The ousting of the splendid full-rigged ships by stumpy, unlovely
tramp-steamers in the Hooghly River, to which I have already
referred, is only one example of the universal disappearance of
the picturesque. In twenty-five years' time, every one will be
living in a drab-coloured, utilitarian world, from which most of
the beauty and every scrap of local colour will have been
successfully eliminated. I am lucky in having seen some of it.
I have also witnessed great changes in social habits. I do not
refer so much to the removal of the rigid lines of demarcation
formerly prevailing in English Society, as to the disappearance of
certain accepted standards. For instance, in my young days the
possibility of appearing in Piccadilly in anything but a high hat
and a tail coat was unthinkable, as was the idea of sitting down
to dinner in anything but a white tie. Modern usage has common
sense distinctly on its side. Again, in my youth the old drinking
customs lingered, especially at the Universities. Though
personally I have never been able to extract the faintest
gratification from the undue consumption of alcohol, my friends do
not seem to have invariably shared my tastes.
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