or nine days, was some compensation for the patient endurance of the long and trying hot season with its monotonous round of duties connected with the parade-ground and office.
A building which has retained the history of its association is that which is known as the Court House. It was one of the first that was erected within the limits of the present cantonment. Planned to sustain a siege, all the out-buildings–stabling, kitchens, and servants' quarters–are enclosed within a substantial fortified wall pierced with narrow loopholes. Here in 1825 lived John Bird of the Company's Service.
When Bishop Heber came to visit the remote southern portion of his diocese, where Christianity had begun to make marked progress, he was the guest of John Bird. The Rev. W. Taylor, who was his contemporary, saw him on more than one occasion, and described him as he appeared at a confirmation service at Madras, as a slender, dapper figure, wearing his own hair ‘fashionably dressed.’ He carried himself very erect and had a penetrating eye. Nor was he a man to spare himself in the performance of his duties. It was this very trait which probably caused his death.
He went to the fort from Mr. Bird's house and held a long, fatiguing service at Christ Church. An enormous congregation of native Christians assembled, not half of whom could find room within the walls. His eye fell on the great crowd waiting patiently to catch sight of him. Sooner than they should be disappointed, he determined to give an address from the top of the steps leading into the humble domicile built in the churchyard by Schwartz and once occupied by him. Exposed to the sun Heber stood before the listening multitude and preached for some time, probably with his head uncovered.
The effort was a tax upon his powers, but the excite-
