Emily Eden

“ Chance is particularly well, and has found a new pursuit in some yellow flying frogs in a tank at Barrackpore, quite as good flying fish as any I saw at sea, though they say they skim along the water only by the assistance of their very long legs. However, the ‘Prince Royal’ puts them up on the bank, and points as if they were partridges, and then goes in after them; and a flying-frog pursuit is evidently extremely fascinating, as his man had to go into the water to fetch him out of it, all entreaties having failed. ”

“ In Bengal there are at least trees, and everything is green, and there is the river, which leads to the sea, which leads home. Here there is nothing but dust and ruins, and no way out of it if one is ever so ill; even natives cannot travel in the hot winds.
We have left Captain —— and Giles at Agra to hurry on buildings, make up beds, mosquito houses, &c., and we have come out to visit Neighbour Dholepore and Neighbour Gwalior—only six marches—but then we stay four or five days pleasantly with each, so that we shall be away more than three weeks. ”

“ We manage the shutting up of the house better and keep ourselves quieter, and we allege all these kind of reasons, but the real truth is, I suppose, that we are becoming acclimatised more or less—rather less than more, but still we are becoming blind to our wretched position.
I never eat any fruit but mangoes, though I see all the others working away at the peaches (which used to make us die of laughing last year) and declaring that it is wonderful how the Indian peaches are come on. It is only the English peaches that have gone back ”

“ I believe the best plan is, as I heard an Agra lady say the other day, ‘not to think of the hot winds till they come, nor to mention them, but to keep all your strength to try and live through them.’ But the constant thought of my mind is that this delay will put off our return home, and I am sure that two more hot seasons will be at least one too many ”

“ My Dearest Sister,—Fanny will have told you our horrid change of plan, and that we are doomed to that dreadful hot Agra for the next year. They say that the heat we have experienced at Calcutta is nothing to it, and, as I thought that past all human endurance, I give it up. About Agra: The house is so very small and confined compared to Government House, that I can imagine, even were the climate the same, that one’s ‘sufferens’ must be much greater ”

“ Rosina told Wright to get her a black petticoat, as she had seen ‘my great Bashaw’ in his gold carriage when she was at the Admiralty. He was going to prorogue Parliament. She will be a good figure in a black petticoat with her scarlet and white veil. ”