46 
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
CHAPTER It is a square court, having at two of the sides a corridor, under 
which the women sat at their meals and amusements. Behind the 
corridor are their sleeping rooms, which are mean, and dark, being 
about twelve feet square, and without any air or light, but what is 
admitted by the door, or in some by a hole about a foot wide. 
Lowness of roof is a fault prevailing over the whole structure. Be- 
fore the palace is a large square court fronted by the Nobat Khana , 
or station for the band of music, and surrounded by a fine corridor. 
The palace lately served the officers of a European regiment for 
quarters, while the privates were lodged in the corridor. 
Old Banga- In the centre of the fort are still visible the ruins of the mud wall, 
that surrounded the small village, which occupied the place before 
Hyder founded the city. 
Gardens. 1 Ith May . — I visited the gardens made by the late Mussulman 
princes, Hyder and Tippoo. They are extensive, and divided into 
square plots separated by walks, the sides of which are ornamented 
with fine cypress trees. The plots are filled with fruit trees, and 
pot-herbs. The Mussulman fashion is to have a separate piece of 
ground alloted for each kind of plant. Thus one plot is entirely 
filled with rose trees, another with pomegranates, and so forth. The 
walks are not. gravelled, and the cultivation of the whole is rather 
slovenly ; but the people say, that formerly the gardens were well 
kept. Want of water is the principal defect of these gardens ; for 
in this arid country every thing, during the dry season, must be 
artificially watered. The garden of Tippoo is supplied from three 
wells, the water of which is raised by the Capily , or leather-bag, 
fastened to a cord passing over a pulley, and wrought by a pair of 
bullocks, which descend an inclined plane. This, the workmen 
say, is a much more effectual machine than the Yatam. Hyder" s gar- 
den is watered from a reservoir, without the assistance of ma- 
chinery. The taste of Hy disaccorded more with the English, than 
that of his son. His walks are wider, his cypress trees 'are not so 
inuch crowded ; and in the means for watering the plots there is 
