CALCUTTA: PAST AND PRESENT
doubt that might remain is dispelled by the names which still cling to plots of land in the neighbourhood, such as Begumbari and Sahibabegan.
The exact site in Alipore where Jaffir Ali lived during the three years of his exile may be open to question, but it is permissible to conjecture that his house stood near where now stands the Court of the Judge of the Twenty-four Pergunnahs, and that, when his period of deposition came to an end in 1763, the house, and grounds, and adjoining lands passed into the hands of Warren Hastings. It seems probable that the nawab presented the property to Hastings as a gift, as a return possibly for kindness and attention received. That his was a grateful nature is shown by the terms of his legacy to Clive, to whom he owed his elevation to the gadi, which ran as follows:—
"Three lacs fifty thousand rupees in money, fifty thousand rupees in jewels, and one lac in Gold Mohurs, in all Five lacs of rupees in money and effects to the Light of my eyes, the Nabob firm in war, Lord Clive the Hero."
This magnificent legacy Clive, as is well
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