306 MONTHLY KEVIF.W OF LITERATURE. 



circumstances that India can be considered a paradise to a single woman, 

 where she can be truly free and unfettered, and where her existence may 

 glide away in the enjoyment of a beloved home, until she shall be tempted 

 to quit it by some object dearer far, than parents, friends, and all the world 

 beside. 



" There cannot be a more wretched situation than that of a young woman 

 who has been induced to follow the fortunes of a married sister, under the 

 delusive expectation that she will exchange the privations attached to limited 

 means in England for the far-famed luxuries of the East. The husband is 

 usually desirous to lessen the regret of his wife at quitting her home, by per- 

 suading an affectionate relative to accompany her, and does not calculate 

 before-hand the expense and inconvenience which he has entailed upon him- 

 self by the additional burthen. 



" Soon after their arrival in India, the family, in all probability, have to 

 travel to an up-country station, and here the poor girl's troubles begin ; 

 she is thrust into an outer cabin in a budgerow, or into an inner room in a 

 tent ; she makes perhaps a third in a buggy, and finds herself always in the 

 way ; she discovers that she is a source of continual expense ; that an addi- 

 tional person in a family imposes the necessity of keeping several additional 

 servants, and where there is not a close carriage she must remain a prisoner. 

 She cannot walk out beyond the garden or the verandah,and all the out-of-door 

 recreations which she may _have been accustomed to indulge in at home, 

 are denied her. 



" Tending flowers, that truly feminine employment, is an utter impossi- 

 bility ; the garden may be full of plants (which she has only seen in their 

 exotic state) in all the abundance and beauty of native luxuriance, but except 

 before the sun has risen, or after it has set, they are not to be approached ; 

 and even then, the frame is too completely enervated by the climate to admit 

 of those little pleasing labours, which render the green-house and the par- 

 terre so interesting. She may be condemned to a long melancholy sojourn 

 at some out-station, offering little society, and none to her taste. 



" If she should be musical, so much the worse ; the hot winds have split 

 her piano and her guitar, or the former is in a wretched condition, and there 

 is nobody to tune it; the white ants have demolished her music-books, and 

 new ones are not to be had. Drawing offers a better resource, but it is often 

 suspended from want of materials ; and needle- work is not suited to the cli- 

 mate. Her brother and sister are domestic, and do not sympathize in her 

 ennui ; they either see little company, or invite guests merely with a view to 

 be quit of an incumbrance. 



" If the few young men who may be at the station should not entertain 

 matrimonial views, they will be shy of their attention to a single woman, lest 

 expectations should be formed which they are not inclined to fulfil. It is 

 dangerous to hand a disengaged lady too often to table, for though no con- 

 versation may take place between the parties, the gentleman's silence is attri- 

 buted to want of courage to speak, and the offer, if not forthcoming, is 

 inferred. A determined flirt may certainly succeed in drawing a train of 

 admirers around her ; but such exhibitions are not common, and where ladies 

 are exceedingly scarce, they are sometimes subject to very extraordinary 

 instances of neglect. These are sufficiently frequent to be designated by a 

 peculiar phrase ; the wife or sister who may be obliged to accept a relative's 

 arm, or walk alone, is said to be " wrecked," and perhaps an undue degree 

 of apprehension is entertained rpon the subject ; a mark of rudeness of this 

 nature reflecting more discredit upon the persons who can be guilty of it, than 

 upon those subjected to the affront. Few young women who have accom- 

 panied their married sisters to India, possess the means of returning home ; 

 however strong their dislike may be to the country, their lot is cast in it, and 

 they must remain in a state of miserable dependence, with the clanger of 



