Jan & Feb 1881

Robert spent the first days of the year in Multan Hospital suffering severe pain, sleepless nights and convulsions. On the 9th he was "taken for a turn in a dhoti", also received a telegram - new daughter (Vida) both doing well. On the 10th he started the long and painful business of moving down to Colaba Hospital, Bombay, ready to catch a steamer to England. A daily account of the move is interesting:

 

Jan 10th. Bad night. Left Multan by 6.15pm train. Great trouble in getting me into the carriage. Had to be dragged along the floor on a blanket. Dr Sweeney in charge of me. Pte Judge 88th Regt also with me. Great pain during the night.

11th. Got to Umballa 8pm. Very severe pain moving me from the carriage into a gari & from a gari into Lumley's Hotel. Two morphia injections at night which the second had no effect.

12th. Had a stretcher made to put me into the train. Much pain during the day. Bought some small silk things etc. to take home. Morphia at night worked well.

13th. Left Umballa by 12.15pm mail. Bawrumi (his dog) got left in the train & went on. Bad line at first; awful shaking - severe pain. Reached Gaziabad at 8.15pm. My stretcher broke in getting me out of the train. I was taken in a dholi to a rest bungalow. Good fire, Morphia at night did not take away pain but gave some rest.

14th. Had my stretcher mended. Left by 2.15 train. Bad pain in the train, took 2 pints of champagne and slept till 12 midnight. Reached Allahabad next morn. Got some opera cloaks etc.

15th. Very severe pain during day & night. Slept a little towards morn. Got some pictures of Native dresses etc.

16th. Got some Benares brass work. Pain came on in the afternoon. Left by the evening train for Jubbulpore.

17th. Got here at 5am. Went in a dholi to Jackson's Hotel, my bed very uncomfortable. My orderly Ahumdulla very bad with rheumatism in his back.

18th. Left by the evening train. Bad night.

19th. Got in to Bosawar in the early morn. Pain very bad, 7 drops of morphia gave ease. The station master kindly gave us a room belonging to the railway people.

20th. Left by 5.30am train. Bad carriage, had to be put onto the top seat. Saw the Ghats by daylight. Got to Byculla at 9pm. Went in a dholi to Adelphi Hotel. Good night but many mosquitos.

21st. Byculla Hotel, Bombay. Got some silver ornaments - very dear. Sweaty with fever all day.

22nd. Was taken to Colaba Hospital in the morn in a dholi, distance 6 miles. Dr Parr took over charge of me. Very bad night owing to hard bed.

 

Here he stayed for the next five weeks. He was put on an air bed and given hot baths which gave him fewer bad nights & less pain. He got letters from home, and wrote in answer, also wrote many business letters, getting his pay documents corrected, luggage sent on, bills paid, and tickets for his dog and Wazir. The pain shifted to his ribs but gradually began to abate and he sat in a chair for part of some days. He had a support belt which he found good. He shot at lizards, crows etc. from his chair with his pea rifle, one day he went for a sail in the Rani custom houseboat. As there was no Trooper sailing before March 31st he asked for and was given, a passage on a P&O ship.

 

On March 1st he got a pair of crutches, and next day could use them without help. On the 3rd March he embarked on the P&O ship SS Pekin with Wazir and Bawrumi. He could use his crutches on deck but had to be carried down the companion ways.

 

The Pekin had fine weather and calm seas all across the Indian Ocean, Robert found he could get down companion ways by himself if we went backwards and could stand up un-aided. They reached Aden on the 9th and went up the Red Sea in cool, calm weather. At Port Said on the 16th Robert ventured ashore with Wazir and Bawrumi who attacked another dog. He remarks that flags were flying ½ mast for the Czar of Russia.

 

The sea was rougher in the Med & Robert had to stay in bed much of the time because of the rolling of the ship. He went ashore at Malta, but not again although they stopped at Gibraltar. He docked at Southampton on the 29th and was taken to the Great Western Hotel by Wheler and Ted. Next day he took the train to Clifton & was met by Floré & her father. His address was 32 York Crescent, and there all the family came to see him.

April 1881

For a fortnight Robert stayed at home at 32 York Crescent, visiting and receiving visits. His daughter was christened Vida Hope Carmichael at Emmanuel Church on the 2nd & he took Wazir to the zoo & the museum. His illness had caused curvature of the spine and he found he was now 5' 9¼", an inch shorted than before.

 

On the 11th he went to London with Ted and Wazir & stayed for 10 days in a ground-floor room at the Great Western Hotel in Paddington. He went to a dentist and a doctor, Sir J. Paget - "he pronounces my case spinal disease". He showed Wazir the underground, Madame Tussauds, St. Paul's Cathedral & the Houses of Parliament and went visiting every day. He actually says once "very tired". On Easter Saturday the three of them went to a matinee of "Maskelyne & Cooke. New performance. Very good fun".

 

He then went on to Winchester alone for another 4 days of visiting. When he got back to Clifton he found Floré with a cold and as he had one himself they stayed in for a few days, but then resumed their endless round of social life. They went to a fancy ball with Wazir and stayed until 1am. He remarks that Arthur had been vaccinated, Lou, Charlie & Floré came to several meals and his mother called once.

 

May & June 1881

On May 1st Robert and Floré spent the day at Kelston Villa where her parents were living, they must have gone out leaving everything locked "Wazir had to climb the garden wall". Robert was fitted with a spinal corset but after 3 refits it was still unsatisfactory. On the 9th he took Bawrumi for a walk "had trouble with another dog on the way. I overexerted myself & was laid up with a hard pain in the afternoon. Frank Begbie helped me to bed".

 

Next day he stayed in bed receiving visits. "Floré was taken with hysteria at night. I sent for Dr. Swaine & Mrs. Bush. The latter remained all night." No more is mentioned of this.

 

The next day Robert arranged with a cabinet maker to design an ornament commemorating Hafiz (presumably including the four hooves) and a stand for his spurs. Their daily round of visits and walks was punctuated by small incidents such as "Bawrumi tore Floré's dress", and Floré fighting with Dr Swaine over Vida's vaccination. They went to The Pirates of Penzance with a party of friends and go to bed at 1am. Towards the end of May Robert was taken ill several times while visiting and had bad nights, was on Chlorodyne again.

 

On the first day of June, Dr Pritchard came and said Robert's condition was much worse, he was unable to get up. He hired an American organ for his bedroom on which some of his visitors could play to him. He was ill for a week with bad pain relieved by morphia injections.

 

The Dr then put a plaster on his back which seems to have helped him. On the same day he said "turned over my gun and express rifle. Floré down to Bristol with Wazir who drew quite a crowd about them".

 

For all the rest of June he was ill in bed. Among many visitors he mentions Louisa, Ted, Evelyn, Fran, Floré and Wheler Bush, and Sister Rosa Carmichael, and his mother often sat with him. The organ broke down and had to be nearly taken to pieces, and his mother gave him an invalid table.

 

July & August 1881

Floré had Vida and Wazir photographed on July 2nd. Robert was beginning to feel better and could walk about his room. On 5th "letter from Oswald from the Comus off Formosa describing his visit to the coal mine". Never a day passed without several visitors, and Robert sometimes sat on the balcony, and once played duets. On the 16th "Sent my cornet to Blacklands to be done up. Lady Stuart in No. 29 delirious and screaming loudly. Wazir got his ticket back to India on P&O SS Rosetta.

 

Ted came back from his militia training on the 22nd. The next day Dr. Pritchard brought Prof. Brickson who made a long examination & prescribed rest, blisters and artificial supports. Evie had been vaccinated along with nearly everyone at the college as there was a case of smallpox. Wazir left for India and was replaced by a man called Hames. Robert got back his cornet and the parrot flew out of the window for the second time.

 

At the beginning of August Robert was still far from well. On the 6th "Received objection statement from India about the travelling expenses of the doctors attending me. My leather corset came from London". The next day he went out in a bath chair, he also got someone to see what could be done about his expense claims & wrote to Colonel Chapman on the subject. He went out again in a bath chair and was doing small jobs such as painting two mirror frames but was on morphia nearly every night.

 

His mother and the rest of the family were staying at Bournemouth when one of her staff, Davidson, was taken seriously ill. His mother rushed back and had her taken to the infirmary, and the next day helped her make her will. She then went back to Bournemouth. Robert had a new cushion for his couch (no good) and a large blister on his back. 21st "Report that bread will rise in price owing to the heavy rain".

 

On the 27th he and Floré engaged rooms in Rodney Cottages for the following week, but 3 days later Floré decided the rooms were too small and they took rooms in Princes Buildings instead. Robert hired a piano and an organ to go there. They heard from Bournemouth that Fran had been ill with a tumor in his arm caused by bathing after vaccination. Robert was still on morphia at night which relieved his pain but could no longer be relied on to produce sleep.

 

Sept. & Oct. 1881

 

Robert and Floré packed up and moved to 8 Princes Buildings. "England got drunk and had to be sent off after he had broken three pictures". Wheler, Louie and Gussie (Bush) helped them. They both felt very tired and stiff, but on the 7th Robert was able to go for a short walk in the garden. All the family came home from Bournemouth on the 8th and therefore came to see him often. He walked out to have his hair cut with no bad after effect, but two nights later a whole bottle of morphia without gaining any relief.

 

It was Floré's birthday on the 19th and various members of the family called. She went to a firm called Laverton to see about an invalid chair for Robert. The next day he remarks that the lodger downstairs dies at 4am. He took to going on his visits in a (bath?) chair but otherwise the pattern of social life was unaltered and undiminished.

 

Oct 1st "Mother called, in difficulty about servants", on the 7th Ted left for agricultural college at Cirencester. Later a letter from Wazir now back in Shahjahanpur. On the way home from evensong at All Saints they saw the glare of a great fire in Bristol. The next evening Robert & Wheler went to hear Mignon done by the Carl Rosa company "Very fair".

 

Wed. 12th "Sir A. Elton objects to my cornet. Row with servants. Walked to Bennet’s to have my hair cut. Sir W. Carmichael called. Met Mother, Sir W., Louisa & Aunt Agnes near S. Lodge. Told them I had just met Uncle D. Meade & Aunt C. on Sion Hill. Louisa, two Aunts and Uncle for tea. Aunt Caroline and Uncle D. to dinner. Musical evening".

 

The next night there was a severe storm and it blew in one of the nursery windows. The following day Robert and some others went to the suspension bridge to see the effects of the wind. On the 24th "Heard from Meade of 8th B.C. that my case has been sent to the C in C for him to decide on the claims against me". He and Floré went to Riseley's organ recital at the Colston Hall & were much struck by his playing.

 

Robert mentions his health far less often, and was going for quite a lot of walks, some of them quite long ones.

 

 

Nov & Dec 1881

 

November was a fairly uneventful month. Robert went to see "The Corsican Brothers" at the theatre, and to Riseley's organ recitals every Saturday. He also joined a club and played billiards there. He was photographed in his 8th B.C. uniform but did not like the proofs and sat again a week later. They had thoughts of moving to Winchester and even engaged a house through an agent, but then heard from Tatlow that funds were short and had to cancel it.

 

He seems to have been having difficulty over his property at Bingfield, once Tatlow wrote about "the attitude of the tenants" and again enclosing a "No Rent" notice, and Robert replied about settling with the tenants.

 

At the end of the month, he received a certificate from Dr Erickson. Mrs Bush gave a dance at Rodney Place.

 

December started with a ball at the Victoria rooms given by the Engineers. Robert went with Floré, Louie & Gussie. "A very good dance indeed scarcely anyone having a fault to find except the excess of women over men".

 

In this week he got a certificate from his doctor and wrote to Asst. Adjt. Gen. for an extension of leave. He went to Bathampton & lunched with the Freeling’s, home at 6.30pm after a 30 mile drive, the he, Floré & Louie went to hear the guards band at Colston hall. He heard from India that the C in C refused to forward his case, and he was asked to pay RS64 for Wright's fare from Sibi to Multan. He wrote out a statement of his case for the India office & consulted a friend at the club about it. He did get the balance of his pay dues from India, £16.5.2 He went to a concert by V. Pomeroy at the Victoria Rooms.

 

Among all the calls and visits he had several musical evenings and went to Patience with a family party. He & Floré had their rooms and had a small afternoon "at home".

 

On the 13th "Went to Bristol with Wheler and ordered a small lathe and fretwork machine. To the theatre with Louisa & Floré. Merchant of Venice with Irving and Ellen Terry". He stayed a night in London at 2 Brunswick Terrace with Aunt Clara so that he could go to the India Office. There he saw Lord Hartingdons Private Sec. Maitland, & Col. Johnson Mil. Sec. who put him in the way of having his cause heard. He wrote to the Under Sec. of State India.

 

On Sat. 17th he got his lathe set up & Evie & Fran came over to help him. He also got his fret saw working. Evelyn went to Bristol with him and they bought tools. He has a Persian letter from Wazir.

 

Robert stayed in on Xmas Eve to put presents together. Xmas day they went to Matins at St. Emmanuel Church and spent the day with various family households. There was an afternoon dance at Kelson Villa on Boxing Day, Robert had spent the morning making picture frames. Four of his brothers, Ted, Arthur, Evie & Fran came to lunch next day and afterwards some of them crossed the river to watch an iron furnace topped. There was a very slow party at Miss Jackson's and a very pleasant dance & party at S. Lodge on the 30th. Then on the 31st Robert & Floré had about 70 people to a musical afternoon, thus rounding off a pretty busy month.