With so many men, the apparently impossible could be
undertaken. Lord Lansdowne left Calcutta for Barrackpore every
Saturday afternoon. As soon as we had gone into luncheon at
Calcutta on the Saturday, perfect armies of men descended on the
private part of the house and packed up all the little things
about the rooms into big cases. An hour later they were on their
way up the river by steamer, and when we arrived at Barrackpore
for tea, the house looked as though it had been lived in for
weeks, with every object reposing on the tables in precisely the
same position it had occupied earlier in the day in Calcutta. Late
on Sunday night this process was reversed for the return journey
at seven on Monday morning. The Viceroy had a completely fitted-up
office in his smart little white-and-gold yacht, and was able to
get through a great deal of work on his voyage down the Hooghly
before breakfast on Monday mornings. A conscientious Viceroy of
India is one of the hardest-worked men in the world, for he
frequently has ten hours of office work in the day, irrespective
of his other duties.
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