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The history of the present Government House in Madras has been written. When the East India Company first settled at Madras, the merchants in the service of the Company occupied a small fort, the original Fort St. George, on the sea-shore near the mouth of the Cooum River. They felt the heat of the shadeless coast and suffered in consequence, as the old burial registers testify.

The only form of punkah known was the large fan swung by a servant. The houses inside the Fort walls were constructed with more thought of defence than of obtaining fresh air. The stagnation and warmth of the atmosphere must have been terrible. No wonder that thirty-five years later we find them begging for permission to build "two or three chambers for the sick in the physick garden." The two or three chambers gradually developed into what was called the Company's