Authors, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence; Eden, Emily, 1797-1869 -- Correspondence
I am at Allahabad, Theresa--“More fool I; when I was at home I was in a
better place”: as dear Shakespeare, who knew all about Allahabad, as
well as everything else, observed with his accustomed readiness. I do
not know more about it, seeing we only arrived this morning. Our tents
are pitched on the Glacis of the Fort, an encampment sacred to the
Governor-General, and this Glacis, as you in your little pleasing way
would observe, is not Glacé, seeing that I have just desired an amiable
individual clothed in much scarlet and gold to pull the Punkah, which,
by the _prévoyance_ of the Deputy Quarter Master General, has been
wisely hung in my tent. You see, what is called the cold weather is
really cold and remarkably pleasant in the mornings, and our march,
which we generally commence in the dusk at half-past five, and conclude
before eight, is very bracing and delightful. But then that horrid old
wretch the sun comes ranting up; the tents get baked through; and all
through the camp there is a general moulting of fur shoes and merino and
shawls, then an outcry for muslin, and then for a Punkah to give us
breath. We cannot go out till it is nearly dark; and then about
dinner-time, when we cross over from our private tents to the great
dining-room, we want cloaks and boas and all sorts of comforts again.
Those cold hours of the day are very English and pleasant.
I hate my tent and so does George. We incline to a house with passages,
doors, windows, walls that may be leaned against, and much furniture.
Fanny luckily takes to a tent kindly, but the majority of our camp,
consisting of various exemplary mothers and children, are of the house
faction.
Our chaplain and his Scotch wife, who speaks the broadest Scotch I have
ever heard, have been _eating_ with us all to-day, for, as Mrs.
Wimberley observed, “It’s just reemarkable: the cawmels kicked all our
crockery off their bocks yeesterday, and to-day our cooking-tent is left
on the other side of the Jumna, so we’ve just nothing to eat.”
We crossed the river at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna this
morning.
Last night we went down on our elephants to see the advanced guard of
the camp pass over. It was a red Eastern sky, the beach of the river was
deep sand, and the river was covered with low flat boats. Along the bank
were tents, camel-trunks, fires by which the natives were cooking, and
in the boats and waiting for them were 850 Camels, 140 Elephants,
several hundred horses, the Body Guard, the regiment that escorts us,
and the camp-followers. They are about 12,000 in all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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