system which has entirely spoiled the charm of Barrackpore to me. It is such a comfort at Calcutta to have four days out of the seven, and very often five, without the danger of even a morning visit; whereas here, we have people all day long. Any idea of being in the country is all nonsense, when you can only go out one hour in the twenty-four, and that is in the dark now. Even George has given up gardening as a bad job. I must say, after we have abused the weather so much, that the change the last week has been quite delightful. The evenings are quite cool, partly from very thick fog; but still they are cool, and the days are no longer oppressive. We still go on with our punkahs, and, indeed, I am ashamed to say that I keep mine still going all night; but then I pull the sheet well over me, so you may imagine that the season is very inclement. The old Indians really get up a shiver, and say, ‘Well, I think you have nothing better than this in England!’ Poor dears! ‘Yet nature might have made me such as these,’ therefore ‘I’ll not disdain,’ as Autolycus says. Indeed, India will make me so in another year, so perhaps it is better not to disdain.
