Letters from India Volume II/To the Hon and Rev Robert Eden 3
Calcutta, April 20, 1840.
My dearest Robert,—The weather has till yesterday been quite delightful these last three weeks. I really am not joking, but the storms, which are unpleasant at sea, save all our lives on shore, and I could not have believed that Bengal could have been so cool at any time of year. On Monday and Tuesday I had a good thick shawl to go out in. I am afraid it is hotting up again now, but in the meanwhile we have got over a great bit of the worst time of year without any suffering.
All our gentlemen, who have been quartered up the country the last few years, are astonished at the pleasant weather compared to the hot winds. I look upon it as another sign that we are certainly to go home next year, and that India means to leave a favourable impression.
George went yesterday on his way here to give the prizes at the Medical College, and he did. Five of the students received their diplomas to practise as surgeons, &c., and when he gave them he shook hands with them and said that, as they were now members of a learned profession, he considered them as gentlemen, and hoped their future conduct, &c. &c. These make ten young Hindus who have qualified themselves to act as surgeons. The five who went out last year are getting on wonderfully. The one who was sent to Agra began with five patients, and now has a hundred daily. Certainly education is progressing rapidly here, and must do great good in a worldly sense, and eventually in a higher way.
Love to all.
Yours most affectionately,
E.E.