THE STORY OF MADRAS

This little book is not a “History of Madras,” although it contains a good deal of Madras history; and it is not a “Guide to Madras,” although it gives accounts of some of the principal buildings in the city. The book will have fulfilled its purpose if it helps the reader to realize that the City of Madras is a particularly interesting corner of the world. This fact is often forgotten; and even many of the people who live in Madras itself, and who are aware that Madras has played an important part in the making of India’s history, are strangely uninterested in its historic remains. They are eloquent perhaps in denouncing the heat of Madras and its mosquitoes and the iniquities of its Cooum river; but they have never a word to say on its enchanting memorials of the past. Madras has memorials indeed. Madras is an historical museum, where the sightseer may spend many and many an hour—in street and in building—studying old-world exhibits, and living for the while in the fascinating past. Madras is not an ancient city; its foundation is not ascribed to some mythic king who ruled in mythic times; it has no hoary ruins, too old to be historic and too legendary to be inspiring. But Madras is old enough for its records to be romantic, and at the same time is young enough for its earliest accounts of itself to be—not unsatisfying fables, but interesting fact.

CONTENTS:

Chapter I - Before the Beginning, Chapter II - The Beginning, Chapter III - Fort St. George, Chapter IV - Development, Chapter V - ‘The Wall’, Chapter VI - Expansion, Chapter VII - Outposts, Chapter VIII - The Church in the Fort, Chapter IX - Roman Catholic, Madras, Chapter X - Chepauk Palace, Chapter XI - Government House, Chapter XII - Madras and the Sea, Chapter XIII - The Story of the Schools, Chapter XIV - Here and There, Chapter XV - ‘No Mean City’.