wise and went on at a walk.

As we drove up the park we saw through great trees with dark foliage,
the white banqueting hall with its very wide flights of steps and tall
Ionic pillars bathed in moonlight, and closer, found there were two
lines of native lancers, in dull red and blue, lined up the centre of
the steps. The carriages pulled up three at a time, and the guests went
flocking up the steps in the greenish silvery light to the top, where
the warm yellow light met them from the interior, also an aide-de-camp
as friend and guide to strangers, such as ourselves. Inside all was
highly entertaining and splendid, and Western with a good deal of the
Orient thrown in--I don't suppose any other country in the world could
give a show a patch on this--not even Egypt; the banqueting hall is
splendidly large and well proportioned;[17] with white pillars down the
sides supporting galleries. At the far end there is a raised dais with
red satin and gold couches and chairs, and mirrors and palms; above
these, white walls, and the King's portrait in red and blue and framed
in gold: and round the sides, under the pillars, are more full-length
portraits of Governors and their wives, Lord Elphinstone, Lady Munro,
The Marchioness of Tweedale, Wellesley, Napier, and Ettrick, Grant Duff,
Connemara, and others. Excepting the King's they all looked rather dark
against so much marble-white wall space. Overhead, I am told, there was
once a line of crystal chandeliers, which must have given a perfect
finish to the room; but these have been improved away for rather
insignificant modern lights, and all over the roof are these hideous
whirling electric fans which spoil the whole effect of the classic
Georgian style--the swinging punkah can at least be good to look at,
and even tolerable, if it is far enough off.

[17] 80 feet long, 60 feet broad. Built to commemorate the fall of
Seringapatan.

But here is a sketch of what I remember; the guests divided up the room,
blacks on one side, whites on the other, whether by accident or by
design I know not, I should think and hope by intention. (So sorry this
is not reproduced in colour.)

[Illustration]

Lord and Lady Ampthill then came in, and preceeded by aides-de-camp in
various uniforms, four abreast and at arm's length, marched up the
length of the room to the dais, with measured steps, not too short and
not too slow--a very effectively carried out piece of ceremony, for the
principals sui