Buchanan, Francis: A Journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar ... (Band 1) (London, 1807)

46

A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH

Old

lore.

Banga-

Gardens.

i I

CHAPTER It is a square court, having at two of the sides a corridor, under
which the women sat at their meals and amusements. Behind the
corridor are their sleeping rooms, which are mean, and dark, being
about twelve feet square, and without any air or light, but what is
admitted by the door, or in some by a hole about a foot wide.
Lowness of roof is a fault prevailing over the whole structure. Be-
fore the palace is a large square court fronted by the Nobat Khana,
or station for the band of music, and surrounded by a fine corridor.
The palace lately served the officers of a European regiment for
quarters, while the privates were lodged in the corridor.

In the centre of the foit are still visible the ruins of the mud wall,
that surrounded the small village, which occupied the place before
Hyder founded the city.

llth May.—I visited the gardens made by the late Mussulman
princes, Hyder and Tippoo. They are extensive, and divided into
square plots separated by walks, the sides of which are ornamented
with fine cypress trees. The plots are filled with fruit trees, and
pot-herbs. The Mussulman fashion is to have a separate piece of
ground alloted for each kind of plant. Thus one plot is entirely
filled with rose trees, another with pomegranates, and so forth. The
walks are not gravelled, and the cultivation of the whole is rather
slovenly; but the people say, that formerly the gardens were well
kept. Want of water is the principal defect of these gardens ; for
in this arid country every thing, during the dry season, must be
artificially watered. The garden of Tippoo is supplied from three
wells, the water of which is raised by the Capily, or leather-bag,
fastened to a cord passing over a pulley, and wrought by a pair of
bullocks, which descend an inclined plane. This, the workmen
say, is a much more effectual machine than the Yatam. Hyder's gar-
den is watered from a reservoir, without the assistance of ma-
chinery. The taste of Hyder accorded more with the English, than
that of his son. His walks are wider, his cypress trees are not so
much crowded; and in the means for watering the plots there is