AL ILOSIE (CHINE. 707 
these fortifications have been perforated to afford ingress to and egress from the 
city. At the northern entrance there are no remains, but at the southern still 
stands the Kutwali gate, a beautiful ruin, measuring fifty one feet in height, 
under the archway. Within the space inclosed by these embankments and the 
river stood the City of Gour, proper, and in the southern corner was situated the 
fort, containing the palace, of which it is deeply to be regretted that so little is 
left. Early in the present century there was much to be found here worthy of © 
note, including many elegantly carved marbles; but these are said to have _be- 
come the prey of the Calcutta undertakers and others for monumental purposes. 
‘On the rvadside, between the palace and the Bhagirathi River, there now lies 
split in twain a vast block of hornblende, which, having been carried thus far, 
has been dropped and left as broken on the highway, to bear its testinony against 
the spoilers. Surrounding the palace is an inner embankment of similar con- 
struction to that which surrounds the city, and even more overgrown with jungle, 
A deep moat protects it on the outside. Radiating north, south, and east 
from the city, other embankments are to be traced, running through the suburbs, 
and extending in certain directions for thirty or forty miles. These include the 
great causeways or main roads leading to the city, which were constructed by 
Sultan Ghivasuddin. The greater part of them were metaled, and here and 
there they are still used as roads, but most of them are, like those within the 
city, overgrown with thick jungle” 
Within the embankment, ten miles by three, the kings constructed splendid 
mosques by the dozens; palaces, public buildings, deep and huge reservoirs, and 
so many houses, that after three centuries of spoilation, ‘‘there is not a village, 
scarcely a house, in the district of Maldah (which is as big as an English county), 
or in the surrounding country, that does not bear evidence of having been par- 
tially constructed from its ruins. The cities of Murshidabad, Maldah, Rajamahal 
and Rangpur, have almost entirely been built with materials from Gour, and 
even its few remaining edifices are being daily despoiled.” The kings built in 
brick and stone, and used for many mosques a material which Mr. Ravenshaw 
calls marble, but is more like what a hard freestone would be if it could bea 
deep coal-black. The quarries from which the material was obtained are still, as 
far as we know, uncertain; but it must have existed in enormous quantities ; it 
took the chisel perfectly, and it appears inaccessible even in that destructive climate, 
to the effect of time. We have seen a mantelpiece of it, engraved with the Mo- 
hammedan profession of faith, known to be 800 years old, and the letters, cut to 
the depth of a line, are as clear as if the work had been done yesterday. The 
Gour architects built splendid Saracenic arches, gateways, and domes, and 
spared no expense or time on elaborate decoration, in a style which deserves sep- 
arate study, for it marks the deep influence of Hindoo antiquities on men who 
were recently Mussulmans, and probably Moors from Spain. There is evidence 
that the grandeur and luxury of the city made a deep impression in Asia, for in 
one or two of the later Arabian stories it is treated as country-folk treat London ; 
