NEAR AND FAR
On the left bank of the Hughly, opposite to Serampore, is Barrackpore, which takes its name from the barracks of the British troops stationed there. The country seat of the Viceroy is at Barrackpore, and affords a cool and restful retreat from the crowded town. Before Lord Wellesley's time the Governors did not make a practice of leaving Calcutta for the country, though Warren Hastings used to take his wife up the river to Rishera, just below Serampore, where they had a residence, Rishera House.
When Lord Wellesley established the Governor's country residence at Barrackpore, he took over the bungalow from the Commander-in-Chief, to whom he paid an allowance of five hundred rupees a month to find himself a suitable house. The writer of an article on "The Left Bank of the Hughly," in the Calcutta Review for June, 1845, stated that Lord Wellesley proposed to build a "palace" in Barrackpore Park, at a cost of three or four lacs of rupees, and to remove all the public offices from Calcutta to Barrackpore. The Court of Directors, however, vetoed the scheme, which would have made modern Calcutta a very different city to what it is at the present day. The foundations of the "palace," which had been laid, were utilized, many years afterwards, by Lady Hastings for a greenhouse. The
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