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 repelled the false assertion with becoming scorn, and then he said, ‘I thought you would not know me, because now I do dress like my lord. My lord, he wear drab hat, so I have hat exackerly like my lord’s.’ This precise imitation of George’s hat was a velvet drab-coloured concern, bound with gold lace, and a great ruby stuck in front of it. He asked if George was likely to go on wearing a white hat, and I intimated, confidentially, that I knew he had a large case of black ones with him, upon which I Tippoo said he should return to his black hat whenever my lord did; and he ended by saying, he came to ask leave to join us when he met us out riding. Such a shocking prospect. He knows very little English, and his ideas probably are fewer than his words.

We came up to Barrackpore in the afternoon, and had the pleasure of reading your letter of June all the way up.

Friday, November 4. We had our conjuror last night. He was really very amusing—cockneyish in his language; but some of his tricks were very surprising, and at all events it had the full