CALCUTTA. 3 
people, the batteries of Fort William thundering their salutes from 
beyond, the ships gay with colours, while the gaudy government-boats, 
all green and gold, with black boatmen in scarlet costumes, inhar- 
moniously splendid, were in readiness to land the Governor-General 
in the city of Calcutta. This latter is imposing at a distance, superb 
in some of its details on a close inspection, but, when best appreciated, 
it exhibits that overgrown splendour in squalor which every city 
made up one half of huts and the other of palaces must display. 
Caleutta, as a city, is much overpraised: it has grandeur enough ; 
but except in the Oriental Bazaar and the costumes of the natives, 
there is not a picturesque feature connected with it—not one street 
view stops you. The Hooghly, a noble river in itself, is a mere canal 
amongst architectural features of such dimensions. Chowringhee, a 
noble road, one side open over a vast green-sward plain to the river 
and the other a continous line of first-rate English houses, is a fine coup 
d" wil from the said plain; and the palatial Government-House on the 
left, and the new Cathedral to the right, are, though far from faultless 
buildings, noble objects, and, on the whole, good supporters of the 
frontage ; but the ships in the Hooghly rise out of the land and intrude 
upon the view, whilst Government-House and the Cathedral are each 
too faulty in proportion to be individually pleasing to the eye. 
There is nothing in Calcutta to compare with the noble Plazas of 
Lisbon and many other towns ; for those are cities of palaces, where 
the aggregate of the community unite to raise noble buildings, 
while here the few dwell in palaces, constructed without reference 
to the general features of the city. Oxford is a city of colleges : 
Cambridge has colleges ; and however effective the structures of the 
latter may individually be, they do not, in the aggregate, produce the 
effect so obvious in the former. So it may be conceded that Calcutta 
is a city with palaces, and plenty of them; but a city of palaces is a 
very different things. 
Here you must understand me to be speaking of the city and not of 
its inhabitants. An Indian welcome is proverbial ; and a most cordial 
one awaited me and was conveyed to me soon after entering the 
Sunderbund and long before I landed, jointly by Sir Lawrence Peel 
and by Mr. Colvill, who had each prepared rooms for my reception. 
The bustle of change at Government-House, made me glad to take 
advantage of Sir Lawrence’s invitation. 
B2 
