unpleasant travelling companion.
Bareilly, on the fronters of Oude and Rohilcund, was the colonel's
starting-point;--and thence on St Patrick's day[6] he set forward for
Hurdwar, at the head of a retinue, the members of which, both quadruped
and biped, he enumerates seriatim, giving the _pas_ to the former--a
precedence perhaps well merited by steeds up to such a welter weight under
the climate of India, over such a set of unredeemed and thriftless knaves
as he describes his native attendants. Accordingly, he gives the names and
pedigrees of the whole stud, from "the buggy mare Maiden-head and my
wicked little favourite Fish-Guts," up to "my favourite brood-mare Fair
Amelia, purchased at a prize sale on the frontier, and bred by the king of
Bokhara, with his royal stamp on her near flank--stands nearly fifteen and
a half hands high, with magnificent action and great show of blood--had,
when taken, four gold rings in her nostrils, now removed and replaced by
silver, which will be stolen by her groom one by one." His first day's
march was to Futtehgunge, ("the mart of victory," being the scene of the
memorable battle in 1774, in which the English, as the bought allies of
the Nawab Shoojah-ed-dowlah, defeated and slew the gallant Rohilla chief,
Hafez-Rehmut;) and here he oracularly announced a discovery in gastronomy,
of which it would be unpardonable not to give our readers the benefit. "I
used my farourite condiment, tomata sauce, with my beef; and _to all who
are ignorant_ of this delicious vegetable I may venture to recommend its
sauce, as at once both wholesome and savoury, if eaten with anything but
cranberry tart or apple pie!" It is melancholy to reflect how often the
best efforts of genius are anticipated and rendered of no avail. The
colonel, when he penned this sentence with a heart overflowing with
Epicurean philanthropy, was evidently unconscious that "chops and tomata
sauce" were already familiar to the British public from the immortal
researches of Mr Pickwick!
[6] The year is not specified; but as the Ramazan is subsequently
said to have ended March 25, it must have been in the year of the
Hejra 1245, ansering to A.D. 1830.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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