MADRAS. 321 
I must have five servants (besides plant-collectors) at wages of 
from six to fourteen rupees a month, and the third, an old man, 
who was willing to come for ten, I did not like the look of, and 
thought I saw some flaws in his character; so, after a great deal 
of enquiry, I am obliged to wait till I get to Bengal. In the 
meantime my progress in the language is very slow. 
In the town I saw a juggler carrying a hooded snake, the Cobra, 
a beautiful creature, but of rather a sickly yellow colour, which 
coiled round the man’s neck, and suffered itself to be teased to 
frenzy. The juggler also swallowed an egg and brought it out by 
his ear, and performed other tricks, all common in India, but so 
familiar through early reading, that I cannot help mentioning 
them now that the reality is witnessed. At the dinner-party to 
day I had the pleasure to make acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. 
Walter Elliott. Mr. E., son of a late Governor, is, I think, 
Colonial-Secretary, a very talented man, and fond both of anti- 
quities and zoology. He asked me to breakfast with him the 
next morning, and gratified me with a sight of many curiosities 
and objects of antiquity. 
In the afternoon of Friday we had to attend upon Lord Dal- 
housie during a levée, at which all the Madras people, civil and 
military, made their obeisance. It was held in a magnificent hall 
or banqueting-room, detached from Government-House, having 
a good deal the character of the noble Exchange-room in Glasgow. 
I do not think I have any more about Madras worth relating 
to you. The little leisure I could spare was devoted to the Agro- 
Horticultural Society's Gardens, and to the inspection of Mr. 
Elliott’s birds and animals. 
Sir Laurence Peel’s, Garden Reach, 
Caleutta, Jan. 20th, 1848: 
Here I am on the banks of the Hoogly at last, with our excel- 
lent friend Wallich’s pet, the H.E.L.C. Botanic Garden, looking me 
full in the face from the side of the river opposite to where I now 
am, J. D. H. 
[The account of this garden and other matters relating to 
India, will occupy a second portion of these notes.—En.] 
VOL VII. 20 
