2-982-278 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of Native Life in India - a Calcutta Syce, 1858. We are indebted to the sketch-book of Mr. Marshall Claxton for the...series of characteristic Sketches of a few of the manners, habits, and customs of the natives of India...The Calcutta Syce (or groom) will be familiar to all residents at that capital. The syce always accompanies the buggy, to look after the horse, calling out loudly to the passers-by to get out of the "sahib's" way. We are pointedly told European lungs are "too aristocratic" to admit of so great an exertion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.