Incorrigble sottishness

Heh. From Stephen Taylor's Storm and Conquest. An excellent read. On the head office's view of distant behavior on the part of their minions in India. Page 26. Speaking about Lady Barlow, wife of the Governor of Madras, the East India Company's southern presidency:

Her midday tiffin parties were 'a table of gaiety in which she was fond of indulging'. It was widely said that she took too much wine at such times, but then drinking in India attracted little attention other than from the Directors, who sometimes admonished their distant servants for 'incorrigble sottishness'.