44 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
country round it. Our road lay through a thick 
forest, and the only diversity which the scene pre- 
sented was a range of beautiful hills to the westward. 
On our way from Tiagar to Tanjore, we passed Runge- 
nagur, where there is a small fort built upon a rock., 
which offered little claim to our attention ; thence 
we passed through Volconda, where there is a hand- 
some Hindoo temple. The country about this town 
is well wooded,, but presents nothing remarkable 
either in its general character or local features. 
On the evening of the fifteenth day, after quitting 
Madras, we reached Tanjore. In more remote ages 
this city was the seat of learning in the south of India. 
Within its once celebrated walls the philosopher and 
the poet have 
“ Fretted their little hour upon the stage,” 
but have long since accompanied their works to an 
eternal oblivion — “ the place thereof knoweth. them 
no more.” Tanjore contains two fortresses. The 
smaller one is a mile in circumference, very strong 
and in good repair ; its walls are surmounted by 
thick ramparts, with cavaliers at each corner. To 
the larger fortress, which is similarly fortified, and in 
which the Rajah resides, the smaller is united on one 
side. This latter contains a beautiful pagoda, of which 
the chief building exhibits, perhaps, the finest speci- 
men of a pyramidal temple to be found in Hindostan ; 
within it there is a huge statue of a bull, most exqui- 
sitely sculptured from a block of black granite. Be- 
hind the larger fort the country is covered with rice- 
