of rain which last ten minutes, and flood the whole place. The water filled the chinks of the new brickwork, and the altar fell quietly down like a card-house, and was all single bricks again. George was looking out of the window, and had the fun of seeing it. I have given general directions to be called when such a catastrophe is likely to occur, as no fun must be wasted here. The natives very quietly set to work and built it all up again. I see the danger of this life will be the habit of fancying one may have anything one wants (except fresh air and friends). If twenty-four gardeners will not make a new garden, forty-eight will. Before I thought of this altar I had asked a Captain Fitzgerald, who is called a civil engineer, for a plan of a chunam vase for fish and water-lilies, and he is such a very civil engineer that he has not only made a beautiful design, but is putting up two of the vases, one on each side of my altar: but I try to remember that when we go back to Knightsbridge, I must haggle prodigiously about the price of a dozen iron sticks for the garden.
For a Calcutta amusement I have set up pigeons in my balcony. Major Byrne gave me
