386 MADRAS. 
* 
like pigmies in it, as our heads did not reach to the top of the 
pediment. 
I learned that Lord WilHam Bentinck had written to Purneah, 
the Regent of Mysore, to prepare every thing for my reception in 
that country. He had the goodness to promise also, that to-morrow- 
he would direct other letters to be sent, requesting that peons 
might meet Mr. Salt at Ossour, to conduct him safely to Seringa- 
patam, where he was again to join me. 
February 14.-— I dined with Mr. Chamiere, the second Member in 
Council, and afterwards went with him to a ball at the Pantheon. 
This was originally a private house, and, as such, must have been 
very uncomfortable. On the ruin of the person who built it, it was 
purchased by a party of gentlemen, as a place of public amusement, 
for which it is very well adapted, having one very large room, 
most beautifully chunamed. They have added a theatre to it, 
where, occasionally, plays are performed. It is a pretty building, 
and the scenes are well painted : the back of the stage opens, and is 
connected by an anti-room to the ball-room. This ball was given 
by a race committee ; for races are here permitted. The room was 
very full, but I did not perceive that the Madras ladies excelled in 
beauty those of Calcutta. The novelty of the evening was the Pan 
pipes that used to parade the west end of the town, before I left 
England. The original one-armed Italian was the chief. The ladies 
however of Madras thought them extremely vulgar ! 
February 15. — I had hired for Mr. Salt sixteen palanquin boys 
for one month ; their pay for that time only amounted to thirty- 
eight pagodas. They were to take him above twenty miles a day, 
and give him leisure to draw any thing that might be interesting. 
