Notes on the Geography of Peninsular India: Chennai/Madras 4: The Old English Burial GroundThe cemetery for early Madras is about 3/4 of a mile west of St. Mary's Church and stands at the end of Burial Ground Road, at the junction with Pallava Salai. Make default image size larger ![]() The entrance, almost identical with the entrances of the city's other Christian cemeteries. ![]() The grounds are badly overgrown, and most of the tomb inscriptions are no longer legible. ![]() That's true for the biggest of them as well as the smallest. ![]() Watch out for snakes and mongooses. ![]() Here's one that's legible if we can get closer. ![]() Col. Peter Whannel survived until 1854, 18 years after the death of his daughter. He himself died at 76. ![]() Two of six children survive to adulthood. ![]() Dead at 21. ![]() Caroline Patterson, "who departed this life on the 16th December 1809. In the prime of her life [she] fell victim to a cruel lingering complaint. Uncommon patience supported her throughout. She was innocence itself, a good Christian, [and] affectionate daughter...." ![]() More children. ![]() A man, his wife, and his four children are drowned at sea. Julian Cotton's List of Inscriptions on Tombs or Monuments in Madras,, 1905, has this note (p. 43): "Mr. Hope was a merchant and shopkeeper at Madras and few men have ever left India with a fairer character or a larger fortune: few men, even in more elevated situations, did half the good that this honest man did, since he was as liberal and kind-hearted as he was modest and unassuming. He was a passenger in the fleet with General MacDowall in 1809, when he perished in the gale which destroyed nearly a whole squadron off the Cape." ![]() In the back of the cemetery there's a Commonwealth War Graves section, kept in the customary, meticulous repair. ![]() The regular cemetery has plenty of military burials, too. Here: Colonel MacKenzie, commanding the forces at Wallajabad Station, dead at 46. Walajabad, as the name is spelled today, is a town not far to the west, in the Kanchipuram District. ![]() Dead at 21 from a snake bite. ![]() On the other side of the cemetery, life goes on in brilliant color. |
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