Sunday, January 30, 2011

BOMBAY-1800 :-amusements of .animal baiting, balls,dinners ,ship launch

1800 bombay :-amusements of .animal baiting, balls,dinners ,ship launch




















HMS Minden A SHIP made in bombay(later the American national anthem was made in this ship in 1815 ;IN war of chespeake


















GRAND BALL DRESS OF 1800














ANIMAL(BEAR)BAITING FOR FUN (FOR SPECTATORS) 1800

GLIMPSES OF OLD BOMBAY AND WESTERN INDIA. Here is an amusement that has not been seen in our day in Bombay. The date is January, 1800, when a great number of genttemen and some ladies attended on a Saturday at the Riding School, to witness the baitjng of a horse, a wild boar, and some buffaloes by a leopard. The first object of attack was a dummy man, which leopardus tore to pieces in a twinkling. He then essayed the wild hog, for which he soon showed a Muslim aversion, and " backed," with his tail between his legs, which did not suit the spectators, who goaded him into fury by squibs and crackers until the brute, becoming exasperated by its tormentors, suddenly, by one tremendous leap, alighted on the edge of a high bamboo palisade which divided the spectators from the arena. You may well believe that, as he hung in mid-air, there was a great consternation. The account says that " each waived all ceremony in the order of his going, to establish his own right of precedence." The riding-master, who happened to have a loaded pistol in his hand, was equal to the occasion, and shot the leopard dead on his perch, his body falling with a thud into the enclosure, while the crowd flew helter-skelter. > The staple of amusement in these days was, no doubt, balls, dinners, reviews, and launches. The driving of the silver nail when the keel was laid down was always a big day. When, on May 4th, a ship of 1,250 tons, the Bombay, was launched, and christened, by Sir Edward Pellew, with a bottle of good English porter, the affair drew the principal people of the Settlement. But some more expensive liquor, was, no doubt, used at the launch, in 1810, of the Minden, of seventy-four guns. That was an event of which Bombay was very proud, according to the Chronicle : " Bombay has the singular credit of being the first place out of the British dominions at which a British seventy-four was ever built." The Duncan Dock was completed on June 23rd, 1810 ; and it is a singular fact that the Minden' s keel was laid down while the dock was being constructed, the two works going on simultaneously. Then as to reviews. On June 4th, 1801, the old King's birthday, still sacred at Eton, the 74th Regiment marched past the Governor, their war-worn colours, which they had carried for fourteen years in Asia, on many a battle-field, waving in the breeze.

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