The Story of Madras

This little book is not a "History of Madras," although it contains a good deal of Madras history; and it is not a "Guide to Madras," although it gives accounts of some of the principal buildings in the city. The book will have fulfilled its purpose if it helps the reader to realize that the City of Madras is a particularly interesting corner of the world. This fact is often forgotten; and even many of the people who live in Madras itself, and who are aware that Madras has played an important part in the making of India's history, are strangely uninterested in its historic remains. They are eloquent perhaps in denouncing the heat of Madras and its mosquitoes and the iniquities of its Cooum river; but they have never a word to say on its enchanting memorials of the past. Madras has memorials indeed. Madras is an historical museum, where the sightseer may spend many and many an hour--in street and in building--studying old-world exhibits, and living for the while in the fascinating past. Madras is not an ancient city; its foundation is not ascribed to some mythic king who ruled in mythic times; it has no hoary ruins, too old to be historic and too legendary to be inspiring. But Madras is old enough for its records to be romantic, and at the same time is young enough for its earliest accounts of itself to be--not unsatisfying fables, but interesting fact. The story of Madras fills an absorbing page of history, and the sights of Madras are well worthy of sympathetic interest--especially on the part of those whose lines of life are cast in the historic city itself or within the historic presidency of which it is the capital.

In the following pages certain places and events have been briefly described more than once with different details; any such repetitions are due to the fact that the Story of Madras has been told in a series of vignettes, appertaining to particular buildings or particular conditions, and each vignette had to be complete in itself. It is hoped that such repetitions will be of familiar interest, rather than tedious.

In respect of the facts that are recorded, apart from general history, I am indebted principally to the valuable Records of Fort St. George, which the Madras Government have been publishing, volume by volume, during several years, and which I have studied with interest since the first volume appeared. Of other works that I have consulted, I must specially mention Colonel Love's "Vestiges of Madras," which is a very mine of information.

G.B.

MADRAS, 1921.

* * * * *

CONTENTS

PAGE PREFACE v

CHAP.

I. BEFORE THE BEGINNING 1

II. THE BEGINNING 5

III. FORT ST. GEORGE 9

IV. DEVELOPMENT 18

V. 'THE WALL' 25

VI. EXPANSION 35

VII. OUTPOSTS 41

VIII. THE CHURCH IN THE FORT 47

IX. ROMAN CATHOLIC MADRAS 56

X. CHEPAUK PALACE 63

XI. GOVERNMENT HOUSE 69

XII. MADRAS AND THE SEA 78

XIII. THE STORY OF THE SCHOOLS 87

XIV. HERE AND THERE 101

XV. 'NO MEAN CITY' 111

* * * * *

ILLUSTRATIONS

CHEPAUK PALACE Frontispiece

PAGE

MAP OF MADRAS, ABOUT 1710 10

CORRESPONDING MAP, 1921 11

CLIVE'S HOUSE 16

A BIT OF THE BLACK TOWN WALL 26

CENTRAL GATE OF THE BLACK TOWN WALL 28

A MAGAZINE IN THE BLACK TOWN WALL 30

'THE OLD AND THE NEW' 32

MAP OF MADRAS 36

SAN THOMÉ FORT 42

EGMORE FORT (SIDE VIEW) 44

REMAINS OF THE EGMORE FORT 46

ST. MARY'S, FORT ST. GEORGE 49

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, MADRAS 74

THE SEA GATE 80

THE COMPANY'S FLAG 81

SURF-BOAT 83

UNIVERSITY SENATE HOUSE 96

PACHAIYAPPA'S COLLEGE 97

DOVETON PROTESTANT COLLEGE 98

ST. GEORGE'S CATHEDRAL 102

ST. ANDREW'S (THE 'KIRK') 104

ST. THOMÉ CATHEDRAL 106

* * * * *

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

The East India Company established A.D. 1600

First English settlement, at Masulipatam 1611

Site of Madras acquired by Mr. Francis Day 1639

The acquisition confirmed at Chandragiri by the Hindu 'Lord of the Carnatic' 1639

The Hindu lord of the Carnatic (the Raja of Chandragiri) dethroned by the Mohammedan Sultan of Golconda 1646

The Company secure from Golconda a fresh title to their possessions