Of the rare contemporary works, which throw light on the social life of the Calcutta of Warren Hastings and Sir Philp Francis one of the rarest and certainly the most interesting is the Original Letters of Mrs. Fay. The book introduces Mrs. Fay and her husband to us on 18th April 1779, and in July 1795, the narrative leaves her, at a low ebb in her fortunes.
Mrs. Fay survived to see Calcutta in her youth and other places from then Egypt, Malabar, Murshidabad to "Chandernagore".
Well, In that time, as it has been observed, Calcutta, being a place of frequent partings, is, in consequence, a place of short memories.
Mrs. Fay, in advanced years, returned to Calcutta, about a year before her death, and set to work to put her letters into print, it may indeed be wondered how it is that a book so often laid under contribution, so full of adventures, containing so many clearly cut descriptions of interesting persons and place.