Page:Calcutta, Past and Present.djvu/268

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STREETS AND HOUSES

Clive Street. Coming further south, the Small Cause Court is partly, and the Sailor's Home entirely, on ground recovered from the Hughly, so is the stately Metcalfe Hall. The Bank of Bengal stands where, in days before the English occupation, the native boatmen careened their craft, on the bank of the old Creek, at Cutchagoody Ghaut In later years an avenue of trees marked this spot along the river-bank, and shaded the road known, from its neighbourhood to the Supreme Court, as King's Bench Walk. Another and a finer avenue of trees was planted, about the time of the Lottery Committee, on the river-bank from Chandpal Ghaut to the New Fort, This was known as Respondentia Walk, where Calcutta society, alighting from carriages and palanquins, promenaded in the cool of the evening; nor were dogs allowed to disturb the harmony of polite conversation, for an order of the Governor-General in Council forbade persons accompanied by dogs to be allowed in Respondentia Walk. Most of the old walk is included in the Eden Gardens, which were laid out under the direction of the Honble. Miss Eden and her sister, at the time their brother, Lord Auckland, was Governor-General, from 1836 to 1842.

It is not a little interesting and curious to

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