4. The inapplicability of these observations of the author to the
present time is a good measure of the material progress of India
since his day. The Ganges Canal, the bridges over the Indus, Ganges,
and other great rivers, and numberless engineering works throughout
the empire, are permanent witnesses to the scientific superiority of
the ruling race. Buildings which can claim any high degree of
architectural excellence are, unfortunately, still rare, but the
public edifices of Bombay will not suffer by comparison with those of
most capital cities, and for some years past, considerable attention
has been paid to architecture as an art. A great architectural
experiment is in progress at the new official capital of Delhi
(1914).
5. The road is now an excellent one.
6. Parched gram, or chick-pea, is commonly used by Indian travellers
as a convenient and readily portable form of food. The 'brass jug'
lent to the author could be purified by fire after his use of it.
7. Growls of this kind must not be interpreted too literally. Any
village landholder, if encouraged, would grumble in the same strain.
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