SOCIAL LIFE
first public entertainment held in Government House, which was given by Lord Wellesley in honour of "the Peace." The evening opened with a ball, at which there were present some eight hundred guests, including the chief justice and judges of the Supreme Court, the members of Council, several natives of rank and position, the Danish Governor of Serampore, and Lord Valentia, who had only landed in Calcutta the same day after a voyage of seven months from England. Lord Wellesley, who was at the time residing in "the Treasury" pending the completion of Government House, dined with the town major, Major Calcraft, in the Fort, from where he drove to the "new Government House" about ten o'clock. Soon after he entered the ballroom, dancing commenced, and continued till twelve o'clock, when the company proceeded to supper in the marble hall, where six ranges of tables "were covered with a profusion of every delicacy," says the chronicler of the Calcutta Gazette, "and were ornamented in a style of superior taste and magnificence." We can form some idea of these table decorations when we read—
"The most remarkable objects were a galley bringing the intelligence of the Peace: a frigate
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