Thursday, April 11, 1839.
We had Mrs. A., Mrs. L., and Mrs. R. to dinner yesterday, as we find it
the best way to dine the most companionable ladies _en famille_ when we
can furnish gentlemen enough of our own to hand them in to dinner.
G. ought to dress himself as an abbot, and with his four attendant monks
receive as many nuns as the table will hold: the dress would make all
the difference, and otherwise I do not see how society is to be carried
on this year.
Friday, April 12.
I wish my box of gowns would ever arrive, don't you? I believe now, if I
see it when we go down from the hills this year I shall be lucky. Do you
recollect sending me a pink striped gown, a long time ago, by a Mr. R.?
I had it made up only lately, and put it on new last night: it was
beautifully made, 'and I never looked more truly lovely!' but there was
an _odd rent_ in the sleeve which, Wright said, must be the tailor's
fault. I put on my sash and heard an odd crack under the arm; then
Chance jumped into my lap, and there was an odd crack in front. I sat
down to dinner, and there was _another_ odd crack behind. In short, long
before bed-time my dear gown was what Mrs. M. used to call 'all in
_jommetry_'--there was hardly a strip wider than a ribbon, rather a
pretty fashion, but perhaps too undefined and uncertain: that comes of
being economical in dress. The next gown you send me shall be made up
the afternoon it arrives, but you need not send any more till we come
out to India next time. I really think _this_ banishment is coming to an
end. Now we have broken into the last year but one, it seems like
nothing. We have forsaken the buying of shawls and trinkets, and have
gone into the upholstery and furniture line; everything is done with a
view to Kensington Gore. I have just been writing to C. E. for a few
Chinese articles--a cabinet, and a table or so, to arrive at Calcutta
next year, and not to be unpacked. I have an arm-chair and a book-case
concocting at Singapore, and a sort of table with shelves of my own
devising, that is being built at Bareilly, under the magistrate there.
That, I think, may prove a failure, but I have a portfolio and inkstand
on the stocks that will be really good articles. I got some beautiful
polished pebbles from Banda and Nerbudda. (I have not a notion where
that is, but everybody here seems to know; I only know my pebbles were
ordered eight months ago.) I thought they would have been small trashy
things, but some of them are beautiful, like that great stone you had in
a brooch, and I am having them set in silver, as a portfolio incrusted
and enchased, and all that sort of thing. It will make a shocking item
in my month's expenditure, but then it will be an original device, and
when I go home of course everybody will observe: 'An Indian portfolio, I
see, Miss Eden,' and I shall carelessly answer, 'Yes, those are the
common Bazaar portfolios, but you can have very handsome ones made, if
you like to order them, and then, of course, everybody will write out
for a common portfolio.
Saturday.
Nothing like a prophecy to ensure its not being fulfilled. Because I
said that box would not come till next year, this very morning, after
luncheon, a long file of coolies appeared ascending the hill, and the
result was twenty-five boxes of _sorts_--preserves and sweetmeats and
sardines and sauces from France, a box of silks and books from ditto.
More books from Rodwell, and though last, much the greatest, 'in our
dear love,' my two boxes of gowns and bonnets.
Thank you again, dearest, for all the trouble you have taken, and very
successful trouble it has been.
Tell E., Wright of course thought her tapes, pins, &c., the most
valuable part of the cargo, as I was living on a few borrowed pins,
large and pointless. I suppose I shall wear the head-dress eventually,
and one cap with long streamers looks very tolerably, but there is
another with quantities of loose tags, in which I look exactly like
Madge Wildfire. It may perhaps be subdued by pins and stitches; but if
not, it suits F. remarkably well.
Monday.
I thought it due to you and to myself to wear something new, so I put on
that cap with the long tags for church yesterday morning, and Mrs. R.
and Mrs. A. both found their devotions much interrupted thereby. We went
to afternoon service at church in the Bazaar, to hear a new clergyman,
who has come up for his health, and looks half dead, poor man.
Wednesday, April 17.
We had our first dance last night, and it has been one of the gayest we
have had here; only fourteen dancing men, but they never sat down, and
they had Quadrilles and English country-dances and waltzing, and
altogether they all liked it, and beg to have another as soon as
possible.
It is rather touching to see our serious Q. dancing away as if his life
depended on it; and A. and C. and all the secretaries danced away too,
and they were all amused at a small expense of trouble. Between the band
and our dinners they are all becoming acquainted and good friends, which
is lucky, for I think half the ailments in India come from the solitary
lives people lead.
Friday, April 19.
W. O. arrived yesterday morning; he looks uncommonly well, considering
that he has ridden sixty miles since three in the morning, and it is
very hot even in the hills. He and Mr. A. have killed thirty-six tigers,
the largest number ever killed in this part of the country by two guns,
and his expedition seems to have answered very well.
I began Wilberforce's Life when our new books came, but am disappointed.
His journals are too short and terse, like heads of chapters; however,
there are some good bits here and there, and I like the man himself very
much. 'The Woman of the World' is a very amusing novel; evidently Mrs.
Gore's, though she writes so much that I suppose she does not put her
name to all her works, but it is impossible to mistake them. 'The
Glanville Family' we got from Calcutta, as you said so much of it, and
we all thought it very amusing; but, in fact, 'Boz' is the only real
reading in the amusing line--don't you think so?
Our aides-de-camp gave a small fête champêtre yesterday in a valley
called Annandale. The party, consisting of six ladies and six gentlemen,
began at ten in the morning, and actually lasted till half-past nine at
night. Annandale is a thick grove of fir-trees, which no sun can pierce.
They had bows and arrows, a swing, battledore and shuttlecock, and a
fiddle--the only fiddle in Simla; and they danced and eat all day, and
seemed to have liked it throughout wonderfully. Oh dear! with my
worn-out spirits and battered constitution, and the constant lassitude
of India, it seems marvellous that any strength could stand that
physical trial, but I suppose in our young Bromley ball days we should
have thought it great fun. These young people did, at all events. They
give another pic-nic next Thursday, and we are getting up some tableaux
and charades which are to be acted here; the dining-room to be turned
into a theatre. They are a very popular set of young men, and I bless
their little hearts for taking so much trouble to carry on amusement;
but I think they _go at it_ rather too eagerly, and it will end in
disappointment to some of them. The expense of these parties will not be
so great to them, for both St. Cloup and Mars came to me yesterday to
know what they were to do. 'Ces messieurs' had asked for a few 'petits
plats' and a cook or two; and the man who makes ice had been to Mars for
French fruits to make it with.
Wednesday, April 24.
I had a young flying squirrel given me a week ago, its eyes shut, quite
a baby; it sucks beautifully, and now its eyes are open. I keep thinking
of Lord Howth and his rat. It is very like one, only with beautiful
sable fur, and a tail half a yard long, and wings; at present very
playful and gentle, but I detect much latent ferocity, that will be
brought out by the strong diet of almonds and acorns to which he must
come at last.
Saturday, April 27.
We had a large dinner yesterday of the chief actors and actresses, and I
had had an immense gilt frame made, and put up in the folding-doors of
the drawing-room; and after dinner proposed carelessly that they should
just try how tableaux would look, and with our shawls and veils and W.'s
armour we got up two of the prettiest little scenes possible; I dare say
much better than if they had been got up with more care. Mrs. N., Mrs.
C., X., and P. acted two scenes from 'Old Robin Gray,' while C. sang the
ballad, and then W. and X., with Mrs. R. and Mrs. L., acted two scenes
out of 'Ivanhoe.'
It was a new idea to Indians, and had the greatest success, and the
acting a ballad makes a great difference. It used to be dull at Woburn
for want of a _meaning_.
Three of the ladies were really pretty; but the odd thing is, that Mrs.
R., the plain one, looked the best of all, and sat like a statue. It was
a very pretty sight.
Our gentlemen gave another pic-nic down at the waterfall yesterday, and
they say nothing ever was so delightful; and it is to be hoped it was,
as it began at seven in the morning and lasted till eleven at night.
Then there has been great interest about our theatricals on Tuesday, but
it is a difficult matter to arrange the parts so as to give satisfaction
to all the ladies concerned.
Saturday, May 4.
My flying squirrel is becoming familiar, and flies a little; that is, it
takes long hops after me wherever I go, and I feel _be-ratted_. The two
little girls I bought are turning out very nice children. Wright and
Jones are teaching them to work, and make quite an amusement of them.
The dispensary which was built by our Fancy Fair proceeds was opened by
Dr. D. this week. G. and I rode to see it yesterday, and it is a nice
little place, with a very good room for surgical cases, of which,
luckily, there are none at present, but Dr. D. had ten patients this
morning; one was a Tartar woman, another a Cashmeree, and some Ladakh
people. Such an odd result of drawings and work. One of the native
doctors attends there, and has taken such a fancy to it that he has
asked leave to remain here when we go down to Calcutta, and he means to
give up Government House. God bless you, dearest. I suppose you are
going out every evening. I cannot say how I like your London campaign.
It is such an amusing story that I want it to begin again.