2-982-634 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Chota Haziree", or Little Breakfast, in India, from a photograph by A. Williamson, 1858. British colonial administrators having an early breakfast. 'The "chota haziree" is a meal which is not habitual with persons in this country, although something akin to it prevails in France, and, we believe, in Spain...At an hour somewhere about that at which the market-gardeners who supply London are making their way towards Covent-garden market, gentlemen and ladies in India are mounting their horses or getting into their carriages for the early ride or drive. On their return, the light refection which is portrayed in the Engraving - consisting of tea, toast, and occasionally fruit, succeeded in the case of the male sex by the inevitable cheroot or hookah - is partaken of in the lightest of dresses, and in the airiest of verandahs, or housetops, as is the custom. As the coolness of the morning has not yet passed away, and the frame is not yet suffering from lassitude, the dwellers in bungalows are enabled to enjoy their newspapers and books, or the gossip of the town or station, with few of the drawbacks and discomforts which await them during the heat of the day'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.