CALCUTTA: PAST AND PRESENT
first arrived in Bengal, in 1769, he described Calcutta as consisting of houses "not two or three of which were furnished with venetian blinds or glass windows, solid shutters being generally used, and rattans like those used for the bottoms of chairs, in lieu of panes, whilst little provision was made against the heat of the climate." We may conclude that Hastings House, more than ten years later, was without glazed windows, since Mrs. Fay was unable to see what the gardens were like, the house being "hermetically closed" against the heat. Even in dress very little concession was made to the climate: the men wore white jackets and, even sometimes in later years, white trousers, as dinner dress in place of black broadcloth; but wigs and powdered hair were worn by all, and men swathed their throats with voluminous neckcloths, and ladies crowned their elaborate coiffure with heavy turbans to attend a crowded reception, or to dance till daybreak at a ball, even in the sultry month of May.
Dancing was always a favourite amusement in Calcutta, and the ladies being in the minority did their best to redress the balance by each dancing as many dances as she could possibly crowd into one night. One writer described Calcutta ladies as dancing from nine in the
114
