Page:Calcutta, Past and Present.djvu/302

 "was the joint gift of Mr. Sichterman and Mr. Vernet. Sichterman erected the steeple with a chime clock in 1744, and Vernet added the church twenty-four years afterwards; thus reminding us of the popular remark, that the Frenchman invented the frill, and the Englishman added the shirt."

Another church at Chinsurah was that of the Armenians, which still stands. It was built in 1695, by "Coja Johannes, the son of Marcar," who, according to his epitaph in the church, "was a great merchant, honoured with the favour of kings and viceroys. He travelled north, south, east, and west, and died at Hughly, in Hindustan, 7th November, 1697."

There are two other buildings of note, the Hughly College and the Imambara. The college is located at Chinsurah, in a large house which was built, in the eighteenth century, by a Frenchman who had acquired a handsome fortune in the military service of the Mahrattas. The Imambara is at Hughly, and was erected and endowed, as was the college, from a fund established by a Mohammedan gentleman, Mahommed Moshin, for the purpose of erecting an institution of public instruction, and a place of Mohammedan worship which should also be a centre of learning. Bandel, which lies immediately above Hughly,