The Civilian’s South India. Some Places and People in Madras by “Civilian”

The Civilian allows that it is quite probably the best way to come even to Madras and these people would not be going to Madras but to some smart and fabulous station of the icy North ; there would be a Regiment there and a band and polo khitmagars and bearers and chprassies a cold weather camels and a manageable vernacular ; in a word all those things that happen in novels and in the w [...] That bay might have been anywhere Cornwall or the Banff shire coast or Stonehaven or the Mull of Cantyre and if you doubt this he will show you pictures of it with the waves rolling and leaping all white and cream on the rocks and the shelving beach so that you can almost hear the roar and drag of the undertow ; but there is only one of it to his knowledge and the Edge of India is a long lo [...] This is a great heresy but it is true ; the tropical forest of palms and flowers and gorgeous creepers the elephants and the brilliant birds where are they ? Lo there are mangoes and jacks and tamrinds and babuls and sirises which are not unlike any other hardwood trees and as to flowers the best we can do for you without a gardener is the water-lily and in birds the kingfishers and the ja [...] The admirable volumes prepared by the railway companies of South India describe Masulipatam as " a place of great historical interest " and so no doubt it is for to begin with it was the port of Haiderabad in the good old days when there were diamonds at Golconda and thereafter it became"THE EDGE OF INDIA 37 a milestone and one of the first milestones of the British Raj and was the scene of o [...] For the rest of the ysar there is a sky of brass and a heat-haze that levels down all colours to a greyish-blue and a dancing mirage through which one can scarce distinguish the huddle of red-and-white houses from the toddpalms and the dark-brown earth of the fields.