We walked some time round the square, and we were amused to see our little girl, walking with her nurse, in great delight at the animals round her, but rather encumbered with the number of servants who had attached themselves to her. For her especial service, a bearer, a khitmutgar, a hurkaru, and a cook, were appointed, and there were, besides the two former, one of the silver sticks with her, and another bearer with a monstrous umbrella on a long bamboo pole, which he held over her head in the manner represented on Chinese screens; — my wife soon reduced her nursery establishment, — but we afterwards found that it is the custom in Calcutta to go to great expense in the equipage of children.
A lady told us she had seen a little boy of six years old paraded in a pony phaeton and pair, with his "Ayah,'' or nurse, coachman, "Chattah-burdar," or umbrella-bearer, a saees on each side, and another behind, leading a third pony, splendidly caparisoned, not in case the young Sahib should choose to ride, he was too young for that, — but as the saees himself expressed it, “for the look of the thing.” This, however, rather belongs to old times, when, as a gentleman assured me, he had himself heard at the dinner party of one of the Company's civil servants, a herald at the dinner proclaiming aloud all the great man's titles; and when a palankeen with the silk, brocade, and gilding which then adorned it, frequently cost 3000+ rupees; at present people are poorer and wiser. [55-56]
Related material
- Bishop Reginald Heber (1783-1826), a Brief Biography
- Bishop Heber’s First Experience of Calcutta
- Crowds and Cultural Misunderstandings in Calcutta
- The importance of Heber's Journal through the Upper Provinces of India to British understanding of colonial India
- Heber's Most Famous Hymn: “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains”
- Monument to Heber in St Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta
Bibliography
Heber, Reginald. Narrative of a journey through the upper provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-1825. Philadelphia: Cary, Lea, and Cary & Son, 1829. Vol. 1. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the University of Princeton Theological Seminary Library. Web. 25 November 2018.
Last modified 29 November 2018