ART. IV.-1. Joseph's Map of the Grand Trunk Road, from Calcutta to Benares. 2. Ditto Ditto, from Benares to Agra. 3. Sherwill's Geological Map of the Districts North and South of the Grand Trunk Road, between Calcutta and Allahabad. 1853. 8 Rupees. 8 Rupees. Surveyor General's Office. WE have lately directed the reader's attention to Calcutta in the Olden Time; and now start from the city of palaces to Delhi, along a route which calls up vivid associations of the past, along with a view of nature, always blooming amid the ruins of man's handy work. Our article is not designed so much for the information of Mofussilites, who are, or ought to be, familiar with the facts we shall state; but for those residents in Calcutta and its neighbourhood, or those strangers from England, who wish, in the absence of a North India" Murray" to have a descriptive outline of a country they propose to visit for health or business, and who are anxious to obtain hints and references suggestive of further inquiry to know what can be seen in a tour of six weeks to the North West Provinces, at an outlay of 400 rupees. In 1850 a single seat from Calcutta to Benares cost 165 rupees, now it costs only 140 rupees from Calcutta to Meerut. We do not write for those who wish to make a tour in the mode of the London Cockney," getting over the greatest possible amount of ground in the smallest possible amount of time," irrespective of what is to be seen along the way, like the London lady, who, when crossing the Simplon, was occupied with one of Bulwer's novels. The number of books, descriptive of places in the North West Provinces, is quite puzzling to a traveller, and almost all are, to a great extent, echoes of Heber's Journal, which stands pre-eminently the Magnum opus as the guide to the traveller in India. His descriptions are generally accurate and true, and, to a great degee, they are suited for 1853. Some slight mistakes occur here and there, which, it is to be regretted, were not corrected by Murray, when he brought out his cheap edition of Heber in the Colonial Library. Among the Foreigners who have visited India, we notice Monsieur Theroulde, who travelled in 1838-40, "dans l' interet des etudes literaires et archeologiques de l'Inde ancienne :" he proceeded as far as Kashmir, and has given us in a volume, 12mo., pp. 252, a lively sketch of what he saw. Captain Von Orlich came to India to learn the art of war, as in former days young gentlemen visited the Low Countries for a similar purpose; but the Seikh war was all over when he arrived; he has given us, however, an interesting series of letters on India, addressed to Ritter and Humboldt. Signor Manoulie was forty-eight years Court Physician at Delhi, in Aurungzebe's time, and has handed down to us a very vivid account. Honigberger's Thirty-five Years in the East is valuable for medical men-he was physician at the Seikh Court. Foreigners do not give us as many gossiping accounts of dinners and hunting parties as English writers do; but we get a better description of the country. What English writer, excepting Heber, is to be compared to Dr. Hoffmeister, who accompanied Prince Waldemar of Prussia to India in 1845, and has given us such a full detail of what he saw? Schomberg's Travels in India and Kashmir-a few years since-alluded to in another place in the present No.-are also useful. Among the works of modern English tourists, are Lieut. Bacon's First Impressions, 1831 to 1836, written in a lively style, describing a sporting life in the North West Provinces, giving a good account of Delhi, Agra, &c.; Parbury's Hand-Book; Major Archer's Tour, 1828; Stocqueler's Hand-Book of India, 1844, is the work of a practical man, who gives a considerable amount of information. Mundy's Pen and Pencil Sketches, 1828- -Skinner's Excursions in India, in 1826-Sleeman's Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, 1844, abound with lively sketches of the peasantry and their customs. Nor have ladies' pens been idle; we have a Narrative of a Three Months' March in India, in 1833, by the wife of an officer, giving a full detail of the roughing it on a march, breakage, &c. &c.: she went no higher than Cawnpur, the book is meagre. Mrs. Montanbard's Year and a Day in the East, in 1844. Mrs. Parke's Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque," 2 volumes, 1850, is a mine of information of the most useful kind, abounding in antiquarian descriptions; she is the Lady Wortley Montague of India. Joseph's Two Maps of the Grand Trunk Road are indispensable in those are marked the distances, dâk bungalows, chaukies, post offices, &c. Captain Sherwill's Geological Map is of the utmost value to every one who takes the slightest interest in the mineral productions of the country. Daniel's Drawings, taken in 1788, give a very good idea of some of the magnificent buildings in the Upper Provinces. Tassin's Map of Bengal and Behar is good, except that it supplies us plentifully with roads where none such exist-to fill up-just as the Old Dutch filled up the blanks in their maps, by inserting mountain ranges. There is little instruction or pleasure in visiting places in the North West Provinces, or anywhere else, unless persons are acquainted with the previous history of the localities; without this, the genius loci cannot be realized, and the principle of the association of ideas cannot be called into play. The great cities of the North West Provinces are great from their connection with Mogul times; we would therefore recommend to the intending traveller a diligent preparatory study of Elphinstone's India, Martin's Eastern India, Hamilton's Gazetteer, and Macfarlane's Indian Empire. What interest could Delhi have for a man not acquainted with the history of Timur's successors, the Moguls, who styled themselves "the lights of religion, conquerors of the world"? Just as little as St. Petersburgh could have for one who never heard of Peter the Great, or as the Kremlin at Moscow would have for one unread in the deeds of the old Czars. Some knowledge of the language is requisite, if the traveller does not wish to be cheated and imposed on. Griffins are considered lawful prey, and interpreters are as bad as the guides on the Continent:-read Baron Von Schomberg's experience on this point. The person who knows Bengali will very soon understand what is said in Hindi, as both are dialects of the Sanskrit. Though the road between Calcutta and Benares has little historic interest, yet the lover of Natural History, Botany, or Geology, may find many objects to delight him, as the works of Jacquemont and Hooker show-there may be " sermons in stones. Prepared by such studies for the enjoyment of country scenery, the traveller may say, with the author of Childe Harold: • "There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, By the deep sea, and music in its roar, From all I may be or have been before, What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal." The French Government have published Jacquemont's Journals and Scientific Researches, in 5 volumes, 4to.-Dr. Hooker has also published Notes of a Tour in India; he was sent by Government on a botanical mission to India. Sherwill, in his Statistics of Behar, gives us a list of ninety different trees and shrubs, which line the forests along the Trunk Road in that Zillah. We hope that the intercourse with the North West Provinces will lead to a taste being formed for Natural History and botanical subjects, and that the love for country scenery, so natural to Englishmen, will be fostered in India. Good temper is a great requisite-to allow for contingencies. Our English travellers, who visit Switzerland and the Black Forest, would be often amused at the impatience of your regular Ditcher, when he goes twenty miles from Calcutta: if every thing is not in Chowringhi order, he is highly indignant-Transit and all other Companies have to bear his storm of indignation-he must have his "comforts. everywhere. The moral and intellectual benefits of travelling is a subject that has been dwelt upon from the days of Cicero to the days of Chesterfield, who enlarges on the benefits of "Le Grand Tour." We cannot make " Le Grand Tour" in India; but we have the Grand Trunk Road; and we trust that independent of the medical benefits resulting from a change of scene, and relaxation from the ordinary routine of duty-the advantages to be realized from seeing men and manners at large, will serve as a stimulus to our denizens of the Ditch, to enlarge their Indian horizon, and see what India really is not the Calcutta anglicised type of India "overgrown splendour in squalor," but that presented by the energetic population of the North West, and by the remains of the glories of former days. We write with a most earnest desire to persuade all those who have time and means, to pay a visit to the North West Provinces, and there to gain enlarged views of things, and a nearer acquaintance with the condition of the people. The Bengali possesses various good qualities, but if you wish to see a specimen of the real Hindu character, you must visit the North West Provinces-you there see a manly bearing, very different from that of the crouching, sycophant Bengali. The days when the brandy bottle and the Zenana formed the resource from ennui to the European "exile," are passing away-sights and scenery will give an agreeable relaxation to the Indian resident, whether he be sportsman, sketcher, naturalist, &c.-neither need this relaxation be confined, as heretofore, to a visit "so far north as Krishnaghur," or a rustication in Chandernagur. We hope the Railway will soon carry the traveller quickly over dull parts of the road, that it will be to our Ditchers as the Moscow Railway is to the people of St. Petersburgh; but our experience from travelling twice through Belgium by Railway is—if you visit a country not as a merchant, but as a tourist, the Railways do not enable you to see the land-you are so hurried from place to place, that memory retains very indistinct traces of the peculiar features of the landscape. Our own recollections of Belgian towns are very dim from that circumstance. Besides, subjects of antiquarian or botanical interest can only be examined by slow travelling-one can gain no idea of the contour of a country from a railroad. We passed through some magnificent scenery between Malines and Aixla-Chapelle, but seen from a rushing rail-carriage, it appeared all tame. The Grand Trunk Road-the only road in the Lower Provinces, after our possession of Bengal for a century—and that not yet completed, eight bridges being wanting between Calcutta and Benares-has cost fifty lakhs. Last century the line of communication with the Upper Provinces lay along the Ganges route, which was adjacent to the old capitals of Bengal, Gaur, and Murshidabad. It was commenced about 1833, and is a noble monument to Lord W. Bentinck. He received the name of William the Conqueror from parts of this road being metalled with kankar! Its opening has given us a knowledge of the country, like that the Russians have now by the railroad between Petersburgh and Moscow. Previous to his time there was only a road viâ Sulkea, Bankura, Hazaribhag, &c., on which the Government expended several lakhs, now entirely out of repair; it contained no hard material, and was merely a line, marked by two ditches, from which a little earth was occasionally thrown to fill up ruts or hollows made by the rain, while bearers were supplied on requisitions made to zemindars. The present one is thirty feet wide, fourteen of which are metalled, and is forty-four miles shorter between Calcutta and Benares than the old one. Eight rivers, however, still remain unbridged, and we have it on good authority, that three times as much money have been spent on the construction of the road in the Lower Provinces, as ought to have sufficed for completing those bridges and keeping the road in thorough repair. It was under the Military Board. Not only is the Trunk Road a scene for tourists, but it also presents another subject of interest. We believe, notwithstanding Calcutta prejudices to the contrary, that Bombay is destined to be the great steam-port of India, and that Guzerat will be again what it was in Portuguese and Mogul days, when the little port of Tarda, near Calcutta, was large enough to accommodate the trade with Bengal, while Scinde was the seat of a thriving commerce. The route to Europe, viâ Bombay, will probably lie along part of this line-are we to be always doomed to traverse so many miles to the South, and so many to |