3-043-848 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Rajkoomar College, Kattywar, Western India, 1871. 'It will be seen that Rajkote possesses not a few advantages for a seat of education for the youth of the numerous native chiefs of the province, and nowhere or among any class is education more needed...The college, with residences for the masters, has been erected at the cost, in its present state, of a lac of rupees, or £10,000; but considerable sums will have to be spent to provide the necessary accommodation for noble youths to be lodged and brought up in a manner befitting their rank. The main building, designed and erected by Mr. Robert Booth, C.E., Local Funds Engineer, is of the Italian Gothic style, constructed entirely of white limestone...The plinth...supports arcaded verandahs extending along both fronts...The building will at present accommodate twenty-five students...The college began its first term, on Feb. 1, with fifteen pupils...Their attendance will be a good example set by some of the leading chiefs, which it is hoped the minor chiefs will follow. Every philanthropist must earnestly wish that this noble institution thus inaugurated may be the precursor of brighter and better days of intelligence and humanity in the large province of Kattywar'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.