“. . . You will easily guess that I have little time to spare; but the fact is, that I seldom do anything after two o’clock, when I dine. The best way, however, is to favour me with your company at dinner at two, and then the day may be of your appointing, I being always at home, you know, and every day being a day of equal favour. . . . I give beef stakes and porter. I may vary my food to mutton chops, but never vary the drink. I think it is a duty to God and Man to put the Nabobs upon the coals without delay. They have long been cooking and devouring the wretched people both of England and India.”
