Digital Rare Book:
The Surgeon's Daughter
By Sir Walter Scott
Published by George Routledge & Sons, London - 1876

Read Book Online:

http://bit.ly/1wtxHK0

Download pdf Book:

http://bit.ly/1xsecR3

Article:
A layered past
By Aliyeh Rizvi
Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Oct 26, 2014

When Menie Gray, the beautiful daughter of Dr Gideon Gray, fell in love with Richard Middlemas, a young man of doubtful lineage, their dramatic tale of passion, intrigue and adventure called The Surgeon's Daughter created an enduring connection between the famous Scottish litterateur Sir Walter Scott and the city of Bangalore.

Surprisingly, Scott had never visited India. His Oriental imagery for the story (parts of which were set in Bangalore) relied heavily on inputs from Colonel James Ferguson, the younger brother of one of his closest friends, and other family connections; his brother, uncle, brother-in-law and cousin who had served in India.

But Scott's association with Bangalore went beyond writing adventures for Menie Gray or being read in city college libraries. It also ran through Cunningham Road, named after Francis Cunningham, a young man who solicited Scott's influence to obtain a cadetship and went on to become deputy to Sir Mark Cubbon, the British Commissioner of Mysore. It is preserved on the walls of St Mark's Cathedral, Bangalore's oldest Anglican Church, in a memorial tablet dedicated to his nephew, Lt Colonel Sir Walter Scott, 2nd Baronet, 15th King's Hussars who died at sea off Madras in 1847. Within the church are many more such stories that have survived the onslaught of fate and time.

When the existing Drummers Chapel in the Bangalore Fort precincts proved to be too far away and not large enough for soldiers in the Baird Barracks at the eastern end of the Cantonment, requests were made for a church to be built halfway between the barracks and the fort. Notwithstanding the East India Company rule of 'one station, one church', permission was granted to build a new place of prayer. The building that opened its doors in 1808 was a modest structure measuring about 110 x 53 x 20 feet. It had seven doors and a large compound with four entrances. These were visible to devout soldiers in the Cantonment who walked up a narrow lane called Church Street that led them from the Barracks towards the Sunday 'Parade Service' at its other end.

Around the end of 1828, three large bells and twenty smaller ones arrived from England. One of the smaller bells was granted to the church and a belfry was added. By 1848, plans for enlargement were re-submitted. They included extending the west end, adding transepts in the north and building a cupola (tower). The plans made it to execution in 1901. The church would now accommodate about 700 people. But structural inadequacies caused the dome and turret to collapse along with the bells just before Christmas. The newly built chancel, sanctuary, furniture and organ were destroyed. Restoration concluded in 1906, and the dome was combined with a tower. Electric lights were installed in 1908. But more tests of faith were to come. In 1923, the church interiors were destroyed in a fire.

The church was painstakingly re-built over the next three years. A new organ was ordered from Messrs Hill Norman and Beard, England while the Processional Cross was made by Messrs Barton & Sons. The marble Font was sculpted in Genoa.

It was elevated to a Cathedral in 1947 and continues to remain a valuable repository of Cantonment history. Its plaques and tablets tell poignant stories to those who have the time to read them. Sandwiched between its layers are city memories that are over two hundred years old. Bangalore's past is not just priceless here, but also sacred.

Source: http://bit.ly/1w7epew