patronized Vauxhall, Cremorne, and other places of
fashionable resort usually frequented by such fast men as they showed
themselves to be. Like Jung, he used to say he could not bear the
abominable screeching at the Opera, and consequently never made his
appearance until the commencement of the ballet, which was much more in
their line.

Having profited by his visits to European houses, Jung intends to show
his enlightenment by substituting pictures for the articles of vertu with
which the walls of his room are at present adorned, and to exchange
kitchen ware for albums, in order to prove that he has travelled to some
purpose. While examining these table ornaments, I observed a civilized
looking little square piece of satin, and on taking it up found I was
inspecting the first invitation to Her Majesty's Opera that had ever
reached Nepaul.

In one apartment 700 pounds worth of ladies' dresses, purchased in
England, were spread upon the floor, destined, I presume, to adorn some
sable beauties on whom the fashionable flounces of Madame Devy would be
anything but becoming.

Jung informed us that a grand ceremony was to take place on the following
day. The Queen of England's letter, of which he was the bearer, was to
be read in full Durbar under a salute of twenty-one guns--a greater
honour than is shown even to a communication from his Imperial Majesty of
the celestial empire.

We accordingly repaired at the appointed hour next morning to the palace
of the King, in the great square of Katmandu, and were ushered into the
narrow room appropriated to the Durbar. It was hung round with pictures
that a tavern would be ashamed of, and altogether looked so dirty that,
had it been a tavern, it would have had but little custom.

Seated on a throne were the two Kings gorgeously apparelled and bedizened
with jewels, while the Minister Sahib wore nothing but the simple bukkoo,
or fur-robe, of great value but unassuming appearance.

There was to be a review of the troops after Durbar, and, as nearly all
the nobility of Nepaul hold rank in the army, the whole assemblage was in
uniform, certainly one of the most dazzling that I ever saw collected
together. Each man had twice as many feathers as he was entitled to
wear, and, while their cocked hats were always completely hid, the bodies
of the more diminutive officers almost shared the same fate. The English
dragoon and the French hussar might here recognize portions of their