The very last of the old bungalows was recently transformed into a puckah house, and, save the old avenue, which all declare to have been exactly in its present state when they landed half a century ago, there is little in the present cantonment which can be recognized by those who first occupied it permanently. The barracks had an upper story placed on them about 1830; the church was built in 1819; and a year or two ago a racket-court, for the men of the regiment, was built: the officers erected one for themselves in 1834. For many years Dum-Dum was a very favourite station; its mess, its amateur theatre, its band, and, at one time, its pack of fox-hounds, rendered it a place of resort to many from Calcutta and the neighbouring stations; but the gradual change in the location of the artillery has necessarily reduced the numbers there, and the heavy tax upon the means of living, caused by the station being placed on half-batta in 1829, causes all who can to avoid it; and consequently hardly any are to be found there save the staff of the regiment of the station and the battalions quartered there, with the young men just arrived from England and awaiting their dispatch to the provinces. CHAPTER VII. Campaigns against the Goorkhas—Rocket Troop raised—Bombardment of Hattrass—Death of Sir John Horsford—Ordnance General Officers debarred the General Staff—Conceded to them—Guns formed into Batteries—Organization of 1818—Pindarrie and Mahratta Campaigns—Gun Carriage Agency—Ordnance Commissariat Department—Commandants’ position improved—Model department—Select Committee formed—Reduction of Lascars—Increase to Golundaz—Battalion system introduced into Bengal—Burmese war—Siege of Bhurtpoor—Increase to the Regiment. The overbearing conduct of the Nepaulese having forced the British into war, Lord Hastings prepared to carry it on with vigour, and bring it to as speedy a termination as possible; and with this view no preparations were spared which the most consummate foresight and consideration could suggest. A nearly simultaneous attack on four different points, necessitating the Goorkhas to spread their forces and resources along their whole extensive frontier, was the plan originally adopted, and carried out with some alterations, suggested by an increased knowledge, or forced upon us by those obstacles and failures which must ever attend upon extended combinations. Major-General Sir D. Ochterlony, with about 6,000 native infantry and a small train of artillery, was to attack the western or extreme right of the Goorkha territories,—the districts in the neighbourhood of the present hill station, Simlah. Major-General Sir R. R. Gillespie, with about 1,000 Europeans and 2,500 native troops, with artillery, was to penetrate the valley of Deyrah, and, after dislodging the Goorkhas from their positions in it, to attack Gurhwal; this done, another force was to attack Kumaon from Rohilcund.