tation. With the exception of the brief transit from Blackwall to
London on his arrival, this was his first trip by rail, but, as his place
was in one of the close first-class carriages, he saw nothing of the
machinery by which the motion was effected, "though such was the rapidity
of the vehicles, that I could distinguish nothing but an expanse of green
all round, nor could I perceive even the trunks of the trees. Every now
and then we were carried through dark caverns, where we could not see each
others' faces; and sometimes we met other vehicles coming in the opposite
direction, which occasioned me no small alarm, as I certainly thought we
should have been dashed to pieces, from the fearful velocity with which
both were running. We reached Southampton, a distance of seventy-eight
miles, in three hours; and what most surprised me was, being seriously
told on our arrival, that we had been unusually long on our way. I was
told that this iron road, from London to Southampton, cost six crores of
rupees, (L.6,000,000.)" The town of Southampton is only briefly noticed as
well built, populous, and flourishing; but he had no time to visit the
beautiful scenery of the environs, as the entertainment took place the
following afternoon in the cabin of the Oriental, "which is a very large
vessel, well constructed, and in admirable order, and is intended to carry
the _dak_ (mail) to India, which is sent by the way of Sikanderiyah,
(Alexandria.)" Our friend the khan, however, must have been always rather
out of his element at a feast; unlike his countryman, Abu-Talib--who
speedily became reconciled to the forbidden viands and wines of the Franks,
and even carried his laxity so far as to express a _hope_, rather than a
_belief_, that the brushes which he used were made of horsehair, and not
of the bristles of the unclean beast--Kerim Khan appears (as we have seen
on a previous occasion) never to have relaxed the austerity of the
religious scruples which the _Indian_ Moslems have borrowed from the
Hindus, so far as to partake of food not prepared by his own people; and
on the present occasion, in spite of the instances of his hosts, his
simple repast consisted wholly of fruit. The cheers which followed on the
health of the Queen being given, appeared to him, like those which hailed
her passage at the prorogation of Parliament, a most incomprehensible and
somewhat indecorous proceeding; his own health was also drunk as a _lion_,
but "not