save the necessity of a steeple or cupola, and would much lessen the expense of the building, but the times are, I fear, unpropitious for any grants of this nature from the Indian Government. Yet the wants of this station are so urgent, for when they have European soldiers here again they will have no building of any kind to receive them for worship, and the representation which the principal civil and military servants have made to me, is so strong, that it is absolutely my duty to urge the case, and I will certainly do so.

Sunday, August 29.-Mr. Corrie (who from illness had been unable to undertake the whole duty at Buxar, and had arrived here yesterday) read prayers, and I preached and administered the sacrament this morning, to a small but very attentive congregation, almost exclusively of the higher class. Afterwards 1 examined some children from the regimental school, which seems well managed. Though the fathers are absent, the wives and children of the 38th Regiment remain here, and Government is also forming a considerable force of sepoys.

August 30.-In the evening I drove with Captain Carter, the quarter-master, to fix on the best spot for a church, and found none so good as that which I have already mentioned. The present, or rather the late church, is a very large building, thatched like a barn, with a wide span which has forced the side-walls out of the perpendicular; indeed, the whole is in a very forlorn condition, and I am surprised it has stood through these rains.

August 31.-This morning early Mr. Melville took me to see the prison, which, like all the Company's gaols which I have seen, is very clean, airy, and apparently well managed,—and the

old palace, now used as a custom-house, which I had so much admired coming up the river. The town, through which we passed, has no large houses except one, the property of a wealthy Mussulman, which is extremely like some of the old houses in Scotland, as represented in prints and described by the author of Waverly. Like all other native buildings it looks dingy and neglected, but appears in good substantial repair, and is a striking object, more so, perhaps, than most of the Corinthian verandahs of Calcutta. The bazars, through which we drove, are neat; and one of the streets so wide that one might have supposed oneself in an English country town. There are the remains of an old castle here, now reduced to little more than a high green mound, scattered with ruins, and overhung with some fine trees. But the palace is, indeed, a very handsome building. It is approached from the land through a fine gateway, which, though differing in a few particulars from the English gothic, certainly belongs to the same style of architecture, and excels the corresponding structures of Dacca, in being, instead of brick, of excellent stone. It is in good repair, and has still its massive teak folding-doors clenched with iron studs, and with the low-browed wicket in the middle, like an English castle or college.

The most striking differences between the English and Asiatic gothic, lie in the broad projecting stone cornices which adorn the latter, and to which I recollect no counterpart in Europe, though something approaching to them may be found in the heavy but picturesque eaves of the Florentine palaces, and though they are pretty closely imitated in wood, in some of our old English black-and-white houses. In their gate-ways, likewise, and most other of their buildings, they avoid all those flanking projections, round or octagonal turrets and stair-cases, which our ancient English architects were so fond of; and, instead of these, cut off the corners of their buildings into an octagonal form. There is good sense in both these variations. In a climate where every breeze is precious, those projections, which are useful shelters in England, would be only nuisances; and the depth of shadow and architectural effect of which they thus deprive themselves, is supplied in a great degree by the projection of their kiosks and cornices, which are, at the same time, extremely convenient in a country so hot, and at certain seasons so rainy. There are two or three courts within the palace, surrounded by ruinous buildings, with an appearance, at first sight, of meanness, but offering, in detail, many beautiful specimens of architecture. The arches here, however, are few of them gothic, being mostly of that kind which is generally called Moorish, specimens of which may be seen, if I recollect right, in Murphy's prints of the Alhambra. The columns are slender and octagonal. The arches semi-circular,

but indented, and the bases of the columns are ornamented with flowers and leaves which seem interposed between them and their plinths. The tops of the windows are like those of the arcades, but generally enclosed in a square tablet like what we see in Tudor gothic, the doors the same. The banqueting-house is a very striking and beautiful building in the form of a cross, open every way, and supported by a multitude of pillars and arches, erected on an under-story of an octagonal form. Its south-east side abuts immediately on a terrace rising from the river; the four projections of the cross seem calculated to answer the double purpose of shading the octagonal centre, and giving room for the attendants, music, &c., and the double line round the centre is a deep trench, which used to be filled, we are told, with rose-water, when the Nawâb and his friends were feasting in the middle, which still shows the remains of a beautiful blue, red, and white Mosaic pavement. It is now used as a warehouse to the custom-house, and the men with swords and shields who yet mount guard there, are police peons. The building, however, is in a rapid state of decay, though it still might be restored, and, as a curious and beautiful object, is really worth restoring.

I set off for Benares after breakfast, but made little progress, both the stream, and, by an unfortunate chance, the wind, being unfavourable. Ghazeepoor is celebrated throughout India for the wholesomeness of its air, and the beauty and extent of its rose-gardens. Perhaps these in a good degree arise from the same cause, the elevated level on which it stands, and the dryness of its soil, which never retains the moisture, and after the heaviest showers is in a very few hours fit to walk on with comfort. That this must contribute to health is evident; and I suppose, from all which I have observed, that it must be favourable to the growth of flowers. It is also another auspicious circumstance in the situation of the city and cantonment, that it has a noble reach of the river to the south-east, from which quarter the hot winds generally blow. Be this as it may, the English regiments removed hither from the other stations, have always found their number of deaths diminish from the Indian to the European ratio; and the apparent health of the inhabitants, both English and native, really struck me as doing justice to the favourable reports of the air. The country round is as flat as India generally is, and the roses were not in bloom. There was, however, a very brilliant display of flowers and flowering shrubs of other kinds in the different lanes and hedges, as well as in the pleasure-grounds of the European residents.

The rose-fields, which occupy many hundred acres in the neighbourhood, are described as, at the proper season, extremely VOL. I.-30

beautiful. They are cultivated for distillation, and for making "attar." Rose-water is both good and cheap here. The price of a seer, or weight of 2lbs. (a large quart,) of the best, being eight anas, or a shilling. The attar is obtained after the rosewater is made, by setting it out during the night, and till sunrise in the morning, in large open vessels exposed to the air, and then skimming off the essential oil which floats at the top. The rosewater which is thus skimmed bears a lower price than that which is warranted with its cream entire, but Mr. Bayley said there is very little perceptible difference. To produce one rupee's weight of attar, two hundred thousand well-grown roses are required. The price, even on the spot, is extravagant, a rupee's weight being sold in the bazar (where it is often adulterated with sandalwood,) for 80 S. R., and at the English warehouse, where it is warranted genuine, at 100 S. R. or £10! Mr. Melville, who made some for himself one year, said he calculated that the rent of the land and price of utensils really cost him at the rate of five pounds for the above trifling quantity, without reckoning risk, labour of servants, &c.

The whole district of Ghazeepoor is fertile in corn, pasture, and fruit-trees. The population is great, and the mosques, and Mussulmans in the shops and streets, are so numerous,and there are so few pagodas of any importance visible, that I thought I had bidden adieu for the present to the followers of Brahma. Mr. Melville, however, assured me, to my surprise, that it was in the large towns only that the Mussulmans were numerous, and that, taking the whole province together, they were barely an eleventh part of the population, among the remainder of whom Hindooism existed in all its strength and bigotry. Suttees are more abundant here than even in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, but chiefly confined to the lower ranks. The last yearly return amounted to above forty, and there were several of which no account was given to the magistrate. It has been, indeed, a singular omission on the part of Government, that, though an ordinance has been passed, commanding all persons celebrating a suttee to send in notice of their intention to the nearest police officer, no punishment has been prescribed for the neglect of this order, nor has it ever been embodied in the standing regulations, so as to make it law, or authorize a magistrate to commit to prison for contempt of it. If Government mean their orders respecting the publicity of suttees to be obeyed, they must give it the proper efficacy; while, if suttees are not under the inspection of the police, the most horrible murders may be committed under their name. This struck me very forcibly from two facts which were incidentally told me. It is not necessary, it seems, for the widow who offers herself, to burn actually with the body of her husband.