Thomas Daniell, British, 1788 'Esplanade Row and the Council House', acquatint, inscribed T.Daniell fec.t Calcutta, 1788 in bottom left corner.

This scene is one of twelve published under the title Views of Calcutta. Mildred Archer writes of this scene (in Early Views of India, London, 1980. "East of the New Court House in Esplanade Row was the Accountant General's Office-in the centre, here-and next to it the CouncilHouse of 1764 with two projecting wings. The latter was pulled down in 1800. Between these two buildings is the spire of St. John's Church, consecrated in 1787. In the foreground is the grassy Maidan, then as now the green lung of Calcutta. Various servants canbe seen on the Maidan, including a syce leading a horse and a doriya or dog-boy exercising his master's pets. Orriginally the Maidan had been a rough area kept free of scrub to provide an open firing space from the Fort, but withthe coompletion of the New Fort to the south in 1773 it became a fine grassy stretch where Calcutta inhabitants could 'eat the air'.