Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

The Doctor should have informed us whether or not Lady Passengers might calculate on the service of a Mantua-maker or Haberdasher. I suppose few ships sail without them!

I have heard, though I can scarcely credit the fact, that there are at least half a dozen officers in the Company's service who have not such a thing as a telescope in their possession. How they can manage without such " an absolute necessary" I cannot conceive. Listen to the Doctor. He does not, I believe, sell telescopes himself, though possibly some near friend or relative may deal in these articles. But this is nothing to the purpose.

[ocr errors]

66

NECESSITY OF TELESCOPES.

A small Telescope, that may be easily carried in the pocket will prove amusing on many occasions, and to a military man must ever "he ranked among absolute necessaries.”

Suspicious people might conclude, from the following passage, that Mr. Hume, the chemist, and Dr. Gilchrist the philologist, were no strangers to each other. I really rather doubt the connection.

[ocr errors]

66

"

GENUINE MEDICINES.

"No person who ventures on so long a salt-water excursion as Hindoostan, (Hindoostan then is not a country but a salt-water excursion,) should omit carrying with him a few boxes of aperient pills." "(Whose shall we take?) "Those prepared by Hume, of Long Acre, the "king's chemist, at two shillings the box of 48 pills" (cheap enough, four for a penny!) are probably the safest and best, as many respectable persons have experienced. They enjoy (happy pills!) an "extensive sale, commensurate with their acknowledged efficacy in ob"viating," &c. &c.

[ocr errors]

66

66

In the following passage there is something I do not exactly comprehend-What are blue casts? and how can a face betray an affinity with a remark? The Doctor is sometimes a little too deep for the ordinary reader.

[ocr errors]

CHEEKS AND REMARKS.

Humiliating hints about black blood and blue casts ought sedulous"ly to be discountenanced, lest they raise a blush in animated faces, " which otherwise would never have betrayed the smallest affinity with "the obtrusive remarks."

I next come to another specimen of the philologist's disinterestedness. After stating that great advantages have accrued to individuals from attending Gilchrist's gratuitous lectures," he adds in a foot note.

[ocr errors]

NECESSARY PUBLICATIONS.

"Every particular concerning Gilchrist's numerous publications and "lecture rooms will be ascertained by calling at the Company's book"sellers, at No. 7, Leadenhall Street, London."

Now for another piece of information. Many people have hitherto supposed that it is the fashion in India to take tea in-doors. It is quite a mistake.

OUT-OF-DOORS TEA DRINKING.

"He (the Bheestie) likewise waters the precincts of the house, several "times daily, but especially towards sunset, when gentlemen usually "take their tea in the open air."

Another mistake is equally prevalent. A stranger would be apt to pay his ceremonious visits to ladies in the forenoon, instead of which the usual custom, according to Gilchrist, is to pay formal visits between 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening-that is just after dinner and before the desert is removed; in hopes of getting an invitation to supper-an invitation rarely declined! How invaluable and true is the following information!

PROPER HOUR FOR VISITS.*

"Gentlemen who visit ladies, commonly repair to their houses be"tween eight and nine o'clock in the evening; ordinarily under the expectation of being invited to stay and sup; an invitation that is rarely declined.

[ocr errors]

66

"Among ladies intimately acquainted, morning visits are common, "but all who wish to preserve etiquette, or merely return the compliment, by way of keeping up a distant acquaintance, confine their vi"sits to the evening. Attended by one or more gentlemen, they pro"ceed in their palanquins, on a tour devoted entirely to this cold exchange of what is called civility."

There are many officers of native corps, who fancy themselves members of a regimental mess. There is no such thing in any corps in the Company's service!

NO MESSES IN COMPANY'S REGIMENTS.

"Neither does any corps in the Company's service keep a mess; all "the officers dining either at home, or in small parties, according their several fancies or occasion may lead them."

[ocr errors]

as

I have been some time in India, and have often used Mahannah palanquins, but never knew before I read of it in Gilchrist's Guide, that "the poles are always covered with leather!" In the course of my residence in this country, I have sometimes fancied, that perhaps one Indian horse in a thousand, was rather quiet. But Gilchrist says,

"The horses are invariably high spirited, often becoming, under the least provocation or licence, incorrigibly vicious.”

So fierce are the horses of India, that a party of gentlemen dare not ride within ten or twelve yards of each other! Every body who has been on the Calcutta Course, must be perfectly convinced of the truth of this statement!!

Our correspondent should remember, that though Gilchrist's book was published only a few years ago (in 1828, we believe,) the author refers to the period when he himself was resident in India, which was some twenty years before Still, however. Dr. Gilchrist ought not to have published an East Indian Guide without inquiring into the changes that had taken place in Indian society since his acquaintance with it. We have heard that the practise of evening visits was a common one in his time.-Ed.

VICIOUS HORSES AND BROKEN LEGS.

"There we see gentlemen, when mounted, afraid to approach each "other within ten or twelve yards, lest their horses should begin fighting. Some few have, indeed, been tempted, by the supposed passive"ness of their respective steeds, to ride boot to boot; but rarely with"out experiencing some dreadful misfortune, MANY legs" (of the FEW people who have been thus rash) “ having been thus broken. "

I could easily make a much larger collection of the beauties of Gilchrist, but I have already selected quite enough to show how much dependence is to be placed on his disinterestedness, his authority, and his judgment.

TO MY CHILD.

BY RICHARD RYAN, ESQ.

What will thou be, my black-eyed boy,

Thus smiling on my knee;

A genius or a hero bold

Will thee thy parents see?

Will thou be a poet or painter rare,
Or a child of dance or song;

In pleasure's maze will thy footpath lie,
Or to grief will it belong?

Will thy home lie in some silent glen,
Or on the rolling sea;

Or in palace halls, or in noxious climes,
Where, oh! were, will it be?

Will thy delights be the plume, the steed,
Or sound of Hunter's horn;

Or to hew thy path thro' foemen's hearts
On wings of conquest borne?

Why things like these should I wish to know?
who gave thee life

The power

Ordains thy happiest hours for thee,

And thy days or nights of strife,

And bliss, and hope, and misery,

Thou wilt feel at his command;

And roam thou where thou wilt thoul't be
Still led by his guiding hand.

I meekly bow to this wondrous power
Who rules earth, and sea, and air;
And so shalt thou when thy little lips
Can be taught to lisp a prayer.
And as manhood dawns I'll hope to see
Thee thy parents stay and pride;
As the ivy adorns the old oak tree,
And blooms lovely at its side.

D.

INVOCATION.

BY ROBERT CALDER CAMPBELL.

Oh! bring thy syrop-dews,

Bright fairy queen!

And let them in my veins infuse

Intoxication keen;

Until the remnant of my senses quite

Is flooded over with the holy wine,

Whose strength saturnian dashes o'er with light
The grumy web that hoods my tortured sight
a knotted twine!

With many

And let me, empress! seek
Thy forest caves;

Where Nature's powerful hand shall break,
(While Virtue's wand she waves,)

The spiny gyves that chain me to the earth,
And lap my spirit in such baneful sleep;
But thou, and Nature, with thy spells of worth,
Shall franchise me--and aid the smiling birth
Of thoughts, serene and deep!

For I too long-too long

Have lent my reason's force

To worldly shapes, with shout and song
That led a hateful course;

And I have followed wheresoe'er would urge
The servile leader of rash folly's train;
Have breasted tipsy pleasure's spumy surge:
Have fathomed swarthy sin's chaotic gurge,
And seared with crime my brain!

But I'll no more pursue

The hests of spirits base!

I'll search out Nature,-and with you

Join in a nobler chase :

I'll shut my feebler thoughts, as in a cage

That shields some frail bird from the falcon's ire

Nor let them brave the artful cozenage

Of voices sweet, that would my heart engage

To tread a track of fire!

LOG BOOK-No. III.

My last chapter brought me down to the conclusion of the year 1812, and if not instructed in many of the elegant accomplishments which are taught to young collegians at the Royal Naval College, such as dancing, drawing, &c. I was at least perfected in those rough and ready" acquirements which fitted me at once for active and useful service. And no wonder, for my father, as far as he was able, had toiled night and day to send me forth to the world not altogether a dunce, and as to the higher branches of mathematics and nautical astronomy, he failed not, by persuasion and advice, constantly to impress on my mind never to omit the opportunity, at any future period, to study them, with a view both to my professional advancement in life, and the satisfaction arising from a well-cultivated mind. The burden of his parental admonitions would be, "remember, youngster, I have no borough interest to get you on in life, and when I once start you, all will depend on your own exertions." This would be uttered in such a tone of plaintive seriousness and followed up by so friendly and familiar a narration of his own luckless career, that it carried conviction to my heart, and suggested a prayer, that he might live to reap the enjoyment of witnessing my future success; but with what little avail I too truly know!

In the month of April, 1813, I well remember an old friend of his― a lieutenant of the navy, and commander of a French prison ship in the harbour of Hamoaze, Plymouth Dock, called at his house, and his first salutation was "Bond, I have got your youngster a ship." He then stated, that a brother officer had been just appointed to the command of a fast sailing American schooner, which had been lately captured, and the Government had bought her into the service, and fitted her up as an armed vessel; this officer had recommended me to him, and he promised to take me as a young gentleman volunteer, the rules of the service not permitting me to be rated as midshipman until I had been a given time at sea.

Accordingly my father and myself were very shortly after introduced to my future captain. He was a very respectable officer-like looking man, with something of the old Roman sternness in his countenance, and about the middle age. His was an aspect I should like very well now in my present stage of life, because there was a sedateness and gravity of manner in his general bearing, which indicated a firmness of purpose and a steadiness of friendship which the shocks and collisions of the world would neither ruffle nor alienate. That there was a fixedness of purpose in him and a determination to perform what he had promised, I had but too good reason to know some months afterwards, when for some scampish, boyish tricks I had been playing on board, he consecrated the solemn act of matrimony between me and the gunner's daughter-but all this in its proper place by and by.

After all the preliminaries were settled, and mutual compliments had passed, there remained nothing to be done, but to equip me in the new character I was about to assume; and here, as I recall to memory my

« ForrigeFortsæt »