1ST JANUARY 1906
[Illustration]
We have "seen the New Year in," in a way, perhaps not quite so jollily
as at home, but well enough however. And as we went to sleep, we did
hear a little cheering, some jovial north country soldiers, I suppose;
and the dogs were howling, and the moon shining, and the mosquitoes
singing. They got their fill last night--came through a hole in the
mosquito curtains, and our raid on them in the morning ended eight of
their lives; but we were desperately wounded! G. got eight bites on one
hand, which is serious, and means poulticing.
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Various natives hung about this morning, and gave us each a lime and
many salaams, and we are supposed to return the compliment in coin. It
is rather an ingenious plan, and it is a dainty little yellow present,
and costs them nothing, and flatters you; at least it does if you are a
newcomer, and a very small tip pleases them.
Called at Government House on this first day of A.D. 1906, and signed
Lord and Lady Ampthill's great new visitors' volumes. Then we prowled
round the Fort, and the Canon of St Mary's kindly left his work and
showed us records and plate of the Company days, dated 1698, and some of
which was given to the Church by the Governor Yale, afterwards the
benefactor of Yale College of the United States of America. We saw
Clive's marriage in the church records, with Wellesley's signature, and
on the walls of St Mary's church saw the names of many Scots and English
and Irish whose bones lie here and there in Indian soil, all lauded for
"courage, devotion, and care of their men." Truly, "warlike, manly
courage and devotion to duty" seem the flowers that flourish hereaway.
We saw the old colours of the Madras Fusiliers, now the Royal Dublin
Fusiliers, the first British regiment of the East Indian Company, and in
which Sir John Malcolm, Sir Harry Close, and Lord Clive served.
[Illustration]
In afternoon went a long rickshaw ride through Blacktown to the North
Beach. There saw a number of well dressed Eurasians, boys and girls,
paddling so timidly, they let the water come over their toes and no
more; also saw a net lifted outside the surf, full of fish like spent
herring. What a scramble there was for them on the beach by all
classes--what fun and laughter, each one robbing the other. The fish
were out of condition and not of market value. I saw one blow struck but
it was not returned, the man hit merely looked dreadfully offended, and
the jabbering and laughing went on in a second. What a pity it is the
railway spoils the north shore--it is the same in Bombay, Dundee,
Edinburgh, and Madras, the best parts of our towns sacrificed. I believe
if we owned Naples we would put a railway round the Bay.
I had the satisfaction of seeing the surf log-rafts at work again, and
also saw one put together. When not in use the logs lie apart, to dry I
suppose, and acquire buoyancy. It took not more than eight minutes to
pull the four legs into position and string them together. The roping
was done with a thin one-inch coir rope quickly and neatly, not so tight
as to make all quite rigid. The actual roping took about two minutes.
Here is a jotting of the way they are made. The logs at longest are
about seventeen feet. It is as well to take note of these sort of
things; you never know when your turn at the desert island may come, and
young relations have desert islands at home. Or again, such a craft
might come in handily in some out-of-the-way Highland or Norwegian loch,
with one boat on it, and the trout rising in the middle.
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1st January--_continued_.--This is a terribly long yarn for one day and
it is not done yet! We went to the Government House reception in the
evening in our best war paint. It is a yearly reception, I believe,
given to all and sundry to keep them loyal, the very thing to do it too!
and I know another country, north and west, where such shows might have
this effect--if it is not too late--Drove there in our hired victoria in
the hot dusk, and dust, in a rout of carriages, gharries, rickshaws,
dog-carts, and every sort of wheeled craft imaginable; nabobs and
nobodies, spry young soldiers in uniform, minus hats, driving ladies in
chiffons and laces, natives, civilians, eurasians, now one ahead then
the other, till we met in a grand block at the great gates, and then
strung out orderly-wise and went on at a walk.
As we drove up the park we saw through great trees with dark foliage,
the white banqueting hall with its very wide flights of steps and tall
Ionic pillars bathed in moonlight, and closer, found there were two
lines of native lancers, in dull red and blue, lined up the centre of
the steps. The carriages pulled up three at a time, and the guests went
flocking up the steps in the greenish silvery light to the top, where
the warm yellow light met them from the interior, also an aide-de-camp
as friend and guide to strangers, such as ourselves. Inside all was
highly entertaining and splendid, and Western with a good deal of the
Orient thrown in--I don't suppose any other country in the world could
give a show a patch on this--not even Egypt; the banqueting hall is
splendidly large and well proportioned;[17] with white pillars down the
sides supporting galleries. At the far end there is a raised dais with
red satin and gold couches and chairs, and mirrors and palms; above
these, white walls, and the King's portrait in red and blue and framed
in gold: and round the sides, under the pillars, are more full-length
portraits of Governors and their wives, Lord Elphinstone, Lady Munro,
The Marchioness of Tweedale, Wellesley, Napier, and Ettrick, Grant Duff,
Connemara, and others. Excepting the King's they all looked rather dark
against so much marble-white wall space. Overhead, I am told, there was
once a line of crystal chandeliers, which must have given a perfect
finish to the room; but these have been improved away for rather
insignificant modern lights, and all over the roof are these hideous
whirling electric fans which spoil the whole effect of the classic
Georgian style--the swinging punkah can at least be good to look at,
and even tolerable, if it is far enough off.
[17] 80 feet long, 60 feet broad. Built to commemorate the fall of
Seringapatan.
But here is a sketch of what I remember; the guests divided up the room,
blacks on one side, whites on the other, whether by accident or by
design I know not, I should think and hope by intention. (So sorry this
is not reproduced in colour.)
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Lord and Lady Ampthill then came in, and preceeded by aides-de-camp in
various uniforms, four abreast and at arm's length, marched up the
length of the room to the dais, with measured steps, not too short and
not too slow--a very effectively carried out piece of ceremony, for the
principals suited their parts well. Lord Ampthill is exceptionally tall,
he wore a blue Court coat, well set-off by the white knee-breeches and
stockings; and Lady Ampthill is taller than other ladies and is very
gracious. Perhaps you can make out in my sketch Lord Ampthill on the
dais talking to some of the house party, and the tall lady on the right,
talking to some of our party may stand for Lady Ampthill, escorted by
Major Campbell.
The fireworks after the reception were, in my humble opinion, very fine
indeed, but I confess my experience of these displays is extremely
limited. The effect was enhanced by the soft colourfulness of the
Eastern night, framed by great white arches round the verandah, and the
groups beneath these, of ladies, fair, and dark, in soft raiment.
As we came away the wide steps were covered with groups of ladies,
officers, and natives, standing and sitting, with arms and jewels, white
gloves, silks and laces glittering in moonlight or lost in shadow; above
on the terrace the glow of lamps from the hall shone on the last
departing guests, and the tall moonlit pillars led the eye up to the
blue night sky. I daresay five men out of six would have found the whole
show a bore, possibly even more tiresome than this account of it, but
our friend and his wife enjoyed it all, for they paint, and see things,
which makes all the difference.
2nd January.--Drove to Binney's for last time, and secured tickets to
Rangoon. The berths are not allocated till you get on board, a cheerful
arrangement: and they _are_ dear! Loafed about harbour watching many
cargoes and many people; tried in Blacktown to get women's draperies
such as I'd seen in Bangalore and Dharwar, but all we saw were more
crude in colour and overdone with patterns--couldn't get the simple
blues or reds with yellow or blue margins. Not an eventful day, but in
the afternoon we drove again to the sands at the mouth of the Adyar to
collect shells and we saw more than we could carry away in memory,
watched the crabs scuttling over the sands like mice, and into regular
burrows in the sand, collected seeds from various trailing plants, and
saw a glorious sunset--someone told me Indian sunsets were poor things!
and made a jotting or two, too hasty to be of use to the world in
general.
3rd.--Painted, and wrote these notes in spite of mosquitoes and these
three times cursed crows.