and one (the lowest) closed in, and forming abdarkhánesh and other useful offices. 7. To the north front are two smaller porticoes (to the wings) of four columns each, and intermediately between the centre and wings. on either front, receding colonnades; which also form leading features of the end fronts of the building. 8. To all the above colonnades, including the porticoes, are continuous balconies to the third floor, four and a half feet wide, of light appearance but of great strength, being constructed of iron beams or cantilevers from nineteen to twenty-one inches apart, inserted in the walls between stones to a depth of one and a half foot, and supported on brackets at intervals, the rest of the material of the floor being of flat bar iron. The floor is composed of tiles, terras, and marble, confined by a plate or band of iron. The railing is partly of iron and partly of teak; the main supports and some of the rails being of the former, upheld by brackets branching from the cantilevers. 9. The spaces over the doors and windows within the colonnades, as well as those of the treble windows in the exterior walls, are relieved by panels, in which are inserted ornaments of various descriptions, in relief of good design, and extremely well executed. 10. There are two open courts in the interior of the building, seventy-two by fifty-two feet, finished in every respect in the same style as the exterior, having substantial drains all round, communicating with large covered ones externally, which are carried to a considerable distance, and empty themselves into the river. 11. Round the exterior of the building there is a platform of the finest masonry, bricken-edge, seven feet wide, from which spring small flights of stone steps to the height of the plinth, leading to the entrances in the several compartments of the edifice; outside of which is a roadway or walk, of corresponding breadth, composed of koah nine inches in depth. The plinth of the building has oval flue openings of twenty-two by eighteen inches, furnished with strong iron gratings;-where flights of steps interfere, three of the step-facings in each have gratings, of eighteen inches in length, fixed into them. 12. The interior comprises a basement floor, from thirteen feet to thirteen feet three inches in height to the beams; a principal floor, from twenty-one feet nine inches to twenty-two feet in height, to the ceilings; and a third floor of the same height as the latter. 13. The principal entrance is from the north portico into a vestibule thirty-six feet by twenty-seven feet, having a geometrical stone staircase at either side, seven feet six in width, with iron railing and mahogany hand-rail, each staircase receiving light from four painted glazed windows. 14. Within this range is a corridor or passage, twelve feet wide; leading to the wings of the edifice, divided into compartments, and so contrived, that by shutting two doors the communication with the wings is cut off, without any interruption to that between the other portions of the building. 15. From the centre of the corridor a large door opens into a circular room fifty feet in diameter; to the right and left of which (on entering) is a room fifty-two feet by twenty-five feet; the three comprising one suite of apartments, separated from the wings by the open courts, (noticed in paragraph 10.) The circular room is of the Corinthian Order, taken from the temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome. The Order is in height thirty feet six inches, with pedestals of four feet six inches. From the entablature, on a line with the frieze, springs a cupola of masonry, with sunk panels, ending in a painted glazed skylight twenty feet in diameter, the height from the floor to the opening of the skylight being fifty-six feet, and to its apex sixty-two feet. The room is decorated in its circumference by four large covered recesses, over which are long panels, eight pilasters, and four large doors; over which last are oval openings occupied with pierced screens of arabesque, cut in single slabs of stone. All the mouldings and compartments are richly carved and ornamented, in conformity with the rules of the Order of which the apartment is composed; and, whether as regards the effect of the whole, or the exquisite finish of the details throughout, it is impossible to speak too highly of what has been accomplished. There is nothing to add and nothing to alter: the architect and builder have done their work perfectly. 16. To the south of the above suite, is a grand colonnaded saloon, measuring one hundred and eighty-seven feet six inches in length, susceptible of division at pleasure into three apartments, by means of sliding doors, eighteen feet two inches wide, the leaves sliding into cases, faced on both sides, from the bottom to the top, with mirrors. The general width of this saloon is fifty-five feet, the centre space within the bases of the columns being twenty-five feet. Beyond either extremity of the saloon is a geometrical stone staircase, five feet three inches wide, with railing, as before described, communicating with the apartments of the wings. 17. The wings do not correspond internally with each other: both are divided into apartments of various suitable dimensions, each hav ing a spiral stone staircase at either corner, with baths, dressing rooms, &c. 18. With exception to the circular room (of paragraph 15) the interior of the whole of the principal floor is of the Roman Doric Order. 19. On the third floor the dimensions of the several apartments necessarily correspond with those immediately below, just described, excluding the circular room, which comprehends both floors. In this third floor also is the same arrangement of the saloon as that described for the principal floor, but the Order throughout is the Antique Ionic, nineteen feet high with fluted columns, pilasters, &c. surmounted by a coved ceiling rising two feet nine inches. 20. The whole of the apartments in both these floors are ceiled with canvas, or teak wood frames, through which are fitted into the beams strong brass hinge-hooks for punkahs, and brass for lamps or lustres, to an extent ample for every purpose of use or ornament. 21. In both floors the doors are painted in imitation of different woods (Satin wood, Mahogany, Oak, Maple, &c.) and highly varnished; and, with a few exceptions (in the minor apartments of the wings) they are fitted with plated locks, bolts, and hinges, and hand-guards; also on the principal floor. 22. All the apartments in the wings of both floors are coloured in distemper, in light tints of various colours; and the walls, as high as the surbase of the vestibule, and four staircases are painted in imitation of marble; all with very good effect. There are twelve fireplaces, with carved mantel pieces of teak, also painted and varnished in successful imitation of rare marbles. 23. The floors of the whole of the public apartments of the principal story, including the vestibule and landing places of the great staircases, are paved with polished marble; and those of the corresponding apartments in the third story, with the landing places of all the four staircases, are laid with teak boarding. 24. The whole of the public rooms in both floors, and the columns in the wings, are finished with polished stucco, in imitation of the Madras chunam; and it may here be observed, that the flutings and finishings of all the columns, exterior and interior, are remarkably well defined, and evenly and sharply wrought; a completion very rare, where brick and plaster are the materials, in houses even of the highest pretensions in this country. 25. The basement floor is finished in a plain style, having a simple moulded band under the beams and no ceilings. The doors and windows are of appropriate substantial construction, fitted with brass locks, bolts, and hinges, and painted plainly. Under the circular room (of paragraph 15) are four strong lock-up closets for treasure, plate, jewels, or other articles of value, with a large open space for a guard. In the arches of the treble windows of this floor, fifteen in number, are coloured fan-lights. 26. In the west wing is a steam-bath, complete in all respects, executed subsequently to the erection of the building, as we were informed by Colonel M'Leod, at the particular desire of the Nuwaib Nazim. 27. All the exterior colonnades and porticoes in the basement and principal floor, as well as the vestibule and staircases of the basement, are paved with stone. 28. Koah roads, twenty feet wide, have been constructed, and well rolled, in all that portion of the ground about the Palace which has yet been cleared of old buildings: the banks of the river have been sloped off and sodded throughout the whole extent (with the exception to a very small portion, for which it seems earth was not procurable) and stone posts have been inserted along the top, as fastenings for boats. The whole of the ground (cleared) has been smoothed and grassed, and completely drained. 29. At a short distance, in front of the Palace, is a handsome sundial, five feet in diameter, a surplus stone so converted by Lieut. Cunningham; it rests on a pillar based on stone steps, and forms a useful and appropriate appendage to the premises. 30. A substantial stone ghat, fifteen feet wide, has been constructed near the Palace for the convenience of the Nuwaib, and at about 800 yards to the south of the Palace a large Noubulkahneh gateway has been erected, as an entrance to the grounds in that direction. As it was not immediately in view, there did not appear to be any ob. jection to its being built in a style of architecture adapted to its purpose, and the Asiatic or Turkish has been adopted. 32. In concluding this head of our report, it seems proper to advert to the fact of this edifice, in all its departments, having been constructed and completed by natives of the country; the only exceptions to which remark are in regard to the painting and glazing, which portions of the work were executed by professional Europeans. The expressions of approval which will have been found interspersed with the preceding details, were elicited by particular features of the building under review, inviting a more peculiar attention from their importance, or the effect produced by them on the eye of the observer; but they are equally applicable to every part of the structure, which whether considered as a work of art to be admired for its exceeding beauty, or as an example of skilful labor applied to the practical combination of excellent materials, reflects the highest credit on the architect and all subordinate to him, concerned in its erection. The late rainy season was one of uncommon violence, and had just closed when our survey was made, and the soil far and wide was either inundated or saturated with moisture. Nothing could have more searchingly tested the strength and solidity of a newly erected edifice; but not a crack or symptom of yielding was to be seen, externally or within, throughout the whole extent of this fabric; and we conclude our remarks upon it with the expression of a grateful anticipation, that a lengthened durability awaits what we have represented as so pre-eminently worthy of a lasting preservation. In conclusion, we would here recapitulate, in a few words, the opinion to which our inquiries have led regarding the three points to which reference is made in the second paragraph of our report. As to the execution of the works, our verdict after a careful examination of all that presented itself to our view, is one of unqualified approval and commendation. A plan of the premises with which the architect has kindly furnished the Committee, is appended; and will render intelligible at a glance the relative sites of the different buildings forming the subject of this report. We have, &c. ART. IV.-Researches on the Gale and Hurricane in the Bay of Bengal on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of June, 1839; being a first Memoir with reference to the Theory of the Law of Storms in India. By HENRY PIDDINGTON. PART I The notices of Colonel Reid's Book on the Law of Storms, which appeared in the Calcutta papers and Edinburgh Review, had much excited my attention; for the subject was, to me, one connected with many associations of early life, and more especially with one instance in which to the veering of a hurricane alone I owed my safety from shipwreck, after cutting away the mainmast of a vessel which I commanded. Hence, having some leisure when the tempest of the 2nd to the 6th of June, 1839, occurred off the Sand Heads, I was induced to undertake the investigation of its different phænomena, with a view to see how far they would accord with the theory of the Law of Storms. |