square, with a fountain and cascade on each front. The zenana indicates nothing remarkable in its structure, but the side overlooking the Jumna is very pleasant, above a large court, where the emperor, seated in an upper pavilion, received the prostrations of his subjects.

The grand mosque going fast to decay, is debased to a grainmarket. It has been extremely beautiful, and its situation at the immediate confluence of the two rivers, is truly fine. The Hindoo bathing-place is at the bottom of the fort; a flight of indifferent steps leads to the Ganges, where the brahmins make the sacred marks on the face after performing their ablutions. There are three remarkable trees opposite Poppamow, called by the natives Valattee-Emlee, or Europe tamarind, the Adansonia of Linnæus ; the centre one measures thirty-two feet six inches round the trunk, the tree on the left nearly an inch more, and the other not quite thirty feet. They grow within fifty yards of the Ganges; and about three hundred yards distance is another of still larger circumference. The branches of these celebrated trees rise from the trunks by a large base, disproportioned to their general bulk. The first was extremely small when I saw it, and covered with a down of light green like velvet; it ripens in February, the fruit is then the size of a cocoa-nut, containing a white pulp, abounding with red seeds. The brahmins spoke highly of this fruit, thinking it extremely delicious, and the acid peculiarly grateful.

The mausoleum of Kusroe, the son of Jehanghire, and brother of Shah Jehan, said to have been assassinated by his connivance, stands at the extremity of Allahabad, without the walls, near the tombs of his mother and sister. The tomb of Kusroe is of plain

white marble; the dome which covers it, and all the rest of the whole structure is free-stone. The garden shews the remains of walks, canals, and fountains; the buildings are appropriated to a battalion of sepoys stationed here by the vizier. The town in general is populous, the streets long and straggling, the houses mean, and such of the women as fell under our notice, remarkably plain.

In respect to the junction of the Ganges and Jumna, the velocity with which the latter rushes into the former is worthy of remark. It occasions a visible rise across the stream, and turned round the boat in which we attempted crossing, with an inconceivable rapidity.

From Allahabad we went down the Ganges on the 21st to Chunar, called by the natives Chundal-Ghur. This fort is strongly situated on a hill, with a disadvantage of being commanded by one still higher. The commandant's house is a fine building, and the staff officers have an excellent suite of apartments. The mausoleums of Shah Cossim Soolimanee, and Shah Wassub, are singularly beautiful; and the stone railings which enclose these shrines, are curiously wrought in open mosaic patterns. The quarries at Chunar furnish abundantly a light-coloured stone, resembling Portland stone, which is easily worked, and well adapted for public buildings of the natives, on which they lavish a variety of ornamental sculpture. The city of Calcutta is supplied with this useful article from the quarries at Chunar, easily transported by water.

We next stopped a short time at Ramnaghur, where a heavy pile of building forms a fortified palace on the brink of the river;

behind it is the town of Ramnaghur, from whence a road is carried for about a mile through fields of roses and mogrees, to the new pagoda, tank, and gardens, left unfinished by the famous ex-rajah Cheyte Sihng. The garden and tank are each two hundred yards square. The pagoda is erected on an eminence about fifty yards from the steps by which the Hindoos descend to the water at their ablutions. This building is of that heavy style so common in the Hindoo temples; but some sculpture from their mythology on the exterior is better than usual; the attitudes easy and graceful, especially the musicians, playing before the divinities, assembled in groups. The interior sculpture, which I did not see, is

reckoned still more beautiful.

The following evening, 26th, we crossed over to Benares, which is nearly opposite, and spent some days there and at Sercole, in a very pleasant society, during which we visited all the curiosities in the celebrated city of Benares, which is extensive and populous, but the streets narrow and dirty, the houses mean, and the women neither so cleanly or delicate as the Hindoos in general. A great nuisance here is the number of yogees, senassees, and nanghas, or religious mendicants, who go about entirely naked; we occasionally meet a few of these people at other places, but at Benares they abound. The three most remarkable things here are the pagodas, the observatory, and the Jumma Musjid. The lofty minars of the latter are conspicuous at a great distance; from the gallery on one of them we had a complete view of the city, which, from the narrow streets and crowded population, presents a scene of great confusion. There are some large houses which appear to little

advantage in their close situation; those on the banks of the Ganges have greatly the advantage, and seen from the river make a good appearance.

The three principal pagodas are sacred to Andepora, Gunga, and Vississore. These owe their celebrity more to their reputed sanctity, and the immense concourse of pilgrims from all parts of Hindostan, than to any superiority in architecture or sculpture. They are small, heavy, and confusedly crowded with ornaments ill executed, excepting the figure of Sureje, the Sun, seated on a car drawn by a horse with seven heads, driven by a furious charioteer. It is to be remarked, that most probably these are allegorical representations of the days of the week; and Sir Charles Malet thinks the months, hours, and other component parts of the designation or division of time are introduced into this piece of curious sculpture. Near these temples I was disgusted with seeing fifty or sixty of those naked mendicants, employed in rolling small balls of sacred mud, on each of which they stuck a single grain of rice, and arranged them in great order along the front of the verandas, for the Hindoo devotees to offer as a sacrifice to the Ganges.

From thence we proceeded to the observatory, so renowned throughout India, and the subject of much discussion in Europe. We ascended by a flight of steps to an open terrace, where several astronomical instruments, formed of stone, are in perfect preservation. The principal object is a large semicircle graduated, seemingly intended for a dial.

I pass over Mr. Cruso's further remarks on the observatory at Benares, which so far from ascribing to remote antiquity, he did not

consider to have been erected more than a century. The following remark in the Edinburgh Review on Mr. Bentley's treatise on the Hindoo systems of astronomy should not be omitted. That "the consideration of the facts ascertained therein, and of many more which it would be easy to produce, ought to keep our curiosity alive to the remains of science in the east. Their extent and accuracy are so considerable—their origin and genealogy so completely unknown-they are united with so much extravagance and superstition, and so totally separated from any general stock of knowledge, that we cannot but consider them as forming altogether the most enigmatical monument of antiquity that is to be found on the face of the earth. A great degree of scepticism on this subject ought most carefully to be preserved, until the industry and learning of the Asiatic Society, to which we have already so great obligations, shall furnish us with a more complete catalogue and description of the remains of oriental science. We may then decide, whether the east has only borrowed from the west, or whether it be true, as Lucian says, that it was in India that philosophy first alighted on the earth.”

We left Benares and our hospitable friends there on the 1st of September, and on the 3d arrived at Buxar, a neat little fortress erected on an eminence, commanding a great extent of flat country, adorned with rich groves and plantations. The lines are extensive, intended principally as shelter for the ryots in case of an attack; the whole is uncommonly neat, and in excellent order. After viewing the field of battle where General Munro gained the victory over Serajah Dowlah, we dined with the commanding officer, and,