The ceremony which took a
considerable time was conducted with all the viceregal pomp and
circumstance usual on such occasions, and, as I have already remarked,
has never at any time been equalled in grandeur and spectacular effect
in the annals of Calcutta.
COST OF LIVING IN CALCUTTA.
When I first arrived, everything was immeasurably cheaper than it is
now, and it will no doubt surprise the young assistants in mercantile
offices of the present day to hear that for the first year I received
the sum of Rs. 200 per mensem and managed to live very comfortably on
it. And when in the following year my salary was raised to Rs. 250
I could indulge in the luxury of a buggy and horse. I had a room in
the best boarding house in Calcutta, in which lived young civilians or
competition-wallahs as they were then styled, studying the languages
prior to being drafted somewhere up-country, barristers, lawyers,
merchants, and brokers. For this I paid Rs. 90 per month. My bearer,
khit, and dhobi cost me a further Rs. 20--the two first Rs.
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