STREETS AND HOUSES
Another name dating from the earliest years of the English settlement remains in Boitakhana, the locality at the Circular Road end of Bow Bazar. The tree which marked the Boitakhana, or Meeting-place—literally "Sitting-place,"—does not appear to have been an old tree, though it was, no doubt, large and shady. It stood on the edge of the Mahratta Ditch, just opposite the Avenue, as Bow Bazar was called, and must have commanded a clear view of the old Fort, to the main gate of which this wide road led. In 1799, when the Mahratta Ditch was filled up, and the road which followed its course on the town side was widened, and became the present Circular Road, the Boitakhana tree which stood right in the course of the new road was cut down. The felling of the tree caused some little stir at the time, as it was said to be an object of veneration to the natives. The circumstance was reported to the Governor-General, Lord Mornington, who desired that the tree should be spared, but found that it had already been cut down. On inquiry, it was found that the supposed veneration arose from the fact that Suraj-ud-Dowlah, when directing the siege of Fort William, had sat under this tree, safely out of the reach of danger.
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