The
Viceroy, an intrepid pioneer in gastronomic matters, had a great
cattla boiled for his dinner. The first mouthful defeated him; he
declared that the consistency of the fish was that of an old
flannel shirt, and the taste a compound of mud and of the smell of
a covered racquet-court. A lady insisted on presenting the
midshipmen with two dozen bottles of a very good champagne for the
Gun-room Mess. In the innocence of her heart she thought that the
champagne would last them for a year, but on New Year's Eve the
little lambs had a great celebration on board, and drank the whole
two dozen at one sitting. As there were exactly eighteen of them,
this made a fair allowance apiece; they all got exceedingly drunk,
and the Admiral stopped their leave for two months, so we saw no
more of them. They were quite good boys really though, like all
their kind, rather over-full of high spirits.
As is well known, Queen Victoria celebrated her seventieth
birthday by commencing the study of Hindustani under the tuition
of a skilled Moonshee. At the farewell audience the Queen gave my
sister, Her Majesty, on learning that Lady Lansdowne intended to
begin learning Hindustani as soon as she reached India, proposed
that they should correspond occasionally in Urdu, to test the
relative progress they were making.
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