Revenue Surveyor’s interesting Report on the District, printed in 1857.
Alipur, the civil headquarters of the District, within the limits of the South Suburban Municipality, mentioned above; and the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. An article in the Calcutta Review, No. xxxvi., entitled ‘Calcutta in the Olden Time,’ mentions that Belvedere House was a favourite residence of Warren Hastings, but I have not been able to verify this statement. Nearly opposite Alípur Bridge stood two trees, called ‘the trees of destruction,’ notorious for the duels fought under their shade. It was here where Hastings and Sir Philip Francis, when member of his Council, fought a duel, in which the latter was wounded. The Cantonments contain accommodation for one full Native regiment, and at times the wing of a second Native regiment is also stationed here. The strength of the military force on 31st March 1873 was as follows:—Detachment of 1st Bengal Cavalry, consisting of one Native officer and 39 non-commissioned officers and men; 28th Regiment of Native Infantry, consisting of 6 English and 13 Native officers, with 601 non-commissioned officers and men; left wing, 10th Native Infantry, 2 English and 7 Native officers, 285 non-commissioned officers and men: total, 8 English and 21 native officers, and 925 non-commissioned officers and rank and file. Substantial masonry lines have been recently built for the Sepoys, but some of the men still reside in well-built mat huts. There is no regimental bázár in the Cantonments, but the Kidderpur market is situated at a convenient distance.
Garden Reach, a fashionable suburb of Calcutta, situated on the river side a few miles south of the city. The Revenue Surveyor states that most of the large mansions which now adorn the river bank appear to have been built between 1768 and 1780. The Peninsular and Oriental Navigation Company and the Messageries Maritimes have large establishments here for embarkation on board their mail steamers. Just above Garden Reach is the village of Kidderpur, so called after Mr. Kyd, who constructed the present Government dockyard. The India General Steam Navigation Company have also a dockyard at Kidderpur. Between 1781 and 1821, according to the Calcutta Review, No. xxxvi., 237 ships were built at the Kidderpur Docks, at a cost of more than two millions sterling; and in 1818, the Hastings, a seventy-four gun ship, was launched here. At the western extremity of Garden Reach, or
