GHAZEEPORE GILLIES. 



491 



though on a nearer inspection, its noblest build- 

 ings are, as is too often the case in Indian towns, 

 found to be in a miserable state of ruin. The na- 

 tive city itself is, however, better built, and better 

 kept, than many other places of more importance. 

 The bazars are neat and well supplied, and bishop 

 Heber, describing the place, says, ' One of the 

 streets was so wide, one might have supposed one- 

 self in an English country town." But he adds, 

 " the town has no large houses except one, the 

 property of a wealthy Mussulman, which is ex- 

 tremely like some of the old houses in Scotland, as 

 represented in prints, and described by the author 

 of Waverley. Like all other native buildings, it 

 looks dingy and neglected, but appears in good 

 substantial repair, and is a striking object, more so, 

 perhaps, than most of the Corinthian verandahs at 

 Calcutta. There are moreover, the remains of an 

 old castle here, now reduced to little more than a 

 high green mound, scattered with ruins, and over- 

 hung with some fine trees." 



Although the neighbouring population is chiefly 

 Hindoo, a very considerable portion of the inhabi- 

 tants of the town are Mussulmans. Their mosques 

 here are more numerous, or at least more remark- 

 able, than the pagodas. Indeed, although, taking 

 the whole province together, they form but barely 

 an eleventh part of the population, and amongst 

 the remainder, Hindooism exists in all its strength 

 and bigotry, yet as it is in the large towns that the 

 Mussulmans chiefly abound, they sometimes appear 

 here in such numbers, in the shops and streets, as 

 to lead persons to believe that they bear a more 

 considerable proportion to their Hindoo brethren. 



" At the eastern extremity of the town," the 

 bishop relates, " is a very handsome, though ruined 

 palace, built by the Nawab, Cossim Ali Khan, the 

 most airy and best contrived, so far as can be per- 

 ceived from its outward appearance, of any of the 

 eastern buildings I have seen. Its verandahs are 

 really magnificent, but its desolation is so recent, 

 that it is very far from being a pleasing object on 

 approaching near enough to perceive its decay. It 

 is approached from the land through a fine stone 

 gateway, which, though differing in a few particu- 

 lars from the English Gothic, certainly belongs to 

 the same style of architecture. This is in good 

 repair, and has still its massive teak folding-doors 

 clenched with iron studs, and with the low-browed 

 wicketinthemiddle,likeanEnglish castle or college. 



" At the other extremity of the town, and sepa- 

 rated from it by gardens and scattered cottages, are 

 the houses of the civil servants of the company, 

 mostly with ground-floors only, but large and hand- 

 some. They are surrounded by good gardens, and 

 occupy picturesque situations amidst tame but 

 luxuriant scenery, where the green lanes, flowering 

 hedgerows, arid receding glades, bring to mind 

 some of the most cultivated portions of England. 

 Beyond these is the military cantonment, ugly low 

 bungalows, with sloping roofs of red tile, but deriv- 

 ing some advantage from the trees with which they 

 are surrounded and intermingled. The most con- 

 spicuous building among them is the monument to 

 lord Cornwallis, who died here on his way up the 

 country." 



Ghazeepore is noted for the wholesomeness of 

 its air, and the beauty and extent of its gardens. 

 The British regiments removed hither from the 

 other stations, have, it is said, always found the 

 number of their deaths diminish from the Indian to 

 the European proportion. 



The precious incense of the rose, the attu-gool, 

 so celebrated throughout all the civilized parts of 

 the world, is produced in considerable quantities in 

 the gardens round Ghazeepore. The cultivation of 

 roses at Ghazeepore is a mere matter of business, 

 and the extensive fields, though planted with roses, 

 do not appear so beautiful and attractive as might 

 at first be imagined. The fact is, the Indian rose, 

 though its very name seems to imply distinction, 

 can only sustain a comparison with its European 

 sisters in the fragrance which it yields. It is 

 beautiful, for could a rose be otherwise? But ex- 

 cepting at Agra, it does not attain to the magnifi- 

 cent size common in England, nor does it present, 

 the infinite varieties which adorn our gardens. The 

 roses of eastern climes bloom sparingly upon a low 

 shrub, which is kept to a dwarfish size by the 

 gardener's knife, and the full-blown flowers being 

 gathered every morning, the trees rarely present 

 the luxuriance of loaded boughs, drooping beneath 

 the weight of their silken treasures. The roses of 

 Ghazeepore are planted formally, in large fields, 

 occupying many hundred acres in the neighbour- 

 hood. The flush of their flowers, when opening 

 to the morning ray, and enamelling the verdant 

 carpet of green spread over a sun-lit plain, cannot, 

 however, fail to delight the eye. The gathering of 

 the roses is performed systematically by a multi- 

 tude of poor labourers, who carefully secure every 

 full-blown flower. The first process which these 

 undergo is that of distillation. The goolaabee 

 paanee, rose-water, thus obtained is poured into 

 large vessels, which are exposed uncovered to the 

 open air during the night. The jars are skimmed 

 occasionally, the essential oil floating on the sur- 

 face being the precious concentration of aroma 

 which is so highly prized. 



GILLIES, JOHN, LL.D., F.R.S., F.A.S., 

 member of many foreign societies, and historio- 

 grapher to his late Majesty for Scotland, was born 

 at Brechin, in the county of Forfar, on the 18th of 

 Jan. 1747. He was educated at Glasgow, where, 

 when under twenty years of age, he was chosen to 

 teach the Greek class in the illness and decline of 

 the then aged professor of Greek in that univer- 

 sity. He soon, however, resigned that appoint- 

 ment, and came to London, with the view of mak- 

 ing literature his sole pursuit ; and, in furtherance 

 of this object, he spent some time on the contin- 

 ent to acquire facility in the modern languages. 

 Soon after his return, being yet a young man, that 

 connection with the Hopetoun family commenced, 

 to which he always ascribed much of the happiness 

 and prosperity of his long life, this friendship hav- 

 ing subsisted between them from that period with- 

 out an intervening cloud. John, the second earl 

 of Hopetoun, to whom he had been introduced by 

 his eldest son lord Hope (the late James earl of 

 Hopetoun), invited him to travel with his second 

 son, the hon. Henry Hope, and induced him to re- 

 linquish some honourable and lucrative literary 

 engagements, by settling upon him, in the year 

 1777, an annuity for life. Henry Hope died 

 abroad, and a few years afterwards, Dr Gillies 

 went again to the continent with the younger sons 

 of the same earl of Hopetoun, John and Alexander 

 Hope. Mr Gillies returned with his companions 

 about the year 1784, when he resumed his literary 

 labours, and took his degree of LL. D,, previously 

 to the publication of the first part of his Grecian 

 History. Upon the death of his friend Dr Robert- 

 son he was appointed historiographer to the King 



