Page:Up the Country.djvu/10

 TO THE

LOED WILLIAM 60D0LPHIN OSBORNF.

My dear William,

I know no one but yourself who can now take any lively interest in these Letters.

She to whom they were addressed, they of whom they were written, have all passed away, and you and I are now almost the only survivors of the large party that in 1838 left Government House for the Upper Provinces.

Many passages of this ipiary, written solely for the amusement of my own family, have of course been omitted; but not a word has been added to descriptions which have little merit^ but that they are true and that they were written on the spot.

Now that India has fallen under the curse of railroads, and that life and property will soon become as insecure there as they are here, the splendour of a Governor- GeneraPs progress is at an end.

The Kootftb will probably become a Bailway Station; the Taj will, of course, under the sway of an Agra Company (Limited, except for destruction), be bought up for a monster