2-981-812 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Prinsep's Ghaut, Calcutta, from a sketch by of our special artists, 1876. Crowds turn out to welcome the future King Edward VII. 'A ghaut is a Hindostanee word now used to signify a landing-place...It has for ages been regarded as a work of merit on the part of a benevolent native to construct a flight of steps down to the edge of a stream to facilitate embarkation and disembarkation, and to erect at the top of the steps a covered structure for the shelter from the sun of the frequenters of the ghaut. The native example has been followed in the case of Prinsep's Ghaut, which was erected by public subscription to commemorate the name of James Prinsep, one of the principal citizens...an admirable spot for the Prince [of Wales]'s landing-place. It is spacious, and, with a magnificent flight of steps on the river's front, was a fitting structure, with its fine columns, for the reception of the Royal guest'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.