Between Malta and Port Said.
2nd April 1891.
Dear Mama
I hope you got my last letter which I posted at Gibralter. We arrived there
about 9 am the day after I wrote and a lovely morning it was. As soon as
breakfast was over a whole party of us went on shore and explored the town, one
or two others and myself climbed the hill on which the town is built and got a
lovely view of the bay and the country around.
The whole Mediterranean squadron was in the harbour and the masts and funnel of the wretched immigrant vessel were sticking out of the water only about a couple of hundred yards from the shore. Divers were busy at work bringing up bodies, clothes etc, but whether they mean to blow the vessel up or not we could not find out. About 30 passengers left us so that we are a good deal reduced in number.
We left at lunch time and had a beautiful calm passage to Malta which we
reached at daylight on Easter Monday. Breakfast at 7 am, wonderful to say I
managed to be up! and as soon as it was over the Doctor and another fellow and I
went off to the shore and after taking a look at the two harbours we got a
vehicle of sorts and drove out to Civita Vecchia where we explored St. Peters
Church and Monastery and the catacombs, then we had a look at the Governor's
gardens on the way back and in the town we looked into St. John's Church but we
could not go round it as service was going on at the time. We got back to the
steamer in time for lunch, they were coaling all morning and the vessel was in a
horrid mess but they soon washed the dust away with hoses.
We have had a little more sea on since then and the roll has been a bit more
noticeable but that is all, we are to get to Port Said tomorrow morning. We could
get there tonight but the Captain does not want to hurry. We have been having a
tournament at the different games on deck for the last few days which has been
rather good fun and a sweepstake to make it a little more exciting. I came out
rather well although I did not win any prizes.
I am getting on pretty well with the banjo, Pritchard the other fellow on board who plays gives me a lesson every day and by the time I get to Calcutta I ought to know all the chords and be able to accompany myself.
Yesterday being the first of April we had some fun on board - Pritchard who sits next to me at table did not turn up to breakfast and the steward told me he was sick. I went to hos cabin and found him all right as he really had been too lazy to get up. So we hatched a plot between us and I went off and told everyone that he was suffering from Acute Gastritis and in great pain. They all sympathised deeply and one lady, Mrs Balfour said she had it herself and offered to come and amuse him. I then got hold of the doctor and we held a consultation together and agreed that we ought to pass a stomach pump and I went up on deck to get some of the fellows to assist me, it was as much as I could do to keep me countenance. I told them the doctor had no chroroform and that we wanted one or two to hold the patient down. They were all thoroughly taken in but I could only get one recruit the others all backed out of it as they said they could not stand operating of any kind. So the Doctor and I and Balfour (as assistant) marched off to Pritchard's cabin where he was groaning in pretended agony, the doctor carrying a huge case of instruments. We could not contain ourselves any longer and we all roared with laughter. The best joke of it was though that after we left the cabin, Balfour told his wife and she went down and locked Pritchard in his cabin. He tried to get out the porthole and nearly tumbled overboard, however after he had been shut in about an hour the captain interceded for him and he was let out.
I have a whole three berthed cabin to myself now and I am awfully comfortable. I am very glad you let me go 1st class, I should have been awfully out of it going second. I find that it is only in the return voyage from India that people go 2nd as a rule as they are often hard up then.
Love to all
Your affectionate sone
A.N. Story.
S.S. Chuzan. (?)
April 15th1891.
Dear Mamma
We shall reach Colombo tomorrow morning so I am sending you a few lines again
to tell you that I am all right so far. I wrote to Arnold from Aden and I dare say
he has told you all that was in my letter.
I got your letter all right at Malta and also the one you sent from Planta (?) for which many thanks.
Thanks awfully for all the kind messages you sent, I hope I shall not get into any difficulties but if I do you may be sure I will not be too proud to ask your advice.
Well the morning we arrived at Port Said the weather changed entirely and the heat was very trying, everyone felt it, in fact I think those who had been in India before felt it most.
I have slept either on deck or in the smoking room every night since then with just a blanket over me. I don't think the heat has done me any harm in fact I am told I am looking fatter than when I came on board. I am in a state of perspiration all day and as I write this me hand sticks to the paper so it is rather hard to get along but I hope it will be readable.
The days go very quickly and one is so like another that there is not much to tell you. They turn me out at 6 am on deck and I do an hour's reading or so or if I am too sleepy, finish my sleep out in my cabin. Breakfast at nine and most of the morning is given to the banjo, lunch at 1 and then a sleep and read with more banjo until dinner at 6.30 and then we start whist about 9 and play till bed time. This has been the regular routine for days. I must say I am getting a little tired of it and shall not be sorry when we get to Calcutta.
I am getting on first rate with the banjo and can pick out a tune from the music now if it is in an easy key. I have also managed to read a book on diseases of Tropical Climates. (?????). None of the ladies are musical so we never have any music in the evenings which is a pity.
The sea is as calm as a mill pond and everyone says is likely to be so now the whole way. We have had a fair roll on occasionally with a heavy swell but it has never affected me at all. The food is not as good now anything like as when we started - I think they must find it rather difficult to keep things in this heat. They still keep on giving us course after course at all the different meals and it is quite a work of art to pick out what is good. When the heat began I took to ice and lemon squashes ad lib but in a day or two I got dreadful tinglings in my feet and hands so had to stop them. I find there is nothing like whiskey and soda after all, so I have a bottle of whiskey about once a week and have a whiskey and soda for lunch and dinner and another before I turn in and this I find highly satisfactory.
We had a lottery this morning on the ship's run yesterday. I sold my ticket for 1/- and it got 2nd prize 10/- just my luck! I got considerably jeered at as you might imagine.
I expect we shall be about 12 hours at Colombo and I shall have time for a run on shore and a look round. Everyone says it will be awfully hot there but if it beats the Red Sea it will have to be uncommonly like another place down below!
I expect this will be the last you will hear from me until I get to Silliguri - I
am going to the Gt Eastern Hotel at Calcutta which by the way we ought
to reach Thursday 22nd. I hear it is the best place to go to and one
or two of the fellows I have chummed up with are going there. I shall probably be
only a day or two in Calcutta at the most. I am told I shall have to pay about
£2 duty on my gun as although it is not new it has not been in India before
it seems rather hard this!
With love to you all
I remain
Your affec. son
A.N.J. Story.
DAM DIM P.O.
via SILLIGURI
April 28th 1891
Dear Mamma
Here I am at last all safe and sound. I spent a day in Ceylon, Charlie Napier met
me there and we drove out to Mount Lavinia about 7 miles, such a lovely drive.
The foliage on the trees something marvellous but it was very hot. Abot 7 or 8
new passengers got on and we had a beautiful passage to Calcutta. We reached the
????? Wednesday evening and came up the river Thursday, we did not go right up to
Calcutta but stopped about two miles below. I found two letters from Hawkins
telling me to go to the Gt Eastern and then go and call at Octavius
Steele's Office, a big tea agent and they would give me instructions as to what I
should get me. Just as I was leaving the ship a fellow came down from the office
and I went with him. Steele is an awfully decent old boy and he put me up till
Sunday. I bought a lot of white stuff and brought it up with me to get it made up
here and I got hold of a bearer, he was Wa????'s servant before (my predecessor)
so I am rather lucky as he knows the district.
I left Calcutta Sunday afternoon at 4 pm and arrived at Silliguri at 8 am which is a village at the foot of the Himalayas and you change for the Darjeeling line, a tram way rather which moves up the mountains. Hawkins met me at the station, he seems a very nice little man judging be what I have seen of him. After we had had something to eat we got all my luggage except just what I wanted onto a bullock cart left me servant with it and Hawkins drive me over here 24 miles. We made various halts at different tea gardens for refreshments and I was introduced to different planters and we got here at about 3 pm. Then I changed and we started off to the next bungalow and played tennis till dusk. I was jolly tired and slept like a top.
My luggage has not arrived yet but I believe is to be here by midday. The road we drove by yesterday is something awful it beats the worst road I ever saw in Ireland for ruts and the bridges are so rotten that we had to drive rouns them.
This place is quite at the foot of the mountains in the Dooars as it is called. Dooar means a passage or entrance I believe, ie. the entrance to the mountains. I am not to stay in this part but am to go on tomorrow or the next day to my own district another 24 miles eastward. Hawkins looks after about 30 gardens there. I have only 6 at present and he says I shall have a very easy time of it but I hope to get some more on my list. I am to live with a man of the name of Thomson and my address will be Nagrakata(?) P.O. via Jalpaiguri, Bengal.
I have only had a few minutes to write this as the post is waiting. Will write
more fully as soon as I get to Nagrakata.
Love to all
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
Bhogotpore Tea Estate
Bengal
Saturday May 9th 1891
Dear Mamma
Here I am fairly settled at last. I am afraid my last letter was rather a scrawl,
I was in a great hurry at the time as the postman was waiting and I had not time
to say all I wanted to.
I think I told you that Steel and Co. put me up and made me very comfortable in Calcutta for the few days I was in Calcutta. While I was there I picked up a bearer who used to be here with Warner my predecessor, he speaks a little English and looks after my things very well. I am told he will not allow anyone to steal things from me but will do so himself whenever he can. I also got a lot of white stuff for making clothes and s????l ???? for the sun.
I left Calcutta Sunday afternoon April 19th at 4 o'clock and arrived at Silliguri at 8 am next morning. I had all my luggage with me and my servant so I travelled in great style. We crossed the Ganges in a steamer at 9 o'clock at night and I had dinner on board. There were very few people going up by train that night so I got into my pyjamas and wrapped myself in my rug and slept sound till daylight when I got up and had a look at the country which was very flat and uninteresting until we began to get near Silliguri which is almost at the foot of the Himalayas. Silliguri itself so far as I could see consisted of a railway station and a bungalow for travellers to sleep in and a few huts and a racecourse.
Hawkins met me at the station and we had breakfast together. I like what I have seen of him and we got on very well indeed, he is not so polished in his manners and so on as his brother but one can hardly expect that out here. He is a lively, cheery sort of man and very popular with all the planters.
We had about 25 miles to drive to Hawkins' Bungalow at Dam Dim and this we did in two stages. We had breakfast with one man and then went on stopping at all the bungalows on the way for Hawkins to introduce me to the planters. My luggage came on by bullock cart and my servant followed with it except what I wanted for the night which we took with us. We had several streams to cross and one large river over which we went in brate(?). The were very bad really only fit for riding on and most of the bridges were so rotten that we had to drive round them through the streams. We got to Hawkins' bungalow about 4 pm and I had a change and then went out with him and had a game of tennis on a court close by. I stayed at the bungalow till the Friday and he made it very pleasant for me. We generally had a ride in the morning and went to see someone or other and breakfast with them and then played tennis in the evening.
Dam Dim is just at the foot of the hills like Silliguri only further east. It is a fairly healthy place but there is a certain amount of fever going about always, but there seems to be no reason why a man should not keep himself well there if he only lives a regular life and does not drink too much as most of the planters seem to do in that district. On Friday morning I left Dim Dam with Hawkins and rode over here, 25 miles about, pretty well due east again, all my luggage had to be carried by ???? and was sent off the day before. We had to go through two forests and any amount of jungle and cross streams innumerable. Such places as we had to go up and down! regular precipices when if one's pony slipped it would have been pretty well all up.
We arrived here at about 5 pm and I found all my luggage arrived. This garden is about 1000 acres with two bungalows one for the manager Hutchinson and the other for his assistant. I am in the assistant's bungalow (with?) a man of the name of Thomson not a bad chap at all and we get on very well together. I don't see much of him except at meals as we are generally both out at our work. Hutchinson is the most extraordinary man, he lives in a dirty old bungalow like a pigsty more than anything else where he keeps 3 dogs, jackalls and a couple of bears, a regular menagerie. He allows all the animals to have the run of the house so you may imagine the state it is in. He is an ???? of Glasgow University and a well read man too. Steele and Co who own the Garden have been building him a new bungalow which he might have gone into last year but he kept on altering it. I doubt if he will ever go there as he will hardly be able to take his pets there. He is the only man in the place with whom I do not get on very well but I dare say when we get to know each other a bit better we shall get on all right.
The Bungalow I am in is rather a rickety old place and wants doing up badly but I hope to get out of it in 6 months or so. The reason why I am put there is that it is the most central place in my district and the post office is quite handy. The nearest railway station, Jalpaiguri is 30 miles away so I am quite out in the wilds as the gardens are comparatively new, only having been opened in the last few years. Some of them are only just planted with tea and have not got their factories ready yet. Every garden keeps its own stock of drugs and a Baboo doctor as a rule to look after the Coolies. My duties are to go to each garden once a week if possible to see that things are all right and that they have a proper supply of medicines and call up the Baboo doctor and if he has any special cases amongst the Coolies make him show them to me.
The further garden is 7 miles. I have been to all of them this week. Hope (belonging to Duncan brothers) is 7 miles away and is the largest 1500 acres with 4 Europeans on it. The gardens pay so much a month for each European. I make my regular visit once a week and if there is anything ???? they send for me. There are a good many gardens around but at some considerable distance which do not belong to the Association and I hope some of them will join, I think they will later. If they don't and they send for me I am entitled to charge 100 R for the 1st visit and 50 for every subsequent one a third of which I get myself and a third goes to Hawkins and a third to building me a bungalow.
They have had a good many Cholera cases on this garden amongst the Coolies and a good many died but it is dying out now. I have two or 3 rather nasty surgical cases amongst coolies on other gardens also. One man has an awfully bad leg which should come off but the old fool refuses to have it done. So there is nothing for it but to let him die.
I like the life very much so far, I am up every morning at 6.30 or so and have breakfast and do a little reading then off to a garden and probably stay for breakfast and then another and stay the night and come back next day. I am generally in bed by 10 very different this from home life but it is agreeing with me very well and I am feeling very fit. I suppose you want to know whether I am satisfied with everything well I can't say that I am altogether, in the first place I don't like the bungalow I am in it is a dilapidated old place and not half furnished. The ground round it was cleared at one time and fruit trees planted but they have been very careless here and allowed the jungle to grow in amongst the trees almost up to the walls. Labour is so short on the garden that we can't get coolies to clear the place. I ought to have brought bedding, blankets etc with me, Hawkins never told me anything about this. I could have got everything readily in Calcutta and have had to borrow a whole lot of things and have sent to Calcutta from here. I don't expect to get what I have ordered for at least 10 days as we are so far away from civilisation.
I have found the riding things I brought with me invaluable. The saddle and bridle are quite exactly the right thing. I almost live in riding things and no one ever dreams of putting on a white shirt or collar so mine are all carefully put away until I get a holiday and go up to Darjeeling as I hope to do for a few days in Autumn. Hawkins went back to Dam Dim on Sunday last after taking me round here and has left me one of his ponies until I get one myself. It is an awfully nice beast and suits me down to the ground, I asked him if he would sell him but he gace 450 rupees about £35 for him and I am not sure he would let me have him for that so I am on the look out for something cheaper.
The rains will be coming on very shortly and they will make it difficult for me to get about. The little mountain streams rise into perfect torrents in less than no time. The man who was here before me nearly lost his life crossing one.
Most of the men on the gardens here are Scotchmen and a good many come from Edinburgh so they know fellows that I knew when I was up there and so on which has made it very easy for me to get on with everybody.
There are no ladies on the gardens I visit just at present but two girls are expected to join their brother at his bungalow today and another man is going to have his wife out next cold weather. They have a piece of ground laid out for cricket and polo at Nagrakata about 5 miles from here and all the planters round go there on Saturdays and play. I went down last Saturday to meet the fellows and I got the loan of a pony for half the time and tried my hand at polo - it certainly is a grand game. As the rains are are coming on now there will be no more play till about October, I don't know yet whether I shall be able to play, as if I do it will mean getting another pony so I shall have to wait and see if I can afford it. I must do so if I can as everyone plays here and you are rather out of it if you don't take part in what is going on. Two of my gardens have tennis courts but they are neither of them up to very much and the play so far as I have seen is not first rate although one or two men play a very average kind of game.
There are one or two things I want you to do for me if you do not mind; I should very much like the Graphic every week and some weekly paper such as the Pall Mall Budget sent out to me. Thomson is quite willing to go shares with me in them, will you order them for me or tell me where to write to for them.
I also want you to send me out the following, you can get them through King Hamilton my agents who are also doing my banking for me:
Husband's Forensic Medicine
Notes on Medical ???? I left these in the study
The Medical Annual of Treatment 1891. This book is published in Bristol and is a
synopsis of all the medical papers for the year
A white Mackintosh with a good cape which will cover my arms over well
when I am riding. I think you know about my size. The blue one I have will knock
all to pieces in a very short time. Please don't get too heavy a one
A knapsack or bag of some kind made of waterproof stuff that I can strap on my
back and carry when riding for my instruments so that they shall not get wet
A piece of buckskin brown colour and not too thick which will do for strapping
riding breaches at the knees with enough for 3 or 4 pairs. You could get this
from Bartholomew Thomas. One pair I got from Haldane is beginning to go through
there already.
If you will send the bill along with the things I will send the money at once.
Also please get me a couple more pairs of girths for my saddle they will know what to send if you say they are for a pony saddle and order them from the stores. I want them of the ordinary cloth kind of stuff and not of hide which is apt to get hard and cut the pony unless kept very well oiled. I hope it won't give you a lot of trouble getting these things. Please tell Mrs Harrison that as I am so far away from Darjeeling I have not been able to go and see Mrs M???? but if I get up there in the cold weather I hope to be able to do so.
Hoping you are all well and with best love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
P.S. The mail goes out here every Tuesday at 10 am for home and your letters arrive on Thursdays. I am writing today as I have an easy day of it but probably shall not have time to write again before then.
A.N.J.P.
Although I am at Bhogotpore my postal address is as I have given you Nagrakata P.O. via Jalpaiguri.
Sunday I open this to add I was called away yesterday to see a man who had broken his collar bone at polo. His garden does not belong to the Association so I got R100 for setting it and 50 every time I go and see him. I hope I get some more of these!
If you can find room for my photo book with the other things please send it.
Bhogotpore T. E.
Bengal
August 20th 1891
Dear Mamma
I don't know exactly what happened about the letters. I did not get one for about
6 weeks or so after I arrived here and then they came tumbling in one after the
other. I received the last two you wrote dated July 8th and July
16th last week and the week before.
In the letter you wrote June 4th you said you were going to leave Clifton on the 11th for Wiesbaden. I was going to write then but as you would be away I wrote to Lou and asked her to forward my letter to you. I wrote again on July 20th and I hope that letter will have reached you by now. I am sending this letter home and I hope they will forward it to you.
I am so awfully sorry you have had such bad news of Fran. I suppose from all you say the case must be almost hopeless.
We have had very trying weather here for sometime past. The heat in Calcutta has been something terrible, in the middle of June they had to stop the trams in the middle of the day for some hours as the horses were dropping down dead one after the other. I believe it was almost impossible to get a conveyance of any kind as the drivers would not take out their horses. The monsoon broke here fairly early or rather we had a good many cooling showers while there was this great heat in Calcutta and we got a fair amount of rain till towards July and then for some reason it suddenly stopped and the heat for a month or so was awful. Last week the rain began again and brought a lot of sickness with it though it was much wanted. I have not been as well as I might be myself and I hope to get a change for a day or two soon if there is not much for me to do.
I met Hallsay at one of the bungalows I go to one day, I expect you will remember him, he and his sister used to go out a great deal at Clifton at one time and acted in Private Theatricals. He is a bit of a snob I think but not a bad hearted fellow in his way, he has a great reputation for spinning yarns out here. He is assistant on a garden in an adjoining district to this and I went back to his bungalow with him and spent the night there and we had a long chat about Clifton as he has been out here now about 5 or 6 years I believe. I think I told you in my last letter that I had got a pony, I am afraid the work is a little too hard for her as she has been getting out of condition lately, certainly it is killing work for any animal riding them about such roads as we have here. I expect it will end in my getting another one later on.
We have actually had two married ladies staying on the garden this week, one of them Mrs Martin is a wonderful woman. I should think she must be quite 40 and has a large family and yet she will ride anything, she and her husband live on a garden about 70 miles from here quite by themselves, the nearest garden to them I believe is 20 miles away. I took her to breakfast at one place near here the other day and on the road there is a very nasty little piece to go down where if your pony slipped you would go over a precipice, however she only laughed at it and declared when we got back that I did not ride fast enough through the jungle although the path was so slippery that it was as much as the ponies could do to keep their footing.
I got the parcel yesterday, which you sent out for me, the mackintosh will do very nicely and I think will wear better than my other one and not be so hot. The waterproof bag you sent me also will do very nicely, I think I shall use it a great deal. All the other things were as I wanted and I am sending you the money £4-9-2 which you will get in a few weeks time.
I have been out shooting several times lately, the jungle is all so thick at this time of year that it is impossible to walk through it. I get up at 5 am and walk round the edge of the tea but I have not had a shot at a jungle fowl yet, they won't come out. So have had to content myself with a few doves, later on in the year though I hope to do better. I saw in the Englishman, which is about the only paper out here, that George Bush was dead, it did not say what he died of.
I am very sorry Eric is not getting on well now with his farm. I should think the best thing would be to sell the whole thing and start at something else. I don't believe a small farm like his will ever pay him and once he gets into debt things will only go from bad to worse. I might probably see something out here that might do for him, but the pay would be very small to start with, the work very hard and the climate in some places abominable. I suppose Ossy will be a married man by now. I am sure I wish him all happiness but he is mistaken if he thinks I will do likewise, at any rate for a long time to come.
I hope your tour abroad will be a pleasant one and that you will have good weather for it and not like last year.
I heard from Lou last Thursday, she had got the letter I wrote her and said they were going to the Engadine(?), a beautiful part to go to I should think.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
Bhogotpore
Nagrata P.O.
via Jalpaiguri
Bengal
Sept 3rd 1891
Dear Mamma
I hope you have got my last two letters all right written July 20th
and Aug 16th.
I have got yours of July 8th and also Aug 6th from the Engadine, many thanks for them but please don't put yourself about to write oftener than once a month as I know you have a lot of correspondence to keep up already besides all your other work, I did not expect to hear from you at all while you were abroad as I know you will be busy sight seeing and making excursions.
I have sent home the money I owe you by King and Co who will send you a cheque. I hope it is all right. I tore up the letter by mistake in which you told me the amount so I had to trust my memory.
Since I wrote last I have been kept very busy, one of my lady patients has given me a lot of trouble, last Saturday I was just sitting down to dinner when I got an urgent to go and see her, her brother's bungalow is about 7 miles away with 6 streams to cross on the way, luckily it was a fine night and the rivers were low. I got her all right by next morning and left leaving instructions with her brother as to what he should do. I got home in time for breakfast and was just having a comfortable snooze when I got another urgent as she had a relapse. I was determined this time to get her right so I stayed there that night and the whole of the nect day. I have not heard anything since so I suppose whe is doing all right.
This had certainly been a very trying year here for everyone, the rains have been so uncertain and the heat at times something terrible, next month I am glad to say will see us out of them and at the end of it or the beginning of November I hope to get up to Darjeeling for a few days as I think I deserve a little holiday. My pony wants it badly too poor thing as although I ride her as easily as I can and get the loan of one occasionally she is getting awfully out of condition. I have worn one pair of riding breeches through at the knees and my field boots are going at the back. The buckskin you sent me has been very useful and will save me a lot of expense. The waterproof bag you sent me however is too small for my large amputating knife and saw but as I don't want them often it does not matter much. I am glad to say that we are at last getting our compound into something like decent order. A lot of new coolies came in a short time ago and Hutchinson for a wonder allowed us to take one of them as gardener however he told Thomson the other day we could only have him for a fortnight as he wanted him for his vegetable garden. Rather hard as he has three or four men himself already, however I am going up to talk to him about it myself tonight and see if he won't let us keep him as we are quite willing to pay him ourselves instead of the Garden going it and if he goes away so soon the place will soon be jungle again. He has been very civil to me though and has always lent me a pony when I wanted it, a thing he won't do for everyone.
We have a new man here now, Duncan, a Scotchman, he arrived last week he seems a decent enough chap, he was 4 years in Burmah, on a timber estate and gave it up to come and learn tea! He gets no pay and has of course to pay for his board etc. I suppose he knows what he is about but it seems rather a mad thing to do as tea is not what it was by any means.
This is, it is said the best district in India for tea and most of the Gardens are doing fairly well but in other places it is not so by any means. What a small place the World is after all. I had a long letter from Leith the other day and he told me that the man who was manager here before Hutchinson came is now studying in Edinburgh as a Medical Missionary. Leith had met him and so heard a lot about the country etc. It is not unlikely that you may come across Leith in your wanderings as he said he was going to Switzerland, he has been very ill with Pleurisy and Pneumonia so he won't be able to climb, he seems very much cut up at this.
It seems so funny to here you complaining of the cold, I wish you would send some over here, the nights I am glad to say are a bit cooler but the mosquitoes and the sandflies are very bad and they seem to get at me in spite of the mosquito curtains. The locusts have departed again, one only sees one or two about now, it was a good thing for the planters that they did not take a fancy to the tea or it would have been a bad business for them.
I have not any more outside fees but I dare say I shall before long. I have been out shooting one or two mornings but I have only got myself wet and never had a shot at anything except pigeons. I have heard of one or two tigers about but no one has shot one yet.
There are any amount of deer in the jungle round the Garden but they won't come out and the jungle is too thick to go after them. One thing we cannot get decent here at this time of year is beef and mutton. The cattle they kill are such wretched little animals and the flesh is as tough as a board, we live chiefly on "droorghies"(?) ie fowls which are about the size of a young chicken in England and funnily enough their legs are generally the tenderest parts, one gets quite tired of the sight of them every day for breakfast and dinner generally in two or three courses done up in different ways. I really can't write any more today, as we have a regular plague of flies here today and thay have driven me half wild whilst I have been writing this.
I hope Fran's eys are a bit better and that you are having better weather now for your holiday.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
Bhogotpore T.E.
Nagrata P.O.
via Jalpaiguri
Bengal
Oct 20th 1891
Dear Mamma
This is the mail day but I gave missed the post so I will write you an extra
long later and send it next week.
I have only just come back here as I have been staying with Hawkins at Dam Dim
for about 10 days. I did not go to Darjeeling as I wanted to see him and have a
talk with him on several matters. In the first place I suppose I ought to own
that I have made a mistake which will make a good deal of difference to my
future: when I came out it was with the idea that I should work as an assistant
in the same way as at home, that is to say I would be living somewhere near my
chief who would go and see the cases the first once or twice and then make me go
in future, that I would help him in operations and so on, that he would pay me at
the rate of £250 for the first two years and about £300 the third and
that at the end of three years the practice would become my own.
However on coming here I find that Hawkins himself has a very fine practice, he
attends 32 gardens from each of which he gets a retaining fee and he is
occasionally called in to other gardens which he does not get a monthly retaining
fee from, and for such visits of course can charge what he likes, I know he gets
over R1000 a month from the gardens he attends regularly, about £700 a year.
The district Hawkins attends to extends practically from the Teaster(?) river to the Jaldaka, east of the Jaldaka is the district in which I have been put, the planters have formed themselves into an association and as they did not know very well how to get a doctor themselves from home they got Hawkins to get one for them. I am now the 3rd he has got out, as I think I told you before I am practically entirely on my own post here. I get all the fees which amount to R420 a month of this I get R350 a month, the rest I send to Hawkins, at the end of two years I get R400 and in three years R420 when Hawkins interest ceases here altogether and I have the whole thing, from outside gardens I may occasionally get a large fee. What it amounts to is practically this, I am getting £250 a year now and at the end of 3 years shall get about £300 with whatever extra fees I can get. There are other gardens here that might join, The Dooars Tea Company for instance have 4 comparatively close but there is such a bitter feeling between the head of the company and the gardens I attend that I am afraid it is hopeless. There are also some distant Gardens but here the rivers interfere in the rains.
My agreement says that "the practice which A.N.J. Story is doing shall become my own at the end of three years without payment to Hawkins or anyone else2 and of course this is the practice that I am doing. Of course it was rather absurd to suppose that I should step into a practice such as Hawkins is doing without paying anything for it. Just a present of course I am doing very well. I am drawing more pay considerably then an assistant does in England to start with and I expect I shall be able to save nearly £100 a year but then the thing is that I don't think I shall be much better off in 3 years time or for ever for that matter if I stay on here, there is no chance of new Gardens being opened out near here as the grants are too big for other people to come in, you see I have been out here for 6 months now and have had time to judge fairly well as to my prospects.
I am leaving out the question of climate altogether, which is abominable during
the rains.
As far as the life goes I like it very much.
Don't think that by this I attach any blame to Hawkins, he is not to blame at all. I like him very much and we have got on very well. Hawkins wishes to sell his practice, this he told me when I came out and he also said that Warner who was the first assistant he had in my ???? here was probably coming out to take it up. When I was over staying with him he told me that he did not think that Warner would come out again as he was going to be married and in any case he did not get on very well with the fellows over there. Price the second man who came here before me and ran off to Assam when Hawkins was away has been kicked out over there as he had a row with some of the planters. I hear now he is very sorry he ever left here and would like to come back, Hawkins showed me a letter from him in which he asked if Hawkins meant to sell a whole or part of the practice. Hawkins told me he had never answered it as he did not think the fellow could raise the money, but he talks about having him there soon to take his place while he goes on a month's holiday.
What I would like to know is whether you think I could in any way raise money enough to buy Hawkins out, he has been here about 10 years and has made enough to go home on and I know he has got shares in more than one Garden which must have cost him a pretty penny, he draws at the rate of R1035 a month for retaining fees alone, besides outside fees and in addition they are talking of starting a dispensary at Dam Dim and he was offered that as well and this year he started a soda water machine and is supplying the district with aerated water out of which he makes a good profit.
He wants 1 years purchase for the practice which is very reasonable as the thing is a certainty and not like a practice at home where after you have paid for it another man may turn you out and you may or may not have sick people.
When I was over there I asked him not to sell without letting me know as I would like to have a look in if possible. I don't know exactly how much he will want, he is getting £750 a year at least from retaining fees alone as I saw his books. I dare say he would take £800 though he said he wanted £1000. In any case I don't think he would want it in a lump sum down.
Hawkins said he thought I would do all right there, I have got on very well with the fellows over here and even Hutchinson the manager here and myself are very good friends and I got on all right with the fellows I met over there. It is a far better district than this as it is older, there are good roads and not so many rivers. Of course I have said nothing definite to Hawkins but only don't sell the thing without letting me know and this he said he would do.
Can you lend me part of the money necessary, or if not do you think I could raise it in any way, if not please say so at once and that will end the whole thing.
23rd
I hope I have managed to make matters quite clear to you as to how I am situated exactly. I don't think Hawkins is in any hurry to sell at present and I am doing well enough myself just now, but as I have shown you, later on it will be different, one always likes to look ahead a bit.
We are just getting into the cold weather now, though you would call it anything but cold at home, at night time it is certainly a bit chilly and one wants a blanket or two as covering, in the daytime there is a scorching sun and generally a cold wind with it. The ground is beginning to dry up rapidly and all the streams are falling and the various smells about in consequence are anything but pleasant. There is a lot of malaria about and I should think that this was one of the worst months of the year, but by next month I hope that it will be better. We had our opening days at the cricket ground last Saturday and had cricket and tennis. The cricket pitch was fairly good but there were hardly enough fellows present to make a good game. As for the tennis court it was all up hill and down dale and not worth playing on so I don't think I shall play much, however it was very jolly to have a game of any sort. The programme down there is to start with cricket about 11 am and play till lunch time or rather breakfast, then go on with cricket till...
SECTION TORN OFF HERE
... together during the rains hardly any of the planters leave their gardens. I am really the only person in the district who is continually on the move. Then they write letters to one another and squabble over coolies, whereas if they were continually meeting they would probably settle their dispute in a few minutes, at the club however they are bound to meet and they generally make friends again.
I suppose by the time this reaches you you will be comfortably settled down at home again after all your rambles. The last letter I received was from Minoi(?) when you were with uncles Francis, I hope he got better before you left him.
I am glad you say Planta and had a pleasant day at his father's place. Arnold
always told me it was place worth seeing but I hope I may get there some day.
I heard from Arnold about a fortnight ago, he seems to have had a good time of it
as usual this summer and to have distinguished himself as tennis. I am afraid he
would find me a regular duffer now and I should have to get points from him to
make a game. He said he had Porter staying with him at Bridge for a week.
You were asking about our garden here, well we did get the place started and in fairly decent order, but the gardener we had got a slight dose of fever and like all these natives thought he was going to die at once - he refused to take any medicine and ran away! I myself would like to plant the place with vegetables but the cows and bullocks get in and trample everything to pieces. It has been very difficult to get potatoes lately, only things like ???? can be got at the bazaar. Hutchinson however has started his vegetable garden and I hope we will soon get something from that.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
P.S. I enclose a few seeds which are from the creeper which grows over our bungalow. I believe it is called the "Star of Bethlehem" and has very pretty red flowers, it grows like a perfect weed here. I send one of the flowers but I am afraid it will be squashed to pieces by the time it arrives.
Bhogotpore T.E.
Nagrata P.O.
via Jalpaiguri
Bengal
Nov 8th 1891
Dear Mamma
I received your letter of Oct 9th yesterday and was very sorry to hear
such a poor account of Uncle Francis, I am afraid from what you say it is a very
serious case, but I hope all the same that he will improve.
I am afraid my last letter mau have caused you some worry but please don't put yourself about. I am all right just at present and it was only the future I was looking forward to which does not seem particularly bright.
Since I last wrote I have had a very busy and anxious time, as I have had my first death amongst my white patients. I think I told you that I had had a very bad case of fever in May last. The man's name was Ross, a Scotchman from near Elgin, he was so ill that I almost gave him up then and sent over for Hawkins to cinsult with, however he pulled through and I sent him up to the hills. He was first at Kiu???? and had a relapse there. The doctor there sent him to Darjeeling and he was in the Sanitarium there for about a fortnight and while there very nearly died of Dysentery, he got a little better and although the doctor up there told him he should stay away for 3 months, he insisted on coming back, he had been back about three months and nearly ever since had been suffering from chronic diarhea for which I treated him several times but it always came on again. I told him over and over again that he should go away and that at any time he might get another attack of Acute Dysentery and I would not answer for him. However his time on the Garden was up at the end of November and he had made up his mind to stay until then.
I was out on my rounds last Wednesday week when I got two urgents one after the other to go up to Hope, the Garden he is on as he was seriously ill. I knew quite well what that meant and galloped off as fast as I could. There was a frightful thunderstorm going on at the time and I had to ride 14 miles with the rain coming down in sheets and lightning that almost blinded one. My pony came down smash once but luckily no damage was done. When I got to Hope I had not a dry rag on. I was up two days and nights with him but medicines were no use and the morning of the 3rd he died quite quietly and painlessly. I am glad to say or course that he had to be buried at once and the nearest cemetary is as Jalpaiguri 40 miles away. We had the coffin carried on a bullock cart and by bribing the coolies covered the distance in less than 24 hours which was very good considering the roads are so bad and that we had two rivers to cross.
As you may suppose I was awfully cut up over this. Ross was a very nice fellow
and much liked by every one but terribly obstinate and if he had only listened to
what we told him the poor chap I am quite sure would have been alive now. There
was no clergyman at the time at Jalpaiguri and as the body had to be buried the
day we got there the Deputy Commissioner was supposed to read the service. He was
away now though, but Garrett, I expect you remember him at Clifton, is acting in
his place and he read the service. Last time I saw Garrett was when we were all
at St. Morgan, he must have got on uncommonly well as he is boss of the whole
district. He must have pretty hard work but must get well paid for it. I met
another D.C. at Jalpai, Goldsborough, the head of the police here, he was at the
College in the old days when it was first started. He told me that they had an
O.C's dinner in Darjeeling lately and they taled about having one in Jalpai some
time and I hope they will.
I had hardly got out here again before I had another urgent to a fellow who had a
very bad attack of bilious fever. I stayed two nights at his bungalow. I am glad
to say he is getting better and I am sending him off for a sea trip.
I have hardly been in the bungalow here at all for a fortnight and as you may suppose I am glad to have a day's quiet to myself. I shall be off again tomorrow as poor Ross left no will, the first time he was ill he made one but tore it up afterwards and now I have to make an inventory of all his things and send it in to Garrett, the law out here being that if anyone dies without a will all the affects have to be sold by public auction. I am trying to get Garrett to stop this so as to be able to send his things to his people but I don't know whether he will be able to manage it.
Our garden is beginning to look a little better as we have managed to keep a gardener for nearly a fortnight and he has tidied up the place and put out a lot of flowers. The nuisance is that stray bullocks will keep coming in and trampling the things down. We are really in the cold weather now and there are some lovely views of the snows on the hills to be seen in different places.
I have been going about in a tweed coat and waistcoat the last few days and I expect shall keep on wearing them for some time now, it is fairly hot in the middle of the day and it is not safe to out withouta topee but as soon as the sun sets, which it does very suddenly, the cold is very great and is you are not careful you are very liable to get a chill.
You will have had quite a round when you get home and I am afraid you will find England anything but pleasant, I have read in the papers about the frightful storms they have been having there.
What a lot of deaths there have been amongst well known men lately. Smith Parnell Boulanger and Sir John H???? and the Grand Old Man seems as hale and hearty as ever.
Please thank uncle Francis for his kind messages and I hope you will be able to give me better news of him when you next write.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
P.S. I had forgotten to tell you before but all the letters that you have sent me from Italy and some from Switzerland have been underpaid. I have always known when a home letter was coming by the postmaster sending up for the balance due. It does not matter a bit but I thought you would like to know.
Bhogotpore T.E.
Nagrata P.O.
via Jalpaiguri
Bengal
Dec 4th 1891
Dear Mamma
I think I told you in my last letter I was going away for a little change and I
have just come back after a fortnight, part of which I spent in Calcutta and the
rest at Hawkins' place.
I left here on Tuesday Nov 17th and took one of my patients down to Calcutta and saw him on board the Marna B.I. Steamer for Colombo. I should not have minded going too but it would have been rather expensive and as you know I am not very fond of the sea, also there was just the possibility of another cyclone. I expect you will have seen in the papers that there was a very bad one in the Bay of Bengal just a short time ago.
I only stayed in Calcutta till Sunday but in thet time I managed to see most of the things to be seen there. The theatres were very poor and don't at all come up to the standard at home. I got my photo taken and told the photographer to send you a dozen direct, it will save a lot of trouble. I send you a list of those I should like to have them if you don't mind ditributing them as my Xmas presents though I am afraid they will be rather late. The photos make me look a good deal fatter than I really am as I am afraid I have lost weight considerably since I have been here.
I had a very jolly time at Hawkins' bungalow, it is like being back to civilisation over there from here. I got some very fair tennis which I enjoyted very much and what was better still good grub a decent shanty to stay in.
I got rid of my bearer in Calcutta and went in for a new servant. Shortly before I went away I found that he had been quietly taking my things and selling them and the other servants declared that he had also been wearing my flannel shirts, this was alittle too much for me.
The new man I got is a Hindoo and his caste won't allow of his waiting at table as well so he only looks after my clothes etc. and I have a table servant but it will be worth the little extra expense if he does his work well. Servants are an awful nuisance about here, it is very difficult to get a good one to come here and if you do the chances are he gets ill and runs away.
During the short time I was away everything seems to have gone wrong here. Three fires took place one after the other, the first was near the Managers bungalow all his servants quarters being burnt out and an old bungalow as well. The next place to go was a large building which contained all the stores in the place together with all the medicines and office books. Fortunately this was insured and they managed to get out most of the books but I doubt if the insurance money will cover all the contents. If we had an epidemic of any kind now it would be a nice business as there is not a drug anywhere except a few things I keep here for private use and they are nearly all finished. The last fire was the most serious as far as I am concerned as my ????'s house was burned down and with it all my saddlery, rather a serious loss to me. I was very proud of the saddle which as you will remember I got at the store, it was a very comfortable one and would I know have lasted a long time and it has been a good deal admired out here.
They telegraphed down to Calcutta to me about it but unfortunately I had left there then. I wrote down for a new outfit from Hawkins' place as soon as I heard and I hope to get the new things very shortly now but I don't expect them to be as good as the old lot.
The fire in the offices seems to have been due to incendiaries but they have not got hold of the culprit as he cleared out straight away. The other two fires apparently were accidental at any rate the one in my s???'s house was - apparently he had gone to the bazaar without asking Thomson's leave which he should have done in my absence and the grass cutter went out as he says to cut grass for the pony and left the cooking things alight in the house. One of the walls took fire and in less than no time the place was burned to the ground. I would turn them both out but the S???? is a good little chap in his way and I might have a good deal of dificulty in getting another, however I slanged them pretty freely and cut the two of them a month's pay but it would take a good many months to make up the loss.
This is a dangerous time of year for fires in any case as the jungle and forest are all as dry as tinder and the natives set alight to them all over the place partly for hunting purposes and partly because the young grass which grows up is very good for grazing purposes.
It would not have taken very much to have set this bungalow and also the stables alight from the S???'s house. The bungalow has thatch over the tin roof which would burn like tinder and the stables are all thatch and wood. However it has tought me a lesson and in future I shall see that my saddlery is always brought into the bungalow. Most fellows do so and it is the safest plan.
I have written to Calcutta to get all my things insured against fire and after that I would not mind much if they burned the whole place down as the bungalow is a disgrace to the Garden, Agitate Proprietors and everyone who has anything to do with the place.
The fellow who was doctor here before me and went off to Assam came and paid me a visit here yesterday, he has lost his billet there, chiefly I believe through his temper and he wishes he was back here again and if I could only sell the practice to him, which I can't of course do yet. I would do so and clear out at once.
There has been a good deal of excitement over one of the Gardens which I attend lately as it was sold in a very smart fashion to another company, apparently the Dooars Tea Company very nearly got it and if they had the whole district would have been utterly at their mercy. This garden would have been unable to get wood for fuel or building purposes without very great expense and I would have lost one Garden from me list which would have made the practice hardly worth having. I can tell you I say "Oh be joyful" when I heard the sale was all right.
When I was in Calcutta I got the offer of attendance upon one Garden about 30 miles from here and I took it. Probably one or two more would join in, the distance is not so awful bit there is no road at all and a frightful forest with about 8 rivers one of which is impassable for weeks and often months in the rains. The only way to get there is on elephant during the rains. I hope to go over there shortly to spy out the land.
BIT MISSING HERE
...bad riding jungle ???? and so on.
What a jolly time you must have had in Italy and if it had not been for Uncle Francis' illness you would have enjoyed it all the more. I was very much interested in the accounts of all the different places you saw.
I remember when I was in Edinburgh there was a man in one of the wards I was dealing in suffering apparently from much the same disease as poor Uncle Francis and the accounts he used to give us in the mornings of the awful dreams he had had at night were something terrible.
I was awfully glad to hear you had had good accounts of Evie and I hope he may go on and prosper. I suppose you have not had any news of Ossy's wedding yet as you have not mentioned it.
I was very sorry to hear of General Davies' death, he was a very nice old man from what I remember of him. I never met Mrs Andrew Reid so I don't know what she was like.
Today is Friday, the home mail has not come yet, I don't know what has happened to it. There may possibly be a letter from you in it so I will keep this one till Monday our mail day.
What a small party you will be at Xmas, we are all so scattered now, I wonder when I shall be able to spend Xmas at home again! I hope in a few years time. Well I will stop as it is just dinner time and dearest mother wishing you a very merry Christmas and all the good wishes of the season and the sane to all other members of the family and my friends.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
Dec 4th. Your letter from Wiesbaden Nov 10th arrived this morning. I was very glad to hear you got back to Wiesbaden all right and were looking forward to getting home also that Fran was well enough to go home with you. I wish we could have a few months frost here with skating. I wrote to Muirhead and one or two others for testimonials as if I could get a good billet in the hills it would suit me better in every way. I suppose by now you will have got my letters of October and November. I don't suppose it will be possible for me to buy Hawkins' practice and even if I could I might not be able to stand the work in this climate. There is no doubt it is a good enough thing however I am practically fixed here for 3 years and Hawkins does not want to go home yet awhile.
You acknowledged the receipt of the money all right. I hope you will like the photos. I wrote to Arnold today and told him there was one for him and Mrs Blake. I don't expect you will get them for about 6 months yet.
The photos I should like you to give to the following:
Yourself
Lou
Robert
Ossy
Charlie
Florie
Evie
Fran
Aunt Clara
Cousin William
Arnold and Mrs Blake.
If you would like any more please let me know and I will send them if I have any over. I would send them myself to Ossie and Evie but Ossy's address I am not sure of and you are really on the way to Evie.