India just after the country had come under the rule of the Company.
The natives never quite understood what was meant by that mysterious Board of Directors on the other side of the globe. When Lord Valentia came to India they were under the impression that the Company was an old woman and that the Governor-General was one of her numerous family. The arrival of the noble traveller was announced to the Vizier of Oude as The Lord Wellesley's sister's son and the grandson of Mrs. Company.' Lord Valentia wrote thus of the Garden House: The factory house is a chaste piece of architecture built by my relative, Diamond Pitt, when this was the chief station of the British on the Coromandel Coast. It has a noble portico, and had a terraced roof that pleased Mr. Lally so much that he carried it away to Pondicherry.'
If the house was built by Pitt it is probable that he laid out the garden as well. He was a great gardener, and frequently mentioned his horticultural experiments in his letters home. As I wandered among the flowers with my kind hostess I thought of the redoubtable old Pirate Pitt,' as he was once termed by the Company before he became their zealous servant. At the time when he directed the familiar mâli, or Molly, as some people call the garden coolie, the forest was close to the house and required cutting away. When cleared of jungle the soil was good and only needed water to be productive. From his letters we learn that vegetable-seeds were sent out from England. Country ships brought plants and seeds from China and the Straits. Men like Sonnerat, Bulkley, Anderson, Roxburgh, and Jerdon were always ready to help in experimental agri- and horticulture.
We dined in the large central room over which there are now a drawing-room and bedrooms. The story was told of how the French surprised some English soldiers,
