Chap. XXII. ENGLISH STATIONS. 369 



built the first house in Ootacamund, on the site of a Todar 

 mund of the same name.^ It is now used as the building for 

 the Lawrence Asylum. The first sanatarium on the hills, 

 however, was at Dimhutty, on the eastern side, and at the 

 adjoining station of Kotergherry, but the former is now 

 abandoned. The delightful climate soon attracted crowds of 

 visitors from the burning plains ; many houses gradually rose 

 up on the grassy slopes round the lake which was formed at 

 Ootacamund by bunding up one end of the valley, and the 

 place rapidly became an important hill-station. A small 

 native town and bazaar sprang up on the banks of the lake, a 

 handsome church was erected, a club-house, and, most con- 

 spicuous of all, an immense Parsee shop kept by Framjee 

 Nusserwanjee of Bombay. The roads are excellent, and planted 

 with tall graceful Acacia and gum-trees from Australia, and 

 many of the houses are sm'rounded by beautiful gardens and 

 shrubberies. The most charming, perhaps, is that of the late 

 Bishop Dealtry, called Bishops-down, whence there is a 

 glorious view of the station on one side, and of the distant 

 Koondah hills, overtopped by the sharp peak of Makoorty, on 

 the other. Advantage has here been taken of a wooded shola to 

 make pleasant shady walks, and cut vistas through the trees. 

 The warmer station of Coonoor is about nine miles from 

 Ootacamund, at the head of the ghaut which leads do\Mi 

 to the plains of Coimbatore. Here the scenery is far more 

 beautiful than at the central station, as the wooded sides 

 of the ghaut run up into a fine peak called the Hoolicul- 

 droog, and the view extends far away over the plains. The 

 houses are perched on the rounded tops of a rauge of lulls, 

 and there is a church with a fine tower, which is a great 

 addition to the view of Coonoor from the surrounding emi- 

 nences. A mile from Coonoor, in the direction of Ootacamund, 



- Liteially " one stone village." 



2 B 



