The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 1 (of 2): or, complete guide to gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the East India Company. — John Shaqi
The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 1 (of 2): or, complete guide to gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the East India Company.Williamson, Thomas
History
The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 1 (of 2): or, complete guide to gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the East India Company.
Williamson, Thomas
India -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
The very limited space allowed for the baggage of each passenger,
renders it indispensably necessary that every article should be packed
close. Many consider a large sea-chest to be useful; but, in my opinion,
it is the worst receptacle that could be devised; especially as it
becomes useless on arrival in India. I should strongly recommend four
boxes, well covered with leather, and clamped with brass, measuring
about 26 or 28 inches in length, 18 in breadth, and 18 in depth. Each
should have within a lifter, so that half its contents may be taken out
at pleasure, the lower tier remaining undisturbed. The contents of each
part to be noted on a piece of stiff paper, which should be pasted
within the lid: a copy to be written in a memorandum book, so that the
contents of the several boxes (which should be numbered and lettered
with the proprietor’s initials, thus, A.B./1 A.B./2 A.B./3 A.B./4) may
be known without opening them. Only one of these need ever be in use at
a time; the rest being sent down into the after-hold; which usually is
opened once or twice weekly, on stated days, for the convenience of
those who may wish to have access to their packages.
I have derived very considerable convenience from sorting all my linen
into sets: for instance, a shirt, an undershirt, (commonly called a
_banian_,) a pair of stockings, two neck handkerchiefs, and a pocket
ditto: these I rolled up as tight as could be effected by manual force,
and surrounded with a towel, which, being pinned, kept all fast and
clean. In this form my linen could be packed in a very small space. Foul
linen should always be put up in the same manner. One box, containing
articles in reserve, should be exempted from such as might be
occasionally wanted: it should be allotted to hats, silk stockings, best
coats, linen, waistcoats, &c. Each will occupy about five cubic feet;
therefore, the whole may be comprised in half a ton measurement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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