LUGKNOW. 
163 
ladies with shaking heads, and air the gods and goddesses of the 
heathen mythology. * It has a handsome effect at a distance, from 
a lofty tower in the centre with four turrets ; but on a nearer ap- 
proach, the wretched taste of the ornaments only excites contempt. 
A more extraordinary combination of Gothic towers, and Grecian 
pilasters, I believe, was never before devised. Within, the hall is 
very fine, but the other apartments are small and gloomy, loaded 
with stucco-work painted yellow, to imitate gilding. It is not yet 
finished, but by his will he has directed that it shall be completed 
according to his own plan. He bequeathed it to the public as a 
serai, every stranger being permitted to take up his residence there 
for two months. As yet this has been no advantage to any one ; his 
executors having been more employed in defending his property 
against the numerous claimants that have started up, than in carry- 
ing this part of his will into effect. 
A more infamous or despicable character than the late General 
Martin never existed. He had not a single virtue, though he 
laboured to assume the appearance of several. He took the female 
orphan children of two of his friends, declaring that he would 
educate and provide for them both ; but when they reached the 
age of twelve, they unwillingly became his concubines. His death 
was supposed to be the consequence of the perpetration of this last 
crime. Another child he promised to educate, and actually sent 
to England, and during his life he had the credit of having 
done a generous action; but on his death, every item that he 
had expended was found in his accounts debited to the father, 
with an especial order to his executors to recover the whole. His 
* Many of these have been demolished, and most of them injured, by the earthquake 
of the 1st of September. 
VOL. I. y 
