Machchí Bhawan, a turreted building used for the storage of supplies. Close to it, and in the present day incorporated with it, is the Imámbárah, a mosque, 303 feet by 160, The other palaces will be spoken of when it shall be my task to describe the 'leaguer' of this famous place. It must suffice to state now that a canal which intersects the town falls into the Gúmtí about three miles to the south-east of the Residency, close to the Martinière; that about three-quarters of a mile to the south-south-east of this is the Dilkushá, a villa in the midst of an extensive deer park. To the north-east of the Residency lay the cantonment, on the left bank of the Gúmtí, communicating with the right bank by means of two bridges, one of stone, near to the Machchí Bhawan, the other of iron, 200 yards from the Residency. Recrossing by this to the right bank the traveller comes to the palaces, to be hereafter mentioned, between the Residency and the Martinière. To the south-west of the town, about four miles from the Residency, is a walled enclosure of 500 square yards called the Álambágh, commanding the road to Kánhpur. In May 1857 the troops at Lakhnao consisted of the greater part of the 32d Foot, about 570 strong, fifty-six European artillerymen, a battery of native artillery, the 13th, 48th, and 71st Regiments N. I., and the 7th Native Light Cavalry. Up to the time of the receipt by Sir Henry Lawrence of the patent of Brigadier-General these troops had been employed in the way then common in India, that is, the sipáhís had been entrusted with the care of important buildings, the Europeans being sheltered as much as possible from the heat of the sun.
Sir Henry at once changed this order. He reduced the number of posts to be guarded from eight to four, three of which he greatly strengthened. All the magazine stores he removed into the Machchí Bhawan, to be guarded
