6 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
were, the drive was very uncomfortable. A Fern growing on the 
walls of the older buildings was the only plant I remarked, and in so 
dry and dusty an atmosphere it looked sadly out of place. Gradually, 
at length, the houses became more scattered, the city was left behind, 
and I entered the Barrackpore * road, lined with trees, chiefly Mango, 
Pepul, and Banian, Tamarind and Acacia, Melia Azadirachta, Odina, &e. 
At Futty-Ghaut the river is crossed, and soon after the road runs 
through Chinsurah, the last of the French settlements in Bengal, 
where there is a great manufactory of Cheroots. Thence to Hooghly, 
where I had a letter to the Judge, Mr. Russell (a brother of the late 
Hon. Wentworth Russell), and from his house I went to Mr. Wauchope’s, 
whither my Palkee had been sent previously. The size and situation 
of the noble residences of the Civil Service of the Hon. Company are 
certainly sufficiently striking, and placed, as they most frequently are, in 
broad lawns, laid out with excellent taste, and commanding, as in this 
instance, a superb view, they are much more imposing than the Calcutta 
houses. It was, however, late in the evening when I arrived at Mr. 
Wauchope's, and I had only light enough to recognise the grand features 
of a sloping wooded park and the broad river beyond, along whose 
banks the lights of the boatmen shone like the lamps of some great 
thoroughfare in Europe 
From Hooghly the road, certainly an excellent one for India, runs 
north-west to Benares, and is well metalled all the way.  Palkee 
travelling, though commonly described, may bear a notice in a 
private letter. Its novelty is such that at first you rather like it: the 
neatness with which everything is packed around you, the good humour 
of the bearers, their merry pace, and the many more comforts you 
enjoy than could be expected in a conveyance horsed by man, the 
warmth when you shut the sliding doors, and the breeze when they are 
open, are all fully appreciated on first starting ; but very soon the 
novelty wears off, and the discomforts are so numerous, that it 
is, at best, a barbarous mode of conveyance. The greedy ery and 
gestures of the bearers, when, on changing, they break a fitful sleep 
by poking a torch in your face and vociferating “ Bucksheesh Sahib ;” 
their discontent with the most liberal largesse, and the sluggish 
paces of the next set who want bribes from the inexperienced traveller, 
peta is the Governor-General’ desk ee 
au Vanier a Hooghly. s country-house, a noble building on 
