Dear Mamma
My last letter to you was dated Feb 7th and since then I have
received two from you, one dated Jan 28th and the other Feb
12th.
Since then I have done a good deal. To start with I have joined the Volunteers, we are a corps of Mounted Infantry here and the drills are rather fun especially the mounted ones. I put in all the necessary ones, 20 in number and made myself efficient in shooting in a fortnight. I do the sword exercise every morning when I get up and brandish my carbine about. I find it a splendid thing for the muscles.
I think I told you that the Bhutias are making a bit of a disturbance on the border, there is a Government man at present surveying it and they are disputing it the whole way along, they have got one or two small pieces given them but the critical point a Garden about 7 miles from here will be decided next week, this is the last place to be surveyed and the Bhutias want the whole of it or a good slice. It is a very valuable property and it is not likely the Government will give in in fact they have settled that the existing boundary is to be upheld. There is a Bhutia Captain with 200 men on the border up at Hope and we are all rather anxious to know what he will do when Hall gets there. The Rajah is going to cut his head off if he does not get a slice of Hope so he is in rather a fix as he will most certainly have to give in to us. It is hardly likely that these Bhutias will attack the Government Surveyor but it is just possible that in their disappointment over the boundary they may make a bit of a raid and do some damage in revenge, they are awful cowards though and I expect a few blank cartridges would do enough for them.
I had a bad tooth ache at the beginning of last month, in fact it got so bad that I could stand it no longer and I rode over to Hawkins, he had three goes at the tooth and broke it a good deal but could not get it out so he advised me go straight to Calcutta, which I did. Woods the dentist there had 4 goes at it and at last got it out. I was thankful I can tell you. I met Gamble the tennis player there and he advised me to enter for the Calcutta Cup. I did so and got a lovely draw and had I played I think I would have been in the final, but I was hardly feeling up to the mark so I scratched. The fellows up here were awfully disappointed as apparently they had expected me to do wonders. However another year I shall know when the thing is coming off and go down on purpose for it if I can. Calcutta was awfully hot and I was very glad to get back again, especially as I found I was badly wanted on one Garden where influenza had broken out badly nearly half the coolies being down with it.
I had a big row with one of the managers here too one day and we were not on speaking terms for a fortnight, it was a private matter altogether and had nothing to do with my work, however I am glad to say we have made it up again as we each acknowledged that we were partly wrong. It was very unpleasant at the time and I hope I shall not be dragged into anything of the kind again.
Medici Library have sent me out the box of books all right but they have played a very shabby trick or at least have been grossly careless - they advertised 100 selected vols for £5, I send them the money and when I came to unpack the box there are only 80 vols, exactly 1/5 short. It is altogether too bad of them as I am too far away to send the books back however I am writing to them to send me £1 and give them a piece of my mind. If you ever go there I wish you would talk to them for me.
The new boots arrived all right and are the admiration of all beholders. I am keeping them for Volunteer drills etc just now but they will be awfully useful in the rains. It is the greatest comfort to have well fitting boots in the hot weather. I expect I shall be leaving this Garden next month and going to one about 3 miles away. I shall be sorry for some things as the post office and soda water place are handy here also the baker but this bungalow is too awful for anything in the rains.
There us talk of the fellows subscribing together to give me a bungalow of my own next year, a year before I expected it. Of course nothing can be done in the rains but I mean to agitate for it all that time and perhaps by the cold weather they may be worked up to it. I have got my eye on a place that would suit me beautifully but I an afraid I am rather building castles in the air.
The world is a small place after all, there is a man named Thelwall on one of the Gardens here who was out in America for some years. he landed in America with £20 in his pocket and did very well but he was only 15 when he left home and when he went back at 21 he had made £500 but he outgrew his strength and was ordered home. He is a very nice chap and has seen a good deal in the course of his wanderings, he was at Kansas City for some time and knew Bris??? well but he said he never met Evie. According to his account Bris??? had gone to the dogs altogether, he told me he thought it was a great mistake for any young chap to go out to America with any money in his pocket far better to work his way as he did from nothing. He was very keen to go back again but his people were dead against it.
I was very sorry to hear such a bad account of Charlie's eyes but I hope with rest they may improve.
As for my going to Darjeeling and setting up there the thing is out of the question just now. I should have to break my agreement with Hawkins. I have a certainty here and there I suppose should have to sit and wait. Here I am paid all the same whether people are ill or not. I hope to get up there next May if I can manage it when it is warmer just to have a look at the place. I am very glad you liked the photos. Johnstone and Hoffmann are good people and take great pains with their work. I hope you are going to be taken again yourself soon and will send me out one.
I am glad Evie is getting on all right and hope his next letter will find me. Price is not going to the Dooars Tea Company, I met him in Calcutta and he told me all about it, he has got a locum ten??? in Assam so I still without opposition here, now that I have seen more of him I don't think he would get on for long with the fellows as he wants too much of his own way in everything and the fellows won't stand for it.
I am awfully glad Arnold won the billiard handicap please congratulate him for me I am expecting a letter from him every mail. I am writing to Robert also by this mail, I can't advise him to come out here, he is far better in every way at home. There is nothing in this small corner of India that would suit him. I send the letter to you, please forward it.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
Dear Mamma
Your letters of June 7th and 17th to hand.
At present we are all talking about getting an ark built to live in the rains are
so heavy, in fact I believe this year is the heaviest rainfall known at this
season round here. We measured 18 inches in 24 hours and up to date this month we
have had nearly 40 inches, the road between here and Jalpaiguri is washed
clean away for more than a mile in one place and one garden was completely under
water and 50 acres of tea bushes swept clean away. There were about 20 bullock
carts on the Jalpi road loaded with tea, they came to a bridge that had been
swept away and camped there for the night, in the early morning the Jaldacca
river rose up behind them and came down like a solid wall sweeping carts, tea and
all clean away. Some of the carters managed to get up trees, the rest were
drowned. This is only one case, every day we hear of coolies being drowned in the
river trying to get across.
We were quite cut off from every where for 3 days here, could get no letters,
bread or anything and as ill luck would have it the elephant on the next Garden
got lost in the jungle just at that time. I had to stop going my rounds
altogether and I have had one or two very nasty crossings to make as it is. The
rivers in several places have quite shifted their beds and I have to find out new
crossings for myself, rather ticklish work.
I am having a lot of correspondence with Hawkins just now about his practice,
Warner is not coming out again as he has got the Irish F.R.C.S and so if I can
come to fair terms with him I can take up his practice next year. The terms he
offered to Warner and which he had since offered to me are, instead of ready
money down that he should get ½ proceeds for 2 years and then give it up
but the half proceeds never to go below R500 a month. Since then I proposed that
I should get half proceeds and leave out the next clause and this he agrees to
but I am going to try and get better terms still if I can before I bind myself
down to anything. If the weather would only get a bit finer I would go over and
see him but it is too much of an undertaking at present.
I hope Robert will be able to come out and pay me a visit, I can guarantee he will enjoy himself.
I have had one very bad case of fever, a lady, she could not shake it off. I just managed to get her into Jalpi before the very heavy floods came, her husband insisted on taking her to Darjeeling, a great mistake as I told him he ought to have taken her to Calcutta and got her on board a steamer for home as soon as possible. I am planning a visit to Darjeeling myself in October through whether it will come off or not I don't know.
You must have had a very gay and festive time in London seeing all the theatres.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
Dear Mamma
I received your letter of July 7th all right and yesterday one from
Florie telling me of Uncle Francis' death. I was very sorry indeed to hear of it
but I supposed from what you told me in your previous letters that he could not
last very long as his heart was so seriously affected. I have told you I think
what a very wet season we have been having, I believe the wettest on record,
consequently the rivers have been very high and the floods in places very bad.
The first week in this month I went over to visit my new Gardens and took another fellow with me and I can tell you we had a time of it, talk about 'darkest Africa', I think 'darkest Hindostan' is pretty nearly as bad. We managed to get over to the Gardens fairly well but coming back the elephant we were on could not get across the last river we came to when we were only a few miles from home. We were within an ace of being carried down the stream two or three times and at last had to give it up. This was at 6 pm, rain coming down in torrents and quite dark. We had to find our way through dense forest jungle for 5 miles, the elephant forcing a way for herself all the way till we got to another crossing on the Bhutan boundary, here we managed to get across, luckily the rain stopped about 8 pm and the moon got up or we should have had to spend the night in a swamp. We arrived at the nearest bungalow at 1 am in the morning, we started at 9 am the day before. Luckily we had a couple of bottles of beer and some biscuits with us to keep us going.
One thing about the rain is that it keeps the place cool, the thermometer only being about 70 or so. Today we are having a change as it is awfully hot, my hand sticks to the paper as I write so please excuse the bad writing.
I have not been able to get over and see Hawkins but he is quite ready to take half profits for two years. I have written to him to draw up a draft agreement and if everything is satisfactory he proposes that I should go over there at the beginning of next year. Probably I shall go away for a month's change or so before starting there as the work is pretty heavy. I don't think we shall have any great difficulty in settling the business as Hawkins had treated me very well indeed all through and he is not the kind of man to do a mean thing. The only thing I am afraid of is whether I shall be able to stand the work and the climate combined, however I shall certainly have a try as the opening is a very good one. I might go far and far worse.
I should be awfully obliged if you would do a little piece of business for me and that is to pay Holdane and Pugh Tailors, 5 Cork Street, Bond Street £11-13-6 the amount of my account with them. It is the only bill I have in England, and out here for the matter of that and I could pay them all right but the rupee has been steadily going down and has very nearly reached ½ something awful! I don't see the fun of throwing money away over the exchange if I can help it. If you don't mind doing this for me I will pay you when the rupee rises a bit. I don't think I shall get any more things out from home after this it is too ruinous.
Please thank Florie for her letter. I hope you will have a good time of it abroad and have fine weather.
I was very glad to hear that Frank liked his life in the Army Medical. I see the Indian Medical men are growling away still, I certainly think if he can go to China and not come to India he would be better off. I don't fancy the Indian climate would suit him at all unless he was lucky enough to get a good hill station.
I say in the Field that Arnold won the Somersetshire championship, please congratulate him from me
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
Dear Mamma
I received your letters of July 29th and August 30th from
Badenweiler all right.
I am very sorry Arnold went and bothered you about my ailments, as I did not want you to get anxious about my health, but now that you do know I may as well say that I have had a great deal of fever here, it is a very bad climate indeed, the reason being not so much I think the amount of jungle about as that all the Gardens nearly lie just under the hills where malaria collects.
I got so ???? about a fortnight ago that I wrote to Hawkins telling him that I would not take up his practice, I had other reasons as well one of them being that there is talk of splitting his practice in two and another that I can live more cheaply here, also that I have got another two Gardens to join in here and if the D.T. Company did possibly join in at the end of the year I should have a very tidy little practice without paying anything for it and I think I may say fairly without bragging that I have done pretty well here. I have got more new Gardens to join in than Hawkins' former assistants put together. The only thing against the place is the climate, the life I like awfully.
I wrote up to Mrs Mython and asked her about the Darjeeling business and got a very kind note back in reply, I hope to go up there next month to have a look round. I am a little afraid of it, everyone gets ill going up there as the change of climate is so sudden. I doubt from what I hear if it will be worth my while to take up work there. Garden practices, Hawkins tells me are very poorly paid, one Garden may be perched away on the top of a hill 3000 feet up and you may the have to go away down into a deep valley, you are chilled to the bone and then roasted alternately and the dangers of hill diarrhea are pretty great, however I hope to go and see what it is like. On the whole I don't think it is much healthier over at Dim Dam than here in fact some say that this side is more healthy.
The rains are pretty much nearly over now and we are going through the very unpleasant drying up process. Consequently there is a good deal of sickness about, I had a very hard time last week in the saddle every day and long rides but I think it did me good.
The worst of this Malaria is that it upsets one's inside so much. I have been 4 or 4 days on end and only able to take a little milk and soda and perhaps a little soup.
One little experience I had a week ago was rather a treat - a man wrote to me and asked me to come and see his wife who wanted a tooth out. I was to meet him at a garden about 12 miles away his place being about about 30 from here. When I met him he said that one of the rivers had flooded an intervening Garden and that he had had to get off his pony, put on pyjamas and wade through mud, sand and water up to his neck nearly in places for almost 2 miles in boiling sun. He could not ride his pony as he is a heavy man and the pony sunk under him and had to be led across. He told me we should probably have to do the same thing, I thought this rather lively especially as I had just had 3 days fever and was not very fit, however I determined to go as I knew he was rather given to drawing the long bow but when we got there I found it quite as bad as he said it was. Luckily they had got a light boat there by that time and we were pulled and hauled by natives through the place somehow. It was an awful job! and then I had the satisfaction of having to go back alone, however I got the tooth out and carried away a substantial fee which made up for it.
Out cricket and polo club opens next month and that will give me a lot more work to do. I should like to get someone else to take the secretaryship as I only took it last year in a kind of way to fill a gap and keep the place from going to pieces. The previous secretary had let all the accounts get into a hopeless muddle and it took me a long time to get things fairly straight but I hope we shall do better this year.
I hope Mary Bigbie will improve. I hope you will take care of yourselves on the continent with all this cholera about, ???? in Switzerland etc
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
Dear Mamma
I am afraid you will be wondering what had become of me as I have not written for
so long, all kinds of things have happened and I have put off writing till I was
more or less settled and knew what I was going to do but I am as far off it is
even still.
I wrote to you last on September 17th and since then I have received yours of Sept 15th from Vivey and also one from Charlie, telling me about poor Aunt Fanny's death. I heard of it before I got your letters, how, I will tell you presently.
Just about the time I wrote to you in August I had a lot of hard work, the weather was awfully trying and I had some very long rides in boiling sun and rain. I got knocked over altogether with fever and my inside went all wrong too so that I could not eat anything and had to live more or less on milk and soda. I could not stand it any longer so I wrote over to Hawkins to look after the place and went off to Calcutta. I was afraid of Darjeeling with fever hanging about me and besides it was holiday (Poojah) time and the place was full up. I travelled down in the train with two planters I knew, one of whom named Bard had been very sickly and was going down to meet his wife who was coming out from home. I was persuaded by them to go and put up at Spence's Hotel and stay with them, although I always go to the Gt Eastern which is a much better place.
I only stayed one night in Calcutta and next night I left for Goalundo arriving there early in the morning, from there I took a river steamer up the Brahomapotia as far as I could go, ie to the place called Dibunghia in Upper Assam, it is a very favourite trip for planters in Assam, Sy??? and Ca??? to go down the river if they have been ill with fever and I preferred the idea to sea as the Bay of Bengal is pretty squally in October and my stomach was in such a weak state that I did not fancy the idea of having it churned about any more.
The river boats are very comfortable most of them but I did not like the one which was going up so I waited till next day and got a better one. The journey up took 7 days and down 5 days, part of it was very pretty especially about Gauhati. At the start the country is quite flat on either side and very uninteresting after that when you get higher up you have the Lushai Hills on one side and the Himalayas on the other covered with snow and a very fine sight. Some of the sun sets too were lovely. The boats run up and down very fast and I did not stop at any of the places in fact I did not feel up to rushing about.
I was rather amused the first day we started, there were several fellows on board and we were talking away at breakfast, they were all Scotchmen and as I seemed to know a good deal about Scotland they evidently wanted to find out who I was for when I went to lie down in my cabin they called for the book, one of them got it and I heard them say "By jove that was the fellow who was Champion lawn tennis player in Scotland!" and then they started off on what I had done up there. I could hear all they said and was chuckling to myself all the time.
I did not enjoy my trip as well as I might, as the day we started I got fever again and from then till I got back to Calcutta I had it off and on the whole time always at night and sometimes in the day as well, so that in the day time I was too limp to do anything. I was off my head sometimes at night but I am thankful to say my bearer is a very good chap and he was always ready to give me what I wanted. I sent off for the planter's doctor at Dibrughur and funnily enough he turned out to be a fellow I had been with in Edinburgh. My stomach went all wrong again and I could not get them to cook me any decent soup so I got into rather a bad way. By the time I got back to Calcutta I was almost worse than when I started. I went and stayed with Octavius Steel and he was very kind to me. I was there about 4 or 5 days, I think I have told you about him before. My time was up to come back here but I was not fit to come, I saw Dr Crombie and he quite agreed that it would be madness to go back and advised me to go to the Sandheads in a tug boat, the Sandheads being the sea just beyond the mouth of the Hoo?? where the pilot brig is anchored.
On my arriving in Calcutta I heard that poor old Band the planter I travelled down with in the train had died at the hotel three days after I left from pneumonia due to a chill, his poor wife arrived the next day to find him dead, an awful shock for her. I also heard of 4 other planters all of whom I knew more or less who had died in the time I had been away, none of them were patients of mine I am glad to say. I was looking at Band's death in the paper and saw poor Aunt Fanny's just below, it gave me quite a shock as I had no idea she had been ill. Poor old lady, she was always very kind to any of us when we were in London and I spent a good many happy days in Sussex Place as a small boy.
During the time I was at Steel's I picked up wonderfully. I got good feeding and my stomach gradually got all right and I got rid of my fever. I got a tug boat to take me to the Sandheads. When I say a tug don't imagine the vessel was like what you see on the Avon at Bristol, they are very different here and well fitted up for a few passengers. The navigation of the Hoogly is very difficult as I dare say you know. I saw the masts of the Anchor liner Anglia which was lost only a short time ago.
There is a special pilot service for the Hoogly, under Government, very well paid and hard to get into. It is one of the best services out here. The tugs charge £50 a day for towing vessels down and 1 rupee per ton up. Many of the vessels are 1500 to 2000 tons so you can imagine they make a good deal of money. My trip lasted 5 days, 3 going down and two coming up. We were anchored one night close to the pilot brig and had a fine tossing about but I was not sick. The old Captain was a most entertaining old chap, he had been 30 years on the river and 40 at sea, he was in the river in the Great Cyclone of '66 but managed to get out of it all right. The feeding on board was A1 and I had a salt water hose turned onto me on deck in the morning which was real fine. One sort of fish we got called Pom???, it is only found just at the point where the fresh and the salt water join. They have to be cooked and eaten at once as they will not keep. They can't even have them in Calcutta fresh for this reason. I did not care for them so very much, dried they are called "Bombay ducks" and can be eaten with curry and rice.
I felt so much better when I got to Calcutta that I came straight back here. I had been away almost a whole month, the cold weather has quite set in and it is really very jolly.
My trip cost me a good altogether as you may imagine and pretty nearly swallowed up all my savings but it was well worth it. The only thing I am sorry for is that I did not go straight to sea down to Singapore or Colombo. I expect I should have had fever all the same as the Malaria was bound to come out sooner or later.
I had two days ague after I got back but that has been the end and now I am
feeling A1 and almost as fit as when I came out. I have an appetite like a horse
and I hope soon to find I am putting on weight.
Bow to my plans, I made a good many enquiries in Calcutta and as I was going up
the river about various places. It is an awful pity I was not able to take the
Tez??? billet in Assam, everyone told me that it is an awfully nice district,
healthy, good roads and a nice lot of men and ???? ale. I have heard I think that
Price who was there lost it by his own foolishness - McLeod who offered it to me
told me in Calcutta that he would have kept it open for me.
The Darjeeling practice is I don't think worth much, at least I had a letter from
Harrison of Le??? telling me all about it.
There may possibly be an opening in North Sylhet at the end of the year. Old
Steel was telling me about it in Calcutta. Some of the planters there have
quarrelled with their doctor and I believe are talking of getting another man, at
any rate I have written about it and Steel is backing me up. It is the nicest and
healthiest part of Sylhet but whether it will be worth anything or not I have not
heard. At the same time I have written to V??? the head of the D.T. Co. to know
what he intends doing next year as he is away - if he did join in I should have
about 16 or 17 Gardens and the practice would be worth having in fact I could
live well and put by a little money, the only thing is me health.
They say everything comes to the man who waits and so I hope by the next time I
write to be able to tell you that I have got definitely settled.
While I was in the middle of this I got your letter of Oct 14th for Minori,
thanks awfully for the Christmas box it will make me feel quite comfortable now.
I hate having bills running on and the exchange now is awful. I had such a good
outfit when I left home that I have not had to get much in the way of clothes.
What I do get I get made by a native from a pattern in Calcutta and I find it
very economical. Give them a good pattern and they will turn out things very
well.
The (Dhobie) washerman is the fiend out here for destroying clothes! There is a
comic song "Hush! Hush! Hush! here comes the Dhobie man!" which describes the
fiend as he is very well.
Our cricket and polo club is in full swing again, the fellows insisted on my
being secretary although I wished to resign as my plans were so unsettled. It
gives me a good deal to do and is not a very pleasant job as you get all the
grumbles and very little thanks.
Please congratulate Ossy from me on the latest addition to the family when you
next write. I hope Robert will be the better of his trip to Australia and may
fall in with an heiress. There is a fellow on the next Garden to this who was
engaged to an heiress in Calcutta but he was afraid to marry her as the agents
said he was too young, however she evidently thought he was only playing the fool
and so she broke it off and had married an Officer. I believe the planter is
tearing his hair now, serves him right I think, he should have told the agents to
go to a rather warm place!
I hope Mary Bigbie's health will improve. Please thank Charlie for her letter and
also for her photo which I thought very good.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story
Dear Mamma
I received your letter of Nov 10th yesterday saying that you expected
to be going home shortly. I hope you got there all right but I am afraid you
would find the change in climate rather trying. I wrote you by last mail from
Lunkapana to tell you I had finally decided to stay where I am.
The place is very unhealthy no doubt but I have got accustomed to it now and I
know everyone well and they all know me. It is always hard starting a new place.
Since the Dooars Tea Company have settled to employ me next year it makes the
practice worth having and in addition I have got 7 other Gardens, a long way off
certainly but they have all joined in, so that as I think I told you I shall
probably have 18 Gardens and in a few years if others are opened out I shall have
more.
I calculate that I shall get R650 a month, at any rate a steady R600. If the
rupee were worth its original value of 2/- this would be about £700 a year
but as it is probably about £450-£500. Verner the head of the D.T.
Company is a rum chap in some aspects and I was a bit surprised that he agreed to
join. However I had a telegram in my pocket offering me the Assam billet and I
told him straight I meant to leave if he did not join. He agreed to the terms I
asked so I am well satisfied. The only thing is that if the company had a bad
year he might tell his manager they would have to do without a doctor again,
however they have paid a steady 7½-10 per cent for the last good many
years and as all the Gardens are good and they are extending and buying land
still I don't think that is likely to happen. I think I told you that the company
bought Bhogotpor, the Garden I was in last year. They gave £62000 for it,
it belonged to a Glasgow Millionaire named Offston and he was sick of it as it
hardly paid him anything, a splendid property but badly managed. He put nearly
all the purchase money into D.T. Co. preference shares. This year the Garden has
done splendidly, its teas have fetched the highest prices in the Company and it
will probably give a ???? of rupees profit about £10,000. Verner was
looking after it himself to see what it could do.
I have had the busiest time I have ever had lately, fellows have been getting sick all over the place, it is always the way here. Things are slack again now and I have a little time to myself.
My new pony I am glad to say is doing very well and he is a fine strong animal and never seems to tire. He was in rather poor condition when I got him so I am feeding him up well, he will have a lot to do shortly.
We are having very good meets at the polo club. Yesterday I got two balls one
after the other on my leg and it is pretty sore today. Some of the fellows were
trying golf, if we could enlarge the ground it would make a capital place for it.
I have sent off your box of tea 10 lbs and also one for Aunt Clara it will be
sent to you by King Hamilton and Co. The tea is "Pekoe" and was made at Hope
about the best Garden in my district, it ought to be good as it was made in the
cold weather which gives it a flavour. I hope you will like it. I hope Frank is
sent to some part of Bengal and then I may be able to see him and I also hope he
is sent to a good station. I think the home service men generally have healthy
places. I don't think this part of the world would suit him at all.
You might let me know where he is ordered to, if he comes to Calcutta I might run
down and see him. I was very sorry to hear of Sw???'s death he will be a loss to
the tennis world.
This letter should get to you for Christmas, so I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story