SOCIAL LIFE
mortality, especially among the young writers and soldiers. The high prices of wine, which varied considerably according to the quantity in the market, were no bar however to the wealthy members of society, and it was usual for a man to take his three bottles of claret after dinner daily, besides the Madeira which he consumed during the meal, and for a lady to drink one bottle of wine a day. Much of this wine had to be taken perforce, as it were, in honouring the many toasts which it was customary to propose; at public dinners, tiffins, and breakfasts there were never less than ten, and often over twenty-five toasts on the lists. At private tables etiquette required that the host and hostess should take wine with each guest, and every guest should do the same with each one present; and when all toasts and healths had been duly honoured, there would still be a few "sentiments" left to wind up with.
It is not a little surprising that people should have had the spirit and strength to be so sociable and convivial, when we remember that the houses in which they lived, in spite of spacious and lofty rooms and wide gardens, were sadly lacking in much that is deemed indispensable by Anglo-Indians of the present day to ameliorate the conditions of the climate. When Lord Teignmouth
