The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-24 00:00:00

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LITERAT URE.

written entirely for private amusement, and pro-
fessing nothing but to give a plain and unvar-
nished account of these travels !" In these few
simple words the author has well described the
character of his work. It is indeed a plain and
unvarnished sketch of his Oriental wanderings,
unembellished by any thing like glowing de-
scription, and depending for effect almost exclu-
sively on the apparent, strict, homely truth of its
details. The author, it seems, was ordered on
foreign service in the autumn of the year 1835,
and left Plymouth in an Indiaman bound for
Ceylon. Nothing of interest occurred during
his voyage, except that in crossing the Line lie
was—according to immemorial custom—" ducked,
'shaved, and made uncomfortable for a whole
week," byNeptune and his vvaggish associates,who,
because he evinced a dislike of their rough prac-
tical jokes, treated his face town additional quan-
tity of pitch and paint. On reaching Ceylon',"
where he staid but a few days, and of which he
gives us, in consequence, little or no account, lie
again took shipping for Calcutta, with whose
splendid appearance he was, of course, as much
struck, as all are who visit for the first time that
Oriental City of Palaces. Our readers may, per-
haps, like to see his account of the habits of daily
life prevalent in Calcutta,. and we subjoin it ac-
cordingly :
The life one leads in the City of Palaces is much that
of all India—namely, rising two hours before sunrise ' • a
gallop round • the course follows, when, consigning both
your horse and yourself to the hands of their respective
servants, by half- past nine they manage to wind one
for breakfast. By an Indian breakfast by no means must.
. be, understood that simple bread, teat and butter, which
compose an English one : on the contrary, it involve,
among its component parts meat, fish, eggs, omelets ; not
to mention the eternal curry and rice, which neither
breakfast nor dinner in this country is complete without.
Visiting, scandal (which last abounds in India), and the
usual routine of a large English society, kill time till
luncheon, or tiflin, as it is called, whichris'again a most
substantial meal. After this meal, parties generally dis-
perse to their rooms, and amuse themselves as best they
may till driving hour (five, or half-past five), which can-
not take place till after the sun is down. At that
time a most extraordinary collection of vehicles make
their appearance on what- is called the course, from the
superb " turns out" of the grandee to the little gig of the
Calcutta shopkeeper.
• The author made but a brief stay at Calcutta,
and then steamed up the Ganges for several
hundred miles, accompanied by his uncle, Ge-
neral Sir Henry Fane, and a party, and, atter
passing many fine towns and magnificent ruins of
palaces on their voyage, arrived at the far-famed
sacred city of Benares, which presents a most,
picturesque appearance from the river, and whose
houses are, many of them, six stories high, built
of stone, each storey containing one family, and
many covered with execrable paintings of
Hindoo Gods and worthies of different kinds. In
some of the streets these houses on either side
come so close as to be united by galleries, and in
almost all a good jumper would clear the street
with . ease. " The close packing of this place,"
observes the author, " must be extraordinary, as
from the top of the Mosque, built by Aurung-.
-,
zebe, the city (hies not appear to extend above a
mile any way, 'and yet it is said to contain a po-
pulation of 050,000 inhabitants.", Benares, we
are told, is by far the richest city in India, and
carries on a very extensive trade with all parts
of the Continent, particularly in silks and bro-
cades, which are superb, but very expensive. It
is considered so holy, 'that if even a Christian
'were to die there, he would most likely go to the
Hindoo heaven. On reaching Delhi, after a long
and fatiguing march, our author was greatly
struck with the ruinous condition of this once
famous capital of the powerful Mogul empire.
Who has not heard of Sultans Jehanguire, Baber,
and Akbar, their enormous wealth, and flourishing:
metropolis, which monopolized almost all the
wealth of the East? Yet, " how are the mighty
fallen ?" Delhi is now mere a third-rate city,
though the Great Mogul still lives in the palace
of his ancestors, if a ruinous mass of mud and
dirt can be called such. We subjoin an amusing
account of our author's interview with the pre-
sent King of Delhi :
The. present King is a mean, vulgar-looking individual
of sixty. He was handsomely dressed, and had on some
really very fine jewels, particularly pearls.. The throne
which is still called the peacock throne; was in the time
of Akbar said, to have had jewels on it to the value of
20,000,0001., and Nadir Shah took from it upwards of
14,000,0001. A single diamond which formerly stood at
the top, which is now replaced by a piece of glass (the
Koh-c-nor), was valued at upwards of 3,000,0001. ; and
the peacocks which stand at each corner had each a string
of pearls in their beaks, valued at 100,000/. These, like
the diamonds, are now replaced by false ones, and the
jewels on the body of the throne. have descended into,
`coloured glass. The room, or open colonnade, in which
this object stands, is very beautifully formed of white
marble, inlaid with gold, and is still in tolerable repair,
though, the purdahs and carpets which composed its fur-
niture were:in a sad state of dilapidation.
After each had been presented and paid his money,
which his Majesty took especial care not to lose, we were
severally led. away to receive the kelat, or robe of ho-
nour—a farce which the Government still keep up, in
spite of its marvellous absurdity. The General was robed
in the King's presence, but we of the small fry marched
into another room, to be ,made such figures as never were
seen, even at Greenwich fair. Each of us had first a
piece of rag tied round our cocked hats, by way of tur-
ban ; after which a robe of spangled white muslin was
thrust over epaulettes, sword, and all ; over which again
they treated each of us to a jacketof cloth of silver; and
in this tomfool's dress we were again trotted across the
court, obliged (which was the most difficult performance
of the whole) to keep from laughing, and again to be
presented to the King and be bedizenel with a parcel of
glass' jewels and trumpery, to the value of two gold mo-
hurs ; for'which civility the company treated the King
to another gold mohur from each.
While this was going on, three or four heralds were
making as much noise as possible, by roaring at the top
of their voices the titles and honours which had been
'conferred on the Commander-in-Chief, and how much
honoured he ought. to .be by the distinction conferred
upon him by the " Asylum of the Universe." He was
treated to a coloured stick, which is, I believe, synony-
mous to the baton of a field-marshal ; to the drums of
state, which. confer the power of life and death ; and to
'the fallowing titles :—" The Lion of the State," " The
Sword of the Empire," " The Grandee of the Age," " Sir
H. Fane Bahadour, the strength of war."
This ceremony being concluded, we were again made
to salaam, and, in the dress we had received, were trotted
out to the gate to ouc elephants, and again went through
the town ; I, for one, feeling more ashamed
.of myself
than I had done for many a long year. We were not
allowed to take off our dress till our arrival in camp, as
that would have seemed diSrespectful to his Majesty ;
and so strict is Government on this point, that Mr. Fraser,
the resident, some years ago, having thrown off his dress
and given it to the beggars in the street, received a strong
reprimand froth his superiors, and was even threatened
with the loss of his place.
The second, volume is, for the most part, taken
up with particulars of a visit paid by the author
and his fellow-travellers to the Court of Runjeet
Sing, and notices of the late expedition to Cabul
and Affghanistan ; but as these subjects-have
already been well nigh exhausted by preceding
travellers, we here forbear from enlarging on
them. Suffice it to say that Mr.•Fane, the author,
has produced a very readable work—notwith-
standing that the majority of his details are :want-
ing in novelty ; and his volumes are illustrated
with some twelve or fourteen cleverish engraving

LOCKHART'S LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. Cudell, Edinburgh, 1841.
• In this large octavo volume is comprised the
whole of Mr.. Lockhart's Memoir of Sir Walter Scott, originally published in seven -volumes;
the work is beautifully printed, is embellished
with a half-length portrait of the biographer, and
not less than three likenesses of the great novel-
ist, taken at different periods of his
life—that is
to say, in boyhood, manhood, and age. Of all
the likenesses, the most expressive is decidedly
the bust,' exeduted by Chantrey in marble, and
presented by that great artist to the original.
The volume, considering' its extreme elegance, is
singularly cheap in price.

FATHERS AND SONS, :3 Poll.
Cab urn, London, 1841.
Our notice of this work
which was the last
written by Mr. Theodore Kook, may be soon
dispatched, f'or we have already given an opi-
nion of it, when it appeared fronuime to time
in the numbers of the New lifonthla Maya,;4o,le.
It is an amusing story, but is decidedly 11,1*
among its author's best specimens of fiction.
The first volume contains a brief biographical
sketch of Mr. Hook, accompanied by a portrait,
taken, apparently, some years before his death.