Page images
PDF
EPUB

cottages given the lie to its great antiquity. It is noted for being an academy of Hindoo pundits in Lower Bengal. The creek to which it has lent its name affords a nice little inlet for a peep into rural life. Over that creek has been thrown now one of the largest and strongest bridges in Bengal.

Beautiful passage! The banks of the Hooghly, for miles, present the most gay and picturesque scenery. On either hand are gardens and orchards decked in an eternal verdure, and the eyes revel upon landscapes of the richest luxuriance. From the groves shine out the white villas of most tasteful and variegated architecture. Ghauts occur at short intervals, with their wide flights of steps from the banks into the water. Towns and villages turn up in rapid succession. Now, a wooded promontory stretching into the water bounds the view; then, a wide expanse of the river opens a most gorgeous vista. No part of Bengal exhibits such a high degree of populousness, and wealth, and civilization, as the valley of the Hooghly.

Our progress was from bank to bank, or in midstream, as the tide carried the boat. Passed Penhatty, in which is the sumaj of Raghub Pundit. He sleeps embowered under the shade of a madhavi tree, while the river flows immediately below with a soft gurgling song.

Little downwards of Khurdah is a spot, where we remembered to have seen, many a time, in our early days, the ironed skeleton of a highwayman suspended in the air. It reminded one of the period when robberies were committed by announcements in letters and

Khurdah.-Mahesh.

5

cartels to the householder-when honest burghers, falling into the hands of dacoits, were burnt to death by the flames of torches, and housewives were roasted alive in cauldrons of boiling oil.

Khurdah is a noted place for the residence of Nityanunda-the fellow-reformer of Choitunya. The latter retired to Nilachull, leaving his colleague at the head of the diocese in Bengal. Long a gad-about ascetic, Nityanunda at last took up his abode at Khurdah, and, falling in love with a Brahmin's daughter, led her to the hymeneal altar, and turned an honest Benedick in his old age. His descendants are the Provoos and Gossains, or 'Gentoo Bishops,' as Mr Holwell calls them. The Gossains promise to ferry you across the Bhubo-Sindhoo, or the Ocean of Life, upon their shoulders. But there is hardly a man among them who is sufficiently strong-built and broad-shouldered to execute the feat of carrying you across even the Hooghly. Now, that loaves and fishes are scarce, the Gossains are leaving off to announce themselves at the doors of their followers with flag-bearers, and khootnies, and hautboys, and taking to the European method of announcement by cards.

Mahesh, on the other side, is famous for being the scene where Juggernauth and his brother Balaram, having fasted the whole day, pawned a bracelet with a shopkeeper to procure some food. The ornament was missed by the Pandas (priests) on their return to Pooree, and they came to release it from the shopkeeper. Nearly three-quarters of a century ago, Warren Hastings had

his garden-house at Mahesh. One or two mango-trees of his planting were to be seen till very lately.

We then sailed by the spot memorable for the labours of Carey, Ward, and Marshman-those avantcouriers of the Messiah, who first came out to this country for gospelling its people. 'I do not know,' says Wilberforce, a finer instance of the moral sublime, than that a poor cobbler working in his stall, should conceive the idea of converting the Hindoos to Christianity—yet such was Dr Carey.'

Half a century ago, there was a dock-yard at Titahgur. The Dutch also brought their ships up to Chinsurah. Not only is the river silting up, but those were the days of small Portuguese carracks and Dutch galleons, and not of Candias, Simlas, Nubias, and Lady Jocelyns.

Serampore is a snug little town that possesses an exceeding elegance and neatness of appearance. The range of houses along the river makes up a gay and brilliant picture. The interior keeps the promise which a distant view has given. It is the best-kept town in India. The streets are as brightly clean as the walks in a garden. There is not much bustle or activity— the place greatly wears the character of a suburban retreat. But time was, when there was a busy trade, and 'twenty-two ships cleared from this small port in the space of three months.' The Danes were here for ninety years. They seem to have been content with this inch of ground, like their old prince Hamlet, and counted themselves kings of infinite space.'

[blocks in formation]

From the opposite shore, Barrackpore, with its pretty park and embowered vice-regal palace, bursts on the sight with a splendid view. Upwards of a century and a half ago, its rural precincts formed the Tusculum of that old Anglo-Indian patriarch, Mr Job Charnock, the founder of Calcutta. He used to come hither not so much to avoid the dust and bother of his bustling capital, as to be near that grave where there rested one with whom his heart still beat in sympathy. This alludes to his wife-a Hindoo woman, whom he had espoused after rescuing her from burning on the funeral pile of her deceased husband.

As a specimen of architecture, the Barrackpore palace has scarcely any claims to excellence. The Marquis of Wellesley had originally commenced this building with the intention of making it a suitable abode for one who had subverted the throne of Tippoo, humbled the gigantic power of the Mahrattas, and numbered among his protégés the Great Mogul of Delhi. But the work was stopped by a dictum of Leadenhallstreet economy, the views of which have often proved a bed of Procrustes to many a noble undertaking. In the great hall, one may feel an unusual dilatation of spirit, and grow for the moment a most politic wiseacre, with big ideas, and state-views, and legislative this-and-that, filling the crannies of his head; but he has scarcely to witness any display of vice-regal grandeur, or engage his attention with anything in the shape of curiosity. The only sights with which one might beguile himself awhile, are a small but diversified collection of portraits

of different Indian characters. There are the representations of some Pindaree chieftains, in whose rugged features may be read the history of their lives. The picture of a young Rajah of Cuttack has all the truth of an Ooriya likeness.

The park, with its green slopes, and shady clumps of trees, and open lawns, and gay flower-beds-and the ménagerie, with its giraffes, tigers, rhinoceri, and bears, are very good for purposes of holiday recreation. The parade-ground is memorable for the execution of a Sepoy regiment, which refused, in 1824, to go across the kalapane to Burmah: they were surrounded here, and a discharge of grape poured into them. Here, too, did Mungul Pandy play the part of reading the prologue to the great drama of the Sepoy Rebellion, and got his name made memorable in Anglo-Indian slang.

From Buddibati to Shawrafully-thence to Nemytirtha's ghaut, which is sacred to the memory of Choitunya for his having halted and bathed here in the course of his wanderings. The heath of Champdani is notorious for piracies and murders in days gone by. Then comes Ghiretti-the country seat of the Governors of Chandernagore, and the scene of their opulence and splendour. There was a time when hundreds of carriages rolled over its beautiful lawn, now overgrown with wood and jungle. The Governor's house, described to have been one of the finest buildings in India, in whose lofty halls were assembled the beauty and fashion of the neighbouring European settlements, and where Clive, Hastings, and Sir William Jones had been enter

« PreviousContinue »