Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/116

110 rupee at two shillings, between the 1st of December, 1790, and the 31st of July, 1792, besides the wine from England, and two Arabian horses for which I am to give English hunters.' The general simplicity of Cornwallis's habits was a well-remembered tradition in Calcutta society, and is happily hit off in some excellent stanzas by the late H. M. Parker, Bengal C. S. in his Elegy on Mr. Simms, an imaginary Tim Linkinwater, clerk in one of the great mercantile houses, as follows: —

'And be was full of anecdote, and spiced his prime pale ale With many a curious bit of talk and many a curious tale: — How Dexter ate his buttons off; and in a one-horse-chay My Lord Cornwallis drove about; Alack and well-a-day.'

This tradition obviously alludes to the unostentatious habits of the man. As the head of society he gave sumptuous entertainments on public festivals and holidays, as the subjoined extracts from the newspapers of the day attest : —

'A very large and respectable company, in consequence of the invitation given by the Right Honourable the Governor-General, assembled on New Year's Day at the old Court House Street, where an elegant