140 REMINISCENCES OF* SONEPORE. 



pany, the best masters that servants ever had ; and my good 

 friends, planters, little as you liked the regime then, would the 

 Indigo Crusade ever have taken place if the Company had 

 been to the fore ? 



" However, I took up my pen not to drift into Indian poli- 

 tics, but to compare Sonepore of the present with that of the 

 past in no cavilling spirit, but in the humble hope that I might 

 possibly suggest some old ideas which might go towards im- 

 proving the present. A very little word may do a great deal 

 of mischief, so why might it not do good perchance? 



" A remarkable difference between the past and the present 

 is in the large ' camps ' which are now a feature of the camp. 

 They are often very expensive, needlessly so I mean, for 

 guests surely need not have cheval glasses in each tent, the 

 good food and good liquors all well bestowed. But I cannot 

 but think that it is owing to the largeness of these camps that 

 this general and exceeding good fellowship which used to 

 grow with each day of the meeting is not now apparent. 

 Large camps there must be when people have many guests 

 who come from a distance, who could not otherwise be there 

 on their own account ; and if these camps were composed 

 only of such elements, they would perhaps only add to the 

 general association. But now the guests in camps are often 

 made up only of neighbours, who would otherwise come on 

 their own account as they formerly used to do, and this I 

 think is unfortunate. A large camp is a society in itself, and 

 people in it must more or less hang together ; they are inde- 

 pendent of others at first, and sometimes just a little tired of 

 each other at last. Now these same people if there separate- 

 ly on their own account, or if making up small independent 

 parties look to others for their society and form in them- 

 selves an available society for others, which gets pleasanter 

 and pleasanter as days go on and they know more of each 

 other. 



