THE 
ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
PENKONDA. 
No scape of Nature, no distempered day, 
No common wind, no customed event, 
But they will pluck away his natural cause, 
And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs, 
Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven. 
KING JOHN. 
In the chain of rocky hills which form the north- 
east frontier of the kingdom of Mysore there is a 
droog or fortified hill, called Penkonda, remarkable 
for the boldness of its form and the picturesque 
beauty of its formation. It is not a little celebrated 
in the histories of the Mysore and Dekkan dynasties, 
and contains many fine memorials of their former 
grandeur. Dilapidated palaces and other architec- 
tural remains, both Moslem and Hindoo, are there 
thrown together in strange confusion ; and, in some 
instances, the most grotesque mixtures of these in- 
congruous styles are found in the same structure, 
the place having passed from the possession of 
B 
