or morning and afternoon as you may wish. The baker sends you the loaves you require daily, the fishmonger sends you fish, the poultryman sends you poultry, and the grocer sends you stores according to orders. Your eggs and bacon and butter and all daily supplies come to your house every day without trouble and without fail, and your servant has not to step out of the door to buy a single thing from the shops. Once a week the tradesmen send you their bills, which you settle after checking.
You get the best of every kind of food in London if you will only pay for it. Beef and mutton are a shilling to 14d. the pound, and seldom have I tasted such splendid meat anywhere in the continent as I had every day in our house in London. Good rich milk, better than you get at any price in Calcutta, is 2d. the quart. Poultry is dear, a good fowl is 3s. 6d., or 4s. 6d., partridges and pheasants you get only in season. You get better fish in London than in the seaside places where fish is caught! And the butter and eggs are all of the best quality.
But the costliness of washing in London surpasses everything else. The arrangements are of course perfect. The laundress drives to your house in her pony cart every Saturday with your clothes which you take over after comparing with your list. And then she drives over again on Monday to take away the soiled clothes. She is always punctual, in all weathers, and you have nothing to complain of about her except her charges! To wash a shirt with collar attached she charges you 4d. or 412d. i.e., about 5 annas in Indian money! A shirt washed three times costs a Rupee! Our weekly washing bill
