CALCUTTA: PAST AND PRESENT
with jealous care; the surrounding space was laid out with neat gravelled walks, and planted with orange trees and ornamental shrubs, and, surrounded by a railing, was known as "the Park," where Calcutta society promenaded in the cool of the evening. It is curious to think that, after nearly two hundred years of more or less neglect, the old glories of the Park are about to be revived under Sir Andrew Fraser's scheme, and Calcutta society in the twentieth century will pace the garden walks once trodden by their predecessors of the eighteenth century.
The upkeep of the Park cost ten rupees monthly, and in the old records are various entries of payments, such as Rs. 24 for orange trees for the use of the Park, and Rs. 20 for cleaning the tank and repairing the walks. The latest entry for repairs of the tank is dated 1753, but two years later it would appear to have fallen into a shocking state of neglect, as, in May, 1755, Mr. Holwell requested the Board that he might have permission to repair and enclose the tank and prohibit the washing of people and horses therein, the latter practice making the tank at times so offensive "there is no passing either to the southward or northward."
When Captain Hamilton wrote his account there were many ladies in Calcutta. The English
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