. India, past and present / C. H. Forbes-Lindsay. e is a handsome structure, stand-ing in an enclosure of about five acres. The roomsare full of historical portraits and busts. Some ofthe ornaments, notably the chandeliers of the ball-room, had been designed by Louis XV. as presentsto Tipu Siihib at the time the Tiger was carryingon a clandestine correspondence with the Aurangzebof France, but the vessel, which carried these andother testimonials of the good will of the Frenchmonarch toward the hereditary enemy of the British,fell into their hands. It is rather a curious coinci-dence that the
. India, past and present / C. H. Forbes-Lindsay. e is a handsome structure, stand-ing in an enclosure of about five acres. The roomsare full of historical portraits and busts. Some ofthe ornaments, notably the chandeliers of the ball-room, had been designed by Louis XV. as presentsto Tipu Siihib at the time the Tiger was carryingon a clandestine correspondence with the Aurangzebof France, but the vessel, which carried these andother testimonials of the good will of the Frenchmonarch toward the hereditary enemy of the British,fell into their hands. It is rather a curious coinci-dence that the Viceregal Mansion was erected acentury ago upon the lines of Kedleston Hall, Derby-shire, the ancestral home of the Curzons, to whichfamily the present Viceroy belongs. Classic patterns have been followed in the publicbuildings, sometimes very closely, as in the case of theMint, which is a reduced model of the Temple ofMinerva at Athens. Perhaps this has somewhat todo with the sense of incongruity which the stranger General Post Office, Calcutta. CALCUTTA. 221 experiences at first sight of Calcutta. The contrastbetween the old and the new, the East and the West,seems greater here than in Bombay or Madras, wherethe modern architectural features more often display ablending of Oriental art. Here, too, the handsomeresidence and the humble hovel are more frequentlyfound in juxtaposition, and the Europeanized nativeis more in evidence. The babu on a bicycle, and thebaniyaln a brougham, are sights to which one does notreadily grow accustomed. The unceasing din, and theincessant dust, are characteristics of Calcutta, with whichone can only become reconciled on continued American tourist who writes his or her booknever fails to expatiate upon the discomforts of thehotels of the large cities of India. The criticisms arequite just from the point of view of the tourist, whocannot easily understand changed conditions whenthey conflict with his comfort. The fiict is that ahote
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