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The Townend Family Letters

Correspondence from the 1930s - 1940s between members of the Townend family
HPV + LJT Letters 1936 to 1938

1936 March

HPV to Annette

At Puri
March 3rd 1936

My dear Annette

The Governor said that obviously I needed a change as much as he did, that he was going away for a while and that he would be very annoyed if returning he found that I had not done as he wished. So I came down here the next night. You may not remember Puri but you came down here once or twice: you certainly will not remember it, so it is no real use saying that it is little changed. If you ask whether I have this time been down to see the temple, no: the car, no: anything that there is to see, no. I breakfast at 8.30: go down to bathe at 10 or so, sit on the beach but in the shade of a thatched hut till, say, 11.30. Lunch at 1. Sleep till 4. Tea. Go down to bathe and saunter on the beach. Sit about. Dine at 8. And go to bed very soon after – not to sleep but to rest my back which aches after surf jumping. Your Aunt Winsome John and Charlotte are down here. That is why I bathe at 10 instead of before breakfast: they do not want too long a day. The sun has caught my back a bit. I have slept a lot: and undoubtedly I have rested. The letters which I intended to answer are for the most part still untouched: and I have read nothing but books of the type which no one but I would look at. Murder on the Mat, so to speak.

I feel that your dream of the sardines driving the whitebait out on the bank is full of truth and beauty. Some time ago I awoke conscious of having read in an almanac a beautiful poem which started
“If the little Kids
AND the little goats
had gone over the hill . . .. “
with a picture of them going in a column up the hill. The rest had disappeared from my memory but all that day I recited at odd intervals these three lines and felt that they were good stuff. Some tragedy undoubtedly befell the kids and the little goats and the poem was a lament.

Many prior engagements prevented your mother from coming down here: in particular the clearing up of the photograph exhibition and the returning of the photos to the owners. She writes of busy days, seeing people. On Thursday she flies to Jalpaiguri. That’s a long way, some 300 or 350 miles. They stop halfway for tiffin. I should imagine that it will be abominably hot in the plane and I should have preferred that she didn’t go. When there she will go out to Chilapatha in a Game Reserve: it is ten miles south of Nilpara where we had our last shoot as you may remember: rhino are to be seen, if one chances on them – anyhow they are there.

Yes, this sort of life makes one dogtired: though I don’t do much. Not in the water long really. Enough.

Much love
Dad.

Family letter from LJT

14/1 Rowland Road
Calcutta
March 4th 1936.

My Dears,

Its funny how often my weeks seem to split up into chapters on different subjects. Everest, Mountains and Mountain photography have bulked very large in this one. Idris Mathews is going to fly me up over the Darjeeling hills, and we want to get good photos of the snows. I have been lent a leica camera with a super-fast lense. Having fiddles about with that and spent Sunday evening taking photos from the air with it, one of my mountain friends said that it was an awful pity, with such a chance, not to take some with a telephoto lense, so Richard Gardiner has lent me his Zeiss-Ikon, a lovely little camera about the same size as a Leica, fitted with a telephoto lense, and I shall use both. The Manager of Agfas, the German photo shop, has lent me a movietex (like a cine-kodak) in case I get a chance to get some good animal photos during the two days that we are out in the jungle. By the way, I suppose I did tell you that Idris was flying me up to Jalpaiguri to stay with Bryan Jones? We leave DumDum at 5.30 a.m. to-morrow morning, stop to take in petrol at Berhampur, rather over 100 miles away, and should be in Jalpai, about another 175 miles further on, by between 9 and 9.30 a.m. The following morning we intend to start at the same early hour, and fly the 24 miles to the hills, climbing high, follow the valley of the Teesta for 16 miles north, then turn west following the valley of the Rungeet for some 12 miles, during which time we should be able to get good photos of the snows, and then turn and follow the same course back again, flying a bit lower, and hoping to photograph the new Government House, Darjeeling, and the new Teesta Bridge. We ought to be back in Jalpai by 7.30 or 8 o’clock, where we have breakfast, and then set out by car for a forest bungalow in the heart of a wild animal reserve. There we stay for two days, hoping to see and photograph wild animals. We return to Jalpai on Sunday evening and start back for Calcutta very early on Monday morning.

Last Thursday brought a great surprise. Herbert went to see the Governor who thought that he was looking very tired and pulled down, and told him he should like him to go away on a week or ten days leave as soon as possible. Luckily Winsome and the children are at Puri, so I fixed up for Herbert to go there, and he got away on Friday evening. There are holidays tomorrow and on Friday for the Id Festival, and another on Saturday for the Hindu Holi, so Harry and the Gurners are all going to Puri to-night as well, so they will be quite a party. I had so many things on that it was difficult for me to get away. Clearing up the photographic Exhibition on Monday was probably the most difficult, and I had a couple of Girl Guide shows as well.

Mr Shipton arrived early on Monday morning, and I so much enjoyed seeing him again. He is such a nice creature, with eyes almost as blue as Herbert’s and with an even greater childlike quality. We had G.B. to breakfast with us and Mr Cooke, the man who climbed Kabru last year, to lunch, and Richard Gardiner and I took Mr Shipton out to bathe at Tolly in the afternoon. Shipton amused himself by swarming up the ropes of the trapeze and getting on to the iron beams just under the roof of the swimming-bath, where he walked bout and looked gravely down upon us. When he slid down again, the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands were black with dust, so we made him sit on the trapeze, while we cleaned his feet with a wet towel, before we would let him come back into the bath. G.B. came to early dinner with us, and we went and saw him off at Sealdah. When I see each one go, I wonder whether he is going to be the one to get to the top. Poor Wyn Harris wired that he had got to come back to Calcutta to see a dentist, and he arrived here at 7.30 yesterday morning, had a tooth out after lunch, was not allowed to go back last night, so is still with me, and leaves to-night for Darjeeling. He is in the Kenya Civil Service, and we have had some very interesting talks about conditions in Kenya and out here, besides a great deal of talk about mountains. He says he likes climbing mountains about 20,000 ft high, but that Everest is pure agony, and he has not the faintest idea why they try to do it. He and Hager(?) were the first party for the top last year. He says those famous slabs are awful, because they go on for so long, and never for a moment while you are crossing them do you feel safe. I have enjoyed the three days while he and Shipton have been here, but I have got precious little done.

I shall have to stop this now, and go and do my packing. Mogul and Idris’ bearer go off with our bedding and suit cases to-night, as we can take very little in the plane.

Best love to you all

From LJT to Annette

14/1 Rowland Rd
Calcutta
March 4th

My darling Annette

Temptation has overcome me – Mr Wyn Harris and I got looking at a photo of Everest and he began showing me where he got to and where he glissaded almost to his death and how he thinks they will have to attack the top if they get up the last coloir – and so on – It was so interesting – that – though I knew the precious minutes were flying, and I should not have time left to write – I did not interrupt –

Now there is only time to send my love –
Mum

Family letter from LJT

14/1 Rowland Road
Calcutta
March 9th 1936

My dears, I want to write to you as quickly as possible about my wonderful “flying” week-end to Jalpaiguri, so that I may describe it to you while the impression is still fresh. I sent the invaluable Mogul off with the luggage to jalpaiguri on Wednesday evening, and went myself, out to Cossipore to dinner, and stay the night, in order to be so much nearer the areodrome in the morning. We got up at 4.30 a.m.. Left the house about 5.15 and were actually in the air by 5.40. Idris sent his scouring over the areodrome before we took off, to make sure there were no cows sleeping there, as it was still too dark to see, and he had to read his instruments by an electric torch. The dawn was just coming, and after about ten minutes I was able to read my maps. I kept on taking readings with an electro cell Exposure metre, so that I might have some idea what the light would be like for taking photographs the following morning, and it was amazing how quickly it increased as the rim of the sun showed itself above the horizon. It took us an hour and a half to fly to Berhampore, where we landed and took in petrol. On the way we swooped down low over the battle field of Plassy, and I took a photo of the monument which I hope will come out. In view of the scenery depicted in the film, it would be interesting to know where they found the cave affair in which Clive was shown as having his headquarters for it is a perfectly flat alluvial country, with a river winding through it in a series of huge curves, and no hills for many many miles.

A little north of Berhampur we flew over the Ganges, which is not as big at this spot as I expected. After that we were flying for about an hour over a stretch of perfectly flat rice field country, with scattered villages, and groups of date-palm and bamboo, the only features being an excessively bad road running almost dead straight, north and south, and a series of rivers, also running south, but in a series of huge bends and curves. It’s extraordinary to think of the numbers of people living there who have never seen anything else. Our next mark was the town of Dinajpur, where we gazed down earnestly at the big maidan (park-like ground) where we had been told it would be possible to land. Its a fine big place but has a few rather tiresome trees on it. Idris thought it would be quite possible to land a moth there now, and easy to make a good landing ground with very little alteration. The country north of this became a little more interesting, but not much so, and in another three quarters of an hour, we landed at Jalpaiguri, having done the journey in 3 ½ hours flying time, exclusive of the stop at Berhampur. I said we hoped to be there between 9,30 and 10 o’clock, and we arrived at 9.45. There were quite a crowd assembled to meet us, as we know most of the district officials there, Bry Jones had made admirable arrangements for us, and the plane was under the eye of the armed police the whole time, in fact it was housed under the lee of one of their barracks. We were very hungry and consumed an enormous breakfast, after which we made a tour, first of Bry’s garden (to see which had been his original reason for asking me up there) and then of the Deputy Commissioner’s (our old house) and finally of the Commissioner’s. This took us the rest of the morning, and we returned home to rather a late lunch and a sleep, and after tea wandered over to fill up the plane and see that everything was ready for an early morning flight over the mountains the next morning. Bry had a few people in to dinner, but sent them firmly home early, as he thought Idris and I were tired, and we wanted to get up again at 4.45 the next morning. I had enjoyed wandering round Jalpai and seeing all my old haunts immensly, and was very pleased to see our old garden well looked after, and a good many of the things I put in, still flourishing. Our plan the next morning was to fly up over the mountains, which begin about 28 miles north of Jalpai, and see the sun rise on the snows, and turning west, fly parallel with the great snowy range, and take photos of them with a telephoto camera. We were partly balked of our ambition by the great bank of dust haze which lies over the mountains in the hot weather, and which I ought to have remembered about. It was very misty when we took off, and as we approached the mountains and I saw they were all wrapped in haze, I wondered whether Idris would turn back, but he kept on over the gorge of the Teesta River for about 15 miles into the mountains. As we climbed to 6,000 ft and still higher, the wonderful mass of Kangchenjunga and the surrounding peaks, flushed to a deep pink by the rising sun, appeared above the haze. It was a marvellous sight. The valley below, up which I had so often travelled by car or on foot, looked like a small toy. By the time we had reached the Teesta Bridge, we had climbed to almost 7,000 ft., and with a following breeze were travelling at about 90 miles an hour. Idris called to me through the telephone that he could climb another 3,000 or 4,000 ft. but did not quite like the idea in case we lost touch with the valleys below, and anyhow it was doubtful whether visibility would be good enough for photos taken at high speed. I quite agreed, so as we got to the river junction, which looked like two silver threads seen through the veil of mist below us, he did a lovely vertical turn and we swept down the valley of the Teesta again, instead of turning along the Rungest. It was a bit disappointing, but only common sense, and what we did do was thrilling and interesting enough. As we left the mountains behind, we dropped to more reasonable altitudes, and flew back to Jalpai above the Teesta River. I pointed out the place where Herbert shot his first tiger, and places where we had had picnics, and other familiar landmarks. We landed at Jalpai again just about an hour after we had started. Bry heard us coming and nipped across in his car to the police lines to meet us, and Idris took him up for about 15 minutes, and then we went home to breakfast.

(parts of letter missing) . . . we started on our new adventure. We set off by car to . . . to a forest Bungalow, in the heart . . .animal reserve. I so much . . . know so well, and Idris . . . . and the strtetches of . . . .or less filled with . . . also specially interested . . . there are polo grounds, and . . . . It was lovely being in . . . had been sent out there, and there were several Forest elephants in residence there, so to speak, and the local Forest Ranger Babu, who attached himself to us, and was most interesting and helpful. Our object was not shooting, but trying to photograph wild animals, so we went out morning and evening on elephants, just wandering through the jungle, and it was most fascinating. We saw numbers of deer of different sorts, samphur, hog-deer, barking deer, and the rather rare swamp deer, pig, a peacock dancing, with his lady friend sitting on a tree watching him, jungle fowl, horn-bills, and numbers of lovely smaller birds. We tried to get a sight of a rhino. There were marks of them all over the place, but the Ranger said we had come just too late. The weather is just hot enough now for them to go off into the deep swamps, as soon as it begins to get light, and the mud is too treacherous there for the elephants to be able to follow them. He says if we will go back in December or January, he can guarantee that he will show us rhino close enough to photo, and that if we will pay Rs5 for an old cow or bullock to tie up for a tiger, he will arrange a machan and can be pretty sure that he would get a tiger to kill early enough to make it possible to photograph him. I had a camera with a telephoto lense, and am longing to see whether any of the photos I took will come out. Taking photos is far more difficult than shooting, as there are so often branches or grasses in the way, which would in no way interfere with a shot, but which would completely spoil a photo. I think it is more fascinating than shooting. We did our last goom on elephants from 7 a.m till 10 a.m. on Sunday, and left at 11 o’clock, with great regret, getting back to Jalpai about 3.30. One of the exciting things about this visit was that beside the forest bungalow there is a great stretch of open park like grass land, with only scattered groups of sheshum trees on it, and heaps of room to land an aeroplane. It only needs a few men to go over selected stretches of ground, to see that there are no big bumps or holes, and to put out danger marks where there are, and light a smoky fire to give the wind direction. The Ranger is thrilled with the idea of an aeroplane landing there, and he and his men say they will be quite willing to do the necessary work just for the sake of seeing the plane, so if the Divisional Forest Officer, who is an old friend of mine, has no objection, and if we are not involved in a world war before then, it looks as if this wonderful scheme will come off. Oh! and I forgot to mention that, when we got back from the flight over the hills and reported bad visibility, Bry Jones immediately said we must come again in November, and fetching a calendar out of his office, pointed that the 23rd and 24th, a Monday and Tuesday, are holidays, and that we could come up on the Saturday morning and stay till the Wednesday morning, so we have already made a date to do so (D.V.)

Back in Jalpai we spent a long time over tea and talk, and then went to put the little plane all ready for the morning’s journey, before we bathed and changed into civilized clothes, ready to greet the guests who were coming to dinner. The following morning we took off from the ground at 5.45 and the moon was still disputing with the sun, which was giving us light. For the first ten minutes or so we were flying with the pink glow of the sunrise on our left and a round golden moon on our right. The journey home was without any special incident. Flying at 1,000 ft after the first 45 minutes we had a strong head wind, so Idris dropped to about 300 feet, and we flew close over the tops of the villages, to the great excitement of the inhabitants. As we crossed the Ganges we rose higher, but high or low, it was very bumpy till we landed at Barhampur. There were some rain storms drifting across north west, but we only got the extreme edges of them. I suppose that was what made it bumpy. After leaving Berhampur it was quite smooth again, and we made good time to Dum Dum, diverging slightly from our course to fly down the Hoogly, taking photos of the old Dutch settlement of Chinsurah, and circling low over Idris’ house to give them warning to get breakfast ready. They certainly were an unforgettable five days.

Herbert had got back from Puri early on Monday morning, but had gone to office before I got home, so I went up and had tea with him in the Council House. I got there in time to hear the tail end of an impassioned speech about water-Hyacinth that he was making. There is no very strong opposition to his Bill for trying to control this plague which is blocking so many of the water-ways and flooded fields of Bengal. I found Herbert looking marvellously better, brown and well and cheerful. I do hope he will remain so.

12.3.36 Mail day round again! There is not much more to tell. We had the last batch of Everest men through here on Tuesday. They were several days late as they were on the Strathmore, which was held up by faulty steering gear or something, and then they had the bad luck to be on a train which was a little matter of six hours late arriving in Calcutta. They should have been in at 7.20 a.m. on Tuesday morning. G.B. and I had arranged to go down and meet them, and we had also fixed up with the man from the Oxygen and Acetylene Co to be there with a lorry to take over the oxygen cylinders and fill them before the evening, as they wanted to catch the train to Darjeeling that night. Just before dinner on Monday I had a wire from Mr Kempson saying, “Train several hours late”. Luckily G.B. was at home to dinner and I was able to get in touch with him, but we could not get on to the Oxygen man. I rang up Howrah Station at 6.30 the next morning, and they said the train was expected between 12 and 1 o’clock. It came in at 1.15 p.m. G.B. and I had been down there for three quarters of an hour. Smythe, Kempson, Dr Warren and young Wigram were the party. We got the cylinders loaded on to the lorry, and all the baggage, which we sent direct to Sealdah. The oxygen man was a brick. He said he thought he could get the cylinders filled, and he did, and brought them up himself to Sealdah in the evening. I took Kempson and Wigram to my house, and sent Smythe and Dr Warren off to the people with whom they were spending the day. Lunch was a bit late, and then we rushed out and did some intensive shopping, before going out to Tollygunge to tea and bathe. Luckily Council was not sitting and Herbert managed to get out of office in time to join us there. I wondered as I said good-bye to Smythe at the station whether he would be the one to get to the tp, and praying that they would all come back alive.

It turned extraordinarily hot in the middle of last week, and we have quite taken up bathing again. I stayed in and worked at Himalayan Club letters solidly all day till 4.30 yesterday, including answering a gentleman from Patiala who said he felt sure he could be useful to the Mount Everest Expedition for though he had no experience of mountaineering, he had a great soul and was never afraid! Its much cooler again to-day with a north wind, and G.B.’s and my horses were very frisky this morning. Tip-It-Up was kicking and bucking all over the place.

I’ve a mass of work to do, but luckily social engagements are thinning out a bit, so I hope I will be able to settle down to it, and possibly finish the account of our Autumn tri, which still lies only half done.

Best love to you all
LJT

From HPV to Annette

Calcutta
March 12th 1936

My dear Annette.

Having attained, yesterday, the respectable age of 49, I dare say that hence forward I shall see improved deportment in the junior members of my family and less of that sad tendency to burst into cries of Poop and such. My sojourn by the seaside has (with the help of deliberate fish eating no doubt) restored vitality to the hormones. For the first time for weeks I was observed running upstairs: and I have resumed the practice of belly wagging and wobbling. Perhaps with undue enthusiasm: for I am excessively stiff now about the thighs and ankles – having of course wagged these also. But there is a possibility that the stiffness which came in a day after my return was a hangover from Puri: for there I ran along the beach, one day 100 paces and another 50 and 50: after that I became conscious that my ankles did not respond happily to such treatment: and probably I must reconcile myself to renouncing running from now on. Last Thursday saw brother Harry and quite a lot of people whom I know come down to Puri: but this hardly changed things. We bathed before breakfast instead of afterwards: and, perhaps because of this, I slept less during the day. We all left on Sunday night: and as for me I slept very poorly owing to the rocking and joggling of the train. The evening was made hideous by a monkey chase. Two monkeys got onto the roof of the hotel and there were frantic attempts to dis-lodge them, largely because one of them had caught a baby monkey and was trying to pull it in pieces: the monkeys came down on to a ledge which ran round below the bedrooms and got on to balconies whence they menaced the children. I was suddenly conscious of one showing his teeth at me through my window but he yielded ground to the brandishing of my umbrella. The stomping and rushing on the roof made thought impossible: I was checking my hotel bill and became quite discouraged.

Good luck
Much love
Dad


From LJT to Annette

14/1 Rowland Rd
Calcutta
March 12th

My darling Annette

Dad was very pleased that you and Rosemary remembered his birthday – I cant believe that he is almost 50. I don’t think he looks it – and of course he still seems in many ways quite a child to me!!

With all this horrible war talk in the papers and the situation between Germany and the rest of the world so strained, I am wondering whether it will be wise for you to go to Germany in the holidays. Its inconceivable that any nation should willingly try to plunge the world in war once more – but Hitler seems determined to have his own way at all costs – Let’s hope that the atmosphere will have cleared a little before it is time for you to start. If you go, I should be very careful to keep clear of all political discussions either with people you meet or in your letters – and above all be very careful not to make any sort of adverse comments on Hitler and his regime. You can reserve all such observations till you get back

I’m glad to hear you can climb a rope with ease – Its a thing I have never been able to do – actually I have never seriously tried – I was congratulated the other day on my agility in climbing up on to an elephant, who did not like her tail held to make a stirrup to stand in when mounting – You remember the way? I don’t want to be like the Pharisees and say “Thank God I am not as other men” – but I must own that I do sometimes thank God that I have not grown fat and heavy, like so many women do after 40 and that I am still as agile as I ever was – at least I think I am!

Auntie has sent out your photos – I don’t like yours or Rosemary’s and wish I had asked to have you taken at a better place – The lighting is so hard and the pictures have been so badly touched up. However, it is interesting to see the changes in you – Rosemary has got much more grown up looking They have just taken you leaning forward slightly so that you look round shouldered, which I hope you are not, my child!

Its such a joy to have Dad looking fit and happy again. I almost feel I might have come home but – on the whole I shall be easier in my mind staying with him – for I never know when he will overwork and more or less collapse again.

Best love
Mum

From HPV to Annette

Calcutta
March 19th 1936

My dear Annette

Change and decay in all around I see: to wit; I have dropped some orange on my trousers and my ankles are stiff. The cause of this latter disaster I guess to be my attempt, at Puri, to run like a youngling: and on top of that we essayed tennis on Saturday and on Sunday – after a year’s abstinence. Every time I took a step I groaned with the pain of it and every time your mother hit the ball she gave a gasp or a grunt because it hurt her wrist: also she quickly developed blisters. Thus it was not brilliant tennis. Regarding attempts to dive, the tale is much the same: one cannot spring into the air or stamp on a spring-board if the ankles feel distinctly fragile. But why should I complain ? it is illogical to complain of such things after being so slack for months as to allow every tissue to become flabby.

I had my eyes tested on Saturday: having found that even with glasses I sometimes found it hard to focus while I worked in office. Col Kirwan who was the doctor consulted said that there was nothing wrong with the actual eyes but that my general health was clearly bad: the flabbiness of the eye muscles would have led him to suppose that I was just recovering from a severe illness: lack vitality. All this might depress a lot and has perhaps depressed a little: but I knew that I would suffer for it if I came out to push my schemes and the choice was deliberate. There is certainly not much push about them at the moment. I feel like the famous horse in Borrow – was it a Suffolk Punch? – “the only horse that will pull twice at a dead weight.” If I had but the time to run round and get a move on! but my energies are diverted to other things which Government prefer to have first attention.

My attempt to get off the Legislative Council has not so far succeeded. They have not yet found anyone to put in my place: and probably they have not tried very hard.

It is to be said however that yesterday’s bathe indicated restoration of strength to ankles!

Much love
Dad.


From LJT to Annette

14/1 Rowland Rd
Calcutta
March 19th

My darling Annette

There’s a paragraph at the end of your last letter which puzzles me a little. You say you suppose Mdmelle Pinault will know whether you can go on with a certain amount of Latin and English at the Sorbonne – I was under the impression from an earlier letter of yours, that after consultation with Miss Street, you had decided to stay on at school till you go up for your scholarship – Perhaps this refers to an idea which you have, but have not mentioned to me, that you might go to Paris for a bit if you get the scholarship – before you actually go up to the varsity – How convenient it would be if I could just pick up the telephone receiver and talk to you about it.

I’d love to have seen the essays produced by you and your “form mates” on “The Christian Ideal of Marriage” – They must have made rather interesting reading. I am not very such what those ideals are myself. There’s a fairly strong idea that a wife should be “subject to her husband” I think, which does not fit in very well with our modern ideas. Actually in a successful marriage I think the wife and the husband are both prepared to give way to a certain extent, when there is a question of not seeing eye to eye with the other partner – but of course the smooth running of two lives so closely linked does not happen without learning, experimenting, making mistakes and profiting by them and a good deal of unselfishness from both parties. Phyllis Carey Morgan and I were talking on this subject the other day. There are one or two couples in “our” circle of acquaintances whom local gossip says “do not get on too well to-gether” – Phyllis was saying that as far as she can see this state of affairs arises because the parties to the marriage make little or no attempt to make it into a successful venture.

I must get on with the family letter now. If you are in Dresden when this reaches you please present my compliments to Frau von Pflugk and also if you see them to Herbert Richter’s parents. You might mention to them how sorry we were to say goodbye to him and how much we miss him from our circle of friends in Calcutta.

Best love
Mum

Family letter from LJT

14/1 Rowland Road
Calcutta
March 19th 1936

My Dears,

After writing you such a long letter last week, I am only going to write a short one this week, as I have not been doing the sort of things that are very interesting to write about. Being away for a few days gave me the chance of being free of engagements to a large extent, and I have been able to get through a tremendous amount of work. Except for my usual early morning ride, I have had two days when I have been able to stay in all day, till it was time to go and fetch Herbert from Council, and bathe with him, and consequently I am in the happy position of being completely up to date with both my Guide and my Himalayan Club work. I also spent yesterday afternoon shopping, in order to deal with the question of clothes, which I always put off, and find very difficult to tackle. I met Phyllis Carey Morgan at the Saturday Club at 6 o’clock for a drink and a chat, while we waited for our respective husbands to come from office. Phyllis and I have both been so busy this cold weather that we have not seen half as much as usual of one another. Phyllis has had her widow sister and William out, which has kept her fully occupied till a week or two ago. She has now been made the Chief Commissioner of Guides for the whole of India, so is a very great lady in the Guide World.

I have done no more flying since I got back from Jalpai but I spent Friday afternoon out at Cossipore drawing out designs for a bit of the garden which there was no time to tackle last rains. I am probably going to fly on Sunday and on Monday. On Sunday we plan to fly down and have a picnic breakfast on Dalhousie Island which is on the South of the Sunderbands, and on Monday the idea is to fly down the river to see the great bore which is due to take place that day. The nautical authorities say that is is expected to be the biggest there has ever been, and that all shipping is to be crammed into the docks, and country boats warned to take refuge up the small side rivers. Idris’s idea is to fly down the river timing ourselves to meet the bore some way down, and then fly up with it. It should be very interesting. These bores have always taken place on the Hoogly when there are specially low tides, but the port authorities say they are getting worse every year, and are becoming a menace to shipping.

On Saturday night we had a most unexpected visit from a Dutch countess. She came out on board ship with Mr Kempson, and he gave her my name. I knew she was arriving in Calcutta on Saturday or Sunday, but I did not expect her to turn up to call at 9.45 p.m. The description given of her by the Everest men was very true. They said when you see someone who looks like a man when she is a little way off, but who turns out to be a woman when you see her a little closer, you will know that that is the countess. Mogul bore witness to this, for the following morning he said to me “Was that a Sahib or a memsahib who came to see you last night?” Countess Frijs, wanted to start off as soon as possible on a tour in Sikkim, so we gave her a mass of information and advice, and an introduction to the local Secretary of the Himalayan Club in Darjeeling. Hearing that she was fond of bathing, I asked her if she could come to bathe and have breakfast with us at Tollygunge the following morning. She said “I do not think I must bathe. I have been vaccinated, and it has what you call, take. See” and with that she hauled up her skirt, pulled down her stocking and displayed a lean thigh with the vaccination marks on it. Herbert turned his head modestly away, while I gave an opinion on the state of the vaccination.

On Tuesday evening the people who are living with Idris Mathews, had a party to celebrate the birthday of the husband. They asked us to it, and as usual I went to it without Herbert, and took the epidiascope with which to show some of Mr Chambers photos to the guests. I met there a woman I used to know years ago in Barisal, and she told a story about Richard and Annette, of which I have not the faintest recollection, but which is so good that I cant think how I could have forgotten it. It is as follows:-

Richard at the bedroom door one morning. Nannie said “Dont come in for a second. I’ve only got my nightdress on” – The following day Richard was about to go into the room where Annette was, (being aged about three) when she called out “Dont come in Richard. I’ve only got my nightie on” A moment later she added “You can come now. I’ve taken it off”. I must write and ask Nannie whether she remembers it.

We are settling down to the nice quiet life of the hot weather. People have started going home in great numbers. Miss Pearce goes through here to-day en route for England with the little boys she has been looking after. She is coming to tea with me at Tolly to-day.

Herbert seems to be keeping fit so far. We have started tennis again. We played singles here on Saturday and Sunday, and he was very stiff in the ankles, and I blistered my hand! However I hope it has got him started again.

I had awfully nice letters from Mr Wyn Harris and from Eric Shipton on the eve of their departure from Kalimpong. I should think it must be with rather mixed feelings that they set out.

Best love to you all
LJT

From HPV to Annette

Calcutta
March 25th 1936

My dear Annette.

Your mother much desires that I should go to have my neck wrung. For curative purposes, by an American dago who has attracted multitudes: but I am revolted by the idea of patronising quackery. Especially quackery puffed in an ungrammatical American pamphlet. However there are tales of miracles.

A more vigorous week. The news is that I have succeeded in resigning the post of M.L.C., that is, member Legislative Council: two days ago and feel the better for it. In fact I have worked with such vigour today that I am rather on edge and peevish-like tonight: which is a pity because your mother has a tummy ache: due to a rich and mushroom-adorned lunch yesterday.

On Saturday afternoon there was a distribution of jute restriction medals: my subject: I brought it on my own head too. The Minister insisted on giving medals to Calcutta people – they were intended to entice or inspire uneducated cultivators – and so I pressed him to distribute them. I might have known that he’d choose a Saturday afternoon and thus do me down. He had put it off in the hope that he could find someone to give a garden party: but eventually he had to pay for the tea himself and it cost him about Rs 400. However it was all vote-catching. On Sunday I bathed at Tollygunge and had breakfast afterwards there: and then visited Harry and Winsome: while your mother flew to Jersore(?), some sixty miles away maybe, dodging rainstorms. She flew also on Monday when there was to be a record bore up the river: (but it proved a flop). Sunday afternoon, tennis: not so bad as last weeks: my ankles bore up better: but not good. People in to dinner four nights running. Quite a week of it. Say a hectic week: because the excitement was constant. It is in vain that I school myself: I cannot bear the use of hectic as meaning exceptionally fierce.

There is an election tomorrow. Lorry loads of your babus drive round shouting “Vote for – Dr Ghose” through megaphones. A positive nuisance – Observe the journalese.

Much love
Dad.


From LJT to Annette

14.1 Rowland Rd
Calcutta
March 26th

My darling Annette

A night of sickness etc. followed by a large dose of castor oil early in the morning, has left me feeling rather limp and disinclined to write long or bright letters – I suppose I was poisoned by eating tinned mushrooms. It was unpleasant and I hope I am now cured – I imagine – things being as they are, you will not have gone to Germany. Its a pity, but I feel sure it would be an uncomfortable position till something is settled between the nations.

I am glad to hear of the honour paid to Mdelle Pinault. I have always got the impression that you were fond of her and its nice to feel that you have been working with some one so intelligent.

Forgive me if I don’t write more, my love. I feel a bit weary – and have no food inside me

Best love
Mum