Sir Henry Rawlinson has been giving a lecture at the
Mechanics' Institution at Frome, differing very widely indeed from the kind of lecture the worthy mechanics usually get. It was on life in Bagdad, and Sir Henry told them, among other carious facts, that be had frequently had his rooms carpeted a foot deep in roses, supplied gratuitously to be crushed before boiling for atta. Ante- lopes were as common as sparrows in England, and during his
residence Sir Henry was rarely without a tame lion. He had tattled a leepaid so perfectly that itiello wed him about the streets of London, and its only weakness was a belief that babies were meant for ft. One of the Persian princes tamed a pair of wolves with which he used to hunt, the mungoose was kept instead of the cat to catch snakes, and the favourite amusement of little boys in Bagdad is to get on the backs of ostriches and run races, and the birds would stretch out their necks and enjoy the thing as much as English racehorses would. Does Sir Henry Rawlinson mean that last assertion for a fact, or was he gently chaffing an audience which, after the roses and the wolves, must have been ready for anything?
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