A few years later Tipu, Sultan of Mysore, at the head of a body of
horsemen, made a sudden raid on Madras; and the troopers scampered
about the well-laid-out grounds of the Garden House, looting the
villages on either side. According to accounts, Governor Bourchier and
his Councillors were there when the raiders came, and they would
assuredly have been caught had they not managed to make their escape
in a boat that was conveniently tied up on the bank of the Cooum
river.
More than one Governor of Fort St. George has died at Government
House, and it was there that Governor Pigot died in extraordinary
circumstances. The tale has been told in a previous chapter, that Lord
Pigot was arrested by his Councillors, with whom he had quarrelled,
and that he died in confinement in the Garden House.
The reader has yet to be told how the Garden House was finally
transformed into the Government House that we see to-day.
In 1798 Lord Clive, son of the great Robert Clive, was sent out to
India as Governor of Madras. Within the first six months of his
arrival there was the excitement of a war with Mysore, in which the
terrible Tipu Sultan was killed during the assault on his capital.
During the tranquil remainder of his five years in India, Lord Clive
turned his attention to domestic reforms, and amongst them he resolved
that the Garden House should be improved. In an official minute he
wrote:--
'The garden house, at present occupied by Myself, is so
insufficient either for the private accommodation of my
family and Staff, or for the convenience of the public
occasions inseparable from my situation, that it is my
intention to make such an addition to it as may be
calculated to answer both purposes.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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