'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of IndiaEden, Emily
History
'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
Captain D. is in a considerable fuss. Colonel ---- seems never to have
recollected that though so many individuals have left the camp, their
property and servants remain there, just the same, and that the public
officers, with all the clerks, must march on; so there is the same want
of sentries. He ordered off half of the regiment that had come to escort
us to Allahabad, and Colonel B., who only joined last night, sent word
that he had only 300 men to do the work of 1,000. The sentries are
withdrawn from all the private tents, and all the silver howdahs and
waggon loads of shawls, jewellery, arms, &c., of the Tosha Khanna, are
brought into the middle of the street. I should have liked to have
robbed it for fun; in the first place, for the value of the goods, and
then it would have put D., L., and the baboo into such a state of
horror.
Nobody _was_ robbed but Mr. ----, who always is, and looks as if he
always must be; he seems so helpless, and dangles his hands about in a
pair of bright yellow gloves, quite new, and too large for him, and
says, 'It is very odd how the devils of dacoits persecute me.'
The other day they stole his horse: he had put five police to guard it,
and the thief just cut the ropes, jumped on its back, and rode off, and
has never been heard of since. It is very convenient stealing a white
horse in this country, because the natives always paint them, sometimes
in stripes like zebras, and sometimes in zigzags, and always give them
scarlet, or orange tails, and orange legs; so they disguise a stolen one
instantly.
Mr. T. is such a prim boy; he is very gentlemanlike-looking, and seems
very amiable, but he is certainly prim. His uniform is so stiff he
cannot turn his head round, and he talks poetically whenever he does
speak.
F. declares he quoted to-day something from _Mr._ Thomson's 'Seasons.' I
wish when he gives us his arm that he would _shut it up_ again. He
sticks it out almost akimbo, so that it is impossible to _hook on_ with
any certainty.
Ghautumpore, Sunday, Feb. 2.
We have halted here to-day to allow more troops to come and protect the
general property.
I heard from G. from Futtehpore. He says he can sleep very well in his
palanquin; he might call it rather a slow conveyance, but thinks of us
marching, and blesses his own fate. Mr. Beechey, the painter at Lucknow,
sent me to-day a miniature of G., done by a native from his picture. It
is a shocking caricature, but a very little would make it like. I can
make the alteration myself; and if I can get it smoothed up at Calcutta,
I will send it home, and the girls can hang up 'the devoted creature' in
their room. Mr. Beechey says he has sent me the original sketch in oils
to Calcutta. It was an excellent picture, and I hope he has not touched
it since.
Jehannabad, Monday, Feb. 3.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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