Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/252

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vi. SEPT. u, 1912.

for his admission within a specified time, unless for sufficient cause the Council may extend the period. The admission consists in his subscrib- ing the obligation in the Charter Book, and being taken by the hand by the President and formally admitted as a Fellow. But a Fellow duly elected may sometimes never be able to attend for the ceremony of admission. In the case of Foreign members the number of those who have come to this country and attended a meeting of the Society, so as to have an opportunity of being formally admitted and signing their names in the Charter Book, has been comparatively small." Yet many distinguished foreign names appear, including those of Agassiz, Arago, Buffon, Humboldt, Leibniz, Laplace, Voltaire, and others.

The third part of the memorial volume contains an alphabetical index to the signatures in the Charter Book, with the dates of election and the pages on which the signatures will be found. This has been the work of two members of the staff Mr. T. E. James, clerk, and Mr. A. H. White, assistant librarian. The identification of the signatures in the earlier pages has often been a task of great difficulty, necessitating .a search through all the documents that record the history of the Society. In this part of the work Mr. White has been re- markably successful, not a single signature having baffled his acumen. He would often, however, have been at a loss but for the unfailing and valuable assistance of Sir Arthur Church. The President, in addition to this acknowledgment, refers to the in- debtedness of the Society to Mr. Horace Hart for his able supervision of the photo- graphing of the signatures and " the effective care he has bestowed on every part of the -volume."

JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

(To be continued.)

CALCUTTA STATUES AND

MEMORIALS. (See ante, pp. 41, 104, 163.)

Rai K. D. Pal. Hon. Rai Kristo Dass Pal, Bahadur (1839-84), Publicist. White marble. By E. Geflowski. At the south- east corner of Harrison Road and College .Street.

The Panioty Fountain. A fountain (erected 1898) in memory of Demetrius Panioty, " Assistant Private-Secretary to the Viceroy." Of Jeypore marble, at the maidan corner of Esplanade East, facing " Scott Thomson's Corner " of Old Court

House Street. (" Scott Thomson's " was demolished in 1910.) The fountain origin- ally stood a few yards further to the north, aut on the rearrangement of the maidan opposite Esplanade East (19045), it was set back to widen the corner. Panioty's service lasted forty-two years. He died in 1895.

Sir William Peel. Sir William Peel, V.C. &c. (1824-58), third son of Sir Robert Peel- iommander of the Naval Brigade during bhe Indian Mutiny. White marble. By W. Theed. On the maidan south of Eden Gar- dens (with its back to Fort William), at the bend of the Strand Road (widened a few years ago), almost facing the main entrance. It stood formerly within the gardens. Peel was wounded at Lucknow when leading the men of the Shannon, of the Indian Navy, and died of smallpox at Cawnpore.

A similar statue (but not a replica), by the same artist, is in the Painted Hall at Green- wich. " A perfect sailorman." The story of the Indian Navy from 1613 to 1863 is one of magnificent achievements, and Peel's exploits during the Mutiny are among the most cherished memories of its history.

Prinsep's Qhdt. An imposing masonry ghat between the Hooghly and the Napier statue at the Hastings end of the Strand Road. Erected to the honour of James Prinsep by his fellow-citizens. Its Grecian- Ionic pillars are, architecturally, open to adverse criticism. Arrivals and departures of distinguished personages take place here. Among those who are believed to have em- barked from its steps on leaving India ia Lord Ellenborough (Governor-General 1842-44), on his pathetic recall in the latter year. The ghat originally stood on the river bank, but a broad artificial road now intervenes, largely made from earth excavated when the Alipore Docks were created in the eighties. The lions at the summit of the old steps remain, but the steps themselves are buried 100 ft. from the water. James Prinsep, F.R.S. (1799-1840), was Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1833-8. He did much to advance the knowledge of the ancient alphabets of India, founded Indian chronology and numismatics, and, as an archaeologist, rescued from oblivion the name and history of the Buddhist emperor Asoka, the Constantine of the East. Five only of his forty years of life sufficed for all his great discoveries.

A bust' is in the cornice of the Inner Court of the India Office ; and another (Weekes) is in the India Office Library.