SOCIAL LIFE
subscription, amounting in a few hours to several thousand pounds, without the child of sorrow knowing its benefactors!"
If the benevolence thus lauded was on a "princely scale," so also was the lavish hospitality—the balls, dinners, and breakfasts, when astonishing quantities of food and wine loaded the tables, and were consumed with appetite and zest. We have seen how in Captain Hamilton's time, in 1720, "the inhabitants of Calcutta" enjoyed a variety of fruit and fish and "all sorts of provisions both wild and tame." Sixty years later, Mrs. Fay, in one of her letters, discussed food supplies and prices, and gave a humorous picture of herself and her husband awaiting dinner. She wrote—
"We were frequently told in England, you know, that the heat in Bengal destroyed the appetite. I must own that I never yet saw any proof of that: on the contrary, I cannot help thinking that I never saw an equal quantity of victuals consumed. We dine, too, at two o'clock, in the very heat of the day. At this moment Mr. F. is looking out with a hawk's eye for his dinner, and, though still much of an invalid, I have no doubt of being able to pick a bit myself. I will give you our bill of fare, and the general prices of things: A soup,
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