1939 January
From LJT to Annette
Chinsurah
Jan 3rd 1939
My darling Annette
The enclosed newspaper cutting was sent to me by Poppy Dunn – It made me laugh and I think some of the phraseology will appeal to you – so back it goes to England – The crests I send because I have an idea that some friend of yours collects them and these are rather jolly ones –
Amongst my Christmas mail was a letter from the old Head Clerk at Contai, who used to be a friend of mine 24 years ago – and who said, when we left – that I “left a gap in his heart which could never be filled” – It has a good bit in it – “My Christmas greetings to you and the Commissioner Bahadur and wishes to your boys and girls. I hope the boy and girl are prospering satisfactorily at Oxford. May the Almighty Father let me see them more happy and glorious and he (presumably Dad) and you to rule us from the Belvedere Mushrad (i.e. Viceroy’s House).” There’s nothing like flying your flag high. – hitching your wagon to a star – and so on, is there? Funny that I remember that old man, whom I hav’nt seen for 23 years better than any of the clerks in any other place, except the Nazir at Jalpaiguri with whom I always had a lot to do over camping arrangements.
I’ve just been trying to read a book sent to us by the Carey Morgans – It is “Masaryk on Thought and Life” – “Conversations with Carel Kapeck” – There’s interesting stuff in it, but it needs such an effort to concentrate on it. Perhaps if I knew more about the different schools of philosophy and metaphysics I should find it easier reading – I think a little later on I’ll send it home to you, for you are doing a certain amount in that line, are’nt you? I turned with some relief to J.Wh.Sullivans “Limitations of Science” – which I find extremely interesting and in places, exciting –
Have you come across a Miss Sinha at L.M.H. by any chance? If you ever do and get a chance to speak to her do – I know her father and mother – Lord and Lady Sinha quite well – Her late grandfather was the first Indian to be made the governor of an Indian Province. It is commonly sail that his effort to avoid the web of nepotism that immediately surrounded him, wore him out and brought him to an untimely end. His widow died a few months ago –
I’m not expecting a letter from you this week, as I don’t imagine you will want to waste any of your precious time writing.
Best love – Mother
From LJT to Romey
Chinsurah Jan 4th, 1939
My darling Rosemary,
Aunt’s account of Dopey burrowing through the snow drifts and coming in with icicles on her ears is very amusing. What I wonder is whether you managed to get any skating and if you did, it would in some degree make up for the many trials and difficulties of the cold and snow.
It’s an exciting idea of your brother Richard’s -- buying a boat with a cabin, isn’t it? I hope he will be able to carry the idea through. It seems a wise way of using the money that was left to him by his godfather.
We have had one or two very quiet days as Dad had a lot of work to get ready for his tour with the Forest Committee and I knew that he wanted as little disturbance as possible. This has given me some nice time for reading and writing and doing up the year’s accounts and so on.
Miss Glassup, the Matron of the Hospital came in to see me last night and I did not get any time to finish this. Now I shall have to hurry over it, for the morning has been one long interruption, so to speak. I haven’t even started the ‘family letter’.
I hope that the Infantile Paralysis has died down and that you will be able to go back to school.
Best love my darling,
Your Mum
Family letter from LJT
Chinsurah
Bengal
Jan 5th 1939
My dears,
This has been a peaceful and uneventful week, except for the news of Joyces’s engagement. For many years I do not remember sleeping through the advent of the new year, or having quiet days in which to balance up the old year’s accounts, answer Christmas letters, look through and digest Christmas cards, and generally get everything straight for a fresh beginning. I found it very pleasant. Last year was a specially busy season, for we had the Silver Jubilee Science Congress on, with the two professors staying with us, and I was running the Himalayan Club Photo Exhibition.
Herbert has been gratified to be able to work quietly, but was somewhat annoyed that his plans were upset by a summons to be on the station platform at 10p-m last night to see the Viceroy off. He was to have left for Midnapore on the Night of the 3rd, with the Forest Committee. It was too late to alter the arrangements for that circus, so they just had to go ahead and were to spend yesterday examining witnesses.
A lot of people came to see us on Jan 1st, and we had many gifts of flowers. Our visitors in the morning were chiefly Indians, including the old gentleman who runs the Agricultural School here, - (such a simple little affair compared with what the words probably conjure up for you). I took him round the garden, and we had an agreeable conversation on subjects such as soils, humus, blights and so on. In the afternoon we went down to call on some people at the Angus Jute Mull, just the other side of Chandernagore. Finding them out, we decided to call in person and thank the Administrateur and his wife for their good wishes which had reached us in the morning. They seemed so delighted to see us. I think they are lonely. They don’t seem to have many friends in Calcutta like the Barons had, and she is expecting her first baby shortly. They made us drink champagne, and eat sweet biscuits and chocolates, which I do not think go well to-gether. This took so long that we only got home just in time to change and greet some of the people in the station whom we had invited in for drinks.
On one of the last days of the Old Year an I.C.S. friend from Calcutta brought one of the Viceroys private secretaries up to tea. He was a nice young man, who had begged Mr Hughs to take him somewhere out of Calcutta and away from parties, on one of the rare afternoons when he got leave off. We sat and drank tea in the garden, and climbed on to the roof to watch the sunset, and then sat round the fire talking and drinking sherry till it was time for them to go. The only remarkable thing about this was that I had one of occasional sort of thought readings or something of the sort, which have come to me now and again, in connection with it. As we were leaving the Viceroys’ garden party. A lot of members if his staff were standing about near the place of departure, all dressed in the usual grey frock-coats etc. I saw the young man who subsequently came to tea here, and I knew as clearly as if some one had just told me so, that he was the man whom Mr Hughes was bringing up here. Mr Hughes had not said a word about his age or looks, so I had nothing to guide me. Funny, is’nt it?
The sweet-peas and roses are really lovely in the garden now. I love having them in the house, The scent is heavenly.
Herbert went off last night, and spent the night in Calcutta, He phoned me this morning, and says that there was a hold-up at the station last night, because one of the Viceroy’s daughters had not turned up. The Viceroy said he did not wish to keep all the officials waiting about so said good-bye to them and got into the train. Just as they were all going off, the girl turned up! I expect she got a flea in her ear from papa and mama.
Its rather disappointing that Herbert has to be touring almost the whole of this month with the Forest Committee, and that there are so many of them that it is not possible for me to go too. It means that his own touring will get pushed on into the hot weather, and then there is not much point in my going with him, for if one is going to be shut up in a house all day, it is much better to be shut up in your own house where you have plenty of things to do. However I am making use of this first absence to have friends up for the week-end, and I am going to stay at Cossipore on Monday till the 13th, when Herbert returns. He goes away again on the 22nd or 23rd till Feb 1st.
I must have told you I think, that Idris Matthews had taken a few days leave on to the Christmas holidays, and flown down to Batavia, with the idea of going on to Bali if he had time. He had a splendid flight to Batavia, but arrived with slight fever, so spent three days quietly there instead of going on to Bali. When he wanted to come back he was held up for a day by bad weather, and the following day the reports were not good, but the authorities said he had better go, because the weather was likely to get worse the next day. From Batavia (Java) to Singapore the weather was very bad. He had to follow the coast of Sumatra flying at 700 ft. He said it was all thick jungle, and if anything had gone wrong they would have not had a dog’s chance of landing safely! However nothing did go wrong, and he got back here in time to lead the formation flight in the 1st of January parade. I have only talked to him over the telephone at present, but we are meeting in Calcutta to-morrow evening. I wish I had been able to go with him on that flight! I have been gazing longingly at the map!
There seems no more news to give you this week. I hope none of you suffered too greatly in the great cold.
Best love to you all
LJT
Family letter from LJT
The Towers
Cossipore
Jan 12th ‘39
My Dears
This is really almost a letter to say that I have no time to write to you this week, because to-day is the last day of my stay in Calcutta and I have still a number of jobs to do. As I am lunching out and have to catch a boat to the Botanical Gardens at 2.30, and don’t get back again from there till 5.45, my jobs wont be done unless I do them this morning.
However I am up fairly early and there is a little time before breakfast, so I will toss down a little of the week’s news. I have been pretty constantly occuppied since I last wrote. I had a long and intensive day in Calcutta on Friday. The object of my visit was chiefly to be present at a tea-party given by the Maharaja of Santosh, who used to be President of the Council during the period when Herbert had so much work to do in Council. He was always extremely courteous and rather specially considerate to Herbert, so I wanted to show friendliness. Also its a good thing to go to parties occasionally where all the Indian Ministers and the senior officials are gathered to-gether. I am afraid my circle of special friends tends to be rather outside the Bengal officials group!
The Jenkins and a young I.C.S. lad, who has recently came to Calcutta came up for the week-end. The Jenkins arrived in the middle of Sat: morning (Sorry for this bad alignment!) and the boy just after lunch. We spent the afternoon visiting some interesting old temples, which I will tell you about when I have more time, and returned to have tea at the police sports, from which function we swept several people in to the house for drinks and “darts”. The darts board which I brought out, proves quite a useful possession.
The following morning we explored the college and the Dutch church and other local sights, and played tennis in the afternoon, while in the evening at 6.30 we have some people in to see the pictures I either took or bought of Delhi and Agra, which I showed on the epidiascope. some of the guests stayed to dinner, so the day was a pretty full one. The next morning my guests went off immediately after breakfast, and I had to pack my suit case, and set off for this place. Since then I have been running from one thing to another, and have been enjoying myself much and seeing a lot of my friends. We had a Himalayan Club lecture last night, where a very large per-centrage of our members were gathered to-gether, and all seemed to be pleased to have something of a social nature going on in the Club again. The lad who was acting while I was away did not manage to arrange anything in the way of lectures.
Herbert is having a fairly strenuous time out looking at forests. He says that they have been walking the maharaja of Mymensingh and the Maharaj Kumar of Burdway, who are members of the committee, off their feet. Herbert arrives back at Howrah at 11.15 to-morrow, and I meet him there, and we go home to-gether. Very few of the non-official members of the committee of fourteen turned up, so I think I shall insist on going out for the next tour, which is from the 23rd Jan till 1st Feb. I felt rather injured at not being allowed to go this time, but it seemed so difficult to find accomodation for the party of fourteen, which is what the committee number.
It has been very interesting hearing about Idris’ flight to Batavia. We had out his maps and went through the whole thing in detail. They seem to have had a pretty nasty time on the way back between Batavia and Singapore.
Best love to you all
LJT
From LJT to Annette
Chinsurah
Jan 18th 1939
My darling Annette
Home letters yesterday, heralded your early return, so I am hoping that in a few days we shall get your impressions of Austria and of Winter Sporting. Richard’s letter about Christmas is amusing. They seem to have got a good deal of fun out of the snow to off-set the many inconveniences.
Dad is apologetic that he has written to you so little of late. He has been rushed – Last week when he was out on tour with the Forest Committee, I don’t think he had a moment, and to-day, though recovery from “stomach enteritis” as the doctor grandly calls a badly upset tum, he is slack and weak and easily tired and signing and dictating some official letters was quite enough for him – I have shut the jhilinds (??) glulinds (??and firmly told him to sleep now.
Since I want to write to Auntie Arla I am not going to add much more to this. I’m sorry Dad has’nt had time to write about his work with the Forest Committee. There was much that was amusing, but such things as lunches for two days in succession, of eight courses, not counting cheese, fruit and coffee, are funnier to read about than to eat –
I ought really to be attending the college Sports, but made the excuse – (quite a genuine one) that I did not want to leave Dad. I am reminded of this by hearing loud bouts of cheering of the sort that seems particular to sports.
Best love, my dear
from
Mum
PS. The book by Damon Runyon is going the round of the station and giving much pleasure.
From LJT to Rosemary
Jan 18th, handwritten
My darling Romey,
It is lucky that you have found a good riding-school so near. I am delighted to hear of all your doings in it. Now you realize all that you were not learning with Miss Christie, don’t you? I had a feeling that you were not nearly ‘down’ enough in your saddle, and that means that you were not gripping sufficiently. It makes such a difference to the way you can control a horse if you can hold yourself tight on to his back by grip and not just ride by balance. Balance alone would have been useless on “Tip-It-Up”. His habit of bucking as he landed from a jump, would just send you straight into the air! What ages and ages my old riding coat seems to be taking to reach you. I suppose it got caught up in the confusion of the Christmas Mails. I wish I had remembered to post it to you the moment I arrived out here. The only comfort is that it will probably be too big for you and all this time you are ‘growing into it.’ I am sending this to the school in the belief that you will be back there.
Best love,
Mum
PS Dad has been using the hot-water bottle cover you sent him to his great comfort. It makes the bottle much more comfortable
Family letter from LJT
Chinsurah
Bengal
Jan 18th 1939
My Dears,
My poor Herbert has been laid low by a nasty attack of food poisoning. I went in to Calcutta just after tea on Sunday, and returned in time for lunch on Monday to find him laid very low. He had been taken ill during Sunday night and almost thought he was in for Cholera. I am glad to say that it was nothing worse than a badly upset tummy. The doctor had been to see him in the morning and had administered castor oil, and allowed him only a diet of barley-water. The attack lasted longer than such poisoning usually does with most people, and Herbert remained on barley-water and whey all Monday and Tuesday, and was running a slight temperature all the time. He began to mend yesterday, and was promoted to Benger’s Food and such, and to-day with a normal temperature, he is allowed soup and custard, so I hope he will be fit to start off on our tour on Monday. Acting as nurse-secretary-clerk for the last few days, has left me little time for other things, except that after dinner the last two evenings, I have checked and sorted the botanical collections I made in the Hills in 1936. Dr Biswas of the Botanical Survey, with whom I spent Thursday afternoon, offered to have them mounted for me by the Herbarium staff. I had procured suitable sheets of paper a long time ago, but had never got round to the job. I don’t feel guilty about accepting the offer, for I did hours of work for the department when I took their collector out, and wrote up the field books each evening. It will be nice to have my specimens set on sheets that can be then put in to loose-leaf binders. Its so difficult to look at them or show them to people when they are just loose.
I enjoyed my afternoon in the botanical Gardens enormously. The twenty minutes journey by boat is always pleasurable. Dr. Biswas met me with his car and took me round the gardens to see the various improvements and experiments he is making. Its a rare thing to see a concern which has passed from the management of a Scotchman into that of a Bengali, and which within a year has not gone rapidly down-hill. This is not so at the Botanical Gardens. Rather the reverse. The whole place looks better kept. The Trees are practically all labeled. In one place he has started an Indian rock-garden, where he is trying to put plants from hill tracts all over India, and a lot of them are coming on well. In another place he has dumped all the old brick and cement rubbish he has been able to lay hands on, and he has made a most interesting cactus and euphorbia garden, growing not only Indian, but also Australian, African and Mexican things. Also as a sop to the public who just use the gardens as a pretty picnic place, he has planted a lot more beds of cannas and groups of brightly flowering shrubs, in good situations, where they are reflected in the numerous ponds, or seen across stretches of water. I was pleased with all I saw, and also with Biswas’ keenness to improve the Botanical Gardens in Darjeeling and the Government Quinine Gardens in the Hills, of all of which he is now in charge. We visited the Herbarium, and I met the man who has now taken Dr Biswas’ place as its Cureator. I nice looking young Professor Mookerjee, who did his training partly at Kew and partly at Edinburgh. Later I heard the story of the fight that Dr Biswas had to get him appointed. The Chief Minister, Fuzl Haq, wanted to put in a totally unqualified Mohammaden. Dr Biswas asked him if he realized that by letting down the work of this Herbarium, he would be letting down India in the eyes of the world, for it is India’s only great Herbarium, and is in constant correspondence with other herbariums, and with botanists all over the world. He is highly delighted that he won his point and got Mookerjee in.
During the days I was in Calcutta, I did a good deal of Himalayan club business of one sort and another, including spending about an hour with three of the Sherpa Porters from Darjeeling. I got a lot of information about other friends of mine amongst the porters, and some of the men’s impressions of the climbs that took place last year. One of the porters who was down, was the famous Antharkay, whom Mr Tilman and Mr. Shipton regard as absolutely the No. 1 amongst the whole lot. The men were going off with John Auden of the Geological Survey, for several months in the mountains of Garhwal.
Louise Rankin gave a dinner party for me one night, and asked me to choose whom I would like to meet. Don’t you call that a nice sort of hostess? I chose the American Consul-General and his wife;- The American Consul (Edward Groth) and the Dutch Consul and his wife, and a very nice party it was (I’m sorry about this! I was going to blame the machine, which has just come back from being repaired, but I realized that I had not pulled back the little lever, which tightens the paper on the roller, and so it was slipping out of place. I was too lazy to take the papers out and start all over again.)
Edward Groth has been for a magnificent trip from Srinager up to Gilgit and Hunza, passing Nanga Parbat on his way, and then along westwards through Chitral and eventually down to Peshawer, covering between 700 and 800 miles. He took colour film of a large part of his travels, and reported that he had just got it back from England and that it was very successful. He immediately planned a party for Sunday night for us to see it, and insisted that I must come in for it. The Whites (The Consul-General) invited me to stay the night with them, and so we fixed it. I was the more easily persuaded for I wanted the film to be shown to members of the Himalayan Club, and Edward Groth said he would make no promises till I had seen it, and decided whether it was suitable. That explains why I was in Calcutta again so soon after I had had only just come back here. I killed two birds with one stone, and went in early so as to have two hours with Mr Gosling, the head of the Agfa Photo Co, who went up to Sikkim last Autumn, and found the Pass which Helen Martin and I were searching for in 1936, and which G.B. Gourlay and John Auden failed to locate a year previously. I was thrilled to follow step by step, and photo by photo, the route they took. My sketches, maps and notes and bearings had been of considerable use to them, and they have had the pleasure of putting a new little bit of geography on the map. The account of it is going to make another good lecture for the club. There is no need to think that Mr Gosling and his companion, Mr Pohle, because they are Germans, were doing this with and ulterior motive, for this pass is in the middle of a tangle of mountains in the North East corner of Sikkim, and could be of no conceivable use, except to people out shooting or trekking.
The colour films which I saw later in the evening after one of Mr Groths famous “Help Yourself” American Suppers, was really splendid. He has got pictures of Sunrise on Nanga Parbat which are the only things I have ever seen which give any sort of true impression of the real thing. A Picture, however beautiful, cant change, and the whole essence and secret of sunrise on the snow is the sudden leap from cold blue-white, to brilliant pink, quickly paleing through delicate shades to gleaming white. The following morning I fixed all the arrangements for him to show it to the Club on Feb 8th. Refusing invitations to lunch with Dr Heron, I got back here just after one o’clock, to find Herbert, as I said, stretched on a bed of sickness, and since then I done little but attend to him. He seems rather to have enjoyed his ten days out with the Forest Committee. He says the Maharaja of Mymensingh is excellent company, and they seem to have had entertaining talk in the evenings. Several of them stayed in an excellent guest house belonging to an important landlord, who is practically a Raja, in the Forest Districts of West Midnapore. I think Herbert enjoyed the work too, and found the whole thing much less trying than he expected. He came back quite keen that I should go out on the next half of the tour, which begins on Monday. We are staying for three days at Suri, the headquarters of Birbhum, which is the northermost district in Herbert’s Division. We are going to cater for the four other members of the committee who live in European style, that is Mr Simmons of the Forest Dept, and Mr Ahmad, ditto (who is Secretary) Mr Sen, the Collector of Midnapore, and the Maharaj Kumar of Burdwan. The Indian-feeding members are to stay in some local raja’s guest house. When we go down to Bankura we are going to stay with the Collector and his wife, who are highly Europeanized Indians, but we shall be going out every day, longish drives and walks to see the forests. I am looking forward to it. I only hope Herbert will pick up his strength quickly enough to be able to go.
One day while I was in Calcutta I lunched at the Great Eastern Hotel with the man who has just become Treasurer to the Himalayan Club. As we were leaving, I saw Mr van Manen, whom I had been intending to visit during the afternoon, so I went to speak to him. He seized my arm, exclaiming “Dear Lady! How Lucky! How lucky! Now you meet Mrs. Harkness, who brought the baby Giant Pander back from China” I found myself shaking hands with a charming-looking American woman, who protested that there was no reason why I should have heard of the Giant Pander. I protested that of course I had, and as she heard my name, she exclaimed that she had been traveling in Sikkim and that my Guide Book had been her daily companion, so we found ourselves on excellent terms. Mr van Manen asked if I could spare half an hour or so to go back to his flat with them, for he wanted Mrs Harkness (I’m not positive that I have got the name right) to see some of his books. I always like having a browse around his shelves, and went most gladly with them. The result is that I borrowed John Hanbury Tracy’s book about his journey with Ron, namely “Black River”, and I am deep in it now. His book and Ron’s make excellent complements to one another. Both are well written and both have quite a sprinkling of interesting information about local customs and so on. I congratulated Tenchen, Mr van Manen’s Chinese clerk at the Asiatic Society, who did the chapter headings for Ron’s book, and he was so pleased. He says he is very happy, for now he has done something which will go on living when he is dead.
Lunch time is almost here, so I shall make an end of this. Its dreadfully badly written. I am sorry! I don’t know why I should have done so badly this morning, unless it is that my attention has been partly on Herbert, and that there have been constant interruptions.
Best love to you all
LJT
Family letter from LJT
The Circuit House
Suri
Bengal
Jan 24th 1939
My Dears,
Luckily Herbert recovered in time to come on tour with the Forest Committee as arranged, but he still is’nt feeling too robust. We left Chinsurah at 9:30 yesterday morning, and met the other members of the Committee, who had come up from Calcutta, at Burdwan at 11:20. The whole fourteen have fortunately not come. In deed we are quite a small party. Besides ourselves, there are the Maharaj Kumar of Burdwan, Mr Ahmad of the Forest Department, who is secretary, Mr Sen, a very nice Bengali, who is the Collector of Midnapore, a stout smiling Hindu Gentleman, Mr Mondal, and a square-faced and rather silent Mohammedan Gentleman, Mr Haq. Mr. Simmons of the Forest Department joins us this afternoon. Herbert and the others all regret the absence of the Maharaja of Mymensingh, who was apparently extraordinarily good company on the earlier half of the tour. From Burdwan station we were accompanied by the collector of Burdwan, another Bengali, to a certain bungalow about 26 miles along the Grand Trunk Road, to which we all travelled in cars. From there we drove on again some six or seven miles through degenerate sal forest, getting out now and again to examine the forest and talk to the owners. Back again to rather a late lunch at Kangsha Bungalow, and then on by car another twenty minutes drive to a big junction called Ondal, from where we got a train at 3:20 in which, with the extreme leisure known perhaps only to Indian cross-country trains, we ambled for more than two hours to this place. Herbert was tired and slept for the first half hour, and after that we were interested in seeing again many places which we knew in our early days in Asansol, for the line runs for a good part of its course through Asansol subdivision. We had come into a dry and slightly undulating country, with distant plumes of smoke indicating where coal pits lay. We crossed three rivers, now in there cold-weather state, seen as insignificant water courses, winding through wide sadly beds, all of great interest to Herbert, for these are some of the sources he wants to tap for his irrigation schemes.
We are staying in the Circuit House here, and I am catering for the members who live European style, that is the Maharaj Kumar, Mr Sen and Mr Ahmad, and of course Mr Simmons when he comes. Its interesting living and traveling with these two so-called Hindus and one Mohammedan. They are all very nice men. The Maharaj Kumar, we have known since he was a small boy. He is more at home in English company than in orthodox Indian, I fancy. He is amusing, too. Mr. Sen is completely Anglicized too, a good-looking and capable man. The type of Indian we used to get in the I.C.S., who had to have brains and character to get there, and also had to go through an English University. Mr Ahmad is rather quiet, possibly because he is a good deal younger. He comes into his own when we are actually out in the forests when his expert knowledge is called for. Hr Haq and Mr Mondal and the Kumar’s private secretary have a mess of their own, not that they mind eating at table with us, but they like Indian style food. They all had tea with us yesterday, and Mr Mondal seemed to find that egg sandwiches went well with Ginger cake!
Herbert being now a person of importance, has a police guard all drawn up to meet him when he arrives. Four sentries are on duty all night at the four quarters of the house. The crunching of their heavy boots on the gravel woke me up once or twice during the night.
We breakfasted early this morning and let the house at 8:30 in cars, to visit various jungles. Its rather interesting, but sad to see the forests so degenerate from bad treatment, far worse, Herbert says, that those they saw during the early part of the tour. On our homeward drive we turned aside from the road we were on and drove two or three miles to see a series of sulpher springs of varying degrees of heat, which have a great reputation for their curative powers in the country round about, and have congregated round them some hundreds of small temples or shrines, some almost ruined, some in decent repair, and some only recently built. The steaming springs are confined in rectangular buildings of concrete, with steps leading down on one side. Close by there is a large pond, into which the overflow from the springs constantly drains, and seemingly it is highly auspicious to be cremated on the edge of this water. A corpse was being burnt on a singularly inadequate amount of wood, while we were there. It was in full view, so that one could not help seeing it again and again. No one seemed to notice it or take much interest in it, and somehow one found oneself adopting the same attitude. As we were leaving another funeral procession came down, preceeded by drums and cymbals playing rather merrily. I suppose if you are convinced that you have just got through one of the thousands of lives that you have got to live, and if your attitude is that the more lives you can skip, the better, death does not seem tragic. Personally, provided the lives are pleasant, I can never see why one should mind having a large number to live.
We got back in time for lunch to-day, and during the afternoon the Committee were examining witnesses, that is owners of forests. At 4:30 we had to go to a tea-party given by the Collector, to enable us to meet a lot of the local gentry. It was under a shamiana in his garden, and was a pleasant enough function, though not exactly thrilling. Now we have a little breathing space before dinner, and to-morrow we start once more at 8:30, for a long day out. We have to drive about 34 miles, including two difficult crossings of the beds of sandy rivers, where the cars will probably have to be pushed by coolies. We are going to have a picnic lunch in the jungle, and sad to say, we have been unable to refuse an invitation to have tea with the Town Club on our return, which is rather tiring for Herbert after driving 68 miles over bad roads, and doing I dont know how much walking and standing about in the forests.
There is little to tell you about last week, for Herbert was gradually returning to normal health, and I did not go out of the house and garden except to see old Miss Babineau.
Sorry! There have been visitors and one thing and another, and I’m afraid this will just have to go as it is, and with no personal letters either.
Best love to you all
LJT
From LJT to Annette
Suri
Jan 25th
My darling Annette
I’m sorry I’ve no time to write a decent letter and thank you for your long and interesting one about your adventures.
The journey cant have been all fun! Dad kept on saying “Thank God I was’nt there” – Can you imagine him under those conditions?
Must go and superintend the packing of lunch – Its 7.30. am – Breakfast is at 7-45 – and we leave at 8.30.
Best love from us both
Yours
Mother
From LJT to Annette
Ranigunge Dak Bungalow
Asansol
Jan26th 1939
My darling Annette
It was inadequate of me not to arrange that I should have enough time to write my English mail properly. We have had two busy and interesting days at Suri – and now we are on our way to Bankura. We left Suri by train at 6.48 – and arrived at Oudal Junction, near here at 9 am. From there we drove along here and the Forest Committee are going to examine witnesses for the next two hours. * I was just settling down to write this in the Dak Bungalow and had got as far as the * when Mr McInerney, the sub-Divisional Officer, who had been a little concerned about my comfort and well-being, returned, saying he had met the wife of the manager of a big paper mill, who was just on her way to Asansol, but who begged that I should go to her bungalow, make myself at home and write letters there and that she would be back between 11.30 and 12 o’clock – so her I am! Mr McInerney (such a difficult name!) has gone off to see that there is no trouble or rioting, for to-day is a holiday in honour of the Saraswati (In the Bengali pronounciation Shōroshōti) Puja – Saraswati being that agreable lady who rides on a swan – the Goddess of learning. It has been chosen by the local people to celebrate as “Independence” Day – Word has been brought in that the scheme has not met with much response, but Mr. McInerney thought he had better go and have a look – Well! This is not really meant to be a news letter, for that all goes in to the family budget, but it seems to have drifted off into being something of the sort.
There were many things that interested me about your Winter-Sports adventure. Firstly its good to know that ski-ing can give pleasure almost at once. I pictured several days of finding it difficult to stand and move at all. The next thing is pleasure that you are game to travel as you did and seemingly not mind it too greatly. Its such as asset to knocking about the world if you are ready to put up with a variety of set-backs and difficulties and to take the opportunity of seeing anything there is to be seen where ever you may happen to be marooned – and not to worry too greatly. Your letter gave an amusing picture of the life of the group of which you became part for those two weeks.
I agree with you that if you go to Austria in the summer it would probably be better to go to a family – You would undoubtedly speak German more intensively and as you say, in these parties of students it must inevitably be a bit of a toss up, what sort of companions you get.
What do you think of Joey’s engagement? I like Frank, and find him a great deal more interesting than the average run of young men. In fact, in spite of his small stature, I would much rather pass my life with a man like him, rather than a beautiful block-head. They should be happy and make a good job of life to-gether, I should think.
Its amusing how passionately keen Rosemary has become about riding since she has done something more interesting than just hacking round the lanes with Miss Christie. I hope this long period away from school wont have thrown her back too badly in her work. If I had only known in the beginning that it was going to be for so long, I would have liked to have got her some special Latin coaching. I would like her to do well in her School Certificate, very largely because I don’t want her to feel inferior to the rest of the joint family –
How is Christina? I wonder whether she has been able to come back to College this term.
This is the first time I have been out on tour with Dad and it amuses me vastly to find myself treated with such deference – and a sort of general anxiety about whether I shall be tired – or whether I shall mind the dust and so on and so on – I am not used to being treated as a tender flower and rather welcome it when the Maharaj Kumar says cheerfully “My dear fellow – you need not worry about Mrs. Townend getting tired. She can probably stand about twice as much fatigue as most of us” –
Now I think I will write to Richard and Romey and leave this to finish off on Mail Day – For the moment – good-bye –
Chinsurah Feb 2nd
Not much to add, my dear. I’ve rather written myself out in the family letter – I trust all goes well with you – Is’nt is nice that Mrs Petrie has got Nannie staying with her? Nanny writes overflowing with gratitude
Best love
Mum
From LJT to Romey
At Ramijunge, en route for Bankura
Jan26th, 1939
My Darling Rosemary
Since it is difficult to fit in time for letter-writing while out on a tour like this, I seize the opportunity while Dad and his Committee are examining witnesses to write a few letters. We left Suri at 6:48 am by train, picked up our cars at Oudal Junction at 9 am and drove on to here. I have been brought over to the house of the Manager of a Paper Mill. The wife of the owner is out, but I have been told to make myself quite at home, so I am sitting on a nice verandah looking out over a charming garden. To tell you the truth I am rather glad that Mrs Dow is out, for I have had practically no time to myself for the last here days and probably shant for the next six, so this is an agreeable rest.
I like to hear of you enjoying a ride when your horse bucked and reared. I sympathize with you. I like riding a horse that needs some managing. It is so much more exciting and interesting. I really am awfully glad you found this riding school.
As I look up from this letter, I see some wonderful patches of colour. There’s a great magenta bougainvillea, seen against a deep blue sky. Beside and below it are a fence and arch covered with Morning Glory convolvulus, of a brilliant gentian-blue--and away to the left another big “Scarlet Queen” Bougainvillea, burningly brilliant in the sunlight.
I shall be interested to hear how you feel over your work now you are back at school. It has been rather a long gap. I hope you have not found it very difficult to buckle down to routine again and won’t feel that you have dropped behind in the work. Have you heard any news of how the poor girl is who got infantile paralysis?
There is a small grey cat lying on a chair here and when I speak to her or stroke her, she wakes up and “meows” in a most talkative way and seems to go on answering as long as I go on speaking, and directly I stop, she tucks down her head and goes down to sleep again, I wouldn’t mind tucking down my head and having a nap myself. It’s true it’s only 11:30am, but I was awake about 4:30am and got up at 5 o’clock. I’m afraid to give way to my inclinations for fear my unknown host or hostess might arrive and find me thus!
I’ll not finish this off this morning in case I think of anything more I want to say before I post the letters next week.
Nothing much to add, except thanks for your first letter from school which reached me the day before yesterday. I was afraid you would find yourself a bit behind in work, but you may have profited by getting a habit of independent study.
Best love,
Mum
From HPV to Annette
Chinsurah
Jan 31st 1938 (?1939)
My dear Annette
A happy new year to you, my dear. Also many thanks for the book which you sent me for Christmas. Your mother handed the package over to me weeks ago but dutifully I did not open it till the due time. Amusing stuff, and the better for reading aloud, as I found when I started reading a bit to your mother. She has been dabbling in it but has gone back to a serious American book on the marvels of modern medicine written in very much the same style really. In America everything which has been going on for a long time has been going on “since man first moved upon this planet” or “since the beginning of created time” – but I read the book as I read Scot, by judicious not-seeing of anything but the essentials.
Christmas knocked me out of time. There had been a dinner here which went on till past 12: then there was a ball, the Viceroy’s, in Calcutta from which we returned straight here, (on the 22nd that way) and then there was Christmas night when we had people here, who stayed till well past twelve. Also I was working hard: and on Christmas Eve we went into Calcutta to see a movie – Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers psychoanalysing: in “Carefree”: which we found amusing though by no means a great film. Christmas day itself was not strenuous – except that I tried for the first time in many months to play tennis. It is a matter for wonder then that on Boxing Day I became abject, hardly able to drag feet: temperature subnorman as in the old days: I lay on my bed all afternoon with good effect and regained serenity and a normal temperature in the evening. There have been since the Governor’s ball and the Viceroys Garden party: on successive days: we stayed the night in Calcutta. My dancing is scarcely good. But I do not ask people to dance now; some of them insist on it, like Winsome.
All through the holidays except on Christmas Day and the (?)aljed?) day I have worked pretty hard. Yesterday and today I devoted to writing a Bill to amend the (?)Cess(?) Act – a technical matter of which I know nothing. And much remains to be done before with the end of the holidays I start on my tour with the Forest Committee: which will take most of next month.
Much love
Yours
Dad