Planters are always hospitable. In India it is a sort of maxim still that the guest confers the favour, for, of course, the guest is really very welcome when your nearest neighbour lives five miles from you. And so each planter gathers round him from time to time a little party of visitors and neighbours, and when the men are sufficiently numerous they get up a game of polo. Perhaps the best social game that was ever invented for India was Badminton, which has now been almost superseded by lawn-tennis. Badminton has never been much appreciated in England; but in India the absence of high wind and rain was much in its favour, and there were many ladies who played it almost as well as men. For, as was well said by a learned judge, men and women are almost on an equality as regards the upper part of their dress, and can use their hands and heads with nearly equal effect. But when a lawn-tennis ball makes a bound into the skirts of a lady’s dress she has not the same facility of escaping from it as her male adversary. Therefore, as the shuttlecock of Badminton was always flying high, and from head to head, so to speak, Badminton for a long time in India held its own against the introduction of lawn-tennis; though the day has come now when lawn-tennis has ousted its old opponent, and both ladies and men look forward to their game of lawn-tennis as soon as it is possible to find a court sheltered sufficiently by shady trees against the rays of the declining sun. The temperature may be above 80°, but, nevertheless, bright-faced and neatly-dressed girls come out arrayed for the combat, and thinking little of the heat and the fatigue if they can only get good partners and a good game. Those who are accustomed to judge of Indian ladies only from their pale and worn countenances when they return invalided to England, would hardly believe with what vigour and spirit the same ladies played lawn-tennis in India as long as their health and strength lasted.