CHAPTER I.

Introduction.

The traveller who approaches Benares by railway from Calcutta may obtain from the carriage window one of the finest views of the city possible. As the train nears the great bridge which spans the broad bosom of the Ganges, the buildings on the northern side come slowly into view, and gradually grow on the sight till, stretched along the top of the lofty bank and looking down into the rippling waters, the city is seen sitting like a queen on her throne, with her spires and minarets standing clear out against the brilliant blue of the eastern sky, and the stone stairways of the ghats running out below into the sacred stream, surely one of the most imposing and impressive sights in all India.

The Dufferin Bridge which carries the Oude and Rohilkhand railway over the Ganges is a very fine structure, and a triumph of engineering skill. It is constructed of steel girders, rivetted together under hydraulic pressure, and rests on fifteen massive piers of masonry. The total length of the bridge is 3,568 feet, and it cost Rs. 1,727 per foot or over 75 lacs of rupees in all. Vehicles are allowed to pass over the bridge during the intervals of railway traffic and a path is provided on each side for foot passengers. It is strongly fortified at either end by massive towers, loop-holed and turretted and fitted with iron doors, so that a very small force would be able to defend it. It took over seven years in building, having been commenced in June 1880 and being formally opened by Lord Dufferin in October 1887.

Benares is the capital of a province which bears the same name and which includes the districts of Benares, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, Ghazipur and Ballia and contains a population of nearly five million souls. The city is the seat of the local Government and has a garrison made up of a wing of a British infantry regiment and a regiment of native infantry, all of whom are accommodated on the extensive plain which skirts the railway, north of the Cantonment Station.

The Cantonment, or European quarter, lies to the west of the city where the whitewashed bungalows of the foreign residents may be seen embowered in trees, and each set in its own compound.

There are two good hotels in the same quarter, Clarke's and the Hotel de Paris, the former being the oldest established. It is advisable to engage rooms before arrival, especially during the cool season from November to March.

The city, conservative though it is, has not been able to escape altogether the tide of change which has set in with British rule and the fine metalled roads which run from the Cantonment to the very heart of the city, are evidence of the presence of a practical and energetic race. The water-works which now supply the city with filtered water pumped up from the river, have conferred a boon much appreciated by the native population, though the smoke-stack of the pumping station, which rears its head among the spires at the southern end of the ghats, hardly adds to the beauty of the scene. The city is a great emporium of trade, especially in grain and native food stuffs generally. From the rich plains which surround the city vast quantities of wheat and rice, millet and lentils, as well as unrefined sugar pour into the

bazaars for sale.

The manufactures of Benares have been famous for centuries not only in India, but throughout the