characters.  The instruction for the priesthood is peculiar.  There are some twelve little native boys who can quote whole chapters of the Latin Bible, and nearly all the prayers of the Missal.  Those who cannot sympathize with the system mast admire the patience and devotion of the Italian priests who have put themselves to the trouble of imparting such instruction.  The majority of the Christian population here are cultivators and weavers, while many are the pensioned descendants of the European servants of Begam Sumru, and still bear the appellation of Sahib and Mem Sahib.’ (N.W.P.  Gazetteer, vol. iii (1875), pp. 273, 430.)

The Begam’s palace, built in 1834, was chiefly remarkable for a collection of about twenty-five portraits of considerable interest.  They comprised likenesses of Sir David Ochterlony, Dyce Sombre, Lord Combermere, and other notable personages. (Calcutta Review, vol. lxx, p. 460; quoted in North Indian N. & Q., vol. ii, p. 179.) The mansion and park were sold by auction in 1895.  Some of the portraits are now in the Indian Institute, Oxford, some in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and some in Government House, Allahabad.  A long article by H. N. on Sardhana and its owners appeared in the Pioneer (Allahabad) on December 12,1894.

36.  A miniature portrait of the Begam is given on the frontispiece to volume ii of the original edition.  Francklin, describing the events of 1796, in his memoirs of George Thomas, first published in 1803, describes her personal appearance as follows:  ’Begum Sumroo is about forty-five years of age, small in stature, but inclined to be plump.  Her complexion is very fair, her eyes black, large and animated; her dress perfectly Hindustany, and of the most costly materials.  She speaks the Persian and Hindustany languages with fluency, and in her conversation is engaging, sensible, and spirited.’ (London ed., p. 92, note.) The liberal benefaction of her later years have secured her ecclesiastical approval, and I should not be surprised to hear of her beatification or canonization.  Her earlier life certainly was not that of a saint.

37.  In her younger days she strictly maintained Hindustani etiquette.  ’It has been the constant and invariable usage of this lady to exact from her subjects and servants the most rigid attention to the customs of Hindoostan.  She is never seen out of doors or in her public durbar unveiled.

’Her officers and others, who have business with her, present themselves opposite the place where she sits.  The front of her apartment is furnished with chicques or Indian screens, these being let down from the roof.  In this manner she gives audience and transacts business of all kinds.  She frequently admits to her table the higher ranks of her European officers, but never admits the natives to come within the enclosure,’ (Francklin, p, 92.)

38.  The Governor-General’s name was William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, I do not understand the signature M. W. Bentinck, which may be a misprint.  The eulogium seems odd to a reader who remembers that the recipient had been for fifteen years the mistress and wife of the Butcher of Patna.  But when it was written, the memory of the massacre had been dimmed by the lapse of seventy-two years, and His Excellency may not have been well versed in the lady’s history.