AKEIVAL IN INDIA 233 



the representative of Botany in Ceylon. Science was likely 

 to benefit by official acquaintance with men of science. 



Madras revealed the splendours of Oriental pageantry in 

 the official reception of the Governor- General. The military 

 display, the brilliant colour of the crowds who poured out of 

 the city, amply compensated for the waste of half a day on 

 board ship while arrangements were being completed ashore. 



This was India itself ; authentic information was to be 

 gleaned, practical arrangements made for forthcoming travel. 

 An old acquaintance turned up in Major Garsten, bluff and 

 burly, whom he remembered as a threadpaper of a lad in 

 Edinburgh. He heard tall stories of the Mysore summer ; when 

 wineglasses snap off at the stem, untouched, and tables of teak 

 split across the grain. Through Gideon Thomson, the brother 

 of his Glasgow friend, he had hopes of securing a good plant 

 collector. Five servants were needed for his travels, besides 

 collectors ; and Madras servants were reputed better and more 

 faithful than Bengalis. More lessons in Hindustani were re- 

 quired ; ' my progress in the lingo,' he laments, * is very slow. 

 I have no head for languages, especially such a cacophonous 

 one as this.' He spent most of his time in the Horticultural 

 Society Gardens, and seeing Mr. Elhott's collections of birds and 

 animals. But even so, when he began travelling in Bengal he 

 found the plants, presumably common Bengal species, new to 

 him, ' and without books I cannot give even the generic names, 

 so ignorant do I find myself.' 



In Calcutta, where he arrived on January 12, he first 

 stayed with an old friend of his father. Sir Lawrence Peel ; ^ 

 afterwards at Government House, for 



neither the Governor- General nor Lady Dalhousie will allow 

 me to take up my quarters anywhere but with them. [And 

 a little later] : Both show great friendship to me. He 

 is a very fine fellow, who always means what he says ; and 



^ Sir Lawrence Peel (1799-1884) was a coasiii of the statesman, Sir Robert. 

 He was knighted in 1842 when promoted from Advocate-General to Chief Justice 

 of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. Returning to England in 1855, he became 

 Indian Assessor to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The love of his 

 beautiful place at Calcutta was recorded in the name of his house at Ventnor, 

 Garden Reach. 



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