the three is larger and of longer course than the Thames or the Severn. What an idea does this give us of the scale on which Nature works in these countries!"*

Buxar, the next place in ascending the river, is remarkable chiefly as the scene of the victory which confirmed the British in the peaceable possession of Bengal and Bahar.+ It is a large and respectable Mussulman town, with several handsome mosques, a very neat and large bazar, and some good-looking European bungalows." The fort, though of inconsiderable size, commands the river. "It was originally only of mud; but, on being taken possession of by the English, stone bastions were ingeniously added, without a proper foundation. Their weight has consequently brought them down to the bottom of the ditch." Bishop Heber says, "it might stand a "siege of some length from a native army; and its situation on the Ganges in its nearest approach to the Ghorka territories, might make such a defence by no means unimportant, in the event of a rupture with those mountaineers. It is this possibility, indeed, which now constitutes the principal value of the great stations of Dinapoor and Ghazeepoor." He found at Buxar a garrison of 600 men, including 150 Europeans, without church or chaplain. The Church Missionary Society have established schools here, under a Mussulman convert named Kurreem Maseeh, who presides as catechist. A chapel and a room for a Missionary's residence, are about to be erected.

A little to the S. W. of Buxar is a large town with

Heber, vol. i. pp. 329, 30.

† See p. 85, of our second volume.

Valentia, vol. i. p. 67.

When his Lordship travelled, the guns were all removed, and there was not "a single fortified place between Calcutta and Allahabad, a distance of 800 miles."

some neat mosques and the remains of a fort, named Chowsar; and a little further, is the mouth of a considerable river flowing from the south, the Caramnasa, which here forms the boundary between the provinces of Bahar and Allahabad. This, till the administration of Warren Hastings, who pushed on the border to Benares, was the extreme limit of the Company's territories.

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Ghazeepoor has, from the river, a very striking appearance; although,' ," remarks the Bishop, "like all the Indian cities I have passed, its noblest buildings, on approaching them, turn out to be ruins. At the eastern extremity is a very handsome but ruined palace built by Saadut Ali; its verandahs are really magnificent." It is now used as a custom-house. At the other extremity of the town, and separated from it by gardens and scattered cottages, are the bouses of the civil servants of the Company. Beyond these is the cantonment, consisting of low, ugly bungalows with sloping roofs of red tile, but deriving some advantage from being intermingled with trees; 66 very different from the stately but naked barracks of Dinapoor." The monument to Lord Cornwallis, who died here on his way up the country, forms a conspicuous object:"it has a white dome like a pepperpot," and though of costly materials, is in the most execrable taste. "Above all," remarks the Bishop, "the building is utterly unmeaning; it is neither a temple nor a tomb, and has neither altar, statue, nor inscription."

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. A fine Gothic gateway, of excellent stone, and still in good repair, leads to the old palace; the interior of

which presents some beautiful specimens of architecture. "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-eastern 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 Nawab and his friends were feasting in the middle, which still shews 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 the police peons. The building is, however, in a rapid state of decay, though it might still be restored, and, as a curious and beautiful object, is really worth restoring."

Ghazeepoor is celebrated throughout India for the wholesomeness of its air,* and the beauty and extent of its rose-gardens. The elevated level on which it stands, and the dryness of its soil, which never retains the moisture, may account for both circumstances; and another advantage of the situation is, that it has a noble reach of the river to the S.W., from which quarter the hot winds generally blow. The rose-fields occupy many hundred acres : they are cultivated for distillation. The whole district is fertile in pasture,

* "The English regiments removed hither from the other stations," Bishop Heber says, "have always found their number of deaths diminish from the Indian to the European ratio."

+ The attar is obtained after the rose-water is made, by setting it out during the night till sun-rise, in large open vessels, and then skimming off the essential oil which floats at the top. The rosePART VI,

P

corn, and fruit-trees. The population is great; and the mosques and the moslems in the shops and streets are so numerous, while few pagodas of any importance are visible, that the Bishop began to imagine that he had bidden adieu for a time to the votaries of Brahminism. It is only in the large towns, however, that the Mohammedans are predominant. Mr. Melville, the magistrate, informed the Bishop, that, taking the whole province together, they were barely an eleventh part of the population,* among the remainder of whom Hindooism exists in all its strength and bigotry. The last yearly return of suttees within the district, had amounted to above forty; a certain indication of the profligate habits of the lower orders, who, we are told," have been noted, from time immemorial, for their turbulent and refractory spirit, and have always required the strong hand of power to retain them in any degree of subordination to the laws."+ Ghazeepoor is forty-one miles N. E. from Benares.

At Zermineeh, a little above Ghazeepoor, the river is perilously rapid, and progress becomes impossible without a westerly wind or towing. The banks are high, steep, and crumbling. Bishop Heber, after

water which is thus skimmed, bears a lower price than that which is warranted with the cream; but there is little perceptible difference." To produce one rupee's weight of attar, 200,000 wellgrown 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 sandal-wood) for 80 sicca rupees; and at the English warehouse, where it is warranted genuine, at 100 sicca rupees or 10." Mr. Melville told Bishop Heber, however, that the prime cost of that trifling quantity, without reckoning the labour of his servants, amounted to half that sum.

* According to Hamilton, the total population of Allahabad province exceeds seven millions, (it is nearly eight,) and there are eight Hindoos to one Mohammedan.

† Hamilton, vol, i, p. 310.

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advancing with difficulty a few miles, resolved to proceed to Benares, distant twenty-four miles, by dawk.* The road lay within sight of the Ganges, through a fertile and populous country, with a good deal of fine timber; the cultivation chiefly of millet, maize, and pulse. At eight miles is Seidpoor, a little country town, with verandahed ranges of shops on each side; the houses, generally of one story, built of clay, with red tile roofs, and extremely projecting eaves: there are a little old mosque and a pagoda, both of stone." Four miles further is a ferry over the Goomty, at this season a considerable river. The last stage lay chiefly through a wide avenue of tall trees. The Bishop left Benares considerably to the left, in order to reach the house of the British Resident at Secrole, "the English Benares."

BENARES.

THIS celebrated city, which claims, for its titles, the appellations of the holy and the splendid, takes its modern name of Benares or Baranas (in Sanscrit Varanashi), from two rivers, the Vara and the Nashi †, between which it stands. In ancient books, it is called Kasi (the splendid), under which name it is still known to the natives. Its geographical position is in lat. 25° 30′ N., long. 83° 1′ E. The Ganges here forms a fine sweep about four miles in length; and on the external side of the curve, which is the more elevated shore, stands the city, built down to the water's edge, "in the form of a bow," the river, according to the fancy of Abulfazel, resembling the bow-string. It has been, from

By post; that is, by bearers.

+ Abulfazel calls them the Birnah and the Assey, and writes the name of the town Baranassey.