THE MEER's garden. 121 



who was taken there as a hostage by Nadir 

 Shah. The entire house is surrounded by 

 an open veranda, twelve feet wide, on arches, 

 and is undoubtedly a very cool dwelling in 

 the hottest season, more especially with the 

 appliances of Thermantedotes, Punkas, and 

 Tatties; but the hosts of musquitoes, conse- 

 quent on the luxuriant vegetation close up 

 to the house, render it quite unbearable. 



The building stands in the midst of a garden 

 of, I should say, twenty acres, enclosed with 

 a high Avail, well stocked with fine fruit- 

 trees, mangoes, orange, and mulberry, &c., 

 and numerous wells are constantly at work, 

 as are a host of gardeners ; but their labours 

 are much impaired by a sounder of hog, 

 half-bred between English sows, that the 

 Resident gave His Highness, and wild boars 

 brought in from the jungle, whose progeny 

 inherit so much of the paternal ferocity, 

 that they charge any one who incautiously 

 invades their haunts. I should imagine that 

 these gentry must be very indifferent garden- 

 ers, and the professional horticulturist, whom 

 we brought round from Bombay, a gardener 

 supplied from the Horticultural Society of 



