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glades which intersected what would else have been a trackless forest; and the whole had so wild and characteristic an appearance, that I regretted that I had no time to make a drawing."*

Another evening, the Bishop made an excursion in a boat to the pagla pwll (mad bridge), a ruin four miles below Dacca. "It is a very beautiful specimen of the richest Tudor Gothic; but I know not whether it is strictly to be called an Asiatic building, for the boatmen said, the tradition is, that it was built by a Frenchman." +

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From Dacca, the Bishop did not take the direct northern course by the great jeels, but (anxious to meet the sister of his deceased chaplain, who had set out to join him) sailed eastward across the Delaserry river and a wide tract of flooded country, which presented a strange and dreary spectacle. The wretched villages were huddled together on little mounds raised just above the level of the inundation, while all the rest was covered with five or six feet of water. Having passed them all, he entered a sea of reeds," a vast jeel or marsh, having at this time depth of water sufficient for a large vessel, although the rushes rose above the surface, and the boat rushed briskly through them, "rustling like a greyhound in a field of corn." A succession of woods and villages next occurred, till he halted for the night at a very pleasant spot near a village called Nawab-gunge. On the third day, he regained the great Ganges (Pudda), and reached Furreedpoor, where he halted for some days, waiting intelligence from Calcutta. At length, he resolved to proceed on his voyage to the Upper

*Heber, vol. i. p. 198-200.

† An accurate engraving of it is given in Sir Charles D'Oyley's Ruins of Dacca."

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Provinces. Retracing his course to Jaffiergunge and the mouth of the Commercolly, he now ascended the Ganges to Surdah, which stands on the river that forms the usual route from Dacca to the Upper Provinces. Here the Company have a silk-manufactory. The next day, he reached Bogwangola, a thorough Hindoo village," consisting, for the most part, of mere sheds or booths for the accommodation of the gomastahs (agents) who come here to the great corn fairs. They are scattered very prettily over a large green common, fenced off from the river by a high grassy mound, which forms an excellent dry walk, bordered with margo-trees, bamboos, datepalms, and some fine banyans. The common was covered with children and cattle; a considerable number of boats were on the beach; different musical instruments were strumming, thumping, squealing, and rattling from some of the open sheds; and the whole place exhibited a cheerfulness, and, though it was not the time of the fair, an activity and bustle which were extremely interesting and pleasing. The houses were most of them very small but neat, with their walls of mats, which, when new, always look well. One, which was of more solid construction than the rest, had a slip of garden surrounding it, filled with flowering shrubs, and enclosed with a very neat bamboo railing. Others were open all round; and there, two parties of the fakeer musicians whose strains I had heard, were playing; while, in a house near one of them, were some females whose gaudy dress and forward manner seemed pretty clearly to mark their profession as the nauch-girls of the place.... Bogwangola has been, several times within these few years, removed to different situations, in consequence of the havoc made by the Ganges. It has, therefore,

no ancient building, and neither pagoda nor mosque : indeed, it has the appearance of an encampment, rather than a town." *

From this place the Bishop proceeded, by towing, to one of the channels leading by Sooty from the main Ganges into the Moorshedabad river. Here he was in the great road from Calcutta northwards, where, for the present, we must leave him, in order to trace the course of the Bhagirattee or Cossimbazar river up to this point.

BURHAMPOOR.

THE first place of any note in ascending the Cossimbazar stream from its junction with the Jellinghy, (which forms the Hooghly,) is Burhampore, one of the six great military stations in these provinces, situated on the eastern bank, in lat. 24° 3′; long. 89° 14'. The cantonments are a fine range of buildings on one side of an open lawn, round which are situated the houses of different Europeans. "The British," remarks Lord Valentia, "who, from official or commercial concerns, are attached to the great cities of India, have generally fixed on a spot at a little distance, where they have constructed modern residences, free from the stench and confinement of Asiatic narrow streets." There might seem to be other reasons for not adopting as military stations the great cities. Burhampoor is only five miles from Moorshedabad, the seat of government under the Bengal Nabobs, usually called the City; and four miles from the great trading town of Cossimbazar, which may be considered

* Heber, vol. i. p. 239. The line of river coast between Surdah and Bogwangola, "differs greatly from Rennell; but the changes which the river is making on this shore, are obviously such as to account for very considerable discrepancies."

*

as the port of the Mohammedan capital. Lord Valentia proceeded to Burhampoor from Chinsurah in a palankeen, the bearers being relieved every stage of ten miles. He arrived at the banks of the Cossimbazar river about eight miles above the junction, where, at that time (Feb. 22), it was but a very trifling stream; † the great height of the banks shewed, however, how different must be its state in the rainy season. His next stage beyond Ahgadeep, was the magnificent tope (grove) of Plassey, celebrated in the annals of British India for the victory gained by Lord Clive, which rendered the British masters of Bengal. The field of battle" is fast disappearing, and will, in a few years more, be entirely washed away." As Lord Valentia travelled chiefly by night, enclosed within his palankeen, he could not make many observations upon the country. He found Burhampoor thirty-six miles from the river which he passed in the morning. The island of Cossimbazar is one flat bed of sand, which owes its fertility to the deposite of the annual inundation. His Lordship observed excellent crops of wheat and barley, and occasionally indigo-plantations. The paddy-fields were bare, which gave a disagreeable effect to the The mango-groves § and palm-trees were ob

scene.

There are two roads to Benares; "one new, carried over the mountainous and wild parts of Bahar, but 200 miles nearer than the old, which led through the populous cities of Bengal." His Lordship preferred the latter: had he taken the new road, he must have proceeded day and night, halting only three times. For each palankeen were required eight bearers, which formed a complete change; there were also three mussal or link-boys, and three men to carry luggage.

"From October to May, the Bhagirathi is almost dry, when much of the traffic is conducted at Bogwangola." Hamilton, vol. i. p. 163.

Sketches of India, p. 137.

§ The mango is "a magnificent tree, in habit much resembling

served, as in the former parts of the road; but the coco-nut is scarce, and seemed to bear but little fruit. The villages were composed of miserable mud cottages; but their rapid succession and numerous inhabitants conveyed a high idea of the general populousness of the country. The island was formerly full of tigers, leopards, and wild-boars; but the increase of population and the rewards offered by Government, have led to their complete extermination, and the jackal and the fox are the only wild animals now left. About a mile to the north of the town of Cossimbazar, on the left bank of the river, is the city of

MOORSHEDABAD.

ONE of the first objects which strike you on approach. ing it, is a lofty and noble-looking, though disproportioned building with massive columns, designed by the British Government as a palace for the Nabob; but he occupied (in 1819) a large brick hospital-like house on the right bank, also built for him, on which bank are several native houses also. We are indebted for a spirited description of this Mohammedan capital, to the Author of Sketches of India. He had heard, he says, so poor an account of it, that he was agreeably surprised.

"A few domes and minarets, and, all along the bank, a number of houses, built of brick or chunamed, with terraces, small verandahs, flat roofs, and painted doors and windows, do, in spite of the mean huts of mud and bamboo, which may be here and there seen

the Spanish chestnut, and fully equal in size." The blossom is very fragrant. They are planted in formal squares called topes.Valentia, vol. i. p. 46.

* Here was once a town called Mahinagar. Bernoulli, vol. i, p. 451.