86 H. Beveridge —Major Franckliris description of Gaur. [No. 2, 
Mr. Grote’s letter to Mrs. Ravenshaw shows that they were not forth¬ 
coming about twenty years ago. 
William Francklin was, like Warren Hastings and Impey, a West¬ 
minster boy, and was an officer in the Army of the East India Com¬ 
pany. He w T as the son of a clergyman named Thomas Francklin, who 
was a man of some note in the literary world, but who unhappily got 
confounded with his more celebrated namesake, Benjamin Franklin. 
Macaulay corrects the mistake, and then impales his unoffending coun¬ 
tryman on the point of a Greek quotation. The son is well known as the 
biographer of George Thomas, and as the author of a work on the site 
of Palibothra, in which he endeavours to identify it with Campanagar, 
a village about four miles to the west of Bhagalpur. He was mistaken, 
no doubt, but the book is still worth reading. His principal point was 
that there was a river near Campanagar, called the ‘ Errun Bhowah,’ 
which certainly resembled in sound, but not in size, the Greek Erano- 
boas. He seems to have converted Major Wilford to his opinion, for he 
speaks of him as having given up the Rajmahal site in favour of the 
Bhagalpur one. Referring to this, Francklin speaks with stately 
courtesy of Wilford, as a man “with whom to be associated, is to be 
associated w T itli learning itself.” But the most picturesque circumstance 
in Francklin’s life was a tour which he made in Persia in 1786, when he 
was an Ensign and only three-and-twenty years of age. On this occasion 
he lived for about six months in Shiraz as a member of a Persian 
family. He became a Major in 1810, and a Lieut.-Colonel in 1814. For 
seven years he was Regulating Officer at Bhagalpur, and in that capa¬ 
city had, I believe, to do with the invalided sepoys who were at that 
time settled in the Jungle Taral. We are told that he himself was in¬ 
valided in 1815, but Bishop Heber, who met him at Bhagalpur in 1824, 
describes him as being then inspecting field-officer of Bhagalpur. The 
Bishop describes him as being a very agreeable and communicative old 
man, and as the possessor of curious and interesting collections. 
Francklin retired from service in 1825, and died in April 1839, at the 
age of 76. At the time of his death he was Librarian to the Royal 
Asiatic Society. From a casual reference in his book on Palibothra 1 
we learn that he was married, and that his wife accompanied him on a 
visit to Heogarh. There is an account of him in the National Dictionary 
of Biography ; but the author of it has not always verified his refer¬ 
ences, and has made some mistakes : as for example, when he speaks of 
Francklin’s having lived eight months with a Persian family in Shiraz. 
The report on Gaur is entitled “ Journal of a Route from Rajmahal 
1 The ‘ Muhudipur’ of Pemberton’s Map, and the ‘ Mahdipur ’ of Cunningham. 
