Page:Calcutta, Past and Present.djvu/130

 term "mistery," applied to skilled workmen and artisans, took its origin at this time from the imported English workmen. The following suggestive passage occurs in Lofties' "London:"—

"No other city has permitted such a development of its misteries and trades, nowhere else in England have chartered associations of the kind attained such wealth and power. The very word 'mistery' often mis-spelled 'mystery,' implies skilled knowledge, or mastery of a branch of industrial art."

The very large number of English workmen, of every grade, employed for so many years on the building of the Fort, could not but make an impression on the great army of inferior workmen and coolies associated with them, and must have wrought a great change in Bengalee methods, while adopting all that was best and most suited to the climate.

It was at this period that the isolated little suburb of Hastings was formed, in the first instance as a temporary settlement for the workmen, and later as convenient for the dwellings of subordinates connected with the Fort. It was long known by its original native name of Coolie Bazar, but received its present style in later years from its proximity to Hastings Bridge