Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/188

 ing, but I mention the fact for Dandy’s edification.

We find riding a foot’s pace cooler than the carriage—at least, I do. Fanny is not very fond of it, but the air comes more round one on horseback than in the carriage. has a little pony-carriage with no head to it, and wicker sides, and extremely light, and that is much the coolest conveyance we have; besides that, it will go in roads which will not admit of our carriage.

Now that the rains have laid the dust we are making great discoveries in the surrounding country. George laughs at the beautiful lanes we have found, and says we talk as if we were at Matlock, whereas in all Bengal there is not an elevation the size of a mole-hill. But still a green lane with a happy mixture of bamboo and cocoa trees, and constantly a beautiful old mosque with a tank full of those lovely pink lotus which the Hindoos, with good taste, consider sacred, is not to be despised; and it is a great relief, after that tiresome course full of carriages and people, which is the only watered road in the place.

I am going, with great candour, to own that,