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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

1937 October

From LJT to Romey

Oct 3rd, 1937 Handwritten on ship Stationery

My darling Rosemary,

It was a very great pleasure to get your letter at Marseilles, and it was a most interesting one too. I was glad to hear that you are feeling more settled and that the days seem less rushed and confused. It is a bother settling into a new school, but I think it is a bother that is good for one. It is a pity to go on too long in the same groove, especially when one is young, and that was one reason why I wanted to change your school. I think the effort of starting again is definitely beneficial to character training. It’s good news that you are so well up on most subjects. I hope you won’t find it too much of an effort to keep up in algebra and geometry. Good luck to you in your work.
Mrs. Kerwan is on this boat, you know and she made us laugh talking about schools last night. “Well,” she said “I just loved everything about my school except studying!” You can add in her pretty little American accent for yourself.
I do hope the rumour that there is chickenpox in one of the school houses is not true. It will be very disappointing if you are in quarantine. We enjoyed our day in Marseilles very much. We arrived about 8am and went straight to a hotel for some petit dejeuner. Then we walked along by the Veille Port and looked at the boats, and when we thought we had wasted enough time we took a bus along to the docks to look for Mrs. Williamson on the Rampura. She was coming home from India. We found her and sat very comfortably on the Rampura all morning, incidentally meeting Lord Brabourne, who has been Governor of Bombay and is rushing home for a few weeks weave before taking over as Governor of Bengal. We took Mrs. Williamson back to our hotel for lunch and in the afternoon we went by tram along the lovely coast road for a mile or two, then took a walk and back again by tram. That took us till nearly 5 and by that time we heard that the Cathay was in and we came along to her.
We have found lots of friends on board ship and the weather has been cool and pleasant. I am busy reading my book on Cairo, so as to be ready for our week’s sightseeing there. Yesterday morning I had a grand clean-up f papers and letters, and this morning I have written two long letters besides this, and about a dozen post cards saying goodbye to people. After such a busy time at home, it’s quite funny to have some days of leisure. We have still two days to Port Said, so I shall leave this to finish off when we were nearing port.

Mum

From LJT to Annette

P&O Cathay
Between Sicely and Port Said
4th Oct 1937

My darling Annette

Its a pity this wont be at Somerville to welcome you, but it should reach you fairly soon – I shall be awfully anxious to hear how you like your rooms and how things shape alto-gether. The first week or so at the ‘Varsity must be a bit puzzling but I expect you will shake down quickly.

We are having an extraordinarily warm and calm voyage through the Meditterranean. Lots of people started bathing yesterday and I am sorry that we put our bathing things in our baggage for the Strathmore, never thinking we should want them before Port Said.

Luck has been kind to us in the matter of table companions – Opposite to me is a young I.C.S. man from Bengal, just returning from his first leave. He is evidently one of the many who get into the I.C.S. these days who has “riz-up”, but he’s a nice enough fellow with plenty to talk about – next to him and opposite Dad is a nice lad, recently down from Oxford and going out to the Oxford Press in Bombay. He also has plenty of subjects for talk, and as you may imagine from his profession he is well up in modern books. Beyond him is an elderly Bengali Proffessor from Lucknow University, who has been travelling round the world studing social conditions and economic problems. he and Dad talk madly to-gether and get so excited that they forget to eat their food. Two couples occupy the other end of the table, whose talk, of which I don’t think there is over much, scarcely penetrates the barrage of social-political discussion kept up by Dad and Proffessor Mukerju.

There are a whole bunch of people on board whom we know, most of them Bengal I.C.S. hurrying back by this boat to reach India by the end of the Puja holidays. its not much of a boat, rather small, with poor deck space and not frightfully well fitted up, so we shall see a big difference when we join the Strathmore next week, for, as far as East going ships are concerned she is the last word in size and comfort, I believe.

We passed Stromboli yesterday afternoon. He was smoking away hard – We reached the Straits of Messina just as it was beginning to get dusk and the lights began to go up as we passed between Scylla and Caribdis – The dark mountains with heavy clouds lying on them and the lines of lights at their feet, were very effective. It was blowing quite hard as we went through the Straits and we feared we might come out into stormy weather the other side, but it must have been some effect of the draught between the mountains, because, it was as smooth as a mill-pond the other side.

By the way, did I tell you that we had dinner in the Restaurant attached to the Gare de Lyon in Paris? The Porter assured us we could “mange bien” there and we certainly did!

There’s really very little to write about – you know the voyage yourself and have heard it described so often, I’m sure you cant want to hear about it

Best love and bless you in your new career –
Mum

From HPV to Annette (on P&O printed paper)

Oct 5th 1937

P&O.S.N.Co.
S.S. Cathay (Cathay handwritten)

My dear Annette

Since I left England I have taken no exercise at all; except from 10 to 30 minutes’ walking on the deck before breakfast and, once, two minutes tummy wagging in the cabin. Energy is altogether wanting. The ship wags herself greatly: the mattresses are springing and multiply the wagging of the ship: just as one drops off to sleep one is shaken into wakefulness. If one relaxes, there is as it were a jelly-wobble: if one braces oneself naturally one stays awake. But the sum total of this grievance is nothing serious: only, your mother rejoices that we leave the ship at Port Said. Port Said we shall reach tomorrow: and then it will be known whether I can visit mosques (and be pestered by Arab guides) without damage caused by the gnashing of teeth. How difficult it is to write in a flowing and a legible hand! This is the third consecutive letter in which I have attempted excellence this morning, without appreciable result. It takes all my efforts to abstain from writing worse than ever each time I write and nothing is left over for improvement.

We should have brought bathing dresses with us instead of packing them in the Port Said baggage. People are bathing happily. The first time that I have known this in the Mediterranean at this time of year. It is unusually hot: and unusually calm. A Slight wobble and a slight pitching: what harm?

Much love and good luck to your new venture

Dad

From HPV to Romey

October 5th,
SS Cathay One day off Port Said

My dear Rosemary,

If this ship had been at Marseilles when we arrived at 7:45 on Friday morning, I should have written to you before we started. But instead of having a quiet day on board, we had to leave our things at a hotel and buzz around. We went to the P&O Jetty to look up Mrs. Williamson who is returning to England on the SS Rampura and this led to her lunching with us and spending the afternoon with us too. When we went on board this evening I was too weary to do anything. It was a pleasant day, though. The main thing was a tram ride along the Corniche that is the coast road, and a walk. I had done this route before in a car, but the tram going slowly and stopping often was far better for sightseeing purposes. A lovely day, cool breeze, hot sun and all windows open.
At the ship where we had tea (“the au lait”!) there was a cat, a small black cat which was beside itself with pleasure when I stroked it. For that matter, there is a Siamese cat on board, with blue eyes, which bites like mad when caressed, from enjoyment? His mistress leads him about on a leather lead because he gets so wildly excited. Ships’ cats abound, but I haven’t seen them since the first day. There are three dogs, all nice but depressed, rather. It is dismal for a dog to spend the whole time, except twenty minutes in the early morning, tied up.
Many people on board whom we know. One table is entirely Bengal I.C.S. (Indian Civil Service) and wives and daughters. We are glad however to be getting off at Port Said, for our cabin is not comfortable. A lot of vibration, very springy mattress, which shake one up and down the whole time, owing to the vibration, and stuffy heat which makes one limp in the mornings. Probably a steam pipe passes somewhere near.
We enjoyed your letter. I do hope that you enjoy the school. Curious having games in the morning, and a nuisance having sickness about.
Oh! I ought to say that we had a dead smooth channel crossing and are having calm weather in the Mediterranean, though today the ship is none the less rolling a little and pitching a little more.

Much love,
Dad


From LJT to Annette

Cecil House Hotel
Cairo
Egypt
Oct 11th 1937

My darling Annette

On the 7th, tucked in between visits to splendid Mosques, ancient Coptic churches and so on, I thought of you going up to Oxford for the first time – and the next day, when we motored to Sakarra, the old buried city of Memphis, and later to the great pyramids of Gizeh, I also thought of you and wondered how your initiation into Oxford life was getting on. I much look forward to your first letter.

Cairo and the district round, are so packed with interesting and splendid things to see, that we have found no time for letter writing, and in the evenings when we might have done it, we have been too hot and tired – Its very hot here still and they don’t have fans, which seems so odd – My first letter was to Rosemary, and as I gave her a sketch of our doings, I asked her to pass the letter on to you and to Richard. Our great joy has been the unexpected return of the Ow Wachendorfs and Baroness Giskra. The Baron was recalled to deal with some diplomatic crisis and the ladies came too because they wanted to see us – We have not moved in to stay with them, for they have only a small temporary flat while a new Embassy is being built – Also they arrived back at such short notice that most of their servants were still away in Nubia and all their crockery glass silver etc still in their villa in Alexandria. however they have been taking us about everywhere in their car and we have had lunch and tea with them each day. They are such charming and interesting people that it is a great delight to be with them, apart from the fact that it makes an enormous difference having a private car to go about in.

Its difficult to write about our doings, without embarking on more than I have time for. when I get back to the ship I shall attempt a descriptive letter for the family. The thing I had not anticipated was the great interest and beauty of the Mosques and all the things connected with the Arab history of Cairo. Again I did not know that besides the great pyramids of Gizeh, there was the ancient burial city of Sakarra within easy motoring reach, where there are the most wonderful tombs and several pyramids, some of them dating back more than 3,000 BC. Impression has so crowded on impression that its difficult to sort them out. A slight drawback is the heat but oddly enough it seems more trying in the house, than when we are out, because there is always a strong north breeze – I’m writing this early in the morning and must now go to have my bath – Best love from Mum

From HPV to Annette

Cairo
12th October

My dear Annette

A happy birthday to you, with many more to follow. Birthdays at the university and afterwards are comparatively secret events but that need not spoil your relish of them. I hope by the way that your first weeks of Oxford have proved pleasant. When I went up there were so many freshers’ breakfasts that I felt for some days incapable of doing anything else, but maybe that custom has passed or has never grown up in the women’s colleges.

Cairo is an amazing place. We have just come back from the Egyptian museum – our third visit to it: one might spend weeks visiting it and still see nothing so to speak. Masses and masses of stuff in every room. Each time we have gone I have drooped a little earlier: an hour of it today had be beat, and an hour and a half was all that I stood of it. Presumably your mother has given you a sketch of what we have seen. For my part having not read the subject up at all I have failed to correlate what I have seen and the whole thing is a jumble. I cannot say which of the things that we have seen came early and which late in history: and I am not sure that I can remember the details of the various tombs which we visited. The first lot were lighted by electricity: and I could not help thinking when we were a hundred yards underground in the Serapium or burial caves of the sacred bulls that we should be hard put to it to find our way out in the dark. The caves are like a series of large rooms opening on to wide and high corridors cut in the rock: but their floors are six feet lower that the floor of the corridor and groping in the dark would be a precarious business. Perhaps the plain granite slab room in the heart of the great Pyramid was the most impressive thing that we saw – more impressive than the Tutenkhamen treasures even. Add the inscriptions in the rock tombs – or may be the colossal statues at Memphis of which nothing remains but three statues and a small sphinx. The great mosque is very fine but it is a more ordinary type of thing that the old Egyptian things, comparable with buildings seen elsewhere as they are not. I am in danger of drifting into the compilation of a list of things seen as I determined not to do. Let me only mention that it is very hot and that the flies though not many are pertinacious.

Yesterday we went to the remains of a petrified forest in the desert – the broken trunks of fallen trees all stone. We saw the Nile barrage one day. Famous but not very impressive. We have in fact been out every morning and afternoon since we arrived. We leave this afternoon: and I shall be glad to get back to the restfulness of the ship. Meanwhile (and after) bless you

Yours
Dad


From LJT to Annette

Cecil House Hotel
Cairo
Oct 12th 1937

Many happy returns of the day! I hope this birthday will be the prelude to some happy years at Oxford.

After investigating various means of getting a letter to you on your birthday, I had to send it via Auntie, for Air Mail was too quick and ordinary mail too slow.

This is the morning of our last day in Cairo. We leave at 5.30 this evening, spend to-night in Port Said and have to be on the boat before 8. a m to-morrow morning – We have had five wonderful days here, and on this, the 6th, we are paying our last visit to the Museum and then lunching with the Ow Wachendorfs.

I wonder whether you have been able to have Rosemary out. I do hope she has settled down happily at school. I’m afraid she felt a bit desolate when I left her.

There is a thing that Dad thought of the other day, which we must find out about, and that is whether your eye would be any barrier to getting into the Civil Service. it would be a pity to set your aim to-wards that as a career and then find that you could not get in because of some physical cause. Do you think you could write to the Women’s Employment Federation about it, or would you rather that I did? I hope you wont feel that because we have talked about the Civil Service, you need feel in any way bound to have a shot for it – You may hear of something which attracts you much more during the next few years.

It is now 6.30 a.m. and I must creep off and have my bath, as I want to get dressed and do my packing before breakfast, so as to have the rest of the day free. Dad is still sleeping and I don’t quite know when he will do his packing but no doubt it will arrange itself somehow.

Well, my dear, bless you and I hope you will enjoy this next year of your life to the full.

Best love
from
Mum


From LJT to Annette

P&O Strathmore
Oct. 14th. 1937

My darling Annette

Since we are calling at Port Sudan to-morrow, I feel I must write letters to post, though its quite likely they will reach you ages after those posted at Aden. Letters from all of you were waiting for us on the boat and it was lovely to hear for somehow you seem to have got rather far away. You are right, I think, about going to a flower-show alone – or better still, with one carefully chosen companion who is interested in the same things. I can just see Auntie Do taking down names of dozens of things which she cant buy and would not have room for if she could - ! However its one of her ways of getting pleasure – Odd little things do give pleasure to different people. Dad cant understand why I like to know the names of plants, but it gives me great pleasure. I feel so much more intimate with them and like to be able to link them up with their cousins and aunts in other countries and to compare their habits.

This is the most luxurious ship I have ever travelled on. Its like being in a very good hotel – Although there are fifteen hundred passengers, there is so much deck and lounge accomodation, that it is never crowded and its very easy to be quiet and to read and write undisturbed, which I like –

We are well down into the Red Sea now and the wind is following us – It would be very hot if the ship were not so well provided with large rotating air-blowers so that even in the ironing room, where I have just spent nearly an hour ironing dresses, hankies and some of Dad’s white trousers, I did not get uncomfortably hot. How amazed our ancestors, who used to travel round the Cape, would be to see all this!

After heaping kindness after kindness upon us, the Ows and Baroness Giskra sent us to the station in their car, with a splendid sort of chaprassi called a kervasse, in full silk trousers, an embroidered coat and girt with a large sword, to buy our tickets and see us off. We were very much touched by the warmth of the Ows welcome and hospitality – It has made us feel that the happy and pleasant friendship we made in Calcutta, is a thing that will last – Some day when they have retired, perhaps we shall be able to go and stay with them at Wachendorf.

We have found a good many friends on this boat. Dad has run across a man who was up at St. John’s with him and who went into the I.C.S. at the same time, and whom he had not seen since. He is taking a daughter just your age out to India with him and has a son about Richard’s age up at Christchurch just beginning his second year. His name is Marsden.

Its good hearing that Rosemary has been moved up into the Middle Vth, is’nt it? I understand that it is because the subjects she is taking fit better, but still it must mean that they think her capable of keeping up with the work. I’m so looking forward to your first letters from Oxford –
Best love
Mum

From LJT to Romey

Oct 14th, 1937

My darling Rosemary,

There were several specially nice things about getting your letter at Port Said. First of all, when I went to the Bureau and asked for letters, they only handed me two Royal Empire society Journals and a letter for Dad from his old nurse and said there was nothing more. I was very disappointed and wondered why all my family, who are so faithful over there weekly letters as a rule, had failed to write. However, a little later, Dad turned up with a whole handful, which must have been over-looked somehow, so they were doubly welcome.
The next specially nice thing about your letter was the good news in it about your change of Form. I am very pleased to hear it, for though you say you have been moved up on account of the subjects you are doing, it would not have happened if Miss Moller did not think you capable of doing the work. It will be very nice having the extra freedom. Good luck to you in your new form -- hope you won’t find the work too hard.
For the moment “The Towers” is the right address for us. We shall let you know directly we find out where we are to be -- but we shall be staying at The Towers to begin with.
I am writing this to post at Port Sudan tomorrow, but have no idea how long it will take to reach you from there. Possibly letters from Aden will be quicker, for Port Sudan is an out-or-the way kind of place. We parted from the Ow Wachendorf’s with great regret. They were amazingly kind and hospitable to us and I like to feel that the very pleasant friendship which we formed in Calcutta, has now been made into something which I hope will last through our lives. We have so many ideas and interests in common and we find them delightful companions. They give every sign that the feeling is mutual. Certainly their unexpected return increased the pleasure and decreased the expense of our stay in Cairo. I have not had time to start writing about Cairo yet. I re-packed my boxes directly after breakfast yesterday, and when I came up on deck about 11 o’clock, I immediately met friends and spent the rest of the morning talking.
In the afternoon I read a little and slept a lot, and at tea-time met more friends and later went over to the second class to look up friends who are traveling there. This morning I have done an hour’s ironing since breakfast and before breakfast I had a bathe and walked a mile. There are lovely lounges with big windows almost down to the level of the deck, so that one can sit and read or write in comfort and at the same time one is practically in the open air and can see out to sea.
As you can say no more about quarantine for chickenpox, I hope the rumour you heard was not true. It would have been very sad had you not been able to go out with Auntie on the 23rd. I shall be anxious to hear what he oculist says about your eyesight.

Best love, my darling and many thanks for your letter.
From Mum

From HPV to Annette

P&O Strathmore (printed heading)

Nearing Port Sudan
in Red Sea

Oct 15th

My dear Annette.

It is hot and sticky and the boat vibrates. There is a breeze which somehow doesn’t cool one much but which makes the paper to wave about beneath my hand. I shall therefore not try to write a letter: regard this merely as an affection-demonstration piece.

I hope that our letters did reach you on or about your birthday – or will, as dates now are.

By dint of employing at some cost tourist agents and a dragoman we avoided much of the annoyance which is caused by importunate touts and beggars. But we became angered when we found that the Egyptian Government charges a fee not only for entering the country but also for leaving it. Incidentally I felt dead to the world by the time we did leave. Cairo is a magnificent show place, having the International Exhibition knocked to a frazzle; the Egyptian remains are a recompense for any amount of weariness, and Egypt generally was interesting: but it all saps vitality and I advise visits to it when younger. If I have energy I shall assuredly read it up.

Much love
Dad

From HPV to Romey

A few hours off Port Sudan, Red Sea
Oct 15th, 1937

My dear Rosemary,

We were pleased to get your letter and to hear that you have moved into V form. It is quite likely that there will now be an intellectual development which will astonish all but ourselves, such as marked the early Egyptians whose remains we have been seeing, but, if there is not, no harm --- for common sense is better than wit or cleverness, however developed, by itself.
I should have written before. It is hot and sticky and generally enervating today, and my mind is not working. But there was a solid reason for not writing -- the Cairo trip left me fagged out. The fact is that it was too interesting -- too many things to look at clamoring for attention and always the feeling that if we missed this chance we might never have it again. So apart from the usual tiredness of sightseeing, there was tiredness such as attends your cramming.
Useless to attempt a description of our doings. Know only that we had a great time and that I kissed the Baroness Giskra.

Much love,
Dad

From LJT to Annette

P&O Strathmore
Oct 16th 1937

My darling Annette

When I posted a letter to you yesterday at Port Sudan, I scarcely realized that I should have to write again to-day in order to get a letter posted at Aden, where we are due at 8 a.m. to-morrow. i am glad we shall be there at a suitable time to bathe –

The whole of this morning I devoted to writing an account of our Cairo visit which I have sent to Aunt, with instructions to send it on to you three – and then, please will you send it back to the Aunts?

Many people have been complaining much of the heat but I don’t think it has been at all bad – Of course its been beastly hot for the stewards and people who have to work out of the breeze and without being able to keep under a blower but for the idle passengers I cant see that there is anything to complain about. We are at a table with three Calcutta business men – two quite elderly and one I suppose about my own age – They are all quite interesting and one has definitely a pretty wit, and appreciates the same quality in Dad. What a difference it makes, does’nt it? We have been talking elephants and tigers to a couple of Forest men from the U.S. since dinner – and I was too lazy to break the party up earlier, though I knew I ought to be writing to you – “Dog Racing” on the dull system of having the deck marked out in squares and moving according to the throw of the dice, is going on, but I feel no desire to go and join it.

We have had a marvellous head wind both yesterday and to-day. In fact to-day it has been so strong that the waves have been crowned by white horses and this huge ship was making a just perceptible motion this morning. She is so high out of the water that I imagine when she does start rolling it must be the very devil!

Best love, my darling
from
Mum

From LJT to Romey

Oct 16th, 1937

My darling Rosemary,

One or even two days voyaging on a ship, do not give a great deal of fresh matter to write about, and it was only yesterday that I posted a letter to you at Port Sudan -- so I’m afraid this one won’t be very interesting. I spent the whole of this morning writing an account of our visit to Egypt, which I am posting to Aunt and then asking her to send it on to you there. When you have done with it, it is to be sent on to the Aunts please.
The last few days have been pretty hot and I have been sorry for the stewards and people who have to work in hot places out of the breeze. Some passengers have been complaining of the heat, but I don’t think it has been at all bad for us, who don’t have to work.
Port Sudan was interesting. Some 12 or 14 miles inland are a fine range of hills. Between them and the shore is a flat sand desert, sprinkled with thorn scrub. The small town lies on two sides a little creek and it was fascinating to see this great ship being pushed and pulled into place by the jetty, by two little tugs.
Since dinner Dad and I have been swapping tales of tiger and elephant with two forest men from the United Provinces and I was enjoying it so much that I could not tear myself away to write to you earlier. We are due in Aden at 8 am tomorrow and we look forward to a bathe it that lovely bay. Breakfast is at 7:30, so I will go off to bed now. It is past 11 o’clock and the clocks are put on half an hour before morning.
I wish I could send you a few bottles of sunlight! There is plenty of it here!

Best love my darling.
From Mum

From LJT to Annette

P&O Strathmore
Oct. 20th 1937
One day out from Bombay

My darling Annette

The voyage does not furnish a great deal of matter to write about, especially when I have written a family budget, which is being despatched by ordinary mail –

I have made friends with one or two interesting people on this voyage – There are two men in the United Provinces Forest Service whom we have seen a good deal of. They are both friends of Mr Shebbeare’s, which was our first bond of union, and after that I found as usual that we have much in common as I always do have with the forest men. The older of the two, who, his friend tells me, is likely to be made Chief Conservator for all India during the next year or two, is widely read on the subject of primitive peoples and primitive religions – He began asking me questions about Prehistoric Egypt and so we got on to this subject on which we have had several long talks and which I have found most interesting. Another old friend, found afresh, is a Mrs Fraser, whose husband was Military Secretary in Bengal some years ago. She has spent many years in Persia, and we spent several hours yesterday morning, poring over the map of Persia for, as you know, I hope that some day we may be able to come home that way. I do like people who have plenty to talk about, besides their neighbours.

From Aden on we have had the most delicious weather – The sea has been like a mill pond and the sky a deep blue, relieved here and there by a fluffy white cloud. To-day we are evidently meeting the tail end of the monsoon – The sky is overcast – There is a strong wind and the sea is ruffled into waves Its enough to make the ship move just a very little – but so far not enough to incommode people. I have done most of my packing. Practically only my dressing-case remains to be packed to-morrow and as we don’t get in to Bombay till 3.30 and as our train does not go till 9 pm there will be plenty of time for that.

I am trying to read a book called “Ancient India” – lent to me by Baroness Giskra – It is interesting, but its really too solid for board-ship reading and I have not got very far with it. perhaps I shall get on better with it in the train.

There are some Indian friends of mine on board, with their daughter, who was born the same night as you were – I have seen her at intervals all through her life – She is terribly keen to go up to Cambridge, but her mother feels she cannot leave her at home alone, and she cannot manage to stay with her so the poor girl is offered the very indifferent substitute of Calcutta University.

Bless you, my child, and my best love to you
Mum

From HPV to Annette

P&O Strathmore (printed heading)
A day off Bombay
Oct 20th 1937

My dear Annette.

“Buckaneers without oaths, bricks without straw” – add letters without that vital élan which converts the everyday happening into news. The ship goes on: the flying fish dart from it this way and that: and when I am not reading detective stories (all bad) or looking vainly for your mother on the many decks and in the many rooms and passages I look on the sea. Like Marathon. No voyager I. De Croisset got it in one: I travel to get to the other end: and, mind me, it is a fatal attitude to adopt. Avoid it. Relish the voyage itself. For otherwise you’ll pass the time, as it were suspending judgement and enjoyment in the hope of something good when the time comes: and it doesn’t. Also while you are about it avoid analysis of this sort: it will do no good. The fact is that I am enraged over the probability that my schemes are not being pushed seriously by the Government and the milk of kindness has turned to curd. But, it is strange to have to add, the less likelihood there is of anything coming of my schemes the more highly I regard them: and during these latter days I have returned to figuring.

Much love
Dad

From HPV to Romey

October 20th,

My dear Rosemary,

Time rushes by, in a few days now I shall be back at work. Tomorrow we reach Bombay and by Saturday afternoon we should be in Calcutta. I have been doing some work these last few days -- at least it would be work if I were going back to my old job. As it is I should perhaps regard it as indulgence in a hobby--calculations about rainfall. I rather think that yesterday’s results may save Government from spending £230,000 unnecessarily, if they are really going on with the big scheme which was number one on my list.
No news. Bathe at Aden, purchase of some silk pajamas for five shillings, a suit, sundry talks on board ship --- that is all. For the rescue at sea, I did not notice at all, being occupied with my figures. Question, is it going to be rough today? Hopefully not.

Much love,
Dad

From LJT to Romey

Oct 20th, 1937
One Day out from Bombay

My darling Rosemary,
The swimming-pool on this ship has given us much pleasure. It is so much nicer than the usual canvas tank. The voyage has been pleasant but uneventful. Since Aden the weather has been perfect till today, when we seem to be running into the tail of the monsoon. The sky is overcast and there is a high wind rumpling the sea into waves and making this ship roll a very little. She is so high out of the water and carries practically no cargo that I think she rolls very easily.

At the Fancy Dress dance a night or two ago, one man gave a really brilliant representation of a camel. He crouched down and must have had pillows or something tied on his back to make a big hump. Then right over him was thrown a camel-hair rug, and draped over the hump was a mat, and small suitcases tied across it. In his hands he held a thick brown walking stick sticking out for the neck, with a brown topi on the end of it --- and do you know, he had got the shape, action and movements of the camel so well that he simply delighted all beholders!

Its funny still not knowing where we are going. I wonder whether there will be any news at Bombay.

I have had one or two long talks with mothers who have left daughters at School. One had been to see St Monica’s, but did not send her daughter there for the very reasons that made us a bit fed up with it. I have written a long family letter which is going by ordinary mail and will reach you in due course.

Best love,
Mum


From LJT to Annette

The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta
Oct 24th 1937

My child –

As we rattled across India in the train, I thought of you and your eighteenth birthday and wished you well – I hope that Auntie duly turned up on the 23rd (yesterday) and helped you to celebrate it. I also hope that you find the writing case useful. I feel very impatient to get letters from you and hear what your room is like and how you find things.

The chief news as far as we are concerned is that Dad has been put on Special Duty in Calcutta, nominally to check the writing – or rather re-writing of the six or seven books of police regulations and “to do any other work which may be found necessary”. Its hard to tell what all this means till Government come down from Darjeeling. Dad gathers from people in Calcutta that the nine new Indian Ministers are making a fair hash of things. They have the idea of examining every file in detail, but in practice they let it lie in their office and do nothing about it, with the result that Government is almost paralysed – and no orders are coming through – Report has it that Sir NazimUddin has 400 or more files on his table and is making little or no attempt to deal with them.

What I am hoping is that for some matter of policy Government, or rather the special minister concerned, did not want to revive the Rural Development Commissionership in name, and that by putting Dad on this Special Duty, they are going to give him a chance to get on with the irrigation work in which he is so interested. However all this is really fruitless supposition and its quite possible that the Ministers and the Chief Secretary simply feel they must have one or two capable senior men in Calcutta to help the work through, and are just as vague about what they are really to do as the orders appear.

I am really very glad that we have not got to move – Its so much easier just to stay here and I like being here too – I should have been sorry to leave Idris and sorry to leave the garden into which I have put so much work. Also I can go on working for the Himalayan Club must more satisfactorily than if we were even 20 or 30 miles out. Dad does not quite know what to think of things – He did not really want to go as Commissioner in a Division, but he does not want to be a general bottle-washer for the Ministers –

Later
Since finishing the last page, Idris has arrived from his flight from England. he intended to be here a day before us, but he had gastric flue in England which delayed his start. he was further delayed one more day by thick fog over the South of England, but he would still have got through to time if he had not been delayed a day in Corsica because the official suspected that he was really going to Spain, and in Persia because the Persian officials kept up their reputation for being extraordinarily disobliging and kept him waiting 3 or 4 hours for no reason at all, so that he could not get on to Jask that day

Will you pass this letter on to Richard? I don’t think I’ll have time to write him one to-morrow when the Air Mail goes, for I have a lot of things to do – I shall start writing by the ordinary Mail on Thursday –

I’ll get a short letter done to Rosemary, so no need to worry to send this on to her.

Best love to you and to Richard.
Mum

From HPV to Annette

The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta

Oct 27th 1937

My dear Annette.

Since reaching Calcutta I have been remarkably virtuous in respect of letter writing: and I have now reached the stage where I feel disposed to let it be for awhile. Business letters mostly but I have left your letter to the last this week among the family letters.

All well except for a stiff neck. Also the morning when we reached Bengal saw me in an execrable temper and it has been more or less an effort to retain equanimity ever since. The worst of being out here is that I seem always to be behindhand: really because when tired I let things slide: but there are real woes too such as finding when I returned home early yesterday on purpose to write before dinner that there were people coming in at half past six. The weather is not bad for this time of year: but it is after all hot and the insects in the evening, mostly small beetles, are thick and annoy me much. Twice yesterday when dressing for dinner I had to stop and take my shirt off again because a tiny beetle had got down my neck.

I have been given special work in the Secretariat because the post to which they wish to appoint me (Commissioner Burdwan Division, which is almost everything west of the Hooghly in Bengal) will not be vacant for three or four months: Burrows who is there now will be retiring then and it would clearly be unreasonable to shift him for that time with the idea of making room for me. In a way this pleases me becauses it gives a chance of getting a move onto the Development Act work. I had almost given up hope of anything being done about it, because there has been a vigorous agitation carried on in the Damodar Canal area against payment for the benefits received and Government fearing the loss of a division in the Legislative Assembly made some weak concessions which have encouraged further agitation. Sir Nazimuddin under whom I did the Development Act work has now no direct concern with it – he does “Police” “Law and Order” and such – but he has asked me to attempt to work up enthusiasm among the Ministers and to evolve a progressive programme so that they may not be on the defensive. It is not so easy to do this as it may appear: all the papers that I collected in the Secretariat have disappeared: that is the natural result of abolishing my job.

During the voyage I was conscious that I was becoming flabby. It is difficult to do physical jerks in a cabin or in a hotel bedroom. My white trousers are all tight round the waist now. I have resumed physical jerking and have even done exercises twice a day: but whether they will make me slimmer or merely firmer but the same size is still to be seen

Much love
Yours
Dad

From LJT to Romey

The Towers,
Cossipore, Calcutta
Oct 27th, 1937

My darling Rosemary,

If my reckoning is correct this letter should reach you a few days before your birthday, so it must carry you our love and best wishes. The fourteenth birthday always seems to me rather an important one. It really does seem to be the sort of gateway towards being “grown up”--- I can remember being fourteen, much better and more clearly than I can remember being fifteen. I don’t know why. Well, my child, I hope you will have a happy birthday and I wish you any many happy returns of it. I hope the watch is going satisfactorily and will continue to do so. In fact keep you company for many birthdays to come. I’m very much looking forward to getting letters next week. It seems a long time since we got the last batch at Port Said.

After much consideration, I have decided not to have Tip-It-Up (my horse) down here this Cold Weather. The nearest place I can ride from is DumDum, which is about 3 ½ miles away and feel it is rather too difficult and too expensive to do that every morning, so I have written to Mr. Fawcus to ask him to keep the horse till we go to Chinsurah in the Spring.

Mr. and Mrs. Gurner met us at the Club the other evening and were, of course, anxious for news of their family and in our reasons for taking you away from St Monica’s. They have also been finding the extras very tiresome. We could not talk very much because there were quite a lot of people there, but we are going to lunch together soon and then we can go into more details. Mrs. Gurner thinks they will probably take Auriel away from St M’s when she is twelve and they will be very interested to hear how you like Headington.

My mind is running very much on the garden at the moment. I am very pleased with the seeds I brought out from Ryders. The zinnias germinated and started pushing up in one day, and 2 sorts of annual chrysanthemums, 2 sorts candy tuft, larkspur, and dianthus are all through in 3 days. Don’t you call that quick? It was a bit wet when we arrived, but is already getting cooler. The wind has been from the North North East the last two days, which is always a sign that the Monsoon is passing and the cold weather coming.

Best love darling,
From Mum

From HPV to Romey

Tower House,
Cossipore, Calcutta
Oct 28th, 1937

My dear Rosemary,

Many happy returns and a happy birthday this time, too -- for I have just perceived that the usual formula covers only future years. I do hope that you find your new school congenial. So much is a matter of luck at any school, for it is always a chance whether the other girls in your house of about the same age are or are not sympathetic. However it is a good omen that you should have kicked off so well in the work line.

Everybody says that the hot weather and the rains have been very bad this year. We cannot complain of the weather just now. It is certainly hot and I find it very sticky while working in Calcutta, but there are signs that the cold weather is beginning. The wind for a time yesterday was from the north and the skies generally are clear of clouds.

The streets seem to be more congested than ever. I don’t know that there are actually more sacred bulls in the middle of the roads, but there are certainly no less, and the coolies pushing hand carts appear to have multiplied in number and degenerated in intelligence. I am not driving these days. Our car is out of action owing to the stupidity or carelessness of the firm which was doing some adjustments to it. Fresh parts have to come out from England, and meanwhile we have borrowed a car which has stiff gears and badly adjusted brakes, so that I prefer to leave driving to the driver.

I go in daily to the Secretariat. Government want to have me somewhere near enough to be able to come in and advise about the working of the Development Act (which I wrote and which no one else now in Calcutta understands) That somewhere is Chinsurah, the headquarters of the Burdwan Division, ie all Bengal west of the river Hooghly (almost), and Mr. Burrows, who is there now has only a few months more to serve before he retires, so that they cannot very well move him now and put me in. So, till he goes, I stay in Calcutta and nominally do some odd jobs in the Secretariat. Since I have a conscience which will not let me leave anything alone that I am supposed to be doing, I will be busy.

Much love,
Dad


From LJT to Annette

The Towers
Cossipore
Oct 28th 1937

My darling Annette

There’s not really much to add to my Air Mail letter written a few days ago and the family letter enclosed herewith, except to assure you of my continued regard –

The Gurners are interested to hear of your progress and also of my reasons for taking Rosemary away from St. Monica’s – They also find the extravagant and numerous extras tiresome. Mrs. G. Says that she thinks she shall certainly move Auriel when she is 12 – She thinks Auriel is much better at her work that Linette – (no – have I got them the wrong way round? Auriel is the youngest is’nt she? - ) Anyway its the youngest who is cleverer than the middle one, and therefore she will be sent to another school when she leaves the “Prep” – Mrs. Gurner says she thinks that my taking Rosemary away has had a good effect, for Miss Capstick has been writing most gushing letters and says it does’nt matter a bit if one of the girls wears out a coat she has instead of getting a new uniform one, and so on! Rather amusing, is’nt it?

I’m very impatient to get letters – it seems an age since I got the last ones at Port Said –

Don’t forget to let me know when term ends and next begins –

Best love
Mum


Family letter from LJT

The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta
Oct. 28th 1937

My dears,

Grace has probably passed on to you the news I sent her by Air Mail about Herbert’s appointment. In case she has not, forgive me if I repeat it. On arriving in Calcutta, Herbert went straight to the Secretariat, and found that the file with the decision about what he is to do, had only arrived from Darjeeling that morning, so it was not surprising (Sorry! That tear in the paper is due to the wind suddenly springing up!) that no news had reached us en route. The job to which Herbert has been appointed is rather an anomalous one. He has been put on special duty in the Secretariat, nominally to check the rewriting of the six or seven volumes of the Police Regulations, and “to do any other work that may be necessary”. Sir NazimUddin, one of the Ministers, was down from Darjeeling yesterday, and he says that the new Government are detirmined to carry on with Herbert’s Development Act, and they want him in Calcutta to advise about it. Why they have not simply re-created his post as Rural Development Commissioner, does not appear its probably some sort of political wangle. The plan is that Herbert shall go to Chinsurah, as Commissioner of the Burdwan Division, in the Spring. The Burdwan Division comprises the whole of South-Western Bengal, which is where experimental work is at present being carried on, and where the first expansion will take place, if the work goes forward.

it has been a great relief to Herbert to find out that his work had not been scrapped, as he began to fear it had been, but it seems that by their political manoeuvres, the Ministers have done everything possible to make things difficult.

The Reformed Government of nine Indian Ministers, who now form the Cabinet of Bengal, seem to have got everything into a magnificent muddle. To begin with they have the idea that they must see all the files of the departments they deal with (Partly it is supposed, less they should miss an opportunity of pushing some relation or friend into a job). They don’t seem to find time to look at many of these files, and the result is that the departments are carrying on with the greatest difficulty. Sir Nazim Uddin was said to have four or five hundred files in his office a short time ago, and the other Ministers are in much the same state. They are also faced with the same sort of problem which has arisen from time to time when a labour government gets into power, that is how to make some show of fulfilling the election promises to remit taxes, and at the same time build up all sorts of services for the public good, with out running the country into serious debt. One can only hope that the unfortunate peasant will not suffer too heavily in the process – It will be interesting to see what sort of a job they make of Government during the next few years.

It was a great relief to me to hear that I could unpack and settle down comfortably here. It will be far easier to move out to Chinsurah, which is only about twenty miles or so up the river, in the Spring, when I shall have had time to think everything out in advance, and consider the possibilities of going on with my Himalayan Club work from there. The house at Chinsurah is a beautiful one. It is the old Dutch Government House, standing on the river ban, in a very nice garden.

Idris Matthews, flying his new areoplane out from England, arrived here on Sunday evening. He had a most interesting flight, not without its difficulties. He left Paris on the 12th Oct and arrived here on the 24th, but he never intended to hurry, and he suffered one or two delays. He was held up for a whole day in Corsica, because the local police were convinced that he was trying to get to Spain. he was also held up for a day in Cairo on account of a very bad storm over the desert. In Persia the Customs Authorities wasted three precious hours saying they could not find their copy of his permit to land. They had a fat file, and they proceeded to read slowly through this, apparantly digesting every letter in it. Idris said it was simply maddening, for if they had given it to him he could have found the permission in five minutes. This waste of time meant that he had to come down to sleep in some frightful little on or no-horse place in the desert. Some one said to me “Why did Mr Matthews had taken so much longer than Jean Batten. The answer is roughly, that it is a bit like comparing an ordinary motor tour in an Austen 10 or some other low powered car, with one of these cross country motor car races in racing cars. Jean Batten’s Vega Gull has a cruising speed of 170 miles an hour or so, and a range of about 1,700 miles. Idris’s Hornet Moth has a cruising speed of about 101 miles and hour, and a range of 600 miles. She JB was therefore able to do very big hops, and only land at the good places, and also every one was on the look out for her, and ready to refuel her machine, and attend to any formalities as quickly as possible. Also she was very lucky with her weather. The winds that slowed up Idrs’ progress and caused Broadbent to give up his attempt on the record, helped her along, and during her whole flight I don’t think she was held up once by bad weather.

On Monday morning Idris came down to breakfast, lookin a little flushed, and saying that he had a slight temperature. However he had to go to office to take over charge. By lunch time the temperature was worse so he retired to bed, where he still is, though he is practically well to-day. The Doctor says he thinks it is sand-fly fever, which only lasts three days, and we hope it is, for if it is malaria or dengue, the temperature is likely to recur in a day or two.

Partly on account of Idris being laid up, and partly because I have had so much to do in the garden, I have only been once into Calcutta. Most people are away in the Hills still, and wont be back till next week. Herbert and I are going to a party this afternoon given by one of Calcutta’s millionaire Mawari mill-owners, for the Congress Prime Ministers of the seven Congress Provinces. They are all in Calcutta for a session of Congress. Ghandi is here too, but I don’t suppose he will appear at there party.

It was not quite true when I said I had only been once into Calcutta for we went in to lunch with Hugh and Phyllis Carey Morgan on Sunday. Hugh has been in poor health for some years, but has been treated by Dr Boike, the chairo-practioner who did so much good to Herbert. He has benefitted quite a lot, but Boike says he is too old and his arthritis too set, for him to be able to cure him. However, for him, he is looking well. It is sad to think that in about four months, they leave India for good. We shall miss them very much.

The garden is in wonderful condition. One of the ladies here has been an absolute brick, and has been looking after it for us, and sowing seeds, so everything is well on. The flowering shrubs, and all the ferns and semi water plants, which we planted in shrubberies and round about our little pond, have made the most wonderful progress. This is always an extremely busy time in a garden in Bengal. Directly the rains are over one has got to dig and sow, and get all the European vegetables and annual flowers in as quick as possible, so that they have time to flower and fruit before the hot weather comes round again and shrivels them up.

Best love to you all
LJT