2-981-759 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Government House, Calcutta, sketched by one of our special artists, 1876. 'Government House...occupies the principal site in Calcutta. It faces the Maidan...The plan of it might be described as a quadrangle, but a St. Andrew's cross will convey a nearer notion of its true form. This arrangement was adopted with a view to ventilation. A quadrangle would have required a central court, while the form adopted leaves the whole open to any breath of wind which may chance to blow...The private gardens of the house are in front; and to the south of them, and in a line with the centre of Government House, stands the equestrian statue of Lord Hardinge [Governor-General of India]'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.