The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

874

burral► bibi might be very young, fond of dancing, and I
therefore stay late, which it would not suit au older dame i
to do.
_

I once saw a lady, far from well, after a dinner party at
Government:house, and wishing very much to go home,
who, on my urging her to do so, hesitated, because another
person in company—the wife of a man of higher official
rank than her own husband—did not seem disposed to
move. I took the opportunity of impressing on the
poor sufferer that the sooner this custom was broken
through the better. However, she did not like to infringe
it, and so she sat on.

It is in these social sketches that Lady Falkland
excels, but her descriptions of town and coun-
try are not the less animated and interesting
Sight-seeing in India, she remarks, is very
Litiguiug

The early sun I always found very overpowering ; it is
impossible to go out in the middle of the day unless one is
protected in a carriage or in a palanquin ; the afternoons
are so short, and it is so hot till late in the day—the sun
keeping up his strength to the last—that it requires some
resolution end a good deal of health and strength to over•
come all these drawbacks. Fortunately 1 had all three, and
fancied I could set the sun at defiance ; and though I had
one slight coup de soled during my zesidence in India, I
never learnt prudence. Had I been as prudent as I ought
to have been, I should have seen nothing.
It is (she adds) by making expeditions like that I made
to Alundi and other places, and by taking an interest in
the daily es ents of native life, that the monotony of an
Indian► existence is ameliorated. It is not always easy to
appreciate the significance and value of what is constantly
before our eyes ; but I think people can learn to do so ; and
nowhere is such a faculty more valuable than in India,
where one is left so completely to one's own resources—
that is, the ladies; for assuredly the gentlemen who hold
office have much to do, and are hard worked, being employed
early and late.

This appears to be a sensible view of an
L►dian life. It was the opinion of no less an
authority than the Duke of Wellington that
Europeans took too little exercise in India.
In point of fact they eat, and drink, and sleep
far too much, and shorten their lives in pro-
portion. As to power to withstand the sun,
some of the recent forced marches of troops
show that the sun may be defied with coin•
partitive impunity. To be sure, a great
stimulus sustained our men ; but we are con-
fident that a little more energy, and a little
less indolence, would prolong European life
in India.

Among Lady Falkland's many graphic
sketches of Bombay and its environs, that, of
the journey up the hills is the best. It is too
long for extract, and will not bear abbreviation.
Only those, says Lady Falkland, who have
lived in the plains, can understand the feel-
ings of an attenuated and exhausted Euro-
pean, the first day after he has arrived on the
hills. " When you wake you think you have
" received a new set of bones ; you get up
" refreshed, and your feet seem to run away
" with you" :
The windows can be closed without your feeling it too
warm, and open without feeling too cold. There are fir ?
places in the bungalows, and how often have I known
people to have a fire for the pleasure of seeing one, and in
order to make them think they were " at home."
Then a fog! when it does come ( which is the case
sometimes), how it is welcomed by many, who say, oh ! it
reminds one of" home !" And I plead guilty to having
gone out and stood in a shower purposely to receive the
refreshing drops.
It is often possible to remain out till nine in the
morning when it is cloudy, and also to go out early in the
afternoon. The air is apring-like, light and crisp; when
the slightest feeling of keenness arises, a soft breeze conies
to your relief immediately.
Early in the morning—as is the ease in all hilly corn•
tries—mountains are partly covered with floating mists,
which run along, visiting every rocky peak, which looks
instantly cool and refreshed.
These mountains are about 4,000 feet above the sea,
which was visible in certain lights from the window of our
bungalow, at the distance of thirty miles as the bird flies;
and when the sun declined we could sometimes see little
white specs on the distant ocean—they were ships. At
other times the blue line of the water became a sheet of
gold. This was the usual effect of the afternoon sun on it.
Then there were ligl.ts and shadows for ever changing,
throwing the sketcher who attempted to colour from nature
into the depths of despair.

The sunsets are superb at Mahabaleshwur,
and the scenery is magnificent:—
Among these mountains there is the wildest scenery
that can be imagined, and spots where no human foot can
ever have trod. It wualways a strange feeling to look
down on those wild solitudes, so completely inaccessible
even to the children of the soil, who never could have set
their feet among the dense jungle, nor climbed np the
perpendicular sides of the abrupt surrounding mountains,
among which wander bisons, tigers, cheetahs, hyenas,
s will deer, jackalls, and monkeys.
New points commanding glorious prospects are often
dipcovered, niirrJw paths are cut in the jungle.
ThA sides such a path form high tapestry walk of long
reeds, grasepieuhes, and ferrfs, entwined with wild flowers,