ABSTRACT
The house which grew into Government House, Madras, was bought in 175:3 by Governor Thomas Saunders, to replace a previous house destroyed by the French during their occupation of Madras from 1746 to 1749. Government House, Madras, and Parell, near Bombay, were both Governors' houses in the early days when the sole object of the East India Company was trade. The Indian Government Houses and Residencies might not have been up to the palaces and mansions of Europe, yet they were all impressive and commodious, and some were of real architectural distinction. The English country gentleman's habit of speaking of a fellow-landowner on the other side of the county as his neighbour was carried to its ultimate extreme among the Government Houses of India. The inhabitants of the Government Houses suffered from the heat, the mosquitoes and the germs as much as everybody else did; perhaps even more so, on account of their high position.
