Page:Calcutta, Past and Present.djvu/176

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SOCIAL LIFE

complimentary stanzas in French, and "a grand song in honour of the capture of Seringapatam, the words of which were composed on the occasion by an amateur of this settlement." No other names are given in the account in the Calcutta Gazette, but—

"two glees, and the charming duett of 'Piche Cornahie' excited general applause, and the concert was concluded by the March in 'Judas Maccabæus,' and Handel's celebrated and (on this occasion) appropriate chorus of—

'Sing unto God, and high affections raise
To crown this conquest with unmeasured praise.'

which was performed by the boys belonging to the church, and by all the amateurs of Calcutta, and was deservedly encored."

At a time when it took a full year to obtain any article from England, and shops were not, it must have been a difficult problem for the members of this gay society to keep a wardrobe supplied. In those days, too, a man's dress was as elaborate an affair as a lady's, and required lace and ruffles, ribbon and powder, buckles and brooches, to say nothing of "black and white hats, thunder and lightning coats, stockings of seven colours, and tamboured waistcoats bedaubed with flowers," so that it was surely

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