CALCUTTA. 
253 
CHAPTER XXIL 
CALCUTTA. EDIFICES. SUNPERBUNDS. 
On the fifth day after we quitted Gour we reached 
Calcutta, from the splendour of its buildings now 
called the City of Palaces, though within a century it 
was nothing better than a rude straggling town with- 
out regularity or beauty, containing indeed a dense 
population, and surrounded by a dreary and unwhole- 
some jungle, the haunt of robbers, and the abode of 
beasts of prey* 
The modem town extends above six miles along 
the eastern bank of the Hoogley, and presents a very 
animated picture from the river here curving into 
a large bay, from the opposite side of which, called 
Garden-house reach, the view is taken represented in 
the engraving. This reach takes its name from several 
elegant country houses erected in the neighbourhood, 
each enclosed by an extensive garden ; and here their 
opulent owners retire after the business of the day 
is concluded at their offices in the city. The buildings 
of the European portion of the town present an ap- 
pearance of great splendour from their almost inva- 
riably having extensive and lofty porticos, supported 
on numerous pillars, which impart an air of Grecian 
grandeur to those edifices. To persons just arrived 
z 
