Bombay the rising Presidency - Probability of its becoming the Seat of
Government - The Anglo-Indian Society of Bombay - Style of
Living - The
Gardens inferior to those of Bengal - Interiors of the Houses more
embellished - Absence of Glass-windows an evil - The Bungalows - The
Encamping-ground - Facility and despatch of a change of
residence - Visit to a tent entertainment - Inconveniences attending a
residence in tents - Want of Hotels and Boarding-houses - Deficiency of
public Amusements in Bombay - Lectures and Conversaziones suggested,
as means of bringing the native community into more frequent
intercourse with Europeans - English spoken by the superior classes
of Natives - Natives form a very large portion of the wealth and
intelligence of Bombay - Nothing approaching the idea of a City to be
seen - The climate more salubrious than that of Bengal - Wind blows hot
and cold at the same time - Convenience a stranger finds in so many
domestic servants speaking English - Their peculiar mode of speaking
it - Dress of servants - Their wages - The Cooks - Improved by Lord
Clare - Appointments of the tables - The Ramoosee Watchmen - Their
vociferations during the night - Fidelity of the Natives - Controversy
concerning their disregard of truth.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XI.
BOMBAY - (Continued).
Residences for the Governor - Parell - Its Gardens - Profusion of
Roses - Receptions at Government-house - The evening-parties - The
grounds and gardens of Parell inferior to those at Barrackpore - The
Duke of Wellington partial to Parell - Anecdotes of his Grace
in India - Sir James Mackintosh - His forgetfulness of India - The
Horticultural Society - Malabar Point, a retreat in the hot
weather - The Sea-view beautiful - The nuisance of fish - Serious effects
at Bombay of the stoppage of the trade with China - Ill-condition
of the poorer classes of Natives - Frequency of Fires - Houses of the
Parsees - Parsee Women - Masculine air of the other Native Females
of the lower orders who appear in
public - Bangle-shops - Liqueur-shops - Drunkenness amongst Natives
not uncommon here, from the temptations held out - The Sailors'
Home - Arabs, Greeks, Chinamen - The latter few and shabby - Portuguese
Padres - Superiority of the Native Town of Bombay over that of
Calcutta - Statue of Lord Cornwallis - Bullock-carriages - High price and
inferiority of horses in Bombay - Hay-stacks - Novel mode of stacking
* * * * *
CHAPTER XII.
BOMBAY - (Continued).
The Climate of Bombay treacherous in the cold season - The land-wind
injurious to health - The Air freely admitted into Rooms - The
Climate of the Red Sea not injurious to Silk dresses - Advice to
lady-passengers on the subject of dress - The Shops of Bombay badly
provided - Speculations on the site of the City, should the seat of
Government be removed hither - The Esplanade - Exercise of Sailors
on Shore and on Ship-board - Mock-fight - Departure of Sir Henry
Fane - Visit to a fair in Mahim Wood - Prophecy - Shrine of Mugdooree
Sahib - Description of the Fair - Visit to the mansion of a
Moonshee - His Family - Crowds of Vehicles returning from the
Fair - Tanks - Festival of the Duwallee - Visit to a Parsee - Singular
ceremony - The Women of India impede the advance of improvement - They
oppose every departure from established rules - Effect of Education in
Bombay yet superficial - Cause of the backwardness of Native Education
MEMOIR.
* * * * *
Experience has, especially of late years, amply refuted the barbarous
error, which attributes to Nature a niggardliness towards the minds
of that sex to which she has been most prodigal of personal gifts;
the highest walks of science and literature in this country have been
graced by female authors, and, perhaps, the purity and refinement
which pervade our works of imagination, compared with those of former
days, may not unjustly be traced to the larger share which feminine
pens now have in the production of these works. It would appear to
countenance the heretical notion just condemned, to assume that
a robust organization is essential to the proper development and
exercise of the powers of the understanding; but it is certain
that, in several instances, individuals, who have exhibited the most
striking examples of female pre-eminence, have not reached the full
maturity of their intellectual growth, but have been lost to the world
in a premature grave: to the names of Felicia Hemans and Laetitia
E. Landon, besides others, is now added that of Emma Roberts, who,
although in respect of poetical genius she cannot be placed upon
a level with the two writers just named, yet in the vigour of her
faculties, and in the variety of her talents, is worthy of being
associated with them as another evidence against the asserted mental
inequality of the sexes.
Miss Roberts belonged to a Welsh family of great respectability. Her
grandfather, who was a gentleman of good property, and served the
office of High Sheriff for Denbighshire, North Wales, possessed the
fine estate of Kenmell Park in that county, which was disposed of
after his death to Colonel Hughes, the present Lord Dinorben, whose
seat it continues to be. He had three sons, all of whom entered a
military life, which seems to have had peculiar attractions to this
gallant family. The eldest, the late General Thomas Roberts, raised
a regiment, which became the 111th, and it is said he frequently
officiated as Gold Stick in Waiting to George the Third. A son of
General Roberts was aide-de-camp to Sir Arthur Wellesley in Portugal,
was taken prisoner by the French, and detained during the war: he
afterwards rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. The second son,
Colonel David Roberts, of the 51st regiment, distinguished himself in
the Peninsular war, having, on the 7th January, 1809, during Sir
John Moore's retreat, near the heights of Lugo, headed a party which
repulsed the French Light Brigade, on which occasion his cloak was
riddled with bullets, two of which passed through his right-hand,
which was amputated. He was then a major, but afterwards commanded the
regiment, in Lord Dalhousie's brigade, and subsequently in Flanders,
and was so seriously and repeatedly wounded, that his pensions for
wounds amounted to L500 a year. Colonel Roberts was an author, and
wrote, amongst other things, the comic military sketch called Johnny
Newcome.
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