"The English have done much for Calcutta, and an inhabitant of two hundred years ago would hardly recognize his old home if he should revisit it to-day. There are many public buildings that would do honor to a large city in Europe or America; there are public gardens, beautiful little parks, handsome lawns, artificial ponds, and the like, which are collectively very attractive. There is a large open space called the Maidan, or Esplanade, with several roads across it, and one along the bank of the river, and the society of Calcutta comes here for its daily drive at sunset. We rode there last evening and saw a great many showy turnouts, some of them belonging to wealthy natives, who seem to be fond of display. Drivers and footmen were in native dress, which is constructed so as to present the most attractive colors in the most attractive forms. Red and green and blue turbans rolled by us in rapid succession, till we began to wonder if the swiftly-moving panorama would ever come to an end. Those whose rank allows it have the additional attraction of outriders, and these fellows are by no means less picturesque than the rest. [Illustration: A COLLISION.] "The drive lasted an hour or so, and when it was fairly dusk the carriages filed away, and the Maidan became perfectly quiet with the exception of a stray vehicle now and then which had been belated, or the matter-of-fact bullock cart or wagon of the lower classes. Sometimes the fashionable carriages come in collision with each other, but generally the accidents that occur are the result of carriages and bullock-carts meeting, owing to bad management by the drivers of the latter. We saw one of these encounters, and for a few seconds it seemed as though the bullock would step into the carriage, in spite of the efforts of his driver, and also of the gentleman on the box of the carriage, to keep him out. "The compradors attached to the foreign commission houses have a special kind of light cart with two wheels, which they use in going from their offices to the harbor and back again. The comprador is his own driver, and it is not an unusual sight in the busy hours of the day to see one of these fellows dashing along to the great peril of the people on foot; he is generally in a hurry, or at least pretends to be, but his hurry is confined to his riding rather than to his walking. If you watch him when he is on foot, you find that he moves with as much dignity as any one else, and does not intend to throw himself into a perspiration. "Every carriage of any distinction has a syce or groom to run ahead of it, and they tell us that these men will keep up with the horses as fast as the latter can go, and will often be practically unwearied when the animals are tired out. They are all Moslems, and are fine muscular fellows, with only a turban on the head and a strip of cloth around the waist, so that they have perfect freedom for the movements of their limbs. [Illustration: AN UNPLEASANT OCCURRENCE.]