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Lt. Col. Robert Story - Letters from India 1880

Letters from both Robert and new wife Floré to his mother Caroline

Started by Floré

   Mooltan May 10 1880

Dearest mother
Very many thanks for your welcome letters which we received Thursday April 29. They had been sent from Aden to Dagshai as troop ships don't stop at Aden and from Dagshai they were sent to us here. We left Agra on April 21st & went to Dholepore to stay at the Residency there with Colonel Dennehy. He gave us the most kind reception and he is one of the pleasantest & most courteous men I ever met. Gopi Singh a native prince in command of the Rana's army met us at the station. The thermometer in the train was 112° for we were silly enough to leave the windows open. When we were shown to our room at Dholepore, a large & luxurious appartment, where the temperature stood at 83° you can imagine the change of atmosphere was delicious. We had punkah, tatties and thermantidote all hard at work night & day and everything thing that could in the smallest degree conduce to our comfort was at hand. We certainly enjoyed our few days rest at Dholepore greatly.  Robert needed it even more than I did, for he had gone out in the sun at Agra & was suffering from the effects of his naughtiness. He did not feel it at the time, but as everyone told him he paid the penalties afterwards.

I have written a long account about the Rana etc. to Kelston Villa - Robert has of course told you all about him before. He is a pleasant little fellow, 16 now, but in many respects very young for his age. He talks English uncommonly well & uses all the ordinary schoolboy slang. He was very glad to see Robert and informed me one day that he was "awfully glad we had come because he wanted to see what sort of a girl old Story would marry!" Gopi Singh I liked very much, he only talked a little English but he was one of the most thoughtful men about providing one with small creature comforts that I have ever come across & so unselfish. The Rana took me one day to see his mother the Rani. Of course no man except immediate relations is allowed to look upon her. She was sitting on a chair in the middle of a carpet when we came in, 4 of her women were fanning her with hand punkahs, 4 more stood at the side of the hall. She came to meet me to the edge of the carpet, a sign of great condescension. I bowed very low, she did ditto, then she shook hands & taking my hand she led me to a vacant seat at her side. She could not speak a word of English so the Rana interpreted for us & a most amusing interview I had. She laughed immensely & really I could not help it now and then. One thing she insisted upon was that I should tell her one after the other all the words in Hindustani that I knew & both she and her women seemed greatly entertained by my performance. Before I left she presented me with a bouquet of flowers,

The Rani was beautifully dressed in green silk and crimson gossamer embroidered with gold & had on quantities of jewellery. She is about 30 & very good looking with a most magnificent pair of eyes.

Tell Charlie and Florie that one morning before breakfast Robert and I went for a long ride on one of the Rana's elephants. I hope I shall never have such another ride for the motion of the elephant seemed to well nigh smash my backbone every step he took after the first half hour.

We left Dholepore on Mon. April 26 in the afternoon & travelled all night to Saharunpore where we arrived around 10:30 in the morning. We spent the day, during which there was a sandstorm, at the hotel there & went by the 6:53 train in the evening.We travelled all night and reached Lahore at 7:40 on the following morning. We spent the day at the hotel there (such a dirty place we intended to have spent the night, but it was impossible) and went onward again by the 7 o'clock evening train. The next morning at 6:30 we reached Mooltan. Such a dreary looking hot sandy place. We had to stay 8 days at the Dak Bungalow we had taken whilst the rest of the house we handed over to the painters, white-washers etc. to be cleaned. The first few days were most uncomfortable & horrid in every way. There was all the discomfort of close quarters, no punkahs, horrible heat, myriads of mosquitoes, dirt of every kind, workmen to drive, servants to hurry & to add to all this both of us so seedy we were fit for nothing. The doctor however soon put us to rights and we are both as flourishing as possible. Our bungalow is as clean as a new pin, all our unpacking is done, our rooms nicely and comfortably arranged and the workmen out of the house.

Robert is now lying asleep under the punkah and I am writing at a little table beside the sofa under the punkah too. The thermometer stands at 94° & this is our coolest room, viz the drawing room.

The English officers of the 8th B.C. are very few. The Col, and Mrs. Chapman (she is the only lady in the Reg.) we like very much. They have been most kind to us in having us to dinner, taking us for drives etc. & also in lending us plate and dishes & such like articles for our glass and china will not be here for another fortnight. Then there are Capt. McKay and Mr. Parsons both very nice men & these, the doctor and Robert are all there are.

Robert will have the command of a squadron at once, though he cannot receive the pay until he has passed the Higher Standard, for which he going to work up immediately. His great difficulty at present is to get chargers, as there are no horses to be had except one Arab that he does not like. He bought a pony on Saturday and goes to work on that until we can find another animal.

Robert's old servant is a most invaluable man & he is the only one who can talk English, he is worth a great deal to me. At present we have in the servant line, Wazir Ali, who acts as Robert's bearer & head servant - his brother is the butler - a cook - a sweeper - a water carrier - a washer man - a tailor - a groom, three punkah men - & my Ayah. The last is the most hideous creature you can imagine but she has a wonderful character for honesty which covers a multitude of sins.

One evening last week we went to a moonlight dance given by the 80th Reg. which is stationed here. Tonight we go to one given by the 8th B.C. There are only eight ladies in the station who dance - 12 ladies are the entire number. We have paid visits already - I really must end now so with love to all
believe me
Your affect daughter

Florence M. Story

How is Lou? And how is her Ernest? We sleep out on the roof at night for the sake of the cool air.

Continued by Robert.

I can add very little to this except that in addition to the dullness of the station there is no sport to be had in the neighbourhood; we look forward to marching in the cold weather. The 8th B.C is a mixed regiment; containing, if anything, a majority of Musulmans. My squadron is composed entirely of them. The campaign in Afghanistan has greatly told upon the horses and the want of forage here makes it very difficult to get them up again.

However we hope for pleasant quarters in the Umballa or Meerut when we march. The effect of the war is very readily felt here, in the prices of everything also in the great difficulty of obtaining servants. The population up here being small and the natives poor and dirty but independent, they don't much care to come and serve the white man.

Down country it was very different, men would there resort to all kinds of tricks to gain employment.

I am thankful to say we are gradually getting comfortable & do not find the heat so unsupportable as at first. Unfortunately the evenings are the most oppressive time during the whole day. One can only get out in the morning and evening; and when the latter is unpleasant it is no joke. This is almost entirely a military station, we have the 88th Connaught Rangers. The 21st Madras N.I. stopped here on the way to the front, the 8th B.C. and a field battery.

Any small bills that may be sent to you please send on as I asked you - I tried to get them all in at Winchester but the tradesmen there have such a rooted aversion to cash payments that it is ludicrously difficult to get them to take the money.

I shall hope to tell you more about our doings in my next letter in a fortnight.

I hope Louisa is taking care of herself.
Your affect son
R. Story



8th Bengal Cavalry

Mooltan May 16th 1880

My dear mother

The outside of your letter to Aden was quite a curiosity, it having travelled all over the country before finding its way here.

You may remember I never yet have stopped at Aden though we pass within a few hundred yards of it & could almost throw a stone on the shore. I don't fancy troop ships often stop there en route to India and troops generally come there from India & thence go home.

We are settling down almost comfortably, and the weather being wonderfully cool for the time of year, are not so badly off as we might be. We keep our house down to 90 without much difficulty, whereas we could not get it below 94 a few days ago.

I am still horse hunting to very little purpose - I tried two Arabs this morning but cannot take either, as one is white and the other grey & would be a mark for every buttst on service.

Our last addition to the family, a young parrot which I took from its nest under the roof is getting on famously and promises to be great fun soon.

My occupation hitherto has been very varied, and I have not yet settled down to regular regimental work. I am in many ways fortunate in being sent to the 8th B.C. as I have already command of a squadron for which I shall draw extra pay as soon as I can pass the H.S. exam in Hindustani.

At the same time the great want of English officers has a very evident effect on the smartness of the regiment. And I certainly have very little help in learning my work.

I find my former reading in Hindustani of the greatest possible service and hope to qualify for appointments very soon.

Our principle hope at the present lies in our leaving this station in the cold weather. A march is a most wonderful thing to set people up in health. The other day we took a drive around the station to see the fort and the Ed Ghar where Vausagnew and Anderson were murdered in 1848, but the more we see of the place the more dreary and uninteresting does it seem.

My stout gentleman Wazeer keeps on saying he wishes we in Hindustan (i.e. the north west of India as opposed to the Punjab) the land of pleasant grass and water, and I endorse his sentiments fully.

We have already had a most unlucky accident with a pony: one that I bought from a brother officer. She turns out to be expecting a foal in spite of the opinion expressed by the Salvotrie (vet) a short time ago to the contrary - I only took her on the distinct understanding that the officer in charge of the transport from whom she was originally bought would take her back if not approved of - this he now refuses to do. However I am not going to be entirely the loser as my brother officer and I are to divide the loss on selling her by auction. This is an unfortunate accident that the most experienced man in India could not have foreseen a month or two ago. I was again unfortunate yesterday for having tried a pony in the morning and approved of him, when I came to take my final trial in the evening I found he had been branded for Government by mistake and I could not buy him.

We gave a small dance last Monday to the station at the mess in the garden which we had lighted by Chinese lanterns; the floor for the dancing being (as usual here) cloth stretched tight on a level ground with newspapers and bamboo matting underneath. Floré got on capitally, but I was very tired and too seedy to enjoy anything.

Since our house has been cool and comfortable, we have both, however, been very well except that Floré suffers dreadfully from bites of sandflies and mosquitos, she counted 60 bites on one hand. They simply nibble on me occasionally but cause very little irritation. At the same time Floré tells me that I scratch myself frantically at times in the night. We still sleep on the roof and hope to do so for some time. Towards morning I have to pull my rossi over me for warmth.

Taking it all in all by comparing notes with bachelors and married people, we are wonderfully comfortable. and everyone admires our house and Floré's taste in arranging it.

I shall be most anxious to hear what becomes of Ted, for I am quite sure the opinion I expressed about his chances of passing a competitive exam will be found a true one.

I see you understood my telegram from Bombay - I had to make it as short as possible as the address is charged for, and the rate is RS2.12.0 (i.e. about 5/6 English) per word.

With love to all

I remain

your affect son

R, Story


Footnote by Floré

Robert has left this for me to add a line but as I wrote such a long letter last week and he has written this one now there really is nothing for me to add. He is now resting on the sofa, the parrot fast asleep inside his coat! We have been expecting to hear from you every mail. We were married a year yesterday. Rather a different climate between here and Worcester where Robert shivered from cold when enveloped in his big Ulster! I am glad to say we are quite settled in our house now and can take life fairly easily which means by interpretation that I now allow myself to rest in peaceful slumbers for an hour or so during the heat of the day, a luxury I have not hitherto been able to afford myself. Adieu.
Love to all - letters will be acceptable from any one also newspapers.
Yours ever FMS

Multan 5.7.80

Postmarks:
Mooltan Jul 5
Bombay Jul 10
Clifton Jul 31

My dear Mother
I am very glad that you have found a tenant for Bingfield though a bad one. I conclude that as Mrs Forbe's tenancy begins nearly in the middle of the year. My share of expenses would be something as follows:-

½ years contribution £55 / 2 = £27.10 and ½ of the expense of putting the house in order for Mrs Forbe's occupancy - this for 1880: afterwards while the house is let we each pay ½ the necessary repairs. I am not quite ready to do this, but I hope that you will not call on me this year for much over the usual amount as you know that coming out here, getting into a house and the numberless small items of extra expense caused by arriving at such a place at such a season form very heavy calls on my purse: to meet them I have to expect little or nothing from Mr. Tatlow, but I do find that my extra pay is a great help. Roughly speaking it is rather over than under £350 per annum while at home it was just £100 per annum. Also I find that, putting first expenses aside, we ought to live very cheaply out here, even in Multan which is a very dear station.

I fear you will find it a severe strain to have the care of more children, but at the same time I'm sure that Aunt Annie could scarcely have made a better choice for their good.

What a relief you will find it if only you can find some employment for Ted to keep him from loafing. I have been thinking that the longer you can keep him a teetotaller the better. I do hope that as Lou has begun well, so she may go on without trying to do too much at first.

Our life here is still sufficiently monotonous, & I am sure if I were not married I would feel it very severely, but I rejoice more in Floré out here even than I did at home & it amuses me to find that I pass as a jealous husband because we happen to prefer our own company to that of others.

I think I told you of our trip to Bhawalpore - since then we have had a very pleasant boating party on the canal; first of we had an amusing hunt for our rendez-vous - I riding with my orderly Ahenedulla Khan on a second horse to take mine home, & Floré driving in the Deputy Commissioner's buggy with Mr. Rowe 8th B.C. When we got to what we thought was our rendez-vous we found no boat, but I found it after a little search - the buggy had to reach it over some ground not intended for driving (the parrot won't get off the table and has put his tail into that last word). But when we got into the boat we drifted down the current singing songs and seeing how often we could run into the bank altogether passing a very pleasant evening with some pleasant people.

At last we have some rain; three very heavy storms and a few showers, and it is deliciously cool in consequence, with the punkah and thermatidote to keep our drawing room down to 80° and yesterday we were able to have the doors open nearly all day. Unfortunately the rain came through the roof in torrents into the drawing room and my office, but no harm was done beyond making a mess which will clean up.

I certainly can sleep - the other night Floré woke me up to tell me it was raining - I had before damped my bed to get to sleep, so did not mind but went to sleep again. When a storm of wind blew away my mosquito curtain soon afterwards, & Floré had to clear the debris off her own to save them from being torn. But for all this I never moved until I was called in the morning.

I am sorry to say that Major Ellis R.A. who sat next to Floré on board the Euphrates and who came home with one in the Crocodile has just died at Attock. He leaves a wife and such a pretty family of children of whom he was very fond - he had never been without either his wife or some children with him until this journey of his.

In anticipation of our march in the cold weather I have been lucky in picking up two tents wonderfully cheap; one was to have been for Floré but by reason of increasing dimensions she will not be able to accompany me, but will go by easy stages in the train, naturally she spends much of her time on the sofa, and has had to give up riding some time ago, otherwise she is very well indeed.

Every day we are in hopes of hearing of our destination, but matters are so unsettled that we may have to wait some time. Affairs in Afghanistan cause much anxiety of course, everyone seems utterly at a loss to make out what is going to happen. Before this reaches you however we shall know whether Abd-ul-rahmen means peace or war. Anyhow he is an artful dog. I hear occasionally from the 60th. They seem to find Dagshai very dull after the beauties and sport of Agra.

I think you might make a bundle of the bills you did not pay for me and send them to me, for I will settle them as soon as I possibly can.

About poor Aunt Annie I cannot venture to say more than that I hope all is well.

With love to all I am

your affect son

R. Story

I send an amusing cutting from the Lahore Civil and Military Gazette.
It is a long piece supposed to be an Indian servant telling his friends how to rob their English masters and sell the proceeds at a good profit in the bazaars,
The letter of course is fictitious but I have known of similar tricks tried with success.


Multan 1.8.80

My dear mother,
I have not time to send you more than a few lines to say that I am off to war with the regt. in order to reinforce the Candahar army and explain to Ayub Khan the error of his ways. The telegram came on Thursday, & today is Sunday, so we must start in a day or two.

I cannot say how long we may be away for, indeed no one can tell; but poor Floré has to remain here alone with scarcely a soul to speak to; bad enough at any time, but as she is, quite miserable.

I have written to Tatlow asking him to do what he can for her in the way of sending her money, and of course all that I can send of my pay goes to her as I get it. However my finances are by no means in a good state, and if anything happens to me, she would be left in a bad way - having to raise money to go home etc. Of course the sale of my effects would be something, but we must hope it won't come to that.

All I want you to do if I can is to see that during my absence Mr Tatlow by hook or by crook should keep her supplied with funds, enough to help out what I can send her. She will want a remittance at once, as when I am away I am not able to send money regularly and I absolutely leave but RS200 in her hand to meet all expenses and that cannot last a month. I have asked Mr Tatlow to telegraph to her how soon she can draw for some money and the amount.

My last letter was a contrast to this one - when our expenses were rapidly diminishing month by month; cooler weather was helping our strength to return, and we we in hopes of speedily receiving news of a good down country station being our destination; the very day that letter went, my pony mare Lulu was taken ill & died next Saturday from a malady peculiar to this country and almost always fatal - "Stroke of the Wind", "Hawa-Zadd", or "Paralysis".

I also got a bad abscess in my ear which robbed me of my sleep and only burst on the Thursday morning after keeping me in great pain all night. Floré also suffered so much from the heat in the evenings, and had such fainting fits that we have since had to dine by the thermantidote in the drawing room, since then she has only fainted once.

I only do trust and pray she may not suffer in that way when she is alone for these Natives would be very little use. I only wish I knew of some kind friend who would take care of her - but I know not where to turn. I only hope for a speedy end to this wretched war, but I fear we cannot get back here till the spring at any rate.

To turn to the brighter side of the question; it is a great thing for me to be able to see some service, for I have missed many chances; which may do me no end of good.

While writing this letter I had a long talk with Col. Chapman. A great load has been taken off my mind, I shall at once apply for a passage home for Floré which will be provided at Government expense - she will have to pay her own passage to Bombay - but the sale of our furniture, house linen etc. ought to provide that easily without her having to draw on Cox, at the same time she will require to do so at once for current expenses as I have told Mr. Tatlow.

When she arrives in England she should be put entirely in command of any money that may be forthcoming from Mr. Tatlow. I will live on my pay (and do so like a fighting-cock while the campaign goes on) and possibly anything Floré may send me; but she must be independent of me for her own living, in fact manage my affairs for me while we are apart. She will then be able to do what she likes and be her own mistress.

After the campaign is over I shall seriously consider whether to leave the army or not - at present I am in favour of so doing for many reasons, but principally because as things go we are not fulfilling the object for which we came out, viz saving money, but of course the fates have been very hard on us; but this I shall leave for future consideration.

If Floré's passage is granted (as it ought to be) she will leave about the commencement of October - i.e. at a time when it would be safer for her to travel than now or later on. She will soon be over the voyage, and be at home where tender loving hands can nurse her with all the comforts of home and its associations instead of being left to the care of natives whose language she does not know & some hired woman who cares less about her than the Rupees she gets for attending her. Last, and I may say worst, an Indian Medical Doctor. In a pecuniary point of view also both of us I think will gain.

The messenger is here for the letters
So with love to all
I am
your affect son
R.Story

Mooltan, Punjab

August 2nd 1880

My dearest mother,
As Robert wrote such a long letter to you yesterday I will only send you a few lines to thank you for your kind welcome letter & to say a word or two of the turn affairs here have taken at present. We well knew how engaged you must be with poor Aunt Annie & scarcely expected to hear from you. We hope now that you are having a rest & that your young wards are comfortably settled, poor girls, it is very sad they're being left at an age when they most want a mother, but they are indeed lucky in having you to care for them. We were very pleased to hear such a good account of all the family and very glad that Edward has got into the Militia. Robert says he can well understand his dislike to reading out orders on parade. It is trying work at first to any youth, especially one so shy as Edward.

Are not our orders here horrible? Just when we were settling down comfortably, our first heavy expenses over, and our outgoings daily decreasing. We should have been able to get out here & put by money as well, that it seems doubly hard that all our plans should be upset again. Of course the climate has tried up both, but we had the cold weather to look forward to. Robert lately has been far from strong & I hate the idea of the poor boy having to go away to a hard, rough life, when he wants perfect rest & looking after. There is nothing wrong with him except weakness and that we had hoped the cold weather would cure, besides he had pleasant easy work, which he could get through without much exertion.

Now everything will be different. There is a heap of hard work before him , but as I am told that the climate in Afghanistan is very exhilarating my great hope is that that  may give him a supply of the bodily strength he so much needs. Then this going to the front had, of necessity, caused an outlay over his kit. There was a tent and 101 other things that he was compelled to get, all of which has run away with no small number of rupees.

Then again our little home is broken up. He must go one way, I another. At first I was very unwilling to leave Mooltan, I felt as if I was going so far away from him across the seas, but now I really believe upon the whole that if the Government, as it is sure to so, supplies me with a free passage, that taking everything into consideration, it is the wisest & in reality the least expensive thing to do. This does not make matters the less hard though. I would give the world if the orders were countermanded. As Robert told you I must remain on here I expect until October, but you will hear from me again about my future arrangements. I have been very busy helping to get my dearest boy's things ready ever since the orders arrived. Yesterday, although it was Sunday, I spent some time making the fastening on his blouse for the chain mail that he has to wear to protect his shoulders from sword cuts. Now I must be off to see about his bedding.
Adieu, dearest mother, love to all & believe me
Your affect Daughter
Florence M Story

Envelope addressed to Robert Story Esq. 60th Rifles attached to 8th Bengal regt Mooltan, India. Mooltan crossed out and Jairhabad added, then also crossed out and Bengal Force via Sibi Station,

Postmarks:
  • Bristol Sep. 17
  • Mooltan
  • Redirected
  • Jacobabad Oct 10
  • ditto Oct 11
  • Sibi Oct 22


Clifton 17 Sep 1880


Salisbury Lodge
36 Canynge Square
Clifton, Bristol
17th Sep 1880

My dearest Robert
It was with a heart full of thankfullness that I received your few lines yesterday & also had a long letter from Floré telling me about your march to and from Sibi & your health dated August 22nd. I am very glad to think you are back safe with your wife, but feel sorry about your health & future prospects. I know as you like your profession it will be a great disappointment to you, & I should have liked to have seen you rise in it - able to distinguish yourself, however these things are not in our hands. I wish you would be sent home to join the depot of the 60th & I also hope it will not come to the dire necessity of leaving the army. You would find yourself lost without a profession at your age, and though you might enjoy the rest at first & the society of your wife, you would feel when you grew strong the weariness of a life without an aim so I hope you will take time to recover - when you are strong again, then consider the matter. Had your father followed his profession he would have been a much happier man, pottering about as magistrate & and filling his duties as such did not satisfy him, & really his was a life squandered with splendid talents. His mother took him away twice from his work just as he was getting on, & often did he say how wrong it was of her - so I say do not give up the army, unless forced by health to do so.

I urge this the more from a note I had last night from Mrs Bush who had set all considerations aside in the hope of Floré's return - natural enough in some ways, but she never considered what a loss that return would be to you. I am of a different stamp I have the comfort of knowing that you are a good & affect son, & that we all have our work to do in life, & I am content to part with you for that object, & would be glad to know you are getting on & doing well, even if we did not meet for years.

I hope you will be sent home to recruit, & perhaps before very long we will see you. Floré does not mention herself therefore I hope all is right with her, but give her my love and tell her I should always like to know about her health when she writes.

I received your letter just as you were starting for Candahar & wrote to Mr Tatlow to know how affairs were getting on for you, he replied about four days ago that all your rents were paid, so far good, & this will give you a small ???: but I fear you will be pressed enough, but not as badly as you feared. I wish I could help you but you know that is out of my power. I have quite enough to do to mind my family here.

Sio William larmi cheeil genee (???) me my seven weeks in Ryde, or else I could not have gone, we enjoyed ourselves greatly more than I can tell you. I liked the rest and the mild sea air and as to Arthur I have never seen him look so bright and well, he is growing fast, and his voice has greatly descended, not like Ed's. We returned only two days ago, & the Begbies came back on the next day, I have put them into lodgings in the Mall. There is so much business to be done for them, it gives me  very little leisure, between attending to them & my family, however in the course of the winter I hope to be more free.

Edward I regret to say has given me care & thought, I cannot get him to settle to work, & I doubt after the immense expense I am put to for him that he will ever get into the army. Mr Northcutt complained to me about him the other day,  not attending his classes, & he says it is quite useless for him to attempt to pass any exams this year. Ed wants to leave Mr. N. & thinks he could learn elsewhere - never seeing that it his faults, He wanted then to come home - I had to write him some home truths & have desired him to remain at work until Xmas, & have told him on your return to this country, I shall consult with you regard to him - we must force him to work, & enter a profession, & not allow him to idle his life away.

I am sorry to say Oswald has hurt his knee, & is going about on crutches, he is now in Yokohama, which I am glad of, as Hong Kong was enough to boil him.

Tell Floré my little ones have begun today with their new governess Miss Whitmore, she looks as though she would do, she took an interest in this & tried to help me about a governess, as I thought she would be glad to know I had found one.

Mr Tatlow tells me the Forbes keep Bingfield House neat; I have the most amusing letter from Donaghue who I pay, & the Forbes try to get all sorts of jobs done by him for them out of his time which I pay for; this is a piece of jobbery that displeases Donaghue & he informed me in true Irish style.

I wonder if you will bring your parrot home; I am beginning to weed the house of creatures - the black cat went in its basket back to its former owner yesterday, we have Jack and my doggie & now a beautiful pure white kitten of Ranee's quite like herself. I shall give it to the Begbies, & now four more kittens, I have desired the boys to drown some - the Ranee has found a suitable mate so she has long noisy kittens, but I cannot keep more animals than I have already - besides some of Evelyns monsters in boxes - & he wanted to keep a snake.

I shall not add to this as I fear to lose the mail - even a few lines are so welcome, with much love
I ever am yr affect Mother
Caroline Story

I shall not have time to read this over so if any mistakes please excuse them


Camp Sibi 24.10.80


My dear Mother
Here we are again after a couple of months of rather enjoyable amusements than otherwise, which has been a great service to all of us in setting us up after the severe heat of Multan, the doctor who stuck to his opinion that the best thing for me was to go in for plenty of hard work in a cold climate deserves all praise.

We have been up here altogether now since the 6th August, three weeks of which we spent at Killa Abdulla - there certainly we had to rough it pretty considerably & to endure some horrible smells, also our poor horses were being starved before our faces, but we managed to get up a couple of little raids against some turbulent Atchakzais whose flocks and herds we looted, the first time with a loss of one horse on our side & one man on the enemies, the second time one horse killed by a fall into a mullah on our side and two men one woman and a child cruelly shot down by the Madras Cavalry. So we are not altogether in want of occupation.

After leaving Killa Abdulla we have been very comfortable especially at Quetta where the weather was charming and the country green and pleasant, the march down here was rather trying on account of the sudden change from great cold to great heat - one march of 17 miles only we commenced with cardigan jackets & Ulsters on, & the next in hot weather clothing. But now that we have been a few days down here we are very comfortable indeed as the sun only is hot during the day, but the nights are delightful.

I am sorry to say I have met with a most unfortunate loss, my first charger, the chestnut Arab Hafiz, died the day before yesterday from the effects of a wound in his neck which was given him by a pistol my orderly was carrying for me. I had dismounted to tie my putties (leg bandages we wear instead of long boots) & my orderly was holding my horse & pistol with one hand and his own horse with the other when my horse began champing, sent off the pistol and shot himself in the neck - the weapon was an old one I carried to shoot at dogs which were very troublesome & was too large to go in a holster - it was very lucky my orderly was not hit, I was so careful of this pistol that except at that unlucky moment I never let it out of my hand.

We are to remain here until we are relieved by the 3rd Bombay Cavalry from Candahar who in their turn are to be relieved by the 7th Bengal Cavalry from Morar. I have had plenty of reason to be sure that my determination to go in the Bengal Cavalry and nothing else before I came out was the right one; I have now served with both Madras and Bombay Cavalry & have no fancy for them. To imagine men (as I saw them) fire over 77 shots to kill two men, one woman, a small boy and a goat - arrived on the scene just as the firing had ceased & found one woman and child unhurt & two men and a small boy dead & one poor woman shot through twice & dying, all the weapons they had were an old flint gun, a broken sword and one good sword & shield - I had the men's pouches examined & found those present had fired 77 rounds & there may have been more - I hurried on my mission of reconnoitring to avoid a row between my men and the Madrassies, for the Sikhs especially took little or no pains to hide their scorn, "As though their swords weren't enough" one said to me for they were twenty to two half armed men. The Sind horse are a daily laughing stock to us & worse men I never saw than 20 of them I had under me on our first raid - I took care to employ them only to drive cattle.

Your letter was most reassuring, for although the climate of this country is undoubtedly rather trying, yet it is the place for a poor man to soldier in, & the service undoubtedly is Bengal Cavalry. I wish Floré was a bit more of a soldier, certainly she suffered very much but she caved in most wonderfully easily, and could not be got to take any interest in this country.

When I last wrote I was in a great state of despondency caused by my own weak state of health and the continual sight of Floré's sufferings aggravated as they were by the utter insuffiency of the doctors in Multan; but on calmly looking at the matter I can fully see the misery of my life if I am deprived of regular employment; my heart is in India for soldiering, I have no fancy to be a barrack loafer at home, but as I am now almost a captain in the 60th it may be better for me to go back to it for some reasons, at the same time I must be a captain in five years more in the Bengal Cavalry & I am almost as well off here as a sub as I would be as a captain in the 60th, but for the loss of rank. I must therefore post myself well up in probable retirements in the 60th & watch my opportunity, meantime I shall work on for my Staff Corps examination. This I am naturally very backward in, for I have had no chance of reading naturally since I have been up here.

As you see very little confidence is being placed in Bombay troops - hence our detention here until the 7th Bengal Cavalry can take the place of the 3rd Bombay Cavalry at Candahar. We are fortunate in not having to go there ourselves, but the regt. is in a bad way just now for horses, having been knocked about in a bad way in this and the last campaign. Sir Fred Roberts rode two of our poor beasts to death the other day and may of them have suffered severely from hard work on escort duty to mails etc.. What we have most to complain of in this kind of work is the severe treatment to which our horses are subjected without really sufficient cause.

Ted certainly is most tiresome about his objections to his various coaches - he will not see that he had to do the learning & that the men he goes to merely have to direct his studies into the proper channel, to prevent his wasting his time on useless subjects and to assist him in learning his work in the most useful way - he may fairly blame a man who makes him read subjects that are not called for in the exam for which he is working, but when the subjects are laid down as plainly as they now are he ought not be allowed to question the system of instructions adopted by his master, as he can know nothing of the merits of one system over another however much he may say to to the contrary. What I found him hopelessly deficient in when I last saw him was the rudiments of any particular subject - for instance he may have learnt a good quantity of Euclid without knowing what a straight line or an angle really is. I take those two instances as being apparently simple yet when looked at not so easy to define, for no man ever saw a line or an angle, nor could he had he a hundred eyes - I am convinced that the way to learn any subject is to master the details or definitions thoroughly before going further; & Ted never will do this because it wants really hard thinking.

The postman is waiting for letters so I must close - with love to all I am in all admiration of your great heart, your affectionate son
R, Story

If you feel so inclined do not hesitate to show this to Floré


Linked toFlorence Mansfield Bush; Lt. Col. Robert Story

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