Our Family History
The Genealogy of the Story Family
Lt. Col. Robert Story
1854 - 1924 (70 years)
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Lt. Col. Robert Story - Letters from abroard 1890
Letters from aboard ship and from Egypt
February 1890
S,S. Plantain
At Sea
7.2.90
My dear Mother,
I very nearly missed sending off my letters at Lisbon, as I thought we were to sail at 6, whereas we were off at 4 sharp, the moment we were on board in fact. The Captain very kindly sent my letters with monet for postage to the agent's office, so I hope you will get them all safe.
Frank, I am sorry to say, caught a chill the day before yesterday and got a sharp feverish attack last night - he took it very quietly at Lisbon & went ashore with the Captain who drove him about for a short time while he did his business, & brought him on board again early; so I don't think he got any harm from that but he had been complaining before he went ashore, & purposely did not go with us, so as not to do too much. We got him into a more comfortable cabin and dosed him with Antipyrin & this morning he is nearly all right - i.e. he has no fever at all & is going to stay in bed till noon for fear of taking cold. I am going to see that he keeps under cover and hope that no bad effects will come of his little imprudence. It was sitting too late on deck, I fancy, that gave him a cold.
I must say I don't think much os Lisbon as a town, or much of the Portugese soldiery - the town is picturesque in the distance, but very dirty, the soldiers the most unsoldierly I ever say.
The houses are the usual staring white affairs that one sees all along this coast; they are built in a curious way; the whole inside inside is first run up of wood & then the stone walls put on - this is done for fear of earthquakes in order that if a shock comes the walls may fall outward and leave the yielding springy inside of the house intact. It does look very funny so see, as I did, a house roof and all standing without any walls.
We (Rooke & I with the 3 younger Empsons) got hold of a most excellent guide by name Ceasaro Augusto De Castro who spoke French well, also German. He had been nearly all over the world & had married in Sweden where he had been for 11 years, He took us all over the place and showed us all we had time to see, talking most intelligently the whole time, & only asked a modest 5/- which I think he fairly earned.
We first drove to the Cathedral which stands on the slope of one of the hills on which the town is built. It is a very poor building - dark & dingy - really hardly woth going to see - there are some curious frescos on the walls in blue tiles which interested me. The figures were life size and very quaint, but in one place some scamp had poked out the eye of two of the angels - the guide said it was 'time' but I am afraid 'father time' could hardly have made such good shots. I should have said that it was "The business end of an umbrella." In the apse there were a number of shrines which were peculiar in being shut in by some enormously massice iron gratings reaching right up to the roof, but the interiors are tawdry to a degree & not woth description. There had been in a cage on a sort of back yard a couple pf crows said to be 300 years old, but they died about a week ago.
The remains of the town which fell in the great earthquake are quite curious.
From the Cathedral we went on to the Church of St. John the Baptist. This is a fine little building with a handsomely decorated ceiling, some very curious pictures of sundry miracles with latin inscriptions over them - some very touching "My body sleeps but my heart watches." But the gem of the church is a side chapel made in Rome and consecrated by one of the popes. It contains 3 very fine mosaics with figures about ½ life size of the Baptism of our Lord, The Annunciation, & the day of Pentecost. The pictures are so soft and well shaded that a few feet off one would take them for oils & very good oils too. From St. John's we walked to the Aquaduct which supplies the town - a fine piece of building bringing a stream of beautiful water from the mountains into a magnificent covered tank which made one long for a swim. From the roof of the tank the view was very charming. The Tagus is in the distance, the bright coloured town in the middle distance with the fortress of St. George rising above it and in the foreground the gardens of the houses with their vineries and flowers, & queer looking knots of women engaged in walking and chatting of course.
Then we went to a cafe and had some bread & butter which was very dear. I enclose the bill which please keep for me. I don't wonder at Mark Tawin's horror at his hotel bill when he spent Reis 1260 over our modest lunch. N.B. Our whole day's dissipation cost me 5/4.
I shall not settle down in Lisbon, on the whole it is dear and dirty, our guide was loud in abuse of the government which he said spoiled their trade by exorbitant duties.
We then walked through the vegetable market with its bright colouring & cheery, lazy looking & very ugly country men & women (oh!). I shall not settle in Portugal.
We then went to the quay where the ladies rested & we mounted guard over them by turns & strolled about alternately till it was time to go on board.
Empson & I went to see the fish market where I was much impressed by the smell and wanted to leave hastily, but he was much impressed by the fishwives & wished to remain.
We are now pounding for Cape St. Vincent and hope to pass Gib. about 8pm.
I hear sounds of singing from Frank's cabin where Rooke & Empson are, so he can't be very bad. It is a lovely day and not too hot.
Feb 8th. We are now in the Mediterranean and having a very bad time of it with a stiff gale & heavy sea right in our teeth. We are taking in more than enough water over the bows and have been doing so all day. Frank, I am sorry to say is utterly prostrate (we have just shipped a tremendous sea). His wound has broken out afresh and gives him great trouble - he is very seasick and unable to take food. I shall take him to see a Dr. at Malta. We expect to reach Algiers tomorrow.
It is Vida's 9th birthday so I must try to begin a line to her, but writing is no easy matter in such a sea.
I have taken some photos of the waves breaking over the ship, but I cannot say how they will turn out.
Feb 9th. I am in great perplexity as Frank wants to land at Algiers and remain there until his wound heals up - I would much rather he went as far as Malta where I can ask D. Messer to look after him. I don't at all like the notion of leaving him at Algiers & yet I don't want to be put to the expense of staying there even for a week; nor do I want to lose my voyage. It is now quite fine and the sea is calm so we ought to be in about 8pm. I shall try and get a Dr. to see Frank and see what he says. Meantime I am rather troubled as to what I ought to do.
This afternoon now that the sea is quite calm he is able to sit on deck. Frank finds himself very much better - also the wound has opened very much less than he thought, so I shall try to persuade him to come on as far as Malta at any rate; as unless I stop at Algiers with him I shall hardly have any time to make arrangements.
Feb 10th. We stop at Hotel Kirsch, Algiers. Frank not strong enough to go on.
Jack Burstall 7th K.R.R. staying here.
In great haste
your affect sone
R. Story
March 1890
This letter is written on thin yellowish paper feint ruled in both directions. There is a picture of the hotel at the top - 2 floors in a rather palladian style.
Grand Hotel d'Angleterre
Esbekieh
CAIRE
March 15th 1890
My dear Mother,
I have but time to send you a very short line to tell you of my movements. I got to Port Said after a very stormy passage by the Telemaclus, on the 9th & came on here next day; Fowler & Frank coming in from Alexandria on the same evening. The Palm has broken down and cannot get away for want of cargo, owing to a strike among the dock hands; so we are landed here for the present - all this week has been one continual visiting of places of interest until my brain is tired of them.
Nothing will please Master Frank now but that he must see Palestine, and we actually leave here tomorrow as Cooke's tourists arriving at Jaffa on Tuesday morning, & leave Jaffa the next Tuesday, reaching Alexandria on 27th where we embark for home in either the Palm or the Romulid, I am not sure which. After the very careful way in which we discussed the £.s.d before leaving home & the way we thought the alternative trip too long & too expensive (it was only about £5 a week more) this reckless running about amuses me.
However as far as our trip to Palestine goes there is a certain method in Frank's madness - we are cast up here by force of circumstances and we cannot get away without forfeiture of our passage money - this place is simply ruinous, and at the rate that Cooke takes us to Palestine we cannot well spend much more than we are obliged to spend here. We shall see Palestine and then come home. I own I hate this kind of touring in the American Style - it is neither interesting nor instructive; and at the end of a rush around, all that one has is an ampty boast that one has seen the place, But Master Frank does not care for anything intellectual and rushes about to look for the stock sights caring little about the real interest he sees providing he sa seen them. As I told him - the only time that I have ever gone to see anything in a hurry, simply for the sake of seeing it was the case of the pyramids (Ihram - also written in Arabic) We saw them the say after we got here. I cannot now go into a description of them or our visit; but I went up the Great Pyramid unaided, & have now large bruises on my legs from the strain.
Two days after I went quail shooting at Bedreshin & hoped to work off the stiffness, but I am only just able to walk comfortable. N.B. The Great Pyramid is 500 feet high and each step is about as high as an ordinary table.
It is most amusing for me to note how many words in common use here are also common in Hindustani - for instance I went to call today on Mrs Meklem Shakor the wife of Shakor Bey secretary to Sir F. Grenfell the Sirder of the Egyptian Army. You may remember that she was an Irish girl & Lou knew her well at Castle Sanderson. I saw her starting out driving from her house but my driver had been told to go to the wrong house & did not stop when I called to him. We went to a house attached to a mission school; & the servant when I asked for Shakor Bey told me he was 'Musaplur' - travelling. Well I cannot tell you all the amusing incidents about my conversation with the Bey's niece etc. but Musaplur was my shiboleth.
You are no doubt pleased to get letters from me from these places; and I dare say you will be amused at receiving copies of the photos that I have taken during my trip; but I assure that from the rising of the sun to the going doen of the same those words of yours spoken nine years ago still ring in my ears - "We will take good care you don't go back to India." It was the ruin of my life and the wreck of all my hopes and ambitions, my not being permitted to return to India, & had it not been for my poor wife, who admitted it on her deathbed, I would have returned there. It is bad enough for me to be in England which I hate, but Algeria and Egypt the first stepping stones to the East make me inexpressably sad at heart.
I shall never do any good now as long as I live, For where your heart is there will your treasure be also. I feel very much inclined to accept Mr. Morehouse's offer of employment in Algiers simply to get out of England; and yet I should not like to utterly mismanage the place, and at times ones life at Timbarin must be that of a dog.
I must set about putting my things straight for tomorrow morning. Of course you need not take any notice of my eccentricities with regard to the East. I am too poor and insignificant a personage now for anyone to make a fuss about; my death would not cause many to mourn and might even be a benefit to some of my relations.
But by the bright sun above me! I wish I dared to follow out the thoughts that have been ever present to me day and night for all these years. A life of cruel repression is what I have led since the month of March 1881 Anno Domini (when he was invalided home from India). I felt it then and I do still.
Believe me
your affect son
My address will be for the next 3 weeksR. Story.
c/o Agent
Papyanud Steam Ship Company
Alexandria.
Jordan Hotel
Jericho
21.3.90
My dear Mother,
As I remarked, you must not mind my eccentric remarks about my former connection with the East, because it does not matter what I say, seeing that I am not permitted to act up to what I think or say - so let it pass.
We are here after having 'done' Jaffa, Jerusalem, Jericho, the Dead Sea, the Jordan and various places of interest around Jerusalem. We return to Jerusalem tomorrow & intend to try to se Bethlehem & the Mosque of Omar which stands on the site of the temple. On Monday we return to Jaffa and embark for Alexandria on Tuesday. At Alexandria we pick up a Papyanud boat for England.
I am on the whole not sorry to have seen the little I have of this most interesting country, as it is not difficult to take in the surroundings & enables one to understand the scene described in the bible very much better for having seen them.
It is surprising that a vast religion with all its ramifications has its centre in a second rate very dirty Eastern town like Jerusalem. The valley of the Jordan was nice, without doubt a land flowing with milk & honey & could again very easily be made to do so, for the ground is amazingly fertile, but thanks to a miserable government like that of the Turks it is now almost a desert.
Jericho for instance is nothing but a dirty Bedouin village about as big as the 'Sandholes' on the way to Kilmore - the only buildings being two Russian convents & two hotels which latter are only open during the touring season. We have had a swim in the Dead Sea & very funny it was, for the water is so buoyant that it is impossible to submerge oneself in it. One can stand upright in the water with the head and shoulders out and cannot sink any lower, it is of course intensily salt, & is 1200 feet below sea level - the Arabic name is Bahar-Lut. I have had 4 baths today, one before starting, one in the Dead Sea, a swim in Jordan at the place where the Israelites crossed and a bathe in Elisha's fountain & a good long ride in the sun. Of course I have mounted my turban which rather puzzles the natives especially as I sometimes understand what they say to me owing to the numerous Arabic words that come in Hindustani but of course I don't know Arabic which is as different from Hindustani as French is from English.
I have left my camera in Jerusalem for fear of breaking it but I am sorry to have been obliged to do so. I have taken many notes & gathered much useful information, but I wrie under very great difficulty after a very hard day with a fearful pen and worse ink, so I will not attempt any more. I shall have much to tell you on my return but pray pardon a hurried note now.
I am, your affect son
R. Story
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