ter the European manner: the one a little way out of the gates, open to any of the English gentlemen who please to walk in it; the other, which is much larger and finer, is about five miles from the town, at a place called Parell, where the governor has a very agreeable country houfe, which was originally a Romift chapel belonging to the Jefuits, but was confifcated about the year 1719, on actrust of their being guilty of fome foul practices against the English intereft. This chapel is now converted into a pleasant manEon-boufe, and, with the additional buildings, is rendered a fpacious and commodious habi ration. The cocoa-nut grovès conflitute a confider. d-rable part of the landed property. When a number of these are contiguous, they form what is called the woods, through which fpaces are left for roads and path-ways, where you are agreeably defended from the fun at all hours in the day. They are also thick fet with hoafes belonging to the refpective proprietors, and with the huts of the poorer fort of people; but they are unwholefome for want of a free ventilation. The government of the inland is entirely English, fubordinate to the directors of the English East India company, who by commilion appoint a prefident, to whom is joined a council of nine perfons; but all of them are feldom on the spot, they being employed as chiefs of the feveral factories fubordinate to the prefident. Thofe at Bombay are fuch as enjoy pofls of the greatest truft, as the acComptant, the warehouse-keeper, the land pay-matter, the marine pay-mafter, and other officers for tranfacting the company's affairs. These are generally fuch as have len by degrees from the ftation of writers, and take place according to feniority. The prefident and the members on the spot confli fete a regular council, in which every thing is determined by plurality of votes: yet the influence of the prefident is generally fo great, that every thing is carried according to his diftates: for thould any of the council oppofe him, he can make their fituation fo un eafy, as to oblige them to quit the fervice, and return home. The military and marine force, are more immediately under the direction of the prefident, who has the title of general, and comwander in chief. The common foldiers are chietly those whom the Company fend in their hip; alfo deferters from the feveral nations fettled in India, as Portuguefe, Dutch, and French, which last are ufually called Reynols; and lafly Topaffes, who are motly black, of of a mixed breed from the Portuguefe. Thefe are formed into companies, under English of frets. In this fervice may alfo be included regular companies formed of the natives; thefe foldiers are called feapoys; they ufe mufquets, but are chiefly armed in the country manner, with fword and target, and wear the Indian dress, the turban, veft, and long drawers. Nothing has contributed more to render this inland populous, than the mildness of the government, and the toleration of all religions, which is fo univerfal, that the Roman Catholic churches, the Mahometan mosques, the Gentoo pagodas, and the worthip of the Parfees are all equally tolerated: they have all the free exercife of their religious rites and ceremonies, without either the English interfering or their clashing with each other. This toleration forms an amiable and a very advanta geous contraft to the rigours of the inquifition exercifed in the neighbouring territories of the Portuguese, whofe unchriftian zeal has rendered them odious, and was one of the principal reafons of their being driven out of the greatest part of the conquests there by the Marattahs, who are all Gentoos. We shall add the account which Mr. Ives, in his voyage from England from India, gives of one of thefe anchorets which he met with at Bombay, from his book just published. "One evening, I and a companion had an inclination to pay a fhort vifit to this Jogee; who always fat in one pofture on the ground in a thady cocoa-nut plantation, with his body covered over with athes, with his long black hair clotted, and in the greatest diforder. As we approached him we made our falutation, which he refpectfully returned; and then, with the affiance of our Indian driver, who could fpeak English, we began a conversation with him, that principally turned on the wonderful efficacy of his prayeos, and which, he pretended, had given health to the fick,ftrength to the lame, fight to the blind, and fecundity to the women who for their whole lives had been deemed barren. When we were about to take our leave of him, I offered him a prefent of two rupees, which he bad me throw on the ground, and then directed his fervant who was flanding by, to take them up; which he did with a pair of iron pincers, throwing the rupees at the fame time into a pot of vinenegar. After they had lain there a little while, the fame fervant took them out, wiped them carefully, and at laft delivered them to his mafter; who foon afterwards, by way of return, prefented us with a few cakes of his infipid pastry. I then requested of him, that in his next prayers he would petition for an increase of my happinefs; to which, with great complacency in his countenance, he replied: I hardly know what to ask for you; have seen you often, and you always appeared to me to enjoy perfect health; you ride in your chaife at your ease; are often accompanied with a ve y pretty lady; you are ever well cloathed; and are likewife fat; fo that you feem to me to be in poffeffion of every thing that can be any way neceffary to hap pinefs. I believe, therefore, when I pray for you, it must be in this train; that God would give you grace to deferve, and to be thankful for thofe many bleflings which he has already bestowed upon you. I told him that I was thoroughly fatisfied with the mode of of his intended fupplication for me; and with a mutual exchange of smiles and compliments, we parted." The rich Indians, we are told, take great pains to make themselves fat. To this end they not only live moft luxuriously, but in the day time fleep in a fwinging cot, and appoint a fervant gently to move it, whofe bufinefs is alfo at stated times to awake their matter, merely to give him an opportunity of fwallowing half a pint or more of liquid botter or ghee. This fufficiently accounts for the Joogee's emphatically mentioning corpa. lency among the peculiar favours of heaven. The fame writer relates, that about the 10th day after the rainy leafon fets in, fuch ponds and bafons of water in the ifland as during the greatest part of the year are perfectly dry, begin to produce a fpecies of fish about fix inches long, and not unlike our mullet; and during this period thefe fish are caught in great abundance. This would be Jooked upon, lays he, as a very extraordinary circumstance in any other place; but as there 5th are found in almost every pool and puddle at Bombay, it ceafes to be a matter of wonder among the inhabitants of that island. Various Great Improvements in the North; particularly at Netherby. SIR, IF you can find room in your useful collec tion for an old traveller, who in September laft reviewed a part of this Inland, which he had paffed over forty years ago, you will oblige A CONSTANT READER. In the Eaftern parts of the counties of York, Durham, and Northumberland, and the low-lands in Scotland, I faw fome hundred thousands of acres added to the national ftock. Thefe lands, forty years ago, confifted of boggy peat-mofs, or heath foil, which, at that time, were not worth more than from fix pence to three hillings per acre (now let at twenty fhillings per acre), yielding only a fcanty pittance for a few half-arved fheep, colts, and young cattle, with here and there a buth, fhrub, or dwarf-tree; without a hedge, a few stone-walls, low-mouln fences, or thallow ditches, to mark the boundaries; travelling miles without feeing a human face, or the habitation of one, which, when you did, was the dwelling of a miferable farmer, fcarce able to exift. Sometimes, indeed, the eye was a little cheered by feeing a ftone houfe of the owner of fome land, guarded by flone walls, with a fmall garden and improved land, ornamented with a few fycamore and alder trees. I am now, in September 1785, happy to give you a different landscape; the boggy and peat land drained, producing oats or potatoes; the barren heath converted into grafs, meadow land, or corn fields, fmiling with plenty of golden wheat or barley, ornamented here and there with pine clumps, fometimes mixed with alh, beech, and young oaks; the lands divided by luxuriant white-thorn hedges, which here thrive amazingly well, and those near the noblemens and gentlemens feats are I kept in excellent order: indeed there is one, in particular, Mr. Brandling, one of the prefent members for Newcastle, feems fenfible of the white-thorn as a timber tree, which fometimes grows to a large fize, and is the moft beautiful wood for cabinet-makers ufe, being much fuperior in texture, colour, and veins, where the knots are, to any other wood now in ufe. I obferved in this gentleman's hedges, at the distance of every ten or twenty yards, one of thefe, being taller and ftraighter than the reft, fingled out, growing two or three feet above the rest of the hedges. This mode, I alfo obferved, was followed by two or three gentlemen in Ayrethire. dwell the longer on this wood because very few know its value, and to what fize it will grow. I have feen one of thefe trees in the County of Middlefex, where they do not thrive fo well as in the North, grow ftraight from the root to its branches, twelve feet high, and at five feet from the ground, measures in the girth five feet and a half; but the tree was then decaying, and I faw from one of its branches planks of feven inches width cut from it; and of this one branch two large elbow chairs, one good fized table, two teatrays, and two tea-cannifters, were made, the most beautiful I ever faw. The Duke of Argyle has feveral of thefe trees tolerably traight, of a good height, which meature near four feet in girth. Thefe landscapes are much ornamented by noblemens and gentlemens houses, repaired or new-built, fome in an elegant ftyle. The reader will now be pleafed by travelling with me into Scotland, where in the lowlands, they tread very clofe on the heels of the English, both in respect to the improve ment 10 their farms as well as in their build Ings. But here my pleasure was much abated, when afking my poftillion, Whofe fear is Inet? whom does that fine houfe belong to, &c. I was generally or frequently answered, to Colonel fuch a one, Major fuch a one, or Captain fech a one, lately come from the Eaft Indes, On my arrival at Edinburgh, I was furprized and delighted at the fight of the New Town. The contraft aftonishes you: but what increafed my furprize was, the being fald that the foundation of another wing to that city oppofite to it was going to be laid; and that another levelling bridge of communication was to be erected oppofite that leading to the New Town? for which purpose, it appeared to me not less than the dwellings of one hundred families must come down, to make room for the avenue only. The expeace of this undertaking feems fo immenfe, that there must be other mines than those of fione found for its completion. Glasgow 1 faw less extended, but greatly improved. I had feen it a handfome regular well-built city before; bat now more elegant, by fome noble buildings and new streets, compofed of houfes for fingle families. Moft of the old buildings refemble Edinburgh too much in high houses, though nothing like fo inconvenient as the old city of Edinburgh. Before I quit Scotland, I muft obferve, that the greatest improvement in farming, and in laying out the lands, are in Ayreshire, though the land does not feem to be better, if fo good, as in other parts; all which, I hear, is owing to the encouragement given to the tenants by the gentlemen of that fhire. After all these delightful improvements, which I have already mentioned in England and Scotland, I must claim the reader's company to the estate of the late Dr. Graham, of Netherby, in Cumberland, which far outAtrips them all. When this gentleman came into poffeffion of this eftate, I believe about twenty-five years ago, on the death of his aunt the Lady Widrington, the rent-roll was faid to be near zcool. per annum; and how it could produce that, I can hardly conceive; for of all the lands I had then been over, thofe appeared the most unpromifing, and the leaft capable of improvement. But let us fee what a good understanding, common fenfe, attentive obfervation, and the love of his family and country will do. In 16 years after his refidence at Netherby, the nett produce of this eftate was 10,000l. per annum; and before his death, I have been informed, was advanced to 13.000l. per an num; and that if his fon, Sir James Graham, the prefent poffeffor, treads in the steps of his father, it will, in the courfe of a very few years, amount to 20,000l. per annum clear of all deductions. And how has this immenfe increase of fortune been obtained? Not by rack-renting his tenants, for that would have reduced his 2 to 1ocol. per annum! Not by mines, for I never heard that he had any in his eftate; nor by raising their rents; no; nor by fines, for that would have difenabled them to labour for the advantage of their landlord, and have operated like the taxes laid on the Americans. It was fimply thus: by draining, manuring, and planting. His method was, to drain and manure 1000 acres fit for tillage, graft, or meadow land; then build villages, confifting of eight or ten houíes, with the neceffary out buildings, allotting to each fo many acres, and then letting them to the most induftrious among his married neighbours, frequently rent-free, for one or two years, or until they were able to pay rent. At the fame time that he was thus improving and peopling his lands, he was reviving or building towns, erecting churches, building inns, and furnithing the industrious with the means of accommodating the traveller, the gentleman, and the nobleman, with carriages and poft-horfes. In thort, this wor thy member of lociety fo improved this part of the country, from a cold moist clay, heath, and peat-land, that it is now the garden of that part of the country, and wears the appearance of the most improved foil about the metropolis. He has raised a princely eftate to his family; added fo many thoufand acres to the national ftock; and, at the fame time, been a fingular bleffing to his tenants, and to all around him, as well as to many gentlemen. in that county, who trod in his fteps; and one gentleman in particular, I am informed, for I have not feen it, has not only followed his mode of draining his lands, but has fo much improved upon it as to reduce the expence per acre to one-third, without oppreffing the poor labourer. And here let me add, that Dr. Graham, amidit fo much attention to the improvement of his eftate, was not neglectful of the comforts and elegancies of life; he having buile himself a very handsome houfe, with every convenience in and about it, fit for a gentleman of fortune, with doors of hospitality to it. Go, ye nobles and gentlemen of landed eftates!go and do likewife! Here I mean not to addrefs the Dukes of Argyle, Athol, and Northumberland, nor the Earl of Bredalbane, and fome other of the Northern gentry, they having made great improvements, and at the fame time been a effing to their country. How greatly to their credit, advantage, and fatisfaction, would the rest of the nobility and gentry in this land tread in the steps of the worthy Dr. Graham, inftead of employing their time and fortunes in corrupting the electors of a county, town, or paltry borough, to make dependant members of parliament, to the deftruction of that confitution they are bound by every tie of confcience, duty, and intereft, to preferve and defend. E. B. Sir Henry Fletcher, bart, one of the members of the county. |
