January 1st
And so another year flits by, and I am 53 and Daisie 45, quite old people, though we both feel quite young. I commanded the usual Royal Parade and General Sir Arthur Barrett, commanding the Northern Army was present - about 7000 troops on parade - some Brigade! The 1/6 East Surreys were very good and looked like the best regular battalion. I think we are going to like Agra, but it's a nuisance not having a bungalow. Good-bye 1918, a year full of incident and very much to thank God for. Our only grief is being separated from our beloved Leo and Galfrid.
Daisie's birthday, so we and the Macauslands (Brigade Major) had a tea picnic.
My charger tried to throw me off before parade, but was quite quiet during the firing - then there were 3 disasters, General Loch was thrown, then the A.D.C., then Capt. Revell (my S.S.O.), his horse was so terrified it sort of fell in a heap and he got muddled up with it and broke his collar-bone.January 12th
Nugent finished his inspection yesterday. To-day we go to Mhow to stop with the Mc.Creas, see the machine-gun central school and the Bombing School and Lecture on Persia and Baku.January 17th
We returned from Mhow to-day a long journey of 1000 miles both ways - I gave my lecture at the Club, and was asked to repeat it to the men, so I gave it again in barracks to the Brecknocks. It was thought that my remarks on revolutions might be useful. They gave me a very good demonstration at the Schools of Stokes Mortar, rifle grenades, Mills Bombs, Machine guns, etc., so my time was well employed.January 18th
Beeloo arrived to stay a day with us - very cheery.January 19th
Sir Aurel Stein arrived to spend a day and a half Our first real heavy rain on Saturday night. Stein is persuading me to write a book on the adventures of Dunsterforce.January 22nd
Left in car for Delhi to be invested with C.S.I., 126 miles - took us 6 hours arriving at Hotel Cecil 6 p.m. flat road, but interesting animals - squirrels, jackals, hundreds of monkeys, who hardly get out of the way of the car - A fine black buck with good horns crossed the road 20 yards ahead of us, peacocks, parrots, and sarus cranes.
General Tom Scott, Mil. Secretary, whom I knew in subaltern days, was at the Hotel and we joined his table.January 23rd
The Investiture was interesting with all the wonderful Rajas in their wonderful costumes. It all seemed to me just like prize day at school - only in those days I got no prizes. Now I get them while the prize-boys of those days are left behind in the race - life is very topsy-turvy. Met many old friends and had a special talk of ¼ hour with the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, about my late experiences.
We lunched with the C.-in-C. also on the same day and he was quite nice, but very non-committal and kept off the Baku subject.January 25th
Motored home without incident, 6 hours. Ran right through a herd of black buck, who crossed just ahead of and behind the car.February 1st
At last occupied our new bungalow - The hotel was excellent, but I am glad to have more room. It is a fine old bungalow next the Club with a thatched roof and 4 bedrooms and dressing-rooms beside our room my office and the dining and drawing rooms. I have been invited to Poona to lecture. Am in the middle of inspection. With 13 units and 15,000 men it takes some time getting round and my fingers get tired of writing reports.February 10th
I hope some good news will soon come. I have had such bad financial shocks, I want something to balance them. First of all when my pay for the Mission was settled up they found I was Rs.5000 = £340 over-drawn and I have to repay this. Then the Secretary of State to-day refuses to let my first month on return to India count as leave, whereby I lose over £100 in pay. Then a cheque from Persia turns up for 1000 krans = £40, I have to pay immediately, then Daisie's absentee allowance for nine months is disallowed, about £130. In addition I have to pay £500 for my motor-car, so altogether I am just suddenly £1100 out of pocket and there never was anything in the pocket - there's always been a hole at the bottom and always will be. Still the situation is really rather a terrible one, and our expenses just now are enormous.
It is still bitterly cold night and morning, but days are hot - I am having a very hard time inspecting my 13 units and confidential reports in duplicate on about 300 officers - and long for a quiet time to attend to my private affairs. The house is looking quite comfortable already, and Daisie as usual, performs miracles and never seems to be tired. The Chattertons are staying for the week-end and as we have to show them the sights, all our time is taken up and there is no peace - but it is nice seeing our oldest friends. Of our combined friends Chatterton is the oldest, as he used to lend his nice pony to Daisie in 1898, just after we were married (Peshawar). The car, so far, runs very well, and I think the driver is very good.February 13th
To-day I lecture at the Club and to-morrow we go to Poona to lecture. We gave our first dinner party last night.February 21st
We returned yesterday from Poona, where we went on the 14th for the now famous lecture. We were lucky to have a carriage to ourselves all the way both ways and slept very comfortably at night. On the down road we went through Bombay and had Salusbury to supper in the horrid grill-room at the Taj Hotel - a very poor supper cost £2 for the three of us. From Bombay we left very comfortably at mid-night in Sir Charles Anderson's saloon and we stayed with him at Poona - he commands the Southern Army. General Anderson ran us about everywhere in his car at 40 miles an hour, which enabled us to see a great deal, but which worried Daisie, as her hair got blown to pieces. We realized that Poona must be very beautiful in the rains, but dried up just now. I am on the verge of buying a trap and pony for Daisie, and then, with a trap and pony, & bicycle we shall be pretty well off for locomotion. It was nice to see Susanna again. She is fatter and improves daily.March 2nd
Shed my warm uniform. Miss Brannan is here and we took her to a picnic in the Ram Bagh yesterday. Finances are very strained, but the Bank are letting me have an over-draft of Rs.3000 and Bank of Scotland £200, so we still float and escape the Bankruptcy Court. It is terrible being separated from our beloved boys, but we have good news of them - not too industrious but nice fellows. I want them to be gentlemen and Christians and what follows will not matter.March 12th
A little rain and it is cooler. Daisie took Miss Key and Miss Brannan out to Fatchpur Sikri in the car. Yesterday Susanna found a snake in her bed-room and she and her mother managed to kill it with a rake and a brick.
My mind is rather restored now after the rattling that Persia and Baku gave it. The revolution left me with a sense of the unreality of things and it quite took away from me all idea of the value of money. I am going to try and write my book on the adventures, 100,000 words and I simply loathe writing. Stein insisted on my undertaking it - bother him!March 17th
The Dunsfords cam from Delhi on Saturday and stayed three days with us. It was a great pleasure to have them, but they are both so full of fads it is not easy to look after them. He won't eat any meat and they have a hundred and one crank rules about water, milk and airing their beds and so on. They will never get over the grief of the loss of their only child, Joanie Dunsford, 18 months ago. She is a great thinker but rather chaotic and has very deep ideas on religion - which is not a Christian one.March 21st
Admiral Lord Jellicoe arrived here to-day to see the sights, but we had no function for him beyond firing the salute.
A young man at the Hotel, calling himself Captain Lord Tresham, there doesn't seem to be any such title, so I sent for him and asked him to explain. He said he was the Duke of Buccleugh travelling incognito, which I very much doubt. The next day he fled to Bombay which looks rather suspicious. Dined with Lord Jellicoe and his Staff of 6 rather cheery Naval Officers. Like all great men he was very unassuming.March 22nd
Had the whole Naval Party to lunch at the Club - 18 in all. Then farewell dinner at the Club to the Molonys.March 30th
I took Daisie the other day to have her eyes examined and the result is she is to have spectacles - age 45! getting on, though we both feel young enough. Friday I took out a Brigade Exercise, stopped the night at Sikandra and back on Saturday. A lot of hard work and hard riding and I was not as tired as the young officers, nor did I lose so much skin off my legs. 1st day up at 5.0, left at 6.0. a.m., rode to Lunatic Asylum, 5 miles, then 7 miles on (2 beyond Akbar's tomb at Sikandra) then 2 back - asking a lot of questions and reaching the bungalow at 12 noon for breakfast, then more questions and writing till 4.30, then 5 miles out, and back, to an outpost position, then back and dinner and 3 hours Conference after dinner, going over the day's work. Saturday started at 7a.m., and rode across country about 20 miles - asking tactical questions and reached home and breakfast at 11 a.m. English mail in with letters from the boys. Now that this is Lent it is the only month in India when we can be really gay - it is the one month out of 12 where training ceases and the hot weather not begun.
Next week, on Monday, I motor 30 miles to Bhartpur to inspect a regiment. Afternoon 4.30 to a function, laying of foundation stone 6.30, a lecture in St John's College. After dinner the East Surrey Theatre. Wednesday Theatricals at the Club, in addition a circus has arrived, and another lot of theatricals on Friday. Also I go to Muttra, 30 miles, on Friday to inspect a regiment and to lecture to the men about revolutions.
I forgot to say that out on the Exercise, Col. Drayson, commanding the E. Surrey, was badly kicked over the liver by his horse, might have been killed - only broke a rib, now in hospital. A good keen soldier, territorial, in real life a diamond merchant (his Adjutant is Lyle of Lyle's Golden Syrup).April 8th
A great day in history! Began my book "from Baghdad to Baku" and wrote 1500 words which Daisie typed ready for the Press. It is getting hotter day by day - Susanna and Miss Key are still with us but it is time they were off. We have not started punkahs yet.April 10th
The situation in India is getting very bad - but bad I am sure is the only way to get better. Disturbances were expected on Sunday as a sequel to the Delhi riots, but Agra kept quiet. To-day Gandhi is arrested, we hear of fierce fighting in Bombay, the telegraph office at Amritsar destroyed and on top of all comes the news from Egypt which should never have been allowed to leak out of the disturbances, and Massacre of many Europeans. I have put up a guard to-night over the telegraph office here - being absolutely the telegraphic centre of India.April 11th
Yesterday's meetings went off without bloodshed, but the rest of India was not so lucky. To-day all seems quiet and I have withdrawn troops. It is hard to write the famous book under these circumstances. To-day I got the news that General Bicherakov, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Fleet of the Caucasus, has appointed me to 4th Class Order of St. Vladimir and 3rd Class Soldier's Cross of St. George.April 16th
Things go from bad to worse and we are on the verge of another 1857 Mutiny.
The Punjab is quite cut off and we do not know what is happening there, except that there has been fighting in Lahore, Amritsar and Gujranwala. So far, Agra has only threats and processions, but we are on the very verge of murder and massacre. The whole world has gone mad.April 25th
Last Sunday was Easter and not a very cheerful one with troops standing to arms and the Parade Service spoilt, but we have so very much to be thankful for after all. Susanna and Miss Key leave for Murree to- morrow, I am getting on slowly with my book, I begin to like writing, but I do not like what I produce. I know it is so far inferior to my talking. Daisie types like a good woman and did 7000 words the last two days.
All is quiet here still, but one only regards it as a lull - the whole of the Punjab is under Martial Law which shows a bad state of affairs, but is proving very efficacious. We always long to see Leo and Galfrid and hate these dreadful separations.May 6th
We keep on having dust-storms and rain, and it keeps wonderfully cool, we could do without punkahs if it were not for the mosquitoes which are fearful. Always more rumours of wars. No sooner do we get a lull in the local riots and massacres than something else springs up. Last night I was out of bed at 3 a.m. to receive a clear the line cypher message to stop all leave etc., owing to impending trouble with Afghanistan. The book progresses, I have written and Daisie has typed so far 40,000 words in under the month. The actual physical labour is considerable.May 26th
No great heat yet. Thermometer down to 113o in the shade, but the nights are moderately cool and we can sleep well. I am getting tired of this old book, it is a great exertion to one who likes talking and hates writing. I have done over 80,000 words now and can write 4000 a day without too much exertion so we will soon be finished. The Afghan War progresses splendidly, but it is a nuisance having all leave stopped. We do so much want to get home and see the boys who have now grown up into men and will have forgotten us.
Daisie does a good day's work. Rides 12 miles in the morning, works for an hour in the garden, types 4000 words for me, and then has one hour's gardening and an hour's motor lesson in the evening. She drives the car very well.May 29th
Ascension Day. I am to give away Mrs. Abbott Young to Mr. Macgregor on June 3rd, an interesting wedding of widow and widower.
My book is almost finished, have done 15 chapters. Very quick work. Indian hot weathers have many compensations, one has plenty of leisure. It's not so very hot and I have not yet got my prickly heat. The 3rd Afghan War goes well, but times are dangerous and who is not sick of war now? Still I don't like being left out of it. In England we will miss the friendliness of the animals out here - there I shall never see a squirrel eating Daisie's toast by her bedside as she sleeps in the early morning and 2 squirrels on the lunch table picking the seeds out of the melon. And the little lizards on the wall catching insects just in front of one's nose as one dresses for dinner.June 3rd
Finished writing the great book, 120,000 words in 7 weeks and poor Daisie has had to type it all with the perspiration running down her cheeks. The head is delightful and we are very fit 116o in the verandah and 100o in the house - but the mosquitoes are simply savage.June 9th
Prickly heat very bad. It is cool and the rains seem to be coming. I killed the second snake this evening in the verandah.
The great book goes home this mail.June 15th
Prickly heat all gone with Hankin's medicine. Last night, after dinner, we went to see that wonderful mass of marble, the Taj Mahal by full moon - it was very beautiful.
We have a little semi-tame hare that sits up with us in the garden by moonlight and eats the grass, and sometimes Daisie's pet plants, but we like it. A porcupine did a lot of damage last night, eating up one of the big palms. One death in the East Surrey from heat-stroke. Cholera in the bazar. Afghan war progresses favourably, but the heat is awful. Jacobatad to the biggest record with 127o shade maximum.June 21st
Heat has been terrible. Stanford of the Dairy-farm, such a healthy young fellow and a teetotaller, taken dead out of the train with heat- stroke. Last night over 100o at 9 p.m. at dinner. Wish the rains would come, but there is no sign of them. Daisie works like mad in the garden in spite of the heat.June 30th
The glorious news that the Peace terms were signed yesterday. I think the terms are thoroughly bad and I hope we will modify them on Germany's good behaviour. But it was necessary to have the signature first.July 1st
Daisie and I went out to Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra for a few days change - only 5 miles from here. We can both drive the car nowadays, but she drives it much better than I do.July 4th
Returned from Sikandra, we enjoyed the quiet time there very much. Only ourselves in the little bungalow and the big silent monkeys, they seem so much happier without speech than we with. And the black buck as fat as butter, although there seems very little for them to eat, and the peacocks and the squirrels and the horn-bills.
The tomb of the great broad-minded Akbar is very solemn. He was nearer than any of the other miscalled great men to being truly great.July 5th
Wattie Keyworth arrived.July 11th
Always sightseeing. On Tuesday 8th we motored out to Fatch-pur Sikri, stayed all Wednesday exploring the old place and returned after dinner on Wednesday. Not much rain, but it is wonderfully cool and we have all doors open.July 15th
Wattie left us last night to return to Jubbulpore. Rain continues steadily and it is quite cool. The mangoes we delight in are coming to an end. Macausland, my Brigade Major, has been in hospital for the last few days with fever.July 30th
Another hot month gone. My prickly heat is very bad, but I hope to be able to hold out till September. I don't want to go on leave before. But it is now turning into sort of masses of pimples all over my back and sides and is very painful whatever side I lie on at night.August 4th
We used to be so well off for conveyances and then, all of a sudden, they all disappeared. The first trap and horse was sold, two days later the motor-car jacked up and the same day the wheels of the other trap went wrong, so we were left dependent on our flat feet.
I have heard from Kipling about my book and he thinks it is good.
On Thursday Daisie got sand-fly fever, and on Friday I got it. She is normal now and I'm shaking it off, but it is very painful and one feels as if one had been kicked down-stairs. Her temperature ran to almost 104o, but she always has high temperatures. I contented myself with 101, 102.August 6th
I am normal to-day but very feeble owing to no food and beastly drugs.August 14th
Rain stopped but cloudy and damp. Lt. Governor Sir Harcourt Buller was here from 11 to 11p.m. to-day. We dined with him.
My prickly heat has turned into boils, but we both feel quite revived after our fever and Daisie is very well and hard at work in the garden.August 19th
Heavy rain. Daisie has fever again.August 22nd
Very heavy rain. We have eaten our last mango! all over - Prickly heat very bad. Boils better. Daisie works like mad in the garden and does nothing else - covered with mud and quite happy. Tuesday she had 21 mothers to tea - Mothers' Union.August 29th
It still continues to rain, but my prickly heat remains and mosquitoes, sand-flies and flies are awful. We haven't yet altered our hours 5.30 a.m. tea, then I ride round the regiments while Daisie gardens. Breakfast between 8.30 and 9.0. Then I write or receive official callers. 11 to 1.15 in office. 1.30 lunch, 3 to 4, lie down. 4.30 tea. 9 p.m. dinner.
I am tired of these hot weathers and hope to get leave next summer or retire.
We own a dog now that we never wanted and Daisie has bought two sheep to nibble the lawn in stead of buying a lawn-mower £20. Leave not granted yet, but we hope to get off to Murree on Wednesday and I lecture at the Soldiers' Home, Pindi on Thursday.
[end of diary Volume X]Sunday, September 7th
Our journey was uneventful and fairly cool. We left Agra on Thursday at 4.30 p.m. arrived Pindi 7.30 p.m. on Friday. We meant to sleep in the special rest rooms at the station, but found that being in the War Zone they had been turned into offices. So we just had to spend the night in cane arm-chairs in the waiting-rooms. To pass the time I took Daisie to the pictures. All the "nobility" seats were taken so we sat amongst the men - it was a great pleasure and the greatness of the nation lies in them and not in the bourgeois, though the latter, if kept in bounds, is necessary to the State. The "officers" who passed through us to take the upper seats, were mostly little squirts belonging to the "clerk" class and it is astonishing that these good men will take orders from them. If you want to see the greatness of the Nation, you must leave the mess-room and look in the barrack-room. The pictures kept us up till 1.0. so there were only four hours to get through. Got up at 5 a.m., started at 6 a.m. and arrived Murree 8.30. A road we know well but every time we go up we wonder there are not more accidents. Just room for two cars to pass on a steep gradient with numerous hair-pin bends - reckless drivers. Down-hill cars going any pace, cliffs and precipices on every side.
Found Susanna looking very jolly and it is a joy to see her again. We had no mishap ourselves, but we seem to have turned the evil eye on others.
I took Susanna for a walk and we promptly encountered a motor-car collision. No one injured but the car smashed. We came home and found the mason who was repairing the roof had fallen off about 30 feet and was very severely injured. At lunch time a soldier riding over the big bridge just above the house, was thrown off his horse and fell straight onto his head on to the rocks below. His skull was badly smashed, but he lived just long enough to get him to hospital.
Miss Key, is, as usual, very ill, and Miss Brannan full of life and bustle.
A very merry dinner-party at the Club with Mrs. Mc. Crea and watched the dancing afterwards. I danced the fox-trot with Mrs. Christian and quite enjoyed it as she ran the performance and gave me fair warning for the next move.September 11th
Beautiful weather. We dined with Sir George and Lady Kemball last night (Commanding Northern Army). Susanna on her 8th birthday is quite accomplished. Miss Brannan has taught her very well in these last four months. She can play the piano quite nicely and takes it quite seriously, her time and fingering very good and her performance of "God Save the King" is fine and she plays several simple child's duets. She can darn her own stockings, do long division sums, and mark my pocket handkerchiefs very neatly. A daughter to be proud of.September 17th
Weather keeps beautiful. My skin is still peeling, but I hope I shall have quite a new outfit before I return to Agra and it won't be hot enough to bring back much prickly heat.September 23rd
It never rains but it pours! My finances improve immensely at one fell swoop. My insurance for about £1100 at age 55, falls due next November. I have just completed paying off what I owe to Government at the rate of Rs. 800 a month, so the cessation of that is like an increase of Rs.800 a month. I have just drawn my war gratuity Rs.3752 and this extraordinary rise in the value of the rupee has enabled me to send home £100 for Rs.1000, instead of Rs.1500 which is as good as Rs.500 in my pocket. I feel quite rich.September 23rd [sic]
Kenneth and his wife, Dorothy and baby, passed through. We thought her very nice. How oddly the gratuity rules run, my nephew, a civilian lieutenant, gets more gratuity than I do as a Major General!September 24th
I am to lecture to the convalescent home at Topa and Daisie and I walk out there and spend the night. It is interesting to return after all these years to what was my first station in India - when the Sussex came from Cairo to Pindi and Topa in 1886.September 25th
Daisie and I walked out to Topa only 4½ miles and stayed the night and walked back to-day, it was very enjoyable.September 27th
We had our one and only day out to-day. The rest of the time Daisie has spent sewing. We walked to Barian 7 miles, down 1000 feet, up 1200 feet, saw the Juniper baby, walked on to Lower Barian. We carried our lunch with us in havresacks, ate it in the woods and boiled our tea without setting the forest on fire. From Lower Barian we scrambled through the woods and up and down cliffs and ravines for 4 hours, till we reached the road again, 4 miles from home and got in by 5 p.m. Very glad of our tea after 18 miles over hill and dale. I doubt whether the next generation will have as much energy. From their letters Leo and Galfrid seem to think it a poor treat unless they are conveyed all the way by some form of mechanical transport. I remember Galfrid in Murree, 7 years old, with his "Daddie, cally me" , after we had gone half a mile - a lazy generation. Daisie did the housekeeping before we left (at 9 p.m.) and sewed like mad till 10.0. at night as soon as we had got in. I certainly married a woman of the working class.
I had just sufficient energy to take Susanna for her evening walk and give her her bath. Daisie is up to-morrow at 6.30 and then a walk of a mile and a half and a climb of 800 feet to go to early service. Why is it that people in India have twice the energy of the lazy people in England?September 30th
An all day picnic with Susanna, had tiffin about 3 miles away down the Lower Forest Road, then climbed up through the woods, had tea in the park and got home at 6 p.m. Susanna was not too tired to come for her usual evening walk with me.October 6th
We got away from Murree at 9.30 a.m. on Friday in two cars - Miss Key was wonderful, though very ill. Trains crowded. Reached Agra all right on Saturday, lunch time. Garden looking beautiful, over 100 pots of Coleus with 21 varieties. The day is hot out of doors, but bungalow below 90o. Nights cool and we can sleep without punkahs indoors under mosquito curtains. Mosquitos, sandflies and flies not very bad.October 16th
The 1/6 East Surrey left for England yesterday, and the Garrison Battalions of the Ox and Bucks and Bedfords arrived. The E. Surrey are as fine a battalion as I have ever met.
To-day Sir George and Lady Kemball arrive. I smashed the car yesterday driving one of the nurses to her quarters. The gate is in a narrow road at a sharp right angle and it was impossible to see that the gate was shut, till I had got on the turn and could not stop in time.October 30th
Nights and mornings very cold, but days still hot. The car returned very nicely repaired. I bust up the radiator, one lamp to smithereens, mud-guard crumpled, front axle bend and springs bent.November 7th
Wattie arrived on 10 days leave - yellow silk pyjamas! The Royal West Kent Regt. arrived from home. In 2 days' time we celebrate our 23rd anniversary of the wedding - we are lucky to be together.November 11th
Visit of H.E. the Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Charles Monro, he lunched with us. Everything went off very well. I have been asked to lecture to the Brigades at Delhi, Meerut and Bareilly on proper behaviour towards natives.
Wattie leaves on the 15th, Miss Morrison (American Missionary) arrives to stay on the 13th.November 17th
Miss Morrison left and Miss Lowe arrived. We are glad to see our friends, but Agra is rather a deluge. Susanna has now a dog, a goat (Evangeline) and a sheep (Cuthbert). The dog's name is Ponto and he bites her legs all day.November 24th
Left for Meerut.November 25th
Lecture to Meerut Garrison on India and the Indians, etc.November 26th
Left for Delhi. Met Col. Keogh - Inspected Delhi fort. Lectured to garrison. Left for Moradabad.November 27th
At Moradabad.November 28th
Lecture Bareilly Garrison, stayed with the 2nd Batt. Queen's R.W. Surrey.November 29th
Returned to Agra and found a letter terminating my career. All Major Generals commanding brigades are to go to make way for younger men. I am sorry to go while I am keen and active, and good at my job, but it is a good order and I acquiesce. Put in for leave at once.December 7th
I have put in for leave and hope we may soon be going home, have sold both horses and am selling motor-car. We are packing up. I shall be glad to leave India and return while still active to my native land after all these years in the scorching flames of India, but there will be many regrets. India is a beautiful land for those who understand her. What teeming life and sweeping death - one seems to learn the lesson of the greatness of life in itself and the paltriness of individual life. No one can read the great secrets of God. We stand watching the Indus in flood tearing away each moment thousands of acres of land teeming with busy life, millions of millions of ants and insects with their homes and eggs and broods are swept down each minute to the sea, why bring so much to life and then destroy it? The Hindu idea of the Trinity can be well understood. The Creator and the Destroyer with the Preserver in between to account for the lucky ones.
While human life teems as well as animal life, and keeps the Creator busy, the Destroyer stalks along behind him with Famine, plague, cholera, small-pox, malaria, sweeping away its millions and between the two interposes the British Government as the Preserver, fighting the famine and pestilence.
In England the pulse of life beats steadily and quietly, while here it beats madly and violently. There is life and death in every gust of the wind. There is no life like that in England. In my bathroom white ants are busy eating the floor-cloth, two kinds of black ants tour around exploring for a nest. As I shave at my open door with the chick hanging down, a squirrel climbs up within 6 inches of my nose, rats and mice abound. Beside my lamp, at my dressing table are two lizards eating the moths attracted by the light. I go into the dining-room and find a squirrel on the table pulling the seeds out of a melon, the air is full of the cooing of doves, the peculiar notes of the pheasant-crow, the crawk of the ordinary crow, the chirping of the mynahs, and the squabbling of the seven sisters, parrots fly screaming over the trees and various small birds are twittering in every tree.December 11th
Daisie's big At Home, 60 people to hear the address of Canon and Mrs. Davies on the subject of the Church Missionary Society. What a busy life we lead compared with the quiet that now lies between us and the grave. I am District Grand Senior Warden of the Grand Lodge of the Punjab, Past Master and Member of 2 Lodges. Chairman of the Church Committee, also of the Club Committee, and Chairman of the Indian Council of the Soldiers' Christian Association etc. On Monday I had to run a General Meeting at the Club. At Home of the Royal West Kent in the afternoon, Susanna to tea with Margaret Marshall, daughter of Sir John and Marshall (archaeology) Tuesday I had a Masonic evening with the Ark and Mark Lodges, Susanna to tea with Canon Davies family. Wednesday, Susanna to tea with the Thompson children, we to dine with the Macauslands. Thursday 10 a.m. visit city to see Miss Latham's missionary work. At Home 4 p.m. ourselves. Friday At Home at the O'Mearas, lecture on Frontier Warfare to troops, Dinner with Col. and Mrs. Hardie. Saturday - Peace Celebrations and a big parade, Masonic evening Lodge Sitapur. Sunday, tea with the Marshalls. I think I shall enjoy the stillness of the other life. Also on Saturday I have to attend a party given in the city by two loyal Mahomedans. As the Mahomedans have a furious Anti-Peace celebration and Anti-British Committee in the city, I suppose they will throw bombs at us, but that is all in the day's work.December 17th
The Peace Celebrations are over without bloodshed. The Mahomedan agitators succeeded in keeping most of their people away, but on the whole it was quite a success - it has been rather a nightmare and I am glad it is over. The inflammatory speeches urging them to kill us all came to nothing so far. And to-day is the great day on which the world is to come to an end. So far nothing has happened except that it is unusually cold. The prophesy was based upon an extraordinary arrangement of the planets. We got up this morning at 4.30 a.m. and went out into the garden to see the most beautiful sight the heavens have ever shown in our lifetime. In the East, a very brilliant Venus, then the waning moon, then Mercury, Mars, Saturn up to Jupiter in the Zenith, almost in a straight line.December 22nd
Sir Aurel Stein came on Saturday and we had Sir John and Lady Marshall and Dr Hankin to dinner to meet him. He is a wonderfully human person for a scientific professor explorer and it is a pleasure to have him. He left this morning at 8 a.m. for Bombay on his way home.December 25th
Not a very lively Xmas, with the house all packed up, but Susanna has plenty of parties - Daisie and I and Miss Key celebrate in solemnity.
Christmas in India is a terrible affair. I have to hand out £5 in tips. Up at 6.30 for early service then salaams from all the servants, host of beggars, native gentlemen calling. The Church Parade, then visit the Hospital and the Clerks and after lunch it still continues. Luckily as we were packed up we were allowed to have a quiet dinner at home, just Daisie and Miss Key and a bottle of champagne. Susanna sat up, dressed up as Prince of Baghdad with Daisie, his wife, The Lady Rosalind, and Miss Key as his friend the Duchess of Gloucester. She has enough parties to upset her digestion for ever. Christmas Eve at the John's Xmas Tree, Christmas Day at the Thompsons, another tree, to-morrow the Macauslands, Saturday, Mrs. Hamilton, and then her own party - it is such turmoil for the grown-ups especially in the middle of packing. I hope we shall never have such a worried Christmas again, I wonder Daisie lives through it.December 30th
Our last day in the old bungalow over which Daisie took so much trouble, rigging it up in October and pulling it down in December. An auction sale is always a rather melancholy event. Our odds and ends, including my full dress uniform, cooking pots, dinner set etc. fetched about £179, and the car fetched about £720. The car ought to have fetched another £100, but there was only one bidder and I had to climb down from my reserve price. We took a last drive down to feast on the beauty of the Taj by sunset and early moonlight, a beautiful combination.
Susanna has gone over to live with Miss Key and we feed there. To- morrow we go into the Hotel Cecil from lunch time. No news yesterday of my leave being granted, but one is grateful to have Christmas over, and packing over, and selling up finished, now we are free as hawks. The rate of exchange is so favourable that it helps us enormously. I remit home £300 for Rs. 2520, and it used to cost Rs. 4500. Rs.2520 would only have fetched about £165. a year ago. It is sad parting with our pets. Ponto, the dog, has run away and settled the matter for himself. Evangeline, the dear little tame goat and Cuthbert the sheep have gone over to Miss Key. There remains only the poor little kitten with roams miserably round the empty bungalow and is now trying to get on to my paper - I suppose we shall have to foist it on poor Miss key.
So ends another of life's episodes!