James Gilmour of Mongolia: His diaries, letters, and reportsGilmour, James
Religion
James Gilmour of Mongolia: His diaries, letters, and reports
Gilmour, James
Gilmour, James, 1843-1891; Missions -- Mongolia
and were married following Tuesday.
'Our honeymoon is now almost over. I am to have only a week of it.
I hope to start with Meech on a mission trip to the country on
Tuesday next.'
Miss Prankard's first view of her future husband was hardly what she
might have expected. Mr. Meech has also sketched that scene on the
river.
'The morning was cold, and Gilmour was clad in an old overcoat which had
seen much service in Siberia, and had a woollen comforter round his
neck, having more regard to warmth than to appearance. We had to follow
back to Tientsin, Gilmour being thought by those on board the steamer to
be the engineer!'
Two letters may be quoted in this connection. The first was to one of
his most intimate Scotch friends.
'London Mission, Peking,
'January 31, 1875.
'My dear----, Your kind, long, and much-looked-for letter dated May
12, 1873, and August 21, 1874, reached me on January 9, 1875. Many
thanks for it, but I think it would be quite as well in future to
send me half the quantity in half the time, if you really find you
cannot write me oftener. As I was married on December 8, 1874, to
Mrs. Meech's sister, that lady, Mrs. Gilmour, had the great
pleasure of reading your earnest, long, and reiterated warning to
me not to have her. Your warning came too late. Had you posted your
letter on May 12, 1873, it might have been in time, as the first
letter that opened our acquaintance was written in January 1874. If
nothing else will have effect with you, perhaps the thought that
you might have saved me from the fate of having an English wife may
have some effect in moving you to post your letters early, even
though they should not be so long and full.
'About my wife: as I want you to know her, I introduce you to her.
She is a jolly girl, as much, perhaps more, of a Christian and a
Christian missionary than I am. I don't know whether I told you how
it came about. I proposed first to a Scotch girl, but found I was
too late; I then put myself and the direction of this affair--I
mean the finding of a wife--into God's hands, asking Him to look me
out one, a good one too, and very soon I found myself in a position
to propose to Miss Prankard with all reasonable evidence that she
was the right sort of girl, and with some hope that she would not
disdain the offer. We had never seen each other, and had never
corresponded, but she had heard much about me from people in
England who knew me, and I had heard a good deal of her and seen
her letters written to her sister and to her sister's husband. The
first letter I wrote her was to propose, and the first letter she
wrote me was to accept--romantic enough!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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