484 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



within the banks of the river, and 

 level with its surface when at its 

 lowest decrease. lu these caves 

 he generally lived in the hot sea- 

 son, and continued in them until 

 the commencement of the rainy 

 season, when the increase of the 

 river obliged him to remove. He 

 then ascended anotlier story, to 

 apartments fitted up in the form 

 of a gi otto ; and w'hen the further 

 rise of the river brought its sur- 

 face on a level with these, he pro- 

 ceeded up to the third story, as a 

 ground-floor, which overlooked 

 the river when at its greatest 

 height. On tlie next story above 

 that, a handsome saloon, raised 

 on arcades, piojecting over the 

 river, formed his habitation in 

 the spring and winter seasons. 

 By this ingenious contrivance he 

 preserved a moderate and equal 

 temperature in his house at all 

 seasons : on the attic story he had 

 a museum, well supplied with va- 

 rious curiosities, and over the 

 whole, he erected an observatory, 

 which he furnished with the best 

 astronomical instruments. Ad- 

 joining to the house there is a 

 garden, not laid out with taste, 

 but well filled with a variety of 

 fine trees, shi'ubs, and flowers, 

 together with all sorts of vegeta- 

 bles. In his artillery-yard, which 

 was situated at some distance 

 from his house, he erected a 

 steam-engine, which had been 

 sent to him from England ; and 

 here he used to aumse himself in 

 making ditferentcxperiments with 

 air-balloons. After he had ex- 

 hil)ited to some acquaintances his 

 first balloon, the Vizir Asoph-ud- 

 Dovvlah requested he would pre- 

 pare one large enough to carry 

 twenty men. Martine told his 



highness that such an experiment 

 would be attended with consider- 

 able hazard to the lives of the 

 men ; upon which the Vizir re- 

 plied, " Give yourself no concern 

 about' that — be you so good as 

 to make a balloon." The ex- 

 periment, howe\er, was never 

 tried. 



Besides his house at Lucknow, 

 he had a beautiful villa about fifty 

 miles distant, situatetl on a high 

 bank of the Ganges, and sur- 

 rounded by a domain of almost 

 eight miles in circumference, 

 somewhat resembling an English 

 park. Here he used occasionally 

 to retire in the hot seiison. 



In the latter part of his life he 

 laid out a laige sum of money in 

 constructing agotliic castle, which 

 he did not live to finish. Beneath 

 the ramparts of this castle he 

 built casemates, secured by iron 

 doors, and gratings thickly 

 wrought. The lodgments within 

 the walls are arched and barred, 

 and their roofs completely bomb- 

 proof. The castle is surrounded 

 by a wide and deep ditch, foitified 

 on the outer jjide by stockades, 

 and a regulai- covered way, so 

 that the ))lace is sufhcicntly pro- 

 tected to resist the attacks of any 

 Asiatic j)ower. AMthin this castle 

 he built a splendid mausoleum, 

 in which he was interi'ed ; and 

 on a marble tablet over his tomb 

 is engraved the following intciip- 

 tion, wruten by himself some 

 months befoje his death : — 



Here lies Claude Martine. He 

 was born at Lyons, A. D. 1732. 

 He came to India a private soldier, 

 and died a Major-General. 



During the last fifteen years of 

 his life, he was much afflicted 

 with the stone and gravel j and 



disliking 



