Memoirs of a griffin

Pleasant days of my Griffinhood!—green oasis of life’s desert waste!—thoughtless, joyous, happy season, when young Hope told “her flattering tale,” and novelty broke sweetly upo...

The first scene of this eventful drama closed with my embarkation on board the _Rottenbeam Castle_, bound for Bengal. Saving an Irish packet, this was the first ship on which I...

The Bay of Biscay well merits its turbulent character; of this we soon had ample demonstration, for the _Rottenbeam Castle_ had scarcely entered within its stormy bounds, when t...

In the last chapter I left the _Rottenbeam Castle_ just arrived in the roads of Madras, and the frigate’s boat alongside. Our commander, with a grave look, advanced to meet the...

“Peace be with the soul of that charitable and courteous author, who, for the common benefit of his fellow-authors, introduced the ingenious way of miscellaneous writing!”—so sa...

On leaving the roads of Madras, we bent our course to the eastward. For a day or two we had light winds and agreeable weather, and our gallant vessel glided on, under a cloud of...

The morning after our arrival at Kedgeree I arose early, and, on coming on deck, found the weather perfectly calm, and presenting a striking contrast to its appearance on the pr...

We dropped anchor off the city, amongst a crowd of shipping and a swarm of boats, with which the river seemed actually alive; some of them home along by the headlong “freshes,”...

Captain Marpeet made his appearance at the hour appointed on the following evening, and off we started for the Kidderpore school, which, by the way, is, or was, a rather large a...

Two great sources of attraction to young men existed in Calcutta at the time of which I am now writing (upwards of twenty-five years ago), and do still exist, for anything I kno...

I must here interrupt the thread of my narrative, in order to give a few particulars respecting my host and his family, which may serve as samples of the olden time of India.

My last chapter left us seated around the social board at Tiffin. A little incident occurred during this meal, which for a moment disturbed the harmony of the party, and, whilst...

Having, by General Capsicum’s promised interest, obtained a fortnight’s leave of absence, I took an affectionate leave of Grundy and Marpeet, and sent on my two or three servant...

In passing the grove mentioned in the last chapter, by the edge of a fosse, or ditch, overgrown with bushes, and not far from some miserable huts, I thought I heard a rustling,...

I had now been about twelve days a visitor with my hospitable friend, the indigo planter—a period, as the reader has seen, fertile in events—when I began to think of returning,...

The space to which I have limited myself in these Memoirs will not admit a minute account of all I saw, heard, said, and did, during my months sojourn at Barrackpore; it will, t...

Under the able tuition of Sergeant Giblett I became, in a few days, sufficiently a proficient in the mysteries of marching, &c., to allow of my falling in with Lieut. Rattleton’...

A day or two after this, my bearer gave me a little rose-coloured billet, which had been left for me, of which missives (though not always _couleur de rose_) there is a vast cir...

The day after my arrival at Calcutta I hastened to pay my respects to the Capsicums. On reaching the portico of the house, I threw myself out of my palankeen.

The little church of Bandel is a pleasing, modest structure—its white tower, cross, cloisters, and adjoining priest’s house and garden, creating a pleasing illusion; transportin...

We remained the following day, and accompanied the colonel, and one or two of his officers, to a grand entertainment, given by the Nawaub of Bengal, at his palace of Moorshedaba...

On the evening of my arrival at Dinapore, I was sitting on the roof of my boat, observing the _dobees_, or washermen, thumping their clothes, natives cleaning their teeth with p...

The cornet took me with him to breakfast and dine with his friend, the old invalid general commanding at Chunarghur. This was my first Christmas Day in India; the weather was as...

A military execution must be, under all circumstances and to all persons, an awful and striking exhibition; but seen for the first time, it makes on the young mind a peculiarly...

A few days more brought me to my last day’s march on the banks of the Jumna, and the mosques and minarets of the ancient capital of India broke on my delighted view.