OF THE OLD WORLD. 27 



that the first sportsmen of India came from far-off 

 stations to display their skill, and the goodness and 

 courage of their cattle, at these meetings. 



As it became dusk, some one sounded the dinner- 

 call on a key-bugle, which had a very fine effect, as 

 the sound was echoed in the dome several times, 

 as also among the other tombs. We sat down, 

 nearly thirty, to table ; and after the clattering of 

 knives and forks, and the popping of corks, had 

 subsided, we withdrew to one of the kiosks or 

 pleasure houses in the garden, where songs and 

 brandy panee* passed round freely until a late 

 hour. 



Since that night many long years have glided on, 

 and I have wandered over half the globe ; still, 

 when I hear those old, familiar airs, the scene often 

 comes before my eyes, and I think I see the well- 

 remembered features of my old associates, in the 

 forest and the field, who used to sing them, al- 

 though I know that many sleep beneath the sod, 

 having fallen on the field, or been cut off by pesti- 

 lence in the flower of their years, and the few sur- 

 vivors are scattered, and I have lost sight of most 

 of them. India is not, perhaps, a land to live in 

 from choice, still my heart clings to it with a kind 

 of unhallowed love ; for it ever appeared to me to 

 possess a peculiarly fascinating charm, which I have 

 found wanting elsewhere. Memory takes me back 

 to those happy days I passed in that glorious land ; 

 * Brandy .ind water. 



