CHAPTER III - CALCUTTA

Summary

On the 27th of December I paid a visit of two days to the Governor at Barrackpoor. I went by water early enough in the morning to preach to the congregation, which, for want of a church, assembles in the great hall of the Government-house. The distance is about 24 miles, which, with a favourable tide and a good set of rowers, may be ascended in two hours and a half, and descended in less than two hours. The river continues of nearly the same width as at Calcutta; its banks are covered with fruit-trees and villages, with many very handsome pagodas, of which buildings Calcutta only offers some small, mean, and neglected specimens. The general style of these buildings is, a large square court, sometimes merely surrounded by a low wall, with brick balustrades, plaistered so as to resemble stone, or indented at the top, with two or sometimes four towers at the angles, generally, in the present day, of Grecian architecture, and ornamented with pilasters, balustrades, and friezes. In the centre of the principal front is, for the most part, an entrance resembling in its general character, and style of arrangement, the beautiful Propylæum at Chester castle. When the pagoda adjoins the river, a noble flight of steps, the whole breadth of the portico, generally leads from the water to this entrance. Sometimes the whole court is surrounded by a number of square towers, detached by a small interval from each other, and looking not unlike tea-canisters, having such a propylæum as I have described in the centre of the principal front.