Emily Eden

“ It is odd that whenever George and I are alone we invariably find ourselves talking hard English politics—admiration of the prosperity of the country—of His Majesty’s ministers, &c. Indian politics are clearly not half so amusing. ”

“ And I give you fair notice I shall cry and roar considerably if she does not bring quantities of letters. Yours of August must be on board. Mind you do not slacken about writing. Somehow we have been rather starved the last two months, and it is a shocking sensation. I believe we expect too much when a great many ships come in, because they cannot all bring letters; but yet they ought. This must go to-morrow per ‘Windsor,’ but I shall leave it open to the last minute for the chance of the ‘Zenobia’s’ news. ”

“ Miss Fane came alone to dine with us, and we had the young band to play at dinner—a set of little boys, all under fourteen, who are learning music, and are to replace the old band as it wears out. It is surprising how well they played, and I had them here to-night that they might have the treat of the juggler, which quite answered to all parties. He is better the second time than the first. ”

“ I have not quite three-quarters of an hour myself, though I have rather a good set of questions. Fanny and I are quite alone, except for the presence of Captain ——, who is come back from his voyage to the Straits a remarkably fresh-looking, active young man, and he was such a wretched-looking creature when he set off. ”

“ We have been attending the races, which necessitates getting up before six every other morning; and they run races very slowly in India—dawdle three-quarters of an hour between each race—so we never get home till past nine, so nearly glared blind that writing was too white a pursuit for the rest of the day. But the races were rather amusing and very good of their kind. ”

“ The heat of an accident in the present state of the atmosphere is the worst part of it. People and things should make a point of going smoothly at this season. I excused myself going in to dinner, and we have no company of course, this week.
The servants, English and native, all hate Barrackpore, and Mars walked in yesterday morning to say that he thought it right to tell me that he could not and would not bear the heat of his room any longer, and that Wright was just the same about hers. ”

“ There are three little midshipmen going their first voyage; one of them, who was to join another ship, is dying of a decline (poor boy!) , and has not been out of his hammock for a fortnight; nothing can equal the care that is taken of him.
One of the others is a very little fellow called Douglas, and he is as like your —— as it is possible to be, only a little shorter. ”

“ The captain of the foretop, who acted Miss Kitty Sprightly, was really an excellent actress, and I have seen much worse actors in the little theatres than some of the others. Then there are three of them that sing all the old English glees beautifully, and, whenever it is their evening watch, they always sit and sing and tell long stories to each other; and it is one of the few really pleasant things I know on board ship. I wonder whether —— knows a Scotch song about Lady Gowrie, which one of these sailors sings. ”

“ Sunday we had a very good sermon from Mr. ——; but I do not imagine that the bread which is being baked in the oven can attend entirely to what the baker observes, and I always feel that at church. I am always feeling overdone and burnt, and want to be turned the other side.
There is an active Mrs. ——, the new colonel’s wife, who is getting up subscriptions to glaze the Barrackpore church, and then we shall do better.
George and I came down to Calcutta at night very comfortably in the carriage. ”

“ George and I have been all three mornings to the races; they occur only every other day. Fanny has only been once, as she has been very poorly altogether for three days; and though she is much better to-day, she has not the least chance of going to the ball that is given to us on Tuesday, which is a great bore. ”

“ I had a long consultation afterwards with the chief justice, who is a great hand at private theatricals, and George wanted to have some charades or a farce got up to vary our Tuesday’s parties. The chief justice would take the part of manager, and is dying to act. There are heaps of actors who have volunteered, but an actress cannot be found. ”

“ It is three weeks to-day since we left Rio, and we have had great varieties of weather and amusements, calms and fine sailing, and these three horrid days of what sailors call ‘a gale of wind,’ but what, in common English, and speaking correctly, we call a storm, and shocking work it is! I hope one is enough. ”

“ Grand. It is so pretty. Captain —— borrowed it of the owner to have a copy of it made for himself, and, as there are hardly any artists, and none good at Calcutta, and he would have had to give 100 rupees for a bad sketch from it, I am copying it for him.
Our boatmen sent word to-day that they had not thrown their Mohurram image into the river on Sunday, which is the proper Mohurram etiquette, in hopes we would go and see them; so we drove that way to-day, and we were quite glad we went; they managed the sight so courteously and well. ”

“ We are lodged in a tolerable house, but are much devoured by every species of animal. It is very hot, indeed, till the afternoon. We have had some nice drives into the country; live on new potatoes, peas, strawberries, apricots, &c. ”

“ We have had some very nice drives; our house is very good in the daytime, but alive at night; it is the general complaint of Cape Town, and very unpleasant. However, they have sent us two brass bedsteads from the ‘Jupiter,’ so that I am much better off now. We drive to-day with the Bells. ”

“ Drummond will not hear of her going to the ball to-morrow. However, I dare say she will be able to go for ten minutes, which will be quite enough. —— had a sudden fit of fever too on Saturday, which came on in the night and was gone again in six hours, but was, while it lasted, Dr. Drummond said, as violent as it well could be. He walked home from dinner, and there was a fog at the time, which is very apt to produce those sudden chills. He is quite well again.
The ‘Zenobia,’ which took our first letters from hence home, is in the river to-day—come back with answers. ”

“ George and his household are all at Calcutta. He gave a dinner yesterday to General Allard, Runjeet Singh’s General, and Jacquemont’s friend, who came out again last week to join his master. He called on us the morning we left Calcutta, with all his staff and the officers of the French ship which brought him out, and we all tried to put our best French forward. Allard wears an immensely long beard, of which he makes two wings, that he is always stroking and making much of ”

“ I draw no inferences, but everybody calls him ‘a pretty boy.’ He is going to act Miss Hardcastle, in ‘She Stoops to Conquer.’ He is full of spirits, and insisted on being put into a watch long before the first lieutenant thought of it; but in the night watches some of the older ones always send him off to bed. ”

“ I always fancy that these sort of people may come in your way, though I know it is next to impossible, but still I think they may. I wish when you are asked to recommend anybody to us you would contrive to see the individual before he comes away. ”

“ Cloud—George says because he is the only person who is the least confidential with me. He never associates with any of his fellow-servants. All kitchens in India are distinct buildings, at some distance from the house, and in the hot weather I wanted St. ”

“ George and I saw him do it, and quite wished we had as good a resource for our wretched selves, but the foot-tub would not hold us. The midshipmen acted the ‘Mayor of Garrett’ the other day for our diversion. They made a very pretty theatre, and acted wonderfully well—considering that none of them had ever acted before ”