113 
1893.] C. R. Wilson — Topography of old Fort William. 
plan has every mark of care and accuracy, and, as regards the northern 
portion of the fort agrees fairly well with what Mr. Bayne discovered in 
1883. There is only one suspicious circumstance to he noted here. The 
north and south alignment of the Governor’s House is not parallel to tlio 
east curtain. This is primd facie an improbable arrangement. 
In the year 1891, all the buildings between the General Post Office 
and the Custom House were pulled down and 
History of the re- ^] 1C ground dug up for the purpose of laying 
cent excavations. the f oun dations of the new Government Offices, 
Dalhousie Square. As before in 1883, so now, the excavations revealed 
remains of the strangely fashioned walls of thin brick work which had 
once formed part of the old fort. In particular the curiosity of the pub- 
lic was much excited by the discovery of a small rectangular chamber 
faced with hard cement standing in the midst of four larger walls which 
looked down grimly on it. 
At the beginning of September 1891, having made myself acquainted 
with the main features of the old fort, I went down to see the excava- 
tions. Almost the first thing 1 did was to measure the small rectangular 
chamber and the space between the larger walls which surrounded it. 
The small chamber measured east and west 9 ft. 9 in. ; the distance 
between the thick walls east and west was 14 ft. 10 in. These measure- 
ments and the general appearance of the walls convinced me that the 
thick wall on the east was the curtain wall of the fort, that the wall on 
the west was the wall parallel to the curtain built for the purpose of 
containing the chambers running along that side of the fort, and that 
the smaller plastered chamber was a strong-room or godown. 
I next identified the remains of the east gate. The walls had been 
much cut away by the excavations, but enough remained to show their 
true nature. Moreover, on measuring the distance from the spot where 
these walls stood to the record plate marking the north-east angle of the 
fort as determined by Mr. Bayne, I found that it agreed fairly well with 
the measurements given in the plan. 
This discovery of the true position of the east gate was most impor- 
tant, because it settled finally one of the chief disputed points in the to- 
pography of the old fort, and it at once became the starting point for 
further investigations and discoveries. The value and significance of the 
excavations now became clear to me. If this was the east gate then the 
extract from a letter written by Ilolwell to Bombay, 17th July 1756, when just re- 
leased from “ Muradabad.” “ The 20th in the morning the enemy formed three as- 
saults at once, against the N.-W. bastion, against the N,W. Futtoch or barrier, and 
against the windows of the Laboratory on the eastern curtain, and attempted to scale 
the North-West window.” 
J. i. 15 
