Willing As I Feel To Bear Testimony To Many Excellent Points In The
Native Character, I Regret To Say, That, Although They Do Not Deserve
The Sweeping Accusations Brought Against Them, The Standard By Which
They Are Guided Is Very Low.
At the same time it must be said, that
the good faith which they observe, upon occasions in which persons
guided by superior lights would be less scrupulous, shows that they
only require a purer religious system to regard truth as we have been
taught to regard it.
CHAPTER XI.
* * * * *
BOMBAY - (Continued.)
* * * * *
Residences for the Governor - Parell - Its Gardens - Profusion of
Roses - Receptions at Government-house - The evening-parties - The
grounds and gardens of Parell inferior to those at Barrackpore - The
Duke of Wellington partial to Parell - Anecdotes of his Grace
in India - Sir James Mackintosh - His forgetfulness of India - The
Horticultural Society - Malabar Point, a retreat in the hot
weather - The Sea-view beautiful - The nuisance of fish - Serious effects
at Bombay of the stoppage of the trade with China - Ill-condition
of the poorer classes of Natives - Frequency of Fires - Houses of the
Parsees - Parsee Women - Masculine air of the other Native Females
of the lower orders who appear in
public - Bangle-shops - Liqueur-shops - Drunkenness amongst Natives
not uncommon here, from the temptations held out - The Sailors'
Home - Arabs, Greeks, Chinamen - The latter few and shabby - Portuguese
Padres - Superiority of the Native Town of Bombay over that of
Calcutta - Statue of Lord Cornwallis - Bullock-carriages - High price and
inferiority of horses in Bombay - Hay-stacks - Novel mode of stacking.
There are three residences for the accommodation of the Governor
of Bombay; one, the Castle, situated within the Fort, has been long
disused, and appropriated to government-offices; a second, at Malabar
Point, is intended as a retreat for the hot weather; Parell, the
third, being the mansion most usually occupied.
Though not built in a commanding position, Parell is very prettily
situated in the midst of gardens, having a rich back-ground of wood,
while, from the upper windows, the eye, after ranging over these
luxuriant groves, catches a view of the sea, and is carried away to
more remote regions by the waving outline of distant hills, melting
into the soft haze until it effaces all their details.
Parell was originally a college of Jesuits, and, after so many
alterations and improvements, that its original occupants would be
puzzled to recognise it, is now rendered worthy of the purpose to
which it is dedicated. The house is an irregular structure, without
pretension to architectural design or ornament, but having something
noble in its appearance, which is helped out by a fine portico and
battlemented roof. The interior is handsome and convenient; two
flights of marble stairs, twelve feet broad, lead into a very spacious
drawing-room, with galleries on either side, and three smaller
drawing-rooms beyond. The terrace over the portico, at the other
end, separated from this suite of apartments by a verandah, is easily
convertible into a fourth reception-room, it being roofed in by an
awning, and furnished with blinds, which in the day-time give a very
Italian air to the whole building.
Though I have never been in Italy, the acquaintance gained of it
through the medium of illustrating pens and pencils makes me fancy
that the island of Bombay, and Parell especially, at this season of
the year (the cold weather), may bear a strong resemblance to that
fair and sunny land.
The gardens of Parell are perfectly Italian, with their fountains and
cypress trees; though regular, they are not sufficiently symmetrical
to offend the eye, the nature of the ground and of the building, which
runs out at right angles, preventing the formality from being
carried beyond its just limit. Price, the most judicious of
landscape-gardeners, would scarcely have desired to alter arrangements
which have quite enough of the varied and the picturesque to
satisfy those who do not contend for eternal labyrinthine mazes and
perpetually waving lines. There is one straight avenue in front, but
the principal carriage-road has just the kind of curve most desirable,
sweeping round some fine trees which group themselves for the purpose
of affording an agreeable diversity.
A broad terrace, overlooking a large tank, runs along one side of the
garden, and beyond, upon a rising hill, are seen the New Horticultural
Gardens, and a part of the picturesque village of Metunga, while the
rest is laid out in small lawns, interspersed with rounds and ovals,
fountains in the centre, surrounded by flower-beds, and flanked by
tall, slender cypresses, and the more rare, delicate, and elegant
species of palms: all this is set off by clumps of mangoes, now
covered with blossoms of dark gold burnishing their green leaves.
It is, indeed, a fair and stately garden, enriched with many native
and foreign productions, both of tree and flower, of great beauty. In
one place, two large trees, on either side a broad gravel walk, are
united by a splendid festoon, formed by a creeper, which bears in the
greatest profusion bell-shaped flowers, at least four inches long, and
of the most beautiful pearly whiteness and fragrant scent. I regret
that my want of botanical knowledge incapacitates me from giving its
name and family. That species of palm which is called the Travellers'
Tree, and which, growing in sandy places, contains in its leaves an
ample supply of fresh water, is to be found here. It resembles the
banana or plantain, in its broad leaves, springing immediately from
the stem, but attains a much greater height, and is altogether very
striking and singular in its appearance.
The wealth of roses at the gardens of Parell seems to exceed all
computation, bushels being collected every day without any apparent
diminution; indeed it may be questioned whether there is in any part
of the world so great a consumption of this beautiful flower as in
Bombay. The natives cultivate it very largely, and as comparatively
few employ it in the manufacture of rose-water, it is gathered and
given away in the most lavish profusion.
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