Page:Bulandshahr- Or, Sketches of an Indian District- Social, Historical and Architectural.djvu/111

 which alone he is responsible, are of the very best description, and do him the highest credit as a practical builder.

The designs were supplied by Government engineers, and have the usual departmental defects of low plinth, inadequate cornice, and the absence of any staircase on to the roof. The Assistant Surgeon's dwelling-house close by is a typical specimen of professional wrong headedness. It is absolutely uninhabitable, being sunk in a sort of well which prevents the possibility either of drainage or ventilation. The site was a mound, which common sense, instead of levelling, would have utilized as a plinth. I pointed this out to the Executive Engineer, but he blandly assured me that what had been done was quite according to rule, and that it was only the Babu's perverseness which made him refuse to live there.

As a benevolent institution, the Hospital and Dispensary yields to none in the Province. In 1882 as many as 898 surgical operations were performed in it, including 363 for cataract; and in 1883 the total number rose still higher, to 1,010. These splendid results were due to the skill and devotion of Dr. Willcocks, the Civil Surgeon, who, by his intimate acquaintance with the language, kindliness of manner and inexhaustible patience, combined with remarkable success in treatment, had acquired a great reputation, which attracted patients from all the surrounding districts.

The school is a spacious vaulted room with broad verandahs and a curiously ugly campanile, which, as in the Tahsili School already mentioned, suggests the idea of a non-conformist chapel. It was originally intended to accommodate only a hundred boys, and as the number of pupils at the beginning of this year had risen to 176, an additional class-room became imperatively necessary, and this has now been supplied. It covers almost exactly the same area is the old building, but is in a very different style of architecture, with a high flat roof—to which access is gained by a picturesque stair-turret—a well raised plinth, cut-brick arcaded walls, stone traceried windows, and handsomely carved doors. The cost will be about Rs. 4.500 of which sum more than half comes from an endowment bestowed upon the school by Saiyid Mihrbán Ali, who is always foremost in the support of every deserving local institution. The Superintending Engineer's official criticism of the new room is highly characteristic. He condemns it as "quite out of keeping with the original building and defective in design." Architects and art critics in London and New York apparently find something to