'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of IndiaEden, Emily
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'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India
Eden, Emily
Eden, Emily, 1797-1869 -- Correspondence; India -- Description and travel
We made such pretty scenery, too, with a lattice window, and some steps
and a few shrubs and plenty of curtains. After the play they danced five
or six quadrilles, had some supper, and went off, all pleased; and they
want more of these evenings, but it is thundering and pouring to-day,
and it is no use attempting to give parties in the rains. I wish my
drawing paper would not begin to spoil already, but it is turning into
blotting paper. Luckily I cannot find anything to draw just now. It has
occurred to me that when we go home I shall not be able to show you what
an Indian woman is like, and to be sure we have seen very few; but some
of the Paharee women are very pretty, who go about the hills cutting
grass and wood. I met some yesterday and asked them to come and be
sketched, and they said they would, but they have never arrived. Some of
the nautch-girls in the bazaar are very pretty, and wear beautiful
ornaments, but it is not lawful to look at them even for sketching
purposes, and indeed, Mr. N., one of the magistrates, has removed them
all from the main street, so the bazaar is highly correct, but not half
so picturesque as last year. There are very few children ever to be seen
in it. Natives who come to open shops, &c., never bring their families,
from the impossibility of moving women in a sufficiently private manner,
and I very often think that an English village with women and children
walking about must be a pretty sight. They do go about, don't they? I
forget. Poor Mrs. ----, who had a shocking confinement in our camp last
year, has had a worse now; for thirty-six hours Dr. D; could not leave
her for a moment, and for twelve it was not possible to know whether she
were alive--no pulse, and quite cold. We had made all arrangements for
putting off our party yesterday, but she rallied in the afternoon, and
is going on well now. I never saw Dr. D. quite overset before, nor
indeed the least perturbed but he fairly burst out crying when he came
to my room on his way home, and said he did not think anything could
induce him to go through such horrors again; and it was very unlucky
that, just as he was so thoroughly worn out, a poor Paharee was brought
into the Dispensary almost crushed by a tree falling on him, and Dr. D.
had to go and cut off his leg before he went home. I rather wonder how
surgeons enough can be found for all the pains and aches of this world.
Wednesday, June 12.
Captain P. goes off early to-morrow on an official tour to Cashmere, and
will be away five months. He and Miss S. take it very quietly, but they
looked rather unhappy last night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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