which

-high o'er head

Dazzling the sight, hangs, quivering like a lark,*

-the variegated Pigeon, so called, from "Afric's burning shore,"-and the prophetic flittings,

"Up and down

From the base of the wave to the billow's crown,"

of the little Stormy-Petrel;-that you have visited the tombs, as you are assured, of Paul and Virginia at the Mauritius,-nearly fainted under the influence of the spice-gales from off the Island of Ceylon !-sighted at length the palm-girt shore of Coromandel,-taken in your Pilot at the Sand-heads,— made the low land of Bengal-the tiger-haunted Island of Saugor, and in two days, by aid of steamer, safely landed in, and a thousand times welcomed

to

"The gorgeous realms of Ind.",

The heat of our excitement upon your arrival tempered down to the more healthy tone of "absolute content,"-the sulâms of the domestics tendered to the "Burra Mem,"+-and the morning meal, as common to India, of boiled rice, fried fish, eggs, omelet, toast and tea, as may best have suited your inclination, past,-I must make the most of the little time a day can afford me, by at once begging you to accompany me in a domestic ramble.

Relinquishing, therefore, by your leave, the style epistolary, I assume that of the colloquial..

Permit me, then, in greater form, to introduce you to the exterior of the house,-one which I conceive to be well adapted for the objects and the illustrations I have in view,-a comfortable, well raised, lower-roomed dwelling, which is not only highly characteristic of its class, but of AngloIndian residences in general, be they great or small. The rent of such + Great or chief Lady.

* Ocean Sketches, D. L. R.

+ Plate 1.

a house you will doubtless consider exorbitant, being seventy roopees per Rent in Calcutta is indeed extremely high, but there are no taxes

mensem.

on the tenant.

The houses of Calcutta are of all shapes, ranging through the whole table of geometrical figures,-of all sizes, but of one colour-if white a colour be; but however big-and some resemble castles,-however fantastical, or however handsome-and you are aware our city is called the "City of Palaces," their internal arrangements differ but little, consequently, in describing one, I describe all, though upon a larger or smaller scale as the case may be. The only, really marked, distinction rests between upper and lower roomed houses. The upper portion of the former you may conceive to be nothing more than a repetition, both in size and arrangement, of the rooms below,-which, if sufficiently raised from the ground and ventilated to be habitable, are the coolest during the day, being more protected from the sun's rays. Upper-roomed dwellings possess the advantages of pure air and its free circulation; one so essential to sleep, and both so indispensable to health. The lower-roomed house, with the flat roofs of its rooms exposed to the beams of the sun, is of course the hotter,-lacking, not only circulation, but, what elevation can alone give, wholesome air; considerations which render upper-roomed houses infinitely more desirable. I may add that they are the more common also, for out of 11215 dwelling houses in Calcutta, 6376 are of this kind.

A great improvement, however, may now be observed in the construction of our lower-roomed houses, by an increase of elevation given to the floor, and free ventilation opened beneath it by arches. These, when sufficiently high,

may occasionally be seen open, so as to admit the sweeper beneath with his broom, and, if sufficiently capacious, are sometimes converted into receptacles for lumber, or the petty stores and sundries pertaining to the servant whose office it is to trim the lamps and clean the boots and shoes. Five, six, and even seven feet form no

uncommon elevation-hence such houses are frequently termed "demi-upper roomed," but this term, strictly, belongs to houses having lower apartments which are not habitable, and used only as godowns or store rooms.

The form and arrangement of an English residence evidently owe their origin to the Bungalow of the middling classes of natives-modified by the better dwellings of the higher ranks, and thus partaking of the character of each. To the former the bungalows of military officers and others in the moofussul are more clearly and directly referable.

Take, for instance, the ground plan of a native's bungalow. The centre square may consist of either one or two apartments, according to the circumstances or wants of the individual, whilst the thatched roof, extending considerably over all sides, is supported at the extreme edges upon bamboo or wooden pillars, -thus forming a covered veranda round the building. The European resident, improving upon this, encloses the veranda by erecting

Rude as this may appear, these rustic tenements, in one of which I once spent a week, are, generally, not only very pretty, but very comfortable,their thick straw roofs, and airy locality, rendering them cool habitations.

The residences of the respectable and rich Hindoos form a remarkable contrast with those of their poorer countrymen, being built of brick, and in form directly the reverse of those I have just described. Instead of an apartment surrounded by a veranda, it is a veranda surrounded by apartments,— reminding one of some of the old inns in the borough of Southwark. The centre of the building is an open court yard or area, but this, in times of festivities, is converted into a large apartment, by temporarily matting and carpetting the floor, and covering in the room with an immense cloth roof.*

In India, a man's house is, indeed, his "castle," being built alonesurrounded by a wall, and a durwan, or warder, retained to keep charge of the entrance.

The exterior of the building [Plate 1.] will, I doubt not, be sufficient to impress you with a feeling of absence from old England. That it is "no your ain house" you'll "ken by the rigging o't":-but now step into it ;-not through floor-cloth passage, into which you have been admitted upon ring

* A rich Hindoo gentleman of Calcutta, desiring to gratify the female members of his family by the sight of a European equestrian performance, converted this area, with the usual material of earth and sawdust, into a circus, and engaged a French equestrian corps, then in Calcutta, to perform in private at his own house. An idea may thus be formed of the size of many of these court-yards.