Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/301

 Fulcher, of the ‘Robert Small’) to and . Mind he gives you up that little box. The staircases were beautifully ornamented with flags belonging to half the ships in the river, and the bands played ‘God save the King,’ which, indeed, we rather expect now whenever we blow our noses or sneeze; but ‘King George’ was not allowed to walk first this evening, because it was explained to him that he was only asked to meet us, all for our honour and glory. The Town Hall is an immense building, with two rows of pillars running from one end of the room to the other, and between each pillar there was a drapery of pink crape, to which hung a large wreath of evergreens, and in that wreath there was alternately an E and an F of forget-me-nots, or roses or any sentimental flower of that kind. They had cleared away the theatre at one end of the room and replaced it by a Richard the Thirdish sort of tent, the draperies held up by trophies of our arms, wheat-sheaves in all directions, and E’s and F’s to match. It was a splendid tent, all red and white satin, and I should like the reversion of it when we go up the country. There were two arm-chairs