The satisfaction of "Little Mac", as his comrades called him, at having at last reached his destination and joined his regiment, the 10th Bengal Light Cavalry, at Meerut, was tempered by keen regret at having missed, by only a twelvemonth, the honour and glory of being with the regiment under Lord Combermere, at the siege and capture of Bhurtpore, that strong fortress of the Jats, which, twenty years before, had successfully resisted all Lord Lake's attacks.

Many were the tales the lad now heard about the taking of Bhurtpore, tales which increased his enthusiasm for the life he had chosen, and his honest pride in the regiment he had entered.   But a good many years had to pass before the Tenth were again employed on active service.

At this time there were still a few, - a very few,- old men who wore a queue, and the Colonel of the regiment was one of them;  for, although the fashion of dressing the hair in this manner had been officially abolished some time previously, an exception was made in his case, the old gentleman having taken the order so much to heart.   And, out of fashion as he now was in that respect, a fine picturesque figure the old Colonel must have made in the beautiful uniform of his regiment, which was gorgeous enough to make the very plainest man appear handsome.

It was pale French grey in colour, - more blue than grey, - and profusely adorned with massive silver braid.   The white facings were emphasized as it were, with a tiny touch of crimson cord, that colour being repeated in the plume of small crimson and white feathers that surmounted the busby, which was made of real sable;  and again in the voluminous sash of crimson  silk, held together here and there by silver clasps.   A solid silver dispatch pouch hung behind the shoulder, from a broad white leather belt, while the leather sabretasche at the waist completed one of the most beautiful uniforms ever designed.   But "il faut souffrir pour etre belle", and the cost of so much splendour was by no means insignificant.

The men wore the same French grey, with a little silver on the tunic, trousers, and cap, - a simple uniform compared with that of their officers, but very effective en masse.

Pith and cork helmets, and solah topees, had not at this period been invented, nor indeed were they for many years after.   But sufficient protection from the sun while out shooting, etc. was secured by wearing a hat of a light kind of basket-work made of split bamboo, and covered with cloth;  or else an ordinary "wideawake" with a pagri twisted round it;  or  even a forage-cap surrounded by a pagri, one end of which hung down behind, protecting the back of the head and neck.

To modern ideas all these varied devices in the shape of headgear appear somewhat quaint, but quainter still some of the old customs of those days.   For instance, the smoking of the hookah, which indeed was generally greatly preferred to the very best cheroot.   Towards the close of dinner, a procession of "hookah-bardars" would file into the mess-room, bearing to their respective masters, their hookahs, after which they would stand behind, in attendance to keep the hubble-bubble alight.

Then hawking.   This was a very favourite form of sport, many of the officers of those days kept hawks, and vied with each other in possessing the best bird.

Meerut, even in the Twenties and Thirties was a large European station, and although apparently devoid of all natural beauty, yet it was a very sociable place, and greatly sought after, being "the gayest  delightful of all Indian stations".  Consequently the little cornet must have considered himself most fortunate in having his lot cast there for at least a time, and as it turned out, the regiment, after he joined it, remained two years at Meerut.

One of Macdonell's contemporaries, writing of this place, thus describes the life led there by the European folk.   "In these days, hot as they were, there was always some gaiety and amusement going forward at Mirat:  balls, plays, masquerades, amateur concerts, dinners, routs, etc. etc.   And in the cold weather, races, hunting, cricket, rackets, clubs, and the like, rendered the station the goal of every man's wishes who was unfortunate enough not to be within reach of it". 

If there was one thing more than another, on which the residents of Meerut prided themselves, it was evidently the elaborate arrangements by which, - in those days when no such thing as an ice machine was known - they were yet enabled to have ice in abundance wherewith to cool their wines, etc. thus making not only their entertainments, but their daily life the more enjoyable.   The ice-pits were apparently classed among the sights of Meerut, for, says Bacon  again, "the ice-pits for the manufacture of ice during the cold season, and for its preservation during the intolerable summer, should be visited by the traveller if he be there while the works are in operation:  there is some information and no little amusement to be gleaned if the process is a novelty.

About the beginning or end of December, as the weather may suggest, the whole of the ground devoted to this purpose is strewed with sugar-cane leaf, straw, or any other available substitute which readily radiates caloric.   Upon this are placed a very great number of shallow earthen pans, made porous by being loosely wrought, and baked in a slow furnace.   These are supplied with water to the depth of half an inch, which when frozen, will vary, according to the rapidity of the evaporation, from a quarter to an eighth of an inch in thickness.  The sun is allowed to rise upon the pans so as to loosen the ice from them, otherwise they must of necessity be broken ere it can be disengaged;  unless indeed they should be exposed to the influence of artificial heat, which I have never seen practised.

The works are carried on upon an extensive scale lest our capricious frosts should leave us in the lurch.   At Mirat in 1838, fifty camels were daily employed in bringing in sugar-cane leaf:  280 coolies or labourers to strew the leaf and lay the pans, and 40 bhisties or watercarriers to fill the pans with water, as long as the frosts lasted, or until a sufficient quantity had been laid in for the supply of the station.

The expenses of this year were, I must allow, greater  than usual, through carelessness and mismanagement;  ten lakhs or 100,000 pans were furnished to the establishment this year, at one pice each, rendering the outlay for pans alone equal to 1600 rupees or about £150.   About 2,000 maunds or 160,000lbs of ice are found adequate to supply the cantonment during the hottest months, that is, from April to the middle of October, allowing an average of one tenth for waste in the pits.

The pits are constructed in the firmest soil available, and are lined throughout with thick layers of matting and reeds.  At the bottom a well is dug for the purpose of carrying off the waste, without which the increasing moisture would very quickly dissolve the whole mass.   The ice there accumulated is disposed of in shares, of which there are usually about forty, and each of those entitles the holder to 16lbs of ice daily, as long as it may last, at an average expenditure of something near ¦10.   Before it is taken from the pits it is beaten into a solid mass, and it is then carried to its destination in a large basket thickly padded with cotton, within which it is enfolded in a coarse blanket.   It may readily be believed that in a tropical climate such a luxury is cheaply purchased at almost any price.

What pangs of uncharitable envy must be excited in the ghosts of the first Englishmen who expired of liver digestion (sic) in India, if they ever happen to get a peep at our table spread with iced wine, iced water, iced creams, iced game, iced sherbet, iced butter, iced everything, under a temperature of 100¼ Fahrenheit!   "Ah!" they would exclaim, "it is all the work of those two seven-leagued-booted, Siamese-twin brothers, Intellect and Reform.   When we were ensigns upon a thousand a year we were obliged to drink our claret half-mulled, and eat our bread with honey-butter, and now these lads, with only a couple of hundreds are living like gods!   But after all they are only cutting Promotion's throat, - their seniors will never die!"