Half-plate (landscape format). Seen across the riverbank Dalhousie Square. [Occupying the whole of the north side of Dalhousie Square, the building was erected in 1780 as the Writers Buildings for the accommodation of junior E.I.Co. servants on their arrival in India. Originally, in Montague Masseys words a plain white stuccoed building utterly devoid of any pretensions to architectural beauty, and depending mainly for any chance claim to recognition on its immense length: it was taken over by the Bengal Government for use as the Secretariat in 1880, and the decorated façade added in 1881-1882].