Forty or fifty years ago, Calcutta was not so lively as it is to-day, especially in the cold weather, but there was one thing in those days which we do not see now. I refer to the regal pomp and circumstance which characterised Government House, and all the functions held there. The annual State Ball was an event which was always looked forward to, and it was a ball at which one could comfortably dance, instead of the crush it had become in the decade prior to 1911. THE "PALKI." Looking back, one of the first things that strikes me is the change between then and now in the matter of locomotion. In my early days there were no taxi-cabs, trams, nor even _fitton-gharries,_ the only conveyances for those who had not private carriages being _palkis_ and _bund-gharries._ It would seem strange to-day to see Europeans being carried about the streets in _palkis_, but half a century or more ago they were by no means despised, especially by the newly-out _chokras_, whose salary was not at all too high. They had to choose between a _palki_ and a _ticca-gharry,_ which were very much alike in shape, the difference between them being that the one was carried on the shoulders of coolies, and the other drawn by a horse. [Illustration: Old view of Esplanade East, showing Scott Thomson's corner. _Photo by Johnston & Hoffman_] [Illustration: Old River view, showing sailing ships _Photo by Johnston & Hoffmann_.] [Illustration: _Photo by Johnston & Hoffmann_ Royal Calcutta Turf Club's Race Stands: Viceroy's Cup Day.] [Illustration: The Old Race Stands _Photo. by Johnston & Hoffmann._] The private conveyances of those days were as a rule quite elaborate affairs, and it used to be one of the sights of the evening to go on "the course," which embraced the Strand and the Red Road, to see the richer inhabitants of the city taking their evening drive. Later, however, the _haut ton_, evidently thinking the Strand was getting too plebeian, confined their evening drive to a place in the stately procession up and down the Red Road, which thus became "the course." EARLY-MORNING RACING.