silver bracelets and earrings, and loud is the din from the hammers of the workers in brass. There are stands for crockery, and there are stalls at which are sold drugs of every description. There are dens filled with pulse and grain, and sweetmeat shops send forth a savoury smell. A strange tide of life ebbs through the street: the sleek and calm money-lender from Maridar; the mendicant who begs from door to door; the vendors of fruits and vegetables, with heavy basket-loads on their heads; the bustling Bengali broker who fills the air with the voice of cheap bargains. It is a scene for a painter, but words can convey no accurate impression of an Oriental street.

Great is the transition from the Burra Bazaar to the Chowringhee Road, whose eastern side is bounded by a row of lofty white houses elaborately porticoed and colonnaded. Each stands in its own bright garden, trimly kept, and faces the Maidan, or wide plain, which is the characteristic feature of Calcutta. It is from these houses, designed by Italian architects in the days when the pagoda tree flourished, that Calcutta derives its popular name, "The City of Palaces." It was Lord Macaulay who gave currency to the flattering but somewhat inaccurate title; but he stole the epithet from Lord Valentia, and, as was his wont, slightly disguised the theft. Lord Valentia wrote: "On a line with this edifice (Government House) is a range of excellent houses, chunamed and ornamented with verandahs. Chowringhee, an entire village of palaces, runs for a considerable length at right angles with it, and altogether forms the finest view I ever beheld in my life."

When Lord Valentia wrote, Chowringhee had just begun to cease to be a village on the outskirts of Calcutta. Ten years before he visited the city there were only twenty-four houses in the locality. In 1792 was advertised for private sale at 1500 Sicca rupees, "A neat, compact, and new built garden-house, pleasantly situated at Chowringhee, and from its contiguity to Fort William, peculiarly well calculated for an officer. It would," continues the advertisement, "likewise be a handsome provision for a native lady or a child," which throws light on the morals of the day. English ladies were few in number, and men took unto themselves savage women to rear their dusky race.

Sir Elijah Impey was one of the first to erect a spacious garden-house at Chowringhee, and Park Street was so called because it bordered his wide domain. Here the Chief Justice-who besides being an able and learned lawyer was an accomplished scholar-devoted his leisure moments to the study of Persian, of which he acquired an extensive and accurate knowledge, and Bengali, which he soon learned to speak fluently. At Chowringhee also resided his accuser, Thomas Babington Macaulay. In one of his letters he writes: "I have a house almost as large as Lord Dudley's in Park Lane, or rather larger." The residence of the Whig historian now forms the main building of the Bengal Club, an institution known to all the dwellers of the East. Some of its past glory has departed, owing to the depreciated rupee, but it still remains one of the most comfortable and hospitable clubs in Asia. Travellers who bring proper credentials are freely elected as honorary members, and they can have a bedroom in the club if one be vacant. Besides the Bengal Club, Calcutta has the United Service Club, whose doors are closed to all who do not belong to the Army or one of the civil departments of the State. Like the Bengal Club, the United Service Club is situated on Chowringhee Road and faces the Maidan. Next to it are the rooms of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, founded by Sir William Jones, aided by the sympathy and active co-operation of Warren Hastings. "As the first liberal promoter of useful knowledge in Bengal," to use the words of the address, "and especially as the great encourager of Persian and Sanscrit literature," Hastings was requested to accept the title of President; but he refused. the proffered honour, and William Jones was appointed President. The pages of the early volumes of The Asiatic Journal were enriched by his eloquent discourses, which even now, though almost a century has elapsed since they were delivered, are well worth reading, on account of their eloquence and the wide scholarship displayed in them. Sir William Jones may have been lacking in the accuracy of the German School of Oriental Scholarship, but he was undoubtedly a man of genius.

Nearly opposite the United Service Club rises the fine bronze statue of Outram : "faithful servant of England; large-minded and kingly ruler of her subjects;

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doing nought through vain-glory, but ever esteeming others better than himself;
valiant, uncorrupt, self-denying, magnanimous: in all the true knight." It was the
poet-Viceroy who spoke of Calcutta as the "City of Statues"; and few capitals in
Europe contain finer examples of the sculptor's art. Facing the south entrance of
Government House is a full-length bronze statue of John Lawrence, and it conveys
the dignity and power of the saviour of the Punjab. Near him is the statue of
Canning, who steered the Empire through the tempestuous waves of mutiny into
the calm waters of material and moral progress. At the south-east of Government
House is a splendid equestrian statue of the young soldier with the eye of a
general and the soul of a hero." An inscription on the pedestal informs us that
"The statue was erected by the inhabitants of British India, of various races and
creeds, to Henry Viscount Hardinge, in grateful commemoration of a Governor
who, trained in war, sought by the acts of peace to elevate and improve the various
nations committed to his charge." It was well said of him that he had crowded into
one short administration all the services of the highest order, both civil and military.
Not far from the statue raised to perpetuate his memory rises a lofty minaret,
erected to commemorate the services of David Ochterlony: "for fifty years
a soldier, he had served in every Indian war from the time of Hyder down-
wards." The monument is a bad imitation of the London Monument, and the
future historian of the Empire will note that the Moghuls erected the Kutub
Minar at Delhi, and the English erected the Ochterlony monument.
The gulf
which separates the artistic instincts of the two races will be illustrated by these

two structures.

From Lord Hardinge's statue to Kidderpore Bridge extends "the Course," the oldest road in the Maidan, so called from being two miles in length. It is described in 1768 as being out of town in a sort of angle made to take the air in"; though

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an old song states that those who frequented it "swallowed ten mouthfuls of dust for one of fresh air." On the east side of the road runs a broad gravelled walk known as the Secretary's Walk, so called-a sarcastic pamphleteer informs usfrom being the place where secretaries and their sycophants discuss the news of an evening. At the south end of the Secretary's Walk, standing in the centre of the spot where four roads meet, rises the statue of Frederick Temple, Marquis of Dufferin and Ava. It is meretricious, like much of Boehm's latter work; but the sculptor has caught the striking air and manner which distinguishes the statesman who, with conspicuous tact and energy, governed our Indian Empire.

Some little distance south of the Dufferin statue is the racecourse. At a very early period the English transplanted to the East their national sport. On January 2nd, 1794, there appeared in a Calcutta paper the following advertisement: "The Stewards present their compliments to the subscribers to the races, and take this opportunity to inform them, that a breakfast with music will be provided in tents on the course after the races on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the 16th, 17th, and 18th of January, and a ball and supper at the theatre on Wednesday the 18th, when they hope for the honour of their company." The races run for were (1) for the Plate, (2) the Hunters' Plate, (3) the Ladies' Plate. "After the race of each morning," to use the words of the chronicler of the day, "the company of upwards of one hundred and fifty sat down to a public breakfast," and "after breakfast the company adjourned to an adjoining tent of very capacious dimensions, handsomely fitted up and boarded, for the purpose of dancing. Country dances commenced in two sets, and were kept up with the utmost gaiety till two in the afternoon."

A century elapses, and a very different spectacle presents itself at the Calcutta races. It is two in the afternoon, and the grand stand is filled with noble dames from England, from America, and all parts of the world, who have come with their spouses to visit the Indian Empire. In the paddock is a noble duke, a few lords, one or two millionaires from America, and some serious politicians, who have visited the land to study the Opium Question, and feel ashamed of being seen at a racecourse. The air resounds with the cries of the bookmaker, and an eager crowd surges around the totalisator-for on the Viceroy's Cup day even the most cautious bank manager feels bound to have one bet. Beyond the grand stand, on the other side of the course, the wide plain is covered with beings dressed in brilliant garments -crimson, blue and orange are mingled together. Men, women, and children have walked many a mile to see the tamasha or show. They are all so happy and good-tempered; and to purchase some bright piece of cloth for the ebony dot by their side is the sum of happiness. A few sweetmeats and a little handful of grain is to them a handsome lunch. All of a sudden the hum of voices ceases, and all eyes are turned to a corner of the racecourse. A cavalcade approaches. At a fair trot come the troopers of the Body Guard in scarlet uniforms--magnificent men on splendid horses; a carriage and four containing the Viceroy and the Vice-Queen follows. "Wah! wah!" exclaims the native crowd. Loud cheers burst forth as the carriage draws up opposite the grand stand, for no man is more respected than the Marquis of Lansdowne, and no woman more popular than the noble lady by his side. When the Viceregal party are settled in their box, the horses about to run for the Cup, given every year by the reigning Viceroy, are paraded before them. Some have been victors at Melbourne, some on an English course. After the preliminary canters they are marshalled before the starter, and after one or two attempts the cry rises, "They are off!" and they thunder by the grand stand. By the quarter-of-a-mile post we take our stand with a Frena camera. We feel the earth tremble, and the horses sweep by us. Loud cheers burst forth-" Bill has won the Viceroy's Cup," is the cry. By the name of Bill that popular and good sportsman, Lord William Beresford, has been known from the day he first landed. in India.

Leaving the racecourse and proceeding south, we come to a bridge leading to the Zoological Gardens, which Calcutta owes to the great energy of Sir Richard Temple. He found a swamp, with a few native huts on it, and converted it into a garden with lawns, flower-beds, and wide walks, lined by the endles variety of shrubs and plants to be found in the East. The waters of the swamp have been converted into an artificial lake, by whose banks palms are growing in the greatest luxuriance.

A short distance beyond the Zoo stands Belvedere, the official residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, in large grounds of its own, with trees which, in shape and foliage, would do credit to an English park. At the west entrance of Belvedere was fought the famous duel between Warren Hastings and Francis. On September 27th, 1780, Mrs. Fay writes: "The bad news I hinted at some time ago is already avenged, and a much more serious affair has happened since; but for the present I must relate what has occupied a good deal of attention for some days past—no less than a duel between the Governor-General and the first in Council, Mr. Francis. There were two shots fired, and the Governor's second fire took effect. He immediately ran up to his antagonist and expressed his sorrow for what had happened, which I daresay was sincere, for he is said to be a very amiable man. Happily the ball was soon extracted, and if he escape fever, there is no doubt of his speedy recovery. What gave occasion to the quarrel is said to have been an