CHAPTER VII
A LADY MERCHANT AND A EUROPEAN GALLEY SLAVE
There are six things which entail unhappy consequences–the service of kings, robbery, horse-breaking, the accumulation of wealth, sorcery, and anger.–Sloka.
Just above the Wallajah bridge there is a bend in the river. It was from this bend to the sea that the alteration was made. Above the bend it keeps its original course, touching the grounds of the General Hospital and forming a boundary on the south and west. There is a bridge at this point called St. Mary’s bridge. The ground between the two bridges on the Georgetown side, upon which stand the central station, the General Hospital, and the Medical College, is one of the most interesting spots outside the fort-walls. It was here that the first garden- houses of the English were built. They stood on the fort side of the river, and their owners were near enough to the guns to feel that they were safe from the Mahratta and Mysorean horsemen. These were the residences described by Fryer when he visited Madras in 1674. He speaks of their vegetable and fruit gardens, and of the pleasant retirement of the cool houses. The gentlemen riding on horseback and the ladies carried in palanquins resorted to them after the heat of the day and took their pleasure by the banks of the river. It was a purer stream then than it is now, resembling the Adyar as it sweeps past the house that was once De Monte’s.
