GAZETTEER.
district (John Smith, 1824, and William Mason, 1884, the name- father of 'Mason's House' in Waltair) and of many military officers belonging to the troops formerly stationed in Vizagapatam. The Protestant cemetery now in use is near the District Jail and was consecrated by Bishop Gell in 1864. The oldest European tomb in Waltair is that by the side of the road a little below the Club. The natives call it Ghanudu goli or 'great man's tomb' and say it is haunted, but no one knows who is buried under it. One story says it covers the body of a French-man killed at Bussy's capture of Vizagapatam in 1757, but, as has been seen (p. 45), the place was taken then without a shot being fired.
Of the origins of the various bungalows in Waltair no records are traceable, mainly because the land is zamindari property. The Waltair estate was one of those carved out of the old havíli land and sold by auction in 1802 (p. 170). It was bought, says Mr. Carmichael, by Mosalakanti Venkóji, a high official in the Collector's cutcherry, who died in 1821, leaving two minor sons. The Court of Wards managed the property until 1833, when it was handed over to the elder son, Venkata Náráyana Rao, who was followed in 1859 by Venkata Jagannátha Rao, On his death in 1873 the estate was divided into the three properties of Allipuram, Maddilapálem and Waltair, and in 1888 the Guntubóyinapálem village of the latter was sold and made into yet another separate property.
It has already (p. 42) been seen that the first move to Waltair was made by the Company in 1727 for the reason that the water there was excellent for bleaching the cloths made by their weavers. The golf links are still called by the natives Chalavalu, which means ' bleaching.' Round about them are the ruins of several bungalows occupied in the old days by the officers of the Northern Division of the Madras Command, and down by the sea are the ruins of their swimming-bath and of the well from which it was filled. Vizagapatam was the head-quarters of the Northern Division until its abolition in June 1878, and the troops stationed there included the General (who lived in what is now the Judge's bungalow) and his staff, two Native Infantry regiments and their officers and the officers commanding the European Veteran Company.
West of Waltair rises a bare, whale-backed spur of the Simháchalam hills, about 1,600 feet above the sea, which goes by the names of Kailása and 'Thomas' Folly.' In 1871 Mr. E. C. G. Thomas, Judge of Vizagapatam, built himself quarters on the top of this and used to go down every morning
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