Rampore Beauleah. 289 



the rains, has to be done by water, many of the planters 

 come to this meeting, which is the great annual festival, 

 in their large sailing boats, and sleep in them at night ; 

 while others pitch their tents, or stay with the residents of 

 the station. A considerable number, as well as strangers 

 and chance visitors, stay in the residency, in which there 

 would be ample accommodation for an entire regiment 

 The general rule is that the married people and ladies 

 live upstairs, and the bachelors and grass widowers on 

 the ground-floor ; though all breakfast, lunch, and dine 

 together at an admirably-arranged mess in the spacious 

 hall. The amateur management is so perfect that I 

 found my mess bill at the end of the week to be but a 

 mere trifle, although we had lavish supplies of all sorts 

 of good things. About sixty gentlemen and twenty 

 ladies generally sat down to table. As we were all met 

 to enjoy ourselves, the time passed but too rapidly away, 

 and the only wonder was that we were able to crowd 

 into the ten days so much sport, dancing, theatricals, 

 eating, drinking, and general jollity. 



At first, the local talent were anything but pleased at 

 seeing me appear on the scene with Czarina and North 

 Star, but their fears were allayed and harmony restored 

 on the first day, by the fact of their own crack defeat- 



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