History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP, I1.] A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. 115

delighted with was the passionate fondness Framji appeared to have for his estate. His projected improvements of a tank, a garden full of fruit trees of every country, the erection of a bungalow for English travellers, and a serai and stables at the spot where the road to his estate leaves the Thana great road, will be most useful to the public, as it is exactly half- way between Bombay and Thana, and mark the liberal spirit in which he has determined to fulfil the obligation of his lease.

“ He evidently thinks less of profit than of being the first native improver of the soil on a scale that will match the science and enterprise of a European settler. His ambition is directed by the possession of this fine estate to the object of being a country gentleman ; and, whatever be the pecuniary result to him of his speculation, he will gain much in health, reputation, and enjoyment, while Government will eventually have a hundredfold for any petty immediate or prospective sacrifices it may have made in the mere value of the land or its produce.

“I was so gratified by what Framji showed me of his actual improvements, and the plans he had in contemplation, that I regretted not having provided myself with an appropriate token of my marked approbation of his public spirit and of the benefits that might be derived from his example. To remedy this forgetfulness I presented him, on the spot, with