Sir J. Skeggs' sister will be happy to see Mr. G., and will send a palankeen for him." I packed up my all (an operation soon effected), got into an elegant palankeen, which made its appearance shortly after the note, and escorted by a body of silver-stick men (for Mr. Hearty was a man in authority"), I bade adieu to the tents, and leaving Grundy and some other cadets, though with a strong commiserative feeling, to struggle with the discomforts I have mentioned, was conveyed at a slapping pace to my host's garden residence, on the Mount Road. This was a flat-roofed building, in the peculiar style of the country, of two stories—a large portico occupying nearly the whole length of the front. It was approached by a long avenue of parkinsonias, and surrounded, and partly obscured, by rich masses of tropical foliage, in which the bright green of the plantain contrasted pleasingly with the darker hues of the mango and the jack. Beyond the house stretched a pleasant domain, slightly undulating, dotted with clumps, and intersected by rows of coco-nut trees. Here it constituted one of my chief pleasures to saunter, to chace the little striped squirrels up the trees, or to watch the almost as agile ascent of the toddy-man, as he mounted by a most simple contrivance the tall and branchless stems to procure the exhilirating juice; or to pelt the parroquets, as they clung screaming to the pendant leaves. To possess a parrot of my own, in England, had long constituted one of the unattainable objects of my juvenile ambition. I had longed so much for it, that an inordinate idea of the value of parrots had clung to me ever since. To see them, therefore, by dozens, in their wild state, was like in some measure spreading out before me the treasures of Golconda. Mr. Hearty met me at the entrance, shook me very cordially by the hand, and taking me into the apartment where his wife and several other ladies were sitting, he presented me to the former, by whom I was very graciously received. "Mr. Gernon, my love," said he, "whom your brother, Sir Jeremy, has been so kind as to introduce to us.' "We are very glad, indeed,' to see you," said the lady, rising and taking my hand, “and hope you will make this house your home whilst the ship remains." I profoundly bowed my thanks. "Mr. Hearty, my dear, will you show Mr. Gernon his room; he may wish to arrange his things, and then bring him back to us?" This was cordial and gratifying. I am apt to generalize from a few striking particulars. So I set the Madrassees down at once as polished and hospitable in the extreme—a perfectly correct inference, I believe, however precipitately formed by me on that occasion. Mr. Hearty was a fine, erect, fresh old gentleman, of aristocratic mein, and peculiarly pleasing address. His manners, indeed, were quite of what is termed the old school, dignified and polished, but withal a little formal; far superior, however, to modern brusquerie, and the selfishness of purpose which, too often disdaining disguise, sets at nought the" small courtesies" which so greatly sweeten existence. His wife, much his junior, was a handsome woman of eight-and-twenty, gay and lively, and apparently much attached to her lord, in spite of the disparity of their years. He, in fact, was one of those rarely-seen well-preserved old men, of whom a young woman might be both proud and fond. My host lived in the good old style of Indian hospitality, of which absence of unnecessary restraint, abundance of good cheer, and the most unaffected and cordial welcome, constituted the essential elements. In India, from various causes, perhaps sufficiently obvious, the English heart, naturally generous and kind, has or had full room for expansion; and the "luxury of doing good," in the shape of assembling happy faces around the social board, can be enjoyed, without, as too frequently the case here, the concomitant dread of out-running the constable, or trenching too deeply on the next day's quantum of hashed mutton. Certainly, our close packing in these densely populated lands may give us polish, but it rubs off much of the natural enamel of our virtues. Mr. Hearty's house was quite Liberty Hall, in its fullest meaning. Each guest had his bed-room, where he could read, write, or dose; or, if he preferred it, he could hunt squirrels, shoot with a rifle, as my friend, the Scotch cadet, and I did; sit with the ladies in the drawingroom and play the flute, or enjoy any other equally intellectual amusement, between meals, at which the whole party, from various quarters, were wont to assemble, rubbing their hands, and greeting in that warm manner, which commonly results where people have been well employed in the interim, and not had too much of each other's company. Mr. Hearty's house was full of visitors from all points of the compass. There was a captain of cavalry and lady, from Bangalore; a very dyspeptic-looking doctor from Vizagapatam; a missionary, bent on making the natives "all same master's caste," through the medium of his proper vernacular; a strapping Scotch artillery cadet before alluded to, some six feet two, and who was my particular friend and crony, with several others, birds of passage like myself. Amongst these, to my great delight and astonishment, I found the lovely Miss Olivia and her sister. Now then, reader, prepare yourself for one of the most soul-stirring and pathetic passages of these Memoirs. Shade of Petrarch, I invoke thee! spirit of Jean Jacques, impart thy aid, whilst in honest but tender guise, I pour forth my "confessions." Yes, as an honest chronicler of events, I am bound to tell it -the candour of a griffin demands that it should out. I fell over head and ears in love-'twas a most violent attack I had, and I think I was full three months getting the better of it. It would be, however, highly derogatory to the dignity of that pleasing passion, were I to trail the account of its manifestations at the fag end of a chapter. I shall, therefore, reserve my confessions of the "soft impeachment," and my voyage to Calcutta, for the next. MISS EMMA ROBERTS. THE last overland mail, amongst other intelligence of a painful nature, has brought the unexpected announcement of the death of Miss Emma Roberts, whose contributions to this Journal cannot fail to have conciliated in her favour the esteem even of those of its readers who knew this lady only from the productions of her pen, and who were unable from personal knowledge of her character to appreciate the valuable and shining qualities which composed it. The possession of literary talents has often been supposed to be inimical to the softer graces and social virtues of the female character. In Miss Roberts, however, they co-existed in happy harmony. Her intellectual accomplishments, set off by an attractive person, agreeable vivacity of manners and much sweetness of temper, were enhanced by the virtues of her heart, a warmth and sincerity of friendship, and a benevolence of disposition ever active in objects of utility and charity. The family of this lady are of Welsh extraction,-of Skimmel Park, Denbighshire, which estate was sold to the present Lord Dinorben's father. She was born about the year 1794, and was the second daughter of William Roberts, Esq., who entered the Russian service early in life, and served with distinction, as aid-de-camp to the late General Lloyd, in several campaigns Asial. Journ.N.S. VOL. 33. No. 132. 20 against the Turks on the Danube. He had two brothers, the late General Thomas Roberts, formerly of the 111th regiment, and Colonel David Roberts, of the 51st regiment, who distinguished himself in General Moore's celebrated retreat, on the 7th January 1809, near the heights of Lugo, when he (then Major Roberts,) led a party which repulsed the French Light Brigade, and had his cloak riddled with bullets, two passing through his right hand, which was amputated. He was afterwards severely wounded at Waterloo, or in Belgium. Colonel Roberts was the author of a comic military sketch, called Johnny Newcome, and other works of a more strictly professional character. Miss Roberts resided with her mother (a lady of some literary pretensions) at Bath, and she soon began to evince a taste for composition, and poetical talents of much promise. After her mother's death, she accompanied her sister (the lady of Captain R. A. Macnaghten) to India. Her person was, at this time especially, handsome; her features, expressive of intellectual power, beamed with animation and good humour. After the death of her sister, she returned to England in 1832. The fame, which her literary productions had procured for her in India, preceded her to this country, and she was speedily introduced into the scientific and literary circles of the metropolis, where her talents and accomplishments secured her a conspicuous position. A very pleasing poet, with a rich vein of fancy and invention, possessed of great powers of observation and delineation, with an extensive, though discursive range of reading, and an easy and elegant style, her pen was in universal request, and the number of her productions furnishes ample evidence of her industry and resources. The varied knowledge she had acquired of India was developed in several series of articles published in this Journal; some of these papers were afterwards re-published under the title of Scenes and Characteristics of Hindostan, a work which has had a large circulation, and helped, by its fascinations of style and matter, to reconcile the public of England to Indian topics. In the autumn of last year, she determined to pay a visit to Bombay and Western India, travelling by the overland route, and the readers of this Journal have had the benefit of her acute and lively observations upon this route and upon the Presidency itself, in the Notes, of which, by a singular coincidence, the last paper appears in a preceding page of this month's Journal. Up to the month of August, the health of Miss Roberts appears to have been unaffected by the climate; being not unused to it, her constitution was, perhaps, less exposed to its influence; but the accounts received by the October mail stated that our amiable friend was seriously indisposed at the residence of Colonel Ovans, at Sattarah. She removed, in the hope of improvement, to Poona, on the 16th September, but expired unexpectedly at four o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the 17th. Her loss will be felt even by the native population of the Bombay Presidency, where her fascinating qualities had recommended her to the higher classes, and she had already begun to apply her talents to the useful object of improving the character of the Indian females, whose present condition and habits she rightly concluded to be one of the greatest im STANZAS, WRITTEN ON THE DEATH OF MISS EMMA ROBERTS. BY MAJOR CALDER CAMPBELL. THERE is a song for Death, A dirge, to float in faint funereal tones The Indian monsoon's breath! Not for young life alone;— Not for its reeling step and joyous dance ;- The solemn grave demands There to the sunny East Where hearts are warm, and hands in kindness clasp Thou went'st, as to a feast. For thee were welcomes kind, For thee, the proud Mahal its portals threw Thou wert no "stranger" there; Thy genius cherished and thy friendship prized; A lot, that looked more fair. The floating gold of day For thee was at its brightest-when the cloud Descended on thy way. Thou wert my friend-Ah, me! Year after year, the ranks of friendship thins; Nor is it in sad hours the lyre begins Its sweetest melody! Farewell! The cypress keeps Eternal moanings o'er an Eastern tomb; And where thou'rt laid, the rose and jasmin bloom In dews, that perfumes weep! Nov. 12th, 1840. Miscellanies, Original and Select. PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. Royal Asiatic Society.-This Society resumed its meetings on the 7th November, on which occasion Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bt., M.P., took the chair. A valuable collection of presents of books was laid before the members. The honorary Secretary read a letter from the Right Hon. the President of the Society, announcing that he had had the honour of presenting to the Queen, the Society's congratulatory address upon her Majesty's providential escape from assassination, which her Majesty had been pleased to receive most graciously; and likewise, that he had forwarded a similar address from the Society to his Royal Highness Prince Albert, an acknowledgment of which, from Lord Robert Grosvenor, was enclosed. This letter was also read to the meeting. A communication was read from Dr. Burn, of the Bombay Medical Service, accompanying a donation to the Society of three Tumba Patras, being grants of land engraved on copper-plates, hinged together by leaden seals. These plates were found in the earth, near the city of Baroach, and the characters they bear are in an ancient form of the Devanagari. A letter from one of the Society's corresponding members at Calcutta, Mahárájá Káli Krishna, was read, containing an account of a curious seal, which he had adopted in imitation of European heraldic emblems; of which a drawing was enclosed, as well as of a grant of arms made to him by the Indian Government. A paper communicated by the Bombay branch of the Society was then read, giving a description of Kurachee, in Scinde, and its neighbourhood; particularly of the mode of building adopted by the natives, which is stated by the writer to be of the most primitive kind, the houses being, for the most part, either that combination of clay, wicker, and sticks, called "wattle and dab," or a simple pile of "unadulterated mud." They are huddled together without order or regularity; and though sometimes reaching to two or three stories in height, neither brick nor mortar, and but little timber, enter into their construction. Any refinement in the art of house-building is altogether unknown at Kurachee, and the greatest conceivable economy characterizes the distribution of both windows and doors; the former being mere loop-holes, and the latter of very straitened dimensions; so that every dwelling appears at first sight to be hermetically sealed, ventilation being principally effected by the chimneys, which afford egress to the smoke, as well as ingress to the rain and sea-breeze. The writer remarks, that the unstable character of these edifices indicates the lightness of the monsoons, and that a week or ten days of such rain as is often experienced at Bombay would level the whole place with the ground. Scinde producing no large trees whatever, timber of a very ordinary quality fetches high prices in the Kurachee market; and all that is required for ship-building is imported from the Malabar Coast. Stone, of excellent quality, is to be procured in unlimited quantities in the immediate vicinity of Kurachee; but, strange to say, such is the predilection of the Scindians for mud, that they never use stone but for filling in the foundations, and that only in erecting houses for the more wealthy inhabitants. The forts and mausoleums which occur in the neighbourhood, however, are built of a kind of sandstone, but which is so soft as to offer as little resistance to the hand of time as to the chisel of the sculptor. Neither sun-dried nor kiln-dried bricks or tiles being in demand amongst the natives, none are made at Kurachee; and a recent attempt to introduce them was unsuccessful. A considerable manufactory of clay hookas and earthenware vessels exists near the town. Limestone of good quality is found about three miles from Kurachee, and is used for making chunam, for plastering the terraces of the houses of the rich. A sort of bullrush, called Pun, common to Indian rivers, furnishes a good material for thatching. Extensive jungles of the tamarisk, or bastard cypress, are found near Kurachee, and might be extensively used in building temporary structures, but is seldom employed; and although the coco-nut and brab-tree are common to this part of Scinde, the natives do not appear to understand the preparation |