THE GANGES. 173 
who visit it is incalculable. One man has paid it Seiten visits from 
the Straits of Ceylon, which, considering the absence of railroads, is 
sufficiently remarkable. Casi (its ancient name, signifying splendid,) is 
alleged to be no part of this world, which rests on eternity—whereas 
Benares is perched on a prong of Siva’s trident, and is hence beyond 
the reach of earthquakes. Once built of gold, the sins of the people 
were punished by its transformation into stone, and latterly into mud 
and thatch ; whoever enters it, and especially visits its principal idol 
(which is Siva fossilized), is secure of heaven; and even the beef-eat- 
ing English may thus effect a future absorption into the essence of 
Siva. 
March 18.— Left Benares for Ghazepore, where I spent a delightful 
day with Mr. and Mrs. Trench; the former is the poet’s brother, and 
an excellent artist. It is a pretty town, situated on the north bank of 
the river, celebrated for its manufacture of rose-water, for the tomb of 
Lord Cornwallis, and the site of the Company’s stud. The Rose-gar- 
dens surround the town: they are fields, with low bushes of the plant 
grown in rows, red with blossom in the morning, but all plucked long 
before mid-day. The petals are put into clay-stills, with twice their 
weight of water, and the produce exposed to the fresh air, for a night, 
in open vessels. The unskimmed water affords the best, and it is often 
twice and even repeatedly distilled; but the fluid of course deteriorates 
by too much distillation. The Attar is skimmed off the exposed pans, 
d Cor 
Flaxman after the Sybil’s Temple. The allegorical designs of Hindoos 
and sorrowing soldiers with reversed arms, which decorate (potius 
desecrate) two sides of the enclosed tomb, though perhaps as good as 
can be, are under any treatment unclassical and uncouth. The simple 
laurel and oaken chaplets on the alternating faces are far more suitable 
and full of meaning. 
March 21.—Left Ghazepore and dropped down the Ganges. The 
general features of the river are soon described. A strong current four 
or five miles broad, of muddy water, flows between a precipitous bank 
of alluvium or sand on one side, and a flat shelving one of sand or 
more rarely mud, on the other. Sand-banks are frequent in the river, 
especially where the great affluents débouche ; and thence generally arise 
