LBtfilR^"' V:A£ON 507 T94 ASIA F.RQM 2 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF Professor Jane A, Gibson Cornell University Library DS 507.T94 Letters from the East / 3 1924 007 917 390 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924007917390 LETTERS FROM THE EAST. L. L T. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN 1;Y the AUTHOR. One Hundred Copies only printed for 1a- the AntJior for Pi'ivate Circulation > PEEFACE. This little book is the record of a journey of more than eight months, which began at Tilbury Dock, on Thursday, the 13th November, 1890, and ended at Plymouth on the 24th July, 1891. It consists entirely of letters written to friends at home, which they have preserved. I have not endeavoured to re-write them, and have only omitted remarks on home affairs, and some gossip too personal to be printed. The rest should consist of narrative and gossip, which, I hope, may be interesting to the very small circle for whom the book is intended. Of this circle my Father is the centre. To him most of the letters were addressed, and but for him none of them would have been printed. The illustrations consist of photographs which were taken by me on the spot in the course of my travels. Lydford Reciory, 23i-d April, 1895. LETTERS FROM THE EAST. S.S. " COEOMANDEL." Novemler ISth, 1890. I FIND someone — a pilot, perhaps — is going ashore pre- sently, so I shall have time to write a line. I got ofE very comfortably, two brothers and a sister accompanying me to the ship, and two other brothers as far as Liverpool Street. There are two girls in the cabin with me, one leaves at Naples, when Mrs. Dimple comes on board. One of the girls, a Miss Eawlings, seems very friendly. We have been walking up and down on deck together. She has introduced me to the doctor, and to another man she knows. We have had lunch, a great spread, with dEunny little brown waiters to look after you. We are going down the river, now, so it is quite smooth, and I hope it will be when we get outside. Arthur introduced me to the purser, who seems to be an ■even more important person than the captain. Everything seems to be very comfortable, and I think I shall get on very well. I don't feel at all lonely, so far. Please give my love to every one. S.S. "COKOMAJSTDEL," Novemler I7th, 1890. [Posted at Gibraltar.] 1 must again wish you very many happy returns of the day, though your birthday will be quite a thing of the past LETTEKS FROM THE EAST. by the time you get this letter. I have got on pretty well so far, better than I reaUy expected. I had to stay in my cabin Friday and Saturday. Saturday was a horrid day, and there was such a roll on that I expected every minute to be turned right out of my berth. They say it was pretty good for the Bay, but it was quite bad enough for me, and a good many others besides. There are two other girls in my cabin, a Miss Kemp, who is only going to Naples, and Miss Eawlings, who is going to Madras. Miss Kemp has not been at all ill, and she has been wonderfully kind to us, who were both pretty bad. Yesterday she got us on deck by fearful exertions, one at a time ; I could hardly move I felt so dizzy, but after being on deck for an hour or two we both felt better. To-day I feel much better, though my head is still very bad, but I think it wiU be all right to-morrow and then I shall be quite flourishing. My appetite has quite returned, so I think on the whole I have got off very well, don't you ? It is beautiful weather now, and it is getting much warmer. This morning we got in a fog, and the engines were stopped, and the fog-horn kept on going ; but the fog is gone now, and we are going ahead again. The captain says we shall get to Gibraltar to-morrow about ten o'clock, and we shall stop there about four hours, so we shall be able to go ashore and see the place a little. "We get to Naples on Friday or Saturday, and I daresay you will get my letter from there nearly as soon as this. I think there are some very nice people on board, but, of course, I have not made many friends yet as I have only appeared yesterday and to-day, and have been sitting still ever since. It is a very lazy life. Everybody seems to sit LETTERS EBOM THE EAST. 3 about and do nothing — lots of them don't eyen read — I haven't read at all yet, my head has been too queer. We were in sight of Cape Fiaisterre yesterday, and a very fine coast. We could see the pl'aoe where the " Serpent " was wrecked, though, of course, we were a long way from it. We passed by Lisbon this morning, but too far off to see it without a glass. The Lascar sailors are very picturesque, and there is a Chinese nurse, with blue cloth trousers, who is a dream of beauty. I'm afraid this is a very stupid letter, but I will write you a longer one at Naples. S.S. " COEOMANDEL," November I7th, 1890. [Posted at Gibraltar.] I am going to try to write a scrap to you. I am really getting on very well, and if it were not for my head I should feel quite flourishing. We have made up a nice little party to go ashore to- morrow : Miss Kemp, who is reaUy extremely nice ; Mr Grant, a youth of her acquaintance ; Miss Eawlings and myself, and Mrs. Jen Vinson, a very nice little woman, who has left her children in England and is going out to Madras to join her husband. We are going for a drive to Europa Point, I believe, and to see the market. There is not time to see the galleries, the Captain says. I am writing this on deck in solitary state, everyone else having gone to dinner, but I am going to have mine up here. I am not quite equal to sitting through a long dinner yet. lETTEES FEOM THE EAST. I want to try and write a scrap to the Bird, so good-bye. I am looking forward to Naples, where I expect quite a budget of letters. S.S. " COEOMANDEL," November 21st, 1890. [Posted at Naples.] We are due at Naples to-morrow ; and as the post-ofiB.ce closes before we get to Naples, I am afraid to put off writing any longer. I enjoyed Gibraltar very much. "We went ashore about ten, and came on board again by three ; so we had plenty of time. We went for a drive to Europa Point, where there is a very fine view. The hills are fearful ; simply going up and down precipices. It was very hot indeed. The English people seemed all going about in print dresses and flannels. The streets were very narrow, with lots of water-barrel carts, drawn by mules ; and some of the people were very picturesque. There were plenty of bare-legged Moors, with big hoods over their heads. Since Gibraltar I have been getting on very well, except yesterday, when it was very rough, and I collapsed again. To-day is a beautiful day, and I feel very well, with a great appetite. They say we shaU probably have good weather now, right on, and I am sure I hope they speak the truth. About twenty fresh people come on board to-morrow, and a few leave. I am very sorry Miss Kemp is going. She is such a nice girl, and it remains to be seen if Mrs. Dimple will be as nice. We, i.e., Miss Kemp, Miss LETTERS FEOM THE EAST. 5 Eawlings, and myself axe giving a small tea party this afternoon in honour of the occasion. The chief steward has promised to have a cake made for us, so we are going to do the thing in style. Meals seem to be going on all day — in the morning before we get up we have tea and bread and butter or fruit — then breakfast at nine, beef-tea at eleven if you like it, lunch at one, tea at four, and dinner at 6.30. One need not starve ! The meals are all very varied and prolonged, especially dinner. We passed Sardinia this morning, quite close, and saw the hills and a little town by the sea. The African mountains in the Straits of Gibraltar were very fine, huge mountaias, some of them rising right up from the sea. We saw the town of Tangiers, too, quite plainly. We have seen a great many other ships since we started, sometimes we have passed one quite closely. We are due at Naples to-morrow about six a.m.; the captain says, I must try and get a photograph of the town from on board. I took one at Gibraltar, but I am afraid it won't be as good as I could wish for, we were too near the shore to get in the whole rock, so I just took the part nearest the mainland and the neutral territory. There are two or three other cameras on board and also some people who sketch. I am looking forward very much to getting my letters to-morrow. I suppose I shan't get any more after that till I get to Shanghai, and it will seem a long time to wait. Still they will really only be a fortnight later than I am. My next letter wUl be from Port Said, and I think then it will seem as if I were getting further way. So far, it has not seemed very far. Naples doesn't seem very 6 LETTEES FEOM THE EAST. foreign. A place one can get to so quickly by rail doesn't seem as far off as it really is, I suppose. We have been making from 250 to 270 miles a day, wkicli is not nearly as fast as the Atlantic boats, but it seems a good deal, and it is certainly done very quietly. I hardly hear the screw in my cabin or on deck, and to-day there is absolutely no movement. It is like being on a river — and I only hope it wiU keep so. How did the Patti concert go off ? I suppose I shall hear all the news to-morrow. I wish I coiild wait to write till I have had my letters, but that is impossible, I should not get them done before we left. I started writing this on deck, but I found it so difficult to write with chattering going on all round, that I came down in the saloon. I am afraid this thin paper makes my writing more illegible than ever. I will only write on one side, and then, perhaps, it will be a little better. It is getting very much warmer — I expect it will be very hot in Naples to-morrow — it seems so much hotter on land after the sea. They say it won't begin to get really hot till we get to Aden or even further, but I expect I shall find it hot enough before then. I think I shaU. go to the Aquarium at Naples (you remember we did not go there), and there won't be time to go to Pompeii, or any long excursion. I want to do a little shopping too. I suppose it wiU be the last reaUy European town we shall have the chance of doing any in. Everybody says they are a peculiarly quiet lot of people on this boat. There has been nothing going on so far, but things are expected to get more lively after Naples — so far there are certainly more women than men on the boat, and there are a good many people, too, who are going short distances, touring for the winter. LETTERS FROM THE EAST. 7 The captain is rather a quiet man, and not at all given to promoting amusement. It is one of the sights of the day to see him walking up and down the deck very fast, just like a doll, getting up an appetite for dinner. I hope you are having good weather ; we have only had one little shower of rain since we started. I think of you on the different days and wonder what you are doing. Yesterday I wondered if Amy was hunting, and if many visitors called, and to-morrow, when I am trotting about Naples, I shall be thinking of you going to Bearwalls, not in the rain, I hope. I will write to Mamma from Port Said. I thought it was best to write you a long letter than two shorter ones. I am afraid it is not a very interesting one, but so little happens on board — still I have told you all the little things I could think of — for I was sure they would in- terest you. S.S. " COEOMAHDBL, " Tuesday, November, 1890. [Posted at Port Said.] Thanks very much for your nice long letter — please thank papa also for his — it was so nice getting so many letters. I am afraid this will be very badly written, for I am writing it on deck, on my knee ; it is so stuffy downstairs, it m.akes my head ache to write there. We had a very nice time at Naples. The letters came on board directly we arrived, so we had them before we went ashore. Very terrible mandolin players also came on 8 LETTERS EKOM THE EAST.' board and sang, or rather yelled, Santa Lucia and Funiculi, while we had breakfast. "We went to the Museum and to the Aquarium, and did a little shopping, and enjoyed ourselves very much. We left Miss Kemp at Naples, for which I was very sorry. I think she is one of the nicest girls I ever met. We exchanged addresses, and I hope we shall keep up our acquaintance. We left Naples about 4.30, and passed Capri the next morning early ; we got into the Straits of Messina, which were lovely ; you could see the coast quite plainly on either side. I coidd not see much of the whirlpools, but Etna looked beautiful, all covered with snow, except the small cone at the top. It is a much finer mountain than Vesuvius. I took one photo at Naples, of the town and San Martino above, but it was a very dull day, and I am afraid it will not be a success. I wanted to take one of Yesuvius, but it was covered with mist all the time, unfortunately. We have had rough weather the last two days, and this morn- ing I got a complete bath in bed, my hair is hardly dry now. I rather collapsed yesterday, but to-day I am all right j it isn't quite as rough this afternoon as it was this morn- ing, they have the sails up and that steadies the boat a little, though she is well on one side. They have made the best run to-day since we started, 310 miles; they make it up every day at mid-day. . We are due at Port Said about 1 1 a.m. to-morrow ; wa stay there four hours as they coal. It wDl seem much more foreign to me ; for one thing it is in Airica, and that is a new continent, and I expect it will be full of funny foreigners. We get to IsmaUia in the middle of the night ; we lose several people there. LETTERS EEOM THE EAST. \) They say it will be very smooth now till we get to Colombo. I only hope they speak the truth. Mrs. Dimple is a very nice little woman. She goes to Singapore. It is her twentieth voyage, so she is quite an old hand. Several people came on at Naples, including Mr. Hook, whose astonishment at seeing me was great. He is going to Calcutta beast hunting. I forgot to tell Papa when I wrote last that I saw two trumpet lilies in a garden at Gibraltar. I mean those very long white fleshy lilies, that hang head downwards and grow in the hot -house. I forget their proper name. The next time I write will be from Aden, and, by that time, I expect it wUl be pretty warm. The electric light is such a comfort on board. It must have been horrid when they had smelly lamps. It is so convenient in the cabin to be able to turn it off and on, and now on deck it is shining gaily over me as I write. The service on Sunday in the saloon was quite grand. We had three hymns and sang the chants. They imported a lectern draped with the Union Jack, and we had a clergyman in a surplice. It seemed so funny to think of the service home and this. The muster on deck before is very pretty too ; all the crew, the ofiicers in their Sunday best, the quartermasters, who are English, and all the foreign sailors, Lascars, Seedimen, etc., stand in two long rows on either side of the ship, and the captain, followed by the first officer, walks up and down, and they all salute. The foreign sailors look so picturesque in white clothes, and coloured sashes, and turbans or caps. Some of the Seedimen have the most gorgeous embroidered waistcoats, and aU have bare feet. 10 LETTERS FROM THE EAST. S.S. "OOBOMAJ^TDBL," December 1st, 1890. [Posted at Aden.] It seems quite a long time since I wrote to you from Port Said, there have been so many things happening. I didn't care for Port Said much. It is very dirty; and the people rush after you begging, and wanting you to buy things. The women had veils over their faces, only showing their eyes. Except for that, it was not very easy to tell the difference between them and the men. The coaling there was a dreadful business, the ship and everything and everybody got fearfully dirty. One didn't feel clean for at least two days after. We had rather a time of it in the Canal, for the "Valletta" had got ashore, and nothing could pass. "When we got near her we had to tie up, and there we stuck for two days, the captain in a rage, and every- one thoroughly vexed. Happily it wasn't hot, else it would have been very bad, for it was in the very dullest part of the Canal, just mud-banks and salt-marshes, very hot and disagreeable to walk on. The only pretty things to watch (besides the sunsets, which are lovely) were the reflections and mirage on the salt lakes in the distance. Everything kept on changing — hills would suddenly appear, and boats would seem quite close, with the reflection of their sails quite as distinct as the sails themselves, and then they would suddenly fade away. I did not at all mind staying there, for I was never tired of watching the changes. When the "Valletta" got off at last, we had to wait while she and ten more boats that were waiting behind her steamed past, and then our procession began. LETTERS FEOM THE EAST. 11 We got to Ismailia about eight o'clock, and several people got ofE there. The lake looked beautiful with the big electric lights from the ships and the different colored lights marking the channels. December Ind. We passed Suez in the night, and since then have been coming down the Eed Sea. It was very beautiful in the Grulf of Suez, the mountains were so fine. We saw Mount Sinai, or what they believe to be it, in the distance. It has been very hot since we left the Canal. The ther- mometer has been 80° to 85° day and night. We have the punkahs going during meals, and double and side awnings on deck. Everyone looks very languid, and aU. the men go about in flannels and linen clothes. To-day it is better, as there is a head wind, and they say after we pass Aden it wiU be much better. The Red Sea is considered the worst place in the world except the Persian Grull, and it must be awful in summer. The nights are pretty bad in the cabins. We have the door wide open to make a little draught and then can only just bear a sheet. A lot of locusts came on board yesterday. They are like big grasshoppers, about three inches long. A good many men sleep on deck now, and I rather envy them when I see their mattresses being brought up. They say that this is the Christmas mail, that letters from Colombo won't get to England till too late, so I must wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. It will be rather a funny Christmas for me, I expect I shall spend it between Hong Kong and Shanghai, very possibly in my berth, as they say it is often very rough there, but I shall hope for better things. 12 liETTEBS FROM THE EAST. I cannot at all realise that it is December, it is so funny to thini of you having fires and winter weather, while here eveyone is wearing their thinnest clothing, and then grumbling. I am very disappoiated that I cannot send anyone any Christmas presents. I intended to try and do some shop- ping at Colombo but now they say it will be too late, and also we shall have very little time there owing to our being detained in the Canal. I am sorry, but they wOl have to come later on. I am afraid I must stop now, as I have some other letters to write, and they take some time this weather. Good-bye. A merry Christmas and a happy New Year. S . S . " CoEOSr ANDEL, ' ' December Qth, 1890. [Posted at Colombo.] I haven't the least idea how long this letter will reach you after the last ; they may both come at the same time. The last I wrote just before Aden, and this I am writiug on Monday, and we are due at Colombo early on Wednesday. I shall have to pack up to-morrow ; besides, I never like to leave my letters to the last day, as it may be rough or anything. I like Aden ; it was so different to anything I had seen. The minute the anchor was dropped the ship was surrounded with boats full of yeUing niggers, who dived and swam for coins, and Persians, and horrible Shylock- looking Jews with long curls over their ears. They sold ostrich feathers and baskets : some of the feathers looked LETTERS EROM THE EAST. 13 nice, but I don't see any use in buying tldngs now, and taking them out and back again. Mr. Long took Miss Eawlings and me ashore. "We hadn't time to go to the tanks, so we went to the Parsee shop there, and had lemonade, and looked at things. Mr. Long gave us each a very pretty grey and gold puggerie. It was very funny to hear him discoursing Arabic and Hindustanee. There was an old Parsee priest, in a high white hat (they all wore white), who sat at the receipt of custom, and smiled blandly, while lots of very scantily- attired nigger boys hovered outside begging. It was very hot indeed. Nearly everybody who went ashore wore white helmets. Of course I hadn't one, only a big straw hat they made me buy at Port Said. Happily I had that old white umbrella, lined with green, which proved a splendid protection. I don't think I could have possibly gone ashore without. I tried to buy a solar topee — i.e., a kind of white mushroom helmet — at Aden, but couldn't ; and now I don't think I shall trouble, for after Colombo and Singapore it wUl be getting cold. It has been hot since Aden, never under 80 deg., day or night, and one or two days have very muggy and monsoon-like. It gave me a bad headache one day. But most people have been rather knocked up ; they aU looked Hke wet blotting-paper, pale and languid. I have changed my berth now we are only two in our cabin, to one opposite the port. It is much cooler than sleeping .under it, for then I got no air, and now I always get a tiny little breeze. I shall be very sorry to pack up to-morrow ; I don't at all like changing ships and passengers. Here I have been very lucky, and had very nice .people round me — men who had travelled in every part of the world. 14 LETTERS FKOM THE EAST. Our little party of five are going ashore at Colombo, but I am afraid we shall not be able to go to Kandy. The train leaves at 7.30 a.m., and the captain does not expect to get in till 8 or 9 a.m., so I expect we shall go lor a drive and do some shopping, and amuse ourselves for the day. I must get Miss Eawlings a little wedding present. They are aU coming on the "Pekin" to see me off. Miss Eawlings and Mr. Long both get off at Madras, and she wUl be married the day after she gets there. The others go on to Calcutta. I am sure I hope I shall see them all again. Tuesday. — I hadn't time to finish this yesi,t;rday. Last night the cabins were up to 85°. One or two ladies slept on deck, but I thought I would defer that treat till it gets to 90°, which it certainly won't on this voyage, though it may on the way back. S.S. "Pekin," Becemler I4th, 1890. [Posted at Penang.J I am beginning this letter in good time, as I do not know whether I shall have to send it from Penang to catch the mail, or wait till we get to Singapore. It was a great change to this boat ; it is smaller and less convenient in many ways than the " Coromandel " ; it is nearly 20 years old, while the " Coromandel " is only five. The screw is very much more obvious, and the first day it quite gave me a headache. Everyone says that the " Coromandel " is a wonderful boat in that respect, unless you are quite at the stern, you are hardly conscious of the LETTERS FEOM THE EAST. 15 screw ; in fact, you can hardly tell when it is stopped. I have a very nice cabin here, a three berth one all to myself ; the only bother is the light. Instead of having an electric light in all the cabins that you can turn on and off when you like, there is only one between two cabins here, and it goes out at 11 o'clock. I like Colombo immensely, what little I saw of it. I should dearly like to stay there on my way home. I had very little time there, for we did not get in tiU ten o'clock in the morning, and then we found the "Pekin," which had been waiting two days for us, was to start at two ! They all saw me on board with my luggage, i.e., Miss Eawlings, and Mr. Long, and Mr. Macfail, and Mr. Hook, and inspected my cabin, and then we all went on shore. The native men were quite lovely ; brown, with long black hair neatly combed back, and done up behind in a big knot, and a round comb arranged on the top of their heads like a tiara put on backwards. Their clothing consisted of a white petticoat and a white jacket. We pottered among the shops, where they have lovely jewels. Of course, a lot is rubbish, but some of the pearls and sapphires were beautiful. I bought a little moonstone brooch for Miss Eawlings. Mr. Hook and I trotted into three or four shops and bought it, after much haggling, from a gentleman called Mohammed, a Hindoo I think. Then we had lunch at the hotel, a gorgeous structure, with a big stone verandah, where they smoke and have drinks, and a haU going right up to the roof, with huge punkahs going where we lunched. "We had prawn curry, and they say the Cingalese curries are the best in the world. It certainly was very good, and they all drank my health, and then they escorted me to the "Pekin," and we had a touching parting. I was very 16 LETTEKS FROM THE EAST. very sorry to lose them, tut Mr. Logan at once came and cheered me up, and I "watched them depart. The last I saw was white helmets waving wildly from under the awning of the boat. I have been with the Holcomhes and Logans mostly since. Mrs. Holcombe is Mrs. Logan's mother, and is going out to Hong Kong to rejoin her husband with her two daughters, very nice girls, who have just left school. I heard from Helen at Colombo. She had had it rather rough the last part of the voyage, and it had rather knocked her up. They say we are likely to have it rough from Singapore to Hong Kong, but just now it is like a mill pond. I believe you would quite enjoy it. The captain read the service this morning. The music was much better than it was on the " Ooromandel." He read some of the prayers for those at sea and for absent friends. There are some Jesuit priests on board, and some Parsees ; the latter look so funny at table, with their little caps on. We have lots of bananas, or rather plantains, now, and pine-apples and oranges that peel like tangerines, but don't taste like them ; and soon, I suppose, we shall have mangoes and things. "We had some very funny fruit for dinner to night — shaddocks, I think they call them — as big as a very large lemon, but almost just like an orange inside. It was rather good. We passed Sumatra this morning, a long way away. It looked a rather fine, mountainous place, very different to Ceylon, the coast of which looked very flat, and was edged with palms. I was sorry not to be able to drive inland, and see the cocoa-nut palms and the pine-apples growing wUd. LETTERS FROM THE EAST. 17 S.S. "Pekin," December 2\st, 1890. [Posted at Hong-Kong,] I posted my last letter at Penang, as I thought it might catch a Prench or German mail and so reach you a little sooner. The "Mirzapore," with the English maUs on board, passed us at Singapore. It is a week to-day since I wrote last, and it seems a long week, for I have seen so much. We got to Penang early last Monday morning ; a very pretty harbour with lots of islands. Mr. Logan took me to see the gardens, and I enjoyed it immensely. We drove in a funny sort of carriage or gharrie, drawn by a very small but tough pony. It was very curious driving through the difierent parts of the town — the Chinese part and then the Malay part. The Malay houses were all raised on piles. The gardens were about four mUes inland, and the vegetation when we got out of the town was beautiful. It was the first tropical place I had seen, for at Columbo I had no time. I saw all sorts of things in the gardens and hedges. The public gardens were beautiful, with a stream and a high waterfall coming over rocks. They had aU sorts of palms, and crotons, and wonderful flowering trees. I saw the Ponsiana regia flowering, and also the Spathodia — I don't know if that is the right way to spell it — it is even more showy than the Ponsiana. It is a big tree covered with orange scarlet flowers in bunches, the flower the shape of a June hly. There were also great bushes of Bougainvillea all about. It was very pretty all the way from Penang to Singapore ; we were in sight of land all the way. We went very B 18 LETTERS FROII THE EAST. slowly, as we did not leave Penang tiU Monday evening, and the captain did not want to get to Singapore till Wednesday morning. The water all the way was just like a lake, and the islands were very pretty, some lying very low, just a line of paJms, and others quite high hills all covered with jungle trees. We got to Singapore early on Wednesday, and I went to the Dimples' house, and had breakfast and tiffin with them. We passed several mangrove swamps, horrid unwholesome looking places, though they say they are all right until the mangrove trees are cut down, and then fever breaks out at once. I saw some Malay villages built right in the swamps on high piles. There is a wonderful mix- ture of people in these Straits Settlements : lots of Chinese, who are the yellowest and the ugliest of all ; Malays, and lots of Tamils from South India, who mend the roads and seem to do the hard work. They are just the colour of bronze figures, and look like them when they are working with very little clothes on. The Dimples' garden was very nice, an enormous india-rubber tree and big Ponsiana and Spathodia trees, and sensitive plants running wild all over the place. I saw a huge Staghom fern growing in a tree too ; it hung down quite seven or eight feet in a thick mat. Mr. Dimple drove me in a funny kind of buggy through the public gardens, and I took two photos, one of a big clump of sago palms, with a bungalow in the distance, and a jinricksha trotting by, and one of the lake. I hope they will come out all right. The Dimples' house was very interesting, only two stories and a big verandah all round, and a little net- covered house in one corner, where they sit evenings to be LETTEES PROM THE EAST. 19 free from mosquitoes. I saw dear little Java sparrows flying about, but not any other pretty birds. They had some very pretty orchids in the public gardens, lots of white Grandiflora, and most wonderful ferns. After tiffin I drove round with Mrs. Dimple, and she took me to the Museum and the Cathedral ; the latter looked very odd to me, with long punkahs and cane arm-chairs. We sailed about five o'clock, and directly we got round the corner, so to speak, and into the China seas, we felt the difference, and quite half the people were ill the next day. I was not ill, but I did not feel at all happy. We had our meals on deck that day and groaned in chorus. Next day was much better. We have really been won- derfully lucky with the weather ; for they say it is generally very bad in the China Sea. Helen, from whom I heard again at Singapore, said she had been dreadfully bad. We are getting quite near Hong-Kong now; and shall be in this afternoon (Monday). There are several little islands in sight, which is quite nice, as we have been out of sight of land since last Wednesday. I saw two Junks quite •close this morning — funny-looking ships with immensely high sterns. They are dressing the ship with flags, as we have the Hong-Kong Governor on board. I expect there will be quite a ceremony when we arrive. I am very sorry to lose the Holcombes and Logans, as they are extremely nice people. I only know of two other people besides myself going on to Shanghai, and I shall be the only lady ; but it will only be for three days, so I don't mind ; and the captain and officers are very nice. The next letter I write will be from Shanghai, and I shall be able to teU you all about the Jaspers. I am 20 ij;tteiis niojr the east. afraid my letters have not been very satisfactory, so far ; it is so difficult ■writing on board sMp, especially tliis one, for if you -write in the saloon, the screw throbs so the pen nearly jumps out of your fingers ; and if you write on deck, as I am doing, it is nearly as bad, besides having to write on one's knee. It is beginning to get colder, though not nearly so cold as usual, they say. I hope you wiU have a nice Christmas. I shall have a very original one ; I daresay some of it will be very amusing. I shall think of you a great deal. It will be the first Christmas I have ever had away from home. I am finishing this after we have got in to Hong Kong ; it is the most beautiful harbour I have ever seen, with islands and little creeks, and quite high hills or mountains. Lots of launches came out to meet the steamer, with friends of the passengers, and it was quite exciting. Nearly everybody has gone, and at dinner (I am finishing this after dinner) I vras the only lady, and had to sit at the Captain's right hand, in the Governor's place. I don't think there were more than twelve or twenty people at dinner. There is one other lady first-class passenger, but she is Japanese. The harbour here is very pretty at night ; the lights from the ships and aU the lights of Hong Kong look beautiful. We are lying at a wharf on the mainland, and look across at Hong Kong Island. Mrs. Logan is going to show me the sights to morrow morning, and we sail at two o'clock. I shall miss them very much ; they and their baby were very charming. "We saw the baby and its Chinese nurse when we were lunching at Barnstaple. Do you remember? LETTERS FEOM THE EAST. 21 The Bund, Shanghaj, December 27th, 1890. At last you see I have arrived. We got here yesterday afternoon about half -past three, and nearly the first person I saw was Helen. She seems very well now. I have not seen Mr. Jasper yet ; he has seized the chance of a holiday for a day or two's shooting. They have an awfully nice house here, whicn is over the offices. All the merchants' houses here on the Bund are built the same way. The rooms are very large and high. She has a lovely drawing-room, with quantities of nice Chinese and Japanese things in it. My bedroom is beautiful too. I have a big room and a big bed — such a comfort after the little cabins on board — a dressing-room and a bath-room all to myself. Certainly the houses here are very luxurious. Endj'mion Palgrave came in just after I arrived, he was coming to meet me, but the steamer got in early. He has not altered much. I went for a drive yesterday afternoon. Helen has a brougham drawn by a curious white pony. The animals here are very funny ; certainly not beautiful, but very strong. The Chinese coachmen look very funny ; it is so odd to see your driver's pigtail neatly tucked into his belt. They drive very wildly indeed, always trying to race, while the ponies have a vicious way of shying, and upsets are frequent in consequence. Endymion Palgrave is going to take me for a ride in a day or two. I nked Hong Kong immensely. It is the prettiest harbour I have ever seen, and the town is very quaint. Mrs. Logan took me about. It was my first experience 22 LETTERS PEOM THE EAST. of a Chinese chair, and it seemed very funny. We each had three coolies, as we were going some distance ; else, I believe, two are sufficient for light weights. The chairs are very comfortable wicker-work, with cushions and foot-rest, and long lancewood shafts. Tou sit in the chair as it rests on the ground, and then the coolies heave you up. For a moment you feel awful, and then it is very comfortable. "We went by the racecourse, which is quite an amphi- theatre, with hills all round, and into the cemetery, a most beautiful one, with great crags at the back, and big palms and beautifid plants and flowers all about. I saw a quantity of bignonia creepers in blossom, a bright orange. I don't believe we have it, and I am sure it would do very well. Mrs. Logan took me into a silversmith's, and a Japanese curio shop, where there were lovely things. I could hardly refrain from buying, but I thought it would be silly to begin so soon. I hadn't time to go to the Peak, unfortunately, as the boat was to leave at two, so I had to get back to tiffin. Mr. Styles came on board to see me, and stayed a long time. It was quite nice to see a face one knew again. He did not look very well. Said he had not been well since he came out. We talked of home affairs. We were a very small party from Hong Kong here, about a dozen of us only lo dinner. There was one other lady on board, happily, Mrs. Farmer, who is going with her husband for a honeymoon round the world. We had hardly any Chinamen on board, but from Singapore to Hopg Kong there were a whole crowd. They were all searched as they came on, and their knives taken from them. I suppose it was considered necessary after the way the pirates served the Namoa. PAGODA, Near SHANGHAI. LETTERS FKOM THE EAST. 23 We had some rather rough weather coming up to Shanghai ; the monsoon was very strong one day, and the boat pitched a great deal. I did not enjoy it, but I was not ill, which pleased me very much. Christmas Day was very funny. They decorated the saloon most gorgeously ; it was all hung with flags and garlands of green stuff and mottoes, and there was even a branch of mistletoe, but no service. At tiffin we had a gorgeous cake — a two-decker, with Father Christmas on the top. It was placed solemnly in front of the captain, and I had to cut it. The iceing was awfully hard, and they all laughed while I struggled vainly, and the head steward stood gravely behind. Happily, I only had to make a Uttle cut, and then he took it away and cut it up himself. We had a regular Christmas dinner, with a iiaming pudding, which was placed in front of the captain and served by him with great ceremony. They played cricket in the afternoon and I umpired. They lost six balls overboard and then gave up. It is not nearly as cold here as I expected, but they say it has not begun yet. It looks more EngUsh than any place I have seen for a long time ; I think it must be the bare trees that makes it look like home. I cannot write a long letter to-day, as the mail is going out almost at once and I want to catch it so as to let you know I had really got here at last. I met the hounds yesterday. They looked so funny, being led by Chinamen. They were out exercising. This afternoon we are going to see the finish of the paper- chase ; they always finish with some big jumps, and everyone, I suppose, goes to see how they do it. I am going to a dance on Tuesday. It is nearly five weeks 24 LETTERS PROM THE BAST. since I had any letters, but I shall begin to get them now in a week's time, I expect. The Bund, Shanghai, January 2nd, 1891. It seems quite odd to have to write 1891 ; it is the first time I have done it. I hope it will be a very happy year to you, and that you will keep well during it. I have been here a week to-day, which seems quite a long time, and I feel quite at home. They are very nice and kind indeed, and everything is most comfortable. I went to a dance on New Year's Eve, and just as it got to 12 o'clock, everyone joined hands all round the room and sang " Auld Lang Syne" at the top of their voice. They then had rum punch, hot, I believe, not cold like Mr. Pickwick. The weather now is very cold, nice, and bright, but freezing all the time. I feel it rather ; it is such a change after the heat on the voyage out, but I am getting used to it. The house is beautifully warm, and I always have a big fire in my room at nights, and one in my bath-room in the morning. I will tell you exactly how we spend our days, and then you will know just what I am doing, not reckoning for the variation in time ; I never do that, as I like to think you are doing things the same time I am. We breakfast at 8.30, and then Mr. Jasper goes down- stairs to his office, and Helen sees the cook, who generally comes in, and they have long conversations ; he is a funny old man, but an extremely good cook. "We write, and talk, and read, or work till about half- past eleven or twelve, and then we go for a walk on the LETTEES FROM THE EAST. 25 Bund. At half-past twelve they have tiffi.ii, it is more like a French luncheon, several dishes one after the other. After lunch there are generally callers, and after tea we drive out a mile or two and then walk — both Mr. Jasper and Helen are great on walking — the carriage walking after us. Then we often go into the County Club, a very nice place, about three miles out on the Bubbling Well Uoad, and there are always people there, and we talk, and get back here about seven, they dine at 7.30 or 8 o'clock. There is the ordinary or uneventful day. Yesterday I went for a ride with Endymion Palgrave. I rode a funny sort of dun pony about the size of Joey, with absolutely no mouth. "We didn't ride across country as Endymion's pony had been lame. Nearly everyone rides here ; I wish Mr Jasper and Helen did. She used to, and I expect will take it up again soon. I expect I shall hire a pony — you can hire one from the bazaar for 30 dollars a month — so when I find a decent one, that is what I shall do, as it wiU be cheaper than paying each time, if I ride often, and I shall be sure of always getting the same one. The pidgon-English here amuses me very much. I can hardly understand them. They cannot pronounce "r"at aU, and they stick " e " on to lots of words. On Sunday it poured with rain, and Helen told the mafoo — i.e., coachman — to go to the English Joss House. The church, or rather cathedral, is a very fine brick building, with comfortable wicker seats. It was not nearly full. They have a very good organ and a mixed choir, which performs the most elaborate music, and then goes astray in it. "We went again in the evening, before dinner, and had a very long sermon. I am very glad Helen lives in the Settlement, as they call it, and not in the country. The Bund here is quite the best position, 26 LETTaHS FROM THE EAST. as you have a wide road in front, and then the river, and it is interesting watching the shipping. There are steamers from all over the world here. An American man-of-war is lying quite close, and we constantly hear its band, which plays at the most unlikely hours, too. The English Bund here is much better than the French or American ones, as there are no wharves. I walked along the French Bund one day, and met hundreds of coolies carrying bales. It was rather annoying, as they don't trouble to get out of your way. 1 turned and fled. It is very pretty at night. The lights in the ships look pretty, and in the streets there is so much variety ; the gas and electric lamps in the road, and the jinricksha men all carry a paper Chinese lantern hung to one shaft — one sees hundreds of them — and then over the Chinese shops are elaborate, many-sided lanterns. There are not very many roads here, and to go inland everyone goes by boat. There is one road, five mUes long, which passes the Bubbling Well (a well which they say bubbles at the bottom) and there are villas along it for some miles. There is another soft road for riding that goes out to a Jesuit Mission, and that is all, except little cross roads. The country is dreadfully flat, very like our Pen country, and is all intersected with ditches of varying width mostly full of stagnant water. They have some hounds here and hunt, a drag, and they also have a paper chase. We went last Saturday to see the finish. The men look so huge on the little ponies and it is wonderful how they can carry them over the ditches. The graves struck me as one of the oddest things in the fields — scattered all about. The old ones are very big mounds of earth, rather like our old tumuli, but higher. LETTERS PROM THE EAST. 27 They never disturb them, so they must lose a lot of land that way. The new ones are just coffins covered with matting, and look most uncanny. They leave them like that till the priests find a suitable spot, and then either build a little house, like a superior dog kennel over them, or put them under a tumulus. I am looking forward to next Monday for letters, as that is the day the French mail generally gets in. The English mail generally gets in Friday or Saturday, so I hope after Monday or Tuesday to get letters every week. It seems such a long time since I heard. I am longing to hear all about everyone, and how Christmas went off, and how the dogs and horses are, and all the Tavistock gossip. Shah'ghai, January %tli, 1891. At last I have really got some letters — by the French mail. I was so glad to get them ; it seemed an immense time since I had heard. I am afraid you have been having horrid weather at home. Here it has been delightful — I think we have only had one really wet day since I got here. All this week it has been lovely ; a bright sun, and a slight frost. I believe it ought to be a great deal colder, and I daresay we shall get it so soon. I have been to two afternoon dances this week, the floor was very bad at both places, else it was amusing. One was given by Americans — there are lots here — and the host and hostess both wore evening dress. It looked so odd, but I believe it is the fashion in America. 28 XETTEES PaOM THE EAST. I went out with the hounds yesterday for the first time. I had been for two rides before with Endymion Palgrave, but only on the roads. It was very amusing, and I had a very good pony lent me, a giant for these parts, 14 hands high, and it jumped very well. The country is not very nice to ride over ; all ridge and furrow, even where there is grass, and all the jumps are over water, there being no fences at all. We had one or two places over creeks where one had to crawl down one side and wade across and crawl up again, but most of them were clean jumps. The ponies do wonderfully well, but they are very ugly, mostly white or piebald. The run hardly took an hour, I should think, and they had one check during it to rest the ponies. The run finished by the master standing on the top of a large grave and feeding the hounds out of a bag ! I suppose the poor things want some reward for always running after a drag. We are going out to dinner to-morrow to meet the Martins. There are three dances next week, Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. The Saturday one is a fancy ball, and everyone is filled with rage at its being on a Saturday. It is given by a Jew of great wealth, and he always has a cotiUon and presents. Some people stay on, but of course we shall come away before 12, and so miss it. There are to be some theatricals on the 20th, and I have promised to sing in the Chorus of Contrabandista, a little thing of Sullivan's. It is a kind of a Carmen dress, not difficult to get up ; so I shall wear it at the Solomon Ball, and so kill two birds with one stone. Helen has a lot of sequins she has given me, so I expect I shall do all right, as the tailor seems sensible. I have begun to buy embroideries. They are most fascinating ; it is very difficult to hold oneself back. Some LETTERS FBOSI THE EAST. 29 of the coats are lovely ; I did not get any, as they are difficult to adapt, and are dear, about £3. Petticoats are much more amenable. I got several of those sleeve-pieces, like the ones Helen sent you, and you used as a ■waist- coat. Mr. Jasper is very good about embroideries, and knows their value, and haggles with the Chinamen, and gets them cheaper. The man brought the things here to show us, and entered with a deprecatory smile — "a Chin-chin, mississy ! " to each of us, which is their form of salu- tation — and spread his things all over the room. Helen got some for a friend on commission. She has some lovely things here. Of course, Mr. Jasper has been collecting for years, and has things one cannot get now for love or money. Some of their Japanese brocade tablecloths are beautiful. I shall try and get some. Shanghai, January \Qth, 1891. I was delighted to get yours, and Mamma's, and Amy's long letters. I don't think there is any fear of my ever finding them too long. Here it has been very cold, but dry ; I think we have had only two really wet days since I arrived. It has been freezing hard for several days now, and the Chiuamen look fatter and fatter, for they put on so many wadded clothes. The children look very funny, simple balls of clothes, with a little pigtail and cap on top. They never have any fires in their houses, so they must want plenty of wadding. I have seen a good many women with little feet, who walk exactly as if they had two wooden legs ; but they 30 LETTEKS PBOM THE EAST. iaven't all got them. It is confined to certain districts; in Canton they never squeeze their feet. I have been to two very nice dances this week, and to-morrow is the fancy one. The tailor has done my dress very well, and was very amusing over it ; he calls it a " play pidgon " dress. Saturday. — I had not time to finish this yesterday, as I had to go out and return calls. I have had thirty or forty callers, and it is a fearful business to return them. They keep on coming, and I quite wish they wotild stop. The letters go by the French mail this week, so they have to be finished earlier, as it closes sooner than the English mail that leaves on the alternate Saturdays. The postal arrangements here are rather funny, for you can send letters by either the Trench or English mail with French stamps and the French postal rate is just half the English, so naturally everyone uses French stamps. I believe the English rate is to be reduced soon. I went out with the drag hounds on Thursday and had a very nice ride in spite of the cold ; the ground was very hard and the scent was not very good. The way some of the people ride here is very curious. There are a good many Germans, and they have the funniest seats ; they seem to mostly hold on by the unfortunate pony's head, and they always fall off at intervals. Thank you for the papers, &c. I gave one of your papers to Helen, and she was very interested in it. There is a Mr. Bingham here, a nephew or step-grand- son of Lady Bingham. I think it will be splendid if you can manage to get the electric light at Mount Tavy — it wOl make the conservatory look lovely. I do miss the flowers here. All the chrysanthemums are over, and there are hardly any flowers except the little white jonquils, with LETTERS PKOM THE EAST. 31 yellow centre, •s^liicli they call " New Year's flowers "here. Hardly anyone has glass here, and I have only been in one nice greenhouse, and that was at Mr. Hall's, at Jessfield, five miles out, and the extreme limit of the road. I think I told you there was only one road to drive along when you got outside the Settlement, and that is the Bubbling Well road. It is very odd the Chinese will not make roads on their own account, as they love being driven, and you always see dozens and dozens of victorias and broughams, many of them with bicycle wheels, full of Chinamen or women, and going like mad. The mafoos are very like Jehu, and if they see anything ahead they always try to pass it. Before the roads were made, the only way of getting about, other than walking, was in wheelbarrows, and several men who have been here a long time told me they always had to go out to dinner on wheelbarrows. I must take a photograph of one ; they are funny looking things. I don't think Chinamen would ever walk a yard if they could help it. They are always going about in 'rickshas, and the poorer ones go three and even four on a wheel- barrow : it must be awful work for the coolie who pushes. The threatricals come o& next Tuesday, and I will try and send you a paper if they have an account of it. They have a small daily paper here. They are doing two things in the theatricals, a little thing called Barla/ra, and a little operetta of Sullivan's called The Contrabandista. I am in the chorus, and it is rather amusing, the music and dresses being both pretty. It is very short, and the scene is laid in Spain, and we are all brigands, male and female. I have begun buj'ing embroideries, but I don't want to get too many, or I shan't have enough money left when I 32 LETTEES FROM THE EAST. get to Japan, and I shall want it there I know; but some of these embroideries are very lovely, and just now is the best time to buy, as it is just before China New Tear, when they are anxious to get money to pay off debts, for if a Chinaman doesn't pay up everything at China New Year, he loses face, and his friends scorn him. Shanghai, January 2Srd, 1891. Thanks very much for yours and Papa's and Amy's letters. It is so nice having all the home news and the Tavistock gossip. I hope the ball went off well. But I am quite sure it would ; they always do. We have had two dances and theatricals in the last week. Last Saturday was the fancy ball. It was a very pretty sight, and I was very annoyed when twelve o'clock came, and I had to depart, like Cinderella. Mr. Solomon had a big wooden room built on purpose, and decorated with blue and gold (his racing colours) and long mirrors, and there were banks of flowers all round the room ; and altogether it looked charming. There were some very good dresses. I think the men's were almost better than the ladies'. There were a lot of Frenchmen there, who got very excited, and careered about ; and a good many French women too. I don't think I care for the French style of dancing, it is altogether too galvanic. Two men went as Sikh policemen, of whom there are a good many on duty here ; and they were so well got up that they were refused admission, and the English poHce- man was called up to eject them. LETTEES FROM THE EAST. 33 Last Sunday we tiffined with Mr. Hardy and Mr. Dandy; they live together in a pretty house in the country about three miles out, with a very nice garden and greenhouses. I enjoyed the last very much; it is such a comfort to see flowers again. After lunch we inspected the stables and the kennels. Mr. Dandy keeps the hounds, a very small pack, but they say it is very difficult to keep them here, so many always die in the hot weather. On Tuesday, the theatricals came off and I think they were a g^eat success. They had two things — Barbara, a rather pathetic little one- act thing, which they did very well indeed ; there is one lady here, a Mrs. Plantagenet, who really acts beautifully — and then the Contrdbandista, in which I was a " chorus gal ! " That went well, too, and must have looked very pretty, with all the bright dresses and scenery — some of the dresses were very pretty. I wore mine for the Solomon ball and everybody liked it. On Thursday came the Jasper's dance, and it was a great success. There were about 140 people turned up (quite enough!) but they did not all dance; there was a card room upstairs and two sitting-out rooms. They have a very big double drawing-room, where we danced, and it has a very good floor. I enjoyed it as much as any dance I have been to here. The supper was excellent, we had it at small tables, and the cooks are certainly treasures. We went down to the kitchen and inspected the supper before the dance, and the old cook and his minion, and a few friends who had dropped in to help him, all stood round with bland smiles and their pigtaUs quivering with excitement. The people here dance very well ; they are great on reversing, and don't go as fast as they do in England. They think a good deal of their performances ; and bad dancers, whether they are men 34 LETTERS FROM THE EAST. or -women, don't get many partners. I sympatHsed with Helen in her efforts to get partners for some of tlie women. Helen looked very nice in a lovely heliotrope gown. Some of the people here dress very well indeed. I have been buying some bits of embroideries, small pieces, as they are more useful as well as cheaper. I saw some most magnificent pieces at Mr. Solomon's the other night — huge pieces draping the walls. He must have had thousands of pounds' worth there, besides lots of other curios. He is a Persian Jew and inordinately rich. I think I have told you aU the news of this week. I hope you did not get very tired over the Christmas festivities. I am afraid you must have found it very wearing. Shanghai, Januanj 30th, 1891. Thank you very much for your nice long letter of December 1 7th. I do like getting your letters immensely ; they are full of all the home news and gossip that I want to know and value so. It seems as if I were quite near home — say at Surbiton — when I read your letters. Helen says she should Hke some photos of the little houses at Larkbeare very much — and so should I. I have not taken any photos since I came ; the weather has been so cold, and, of course, I shall be in the place so long, there is no hurry. I must take some joss-houses when I begin, and some Chiaese streets, if I can manage it without being mobbed. I might, perhaps, get a Sikh policeman — they look 80 imposing with their fierce moustaches and red tur- bans — to stand by and keep the Chinamen off. LETTEES EBOM THE EAST. 35 I am afraid I shan't be able to get any pretty views of the country, it is so flat and ugly ; but I shall do my best. I quite forgot to tell you in my two last letters that the other Eastman films had arrived. I have been to two dances this week. The one on Mon- day was very pretty, as most of the Scotchmen present wore knts. The ball was given by Scotch people, and they looked very pretty. It is reaUy a very becoming dress. I should hardly have recognised some of the men, they looked so nice. They did two reels, with much prancing and shouting. The other dance was not so exciting, and most people abused it ; but I managed to amuse myself very well. Some of the people here are very amusing to watch. I have never been among such a mixture before. There are lots of French and Germans and Americans, and a few Swedes and Russians. I have had two very good rides with the drag this week, and have been very lucky, for I had two very good ponies lent me. On Monday I rode a pony of Mrs. Major's, for she was giving the dance in the evening, and so didn't want to ride. She is the crack lady rider of these parts, and thinks a good deal of her riding ; so I had a good time with her pony. Yesterday, Mr. Palmer lent me [his pony, and I had a real good time, for one thing I had my own saddle, which is much more comfortable than Mrs. Major's, and his pony is very fast indeed. It did not pull at aU. and jumped beautifully. I could have kept far ahead of everybody if I had Hked, but, of course, I did not want to ride over the hounds, or ruin my reputation by falling into a creek, so I kept alongside the master and in front of Mrs. Major when I could manage it, and enjoyed myself very much. 36 LETTERS FROM THE EAST. The runs here never last much more than an hour, and they always arrange one check to let the ponies get their breath, so it is nothing like as tiring as hunting at home. They go very fast, just racing when they are running, and some people alwaye faU off. Some of the foreigners ride very queerly — they get themselves up in hunting caps to ride along the road, and they look exactly like Punch's Frenchman, arrayed for the chase. To-morrow is the annual handicap of the paper hunt. I expect we shall go to see the finish, but I don't expect I shall like it, for it is a very long run with no checks, and I expect the poor ponies wiU be dreadf uUy pumped. It has been much warmer here the last two days, too hot to wear a jacket, a wonderful difference from last week, when it was freezing hard. They say it wiU soon get cold again, February being considered a very cold month generally, and everyone wants it to be cold, as a hard winter checks illness and makes a much healthier summer. Last winter was very mUd, and the result was they had lots of cholera and iUness in the summer, but this winter has been pretty cold so far, so I suppose it is all right. Mdme. Patey is coming here to sing next week ; I am looking forward to hearing her. It is not often so good a singer comes here, but I expect she is going to America by the new Vancover Hne, and so stops here en route. They generally get very bad people here, and there has been very a feeble representation of Zittle Lord Faunfleroy since I came, but we did not go, as everyone said it was very poor. I wonder people go, especially as the seats are very dear, three or four dollars, and the doUar is 3s. 6d. now. LETTERS PKOM THE EAST. 37 This letter -will go by the English maU this week — the Ganges. I don't know ii it makes any difference in the time of your receiving letters, whether they come by the French or EngUsh maU. It makes two or three days' difference this end, but we have the advantage over you in the matter of postage, it only costs us half as much. I have nearly got through all my return calls ; it is a great weight off my mind. It is very nice of people to call, but it is a trial having to return them all. I am finishing this letter in my room before going to bed. The mail goes out early to-morrow, so I want to make sure of your letter to-night. I saw such a wonderful Chinese funeral this afternoon, passing along the Bund ; the procession must have been nearly half a mUe long. I believe it was a mandarin's funeral. There were men with torches and men banging gongs and all sorts of things ; but the person who took my fancy most was the chief mourner, who was entirely concealed undci a sort of tent erection of white sheets, held by four men dresssed in white (white is the mourning colour here), and you j ust saw a pair of legs trotting along. The coffin was very gorgeous, all red and blue, and was supported on a huge dragon. The priests were very fine in their embroidered coats, and there were several people in broughams, which looked a little out of place. Shanghai, February 6th, 1891. "We have had horrid weather here the last week, rata nearly every day ; it is the worst weather I have seen here. 38 LETTEES FEOM THE EAST. It stopped the annual paper handicap last Saturday, and lias stopped the hunting too, ■which is rather a blow to me, as I have had a very good pony, atout the best one here, lent me for a -week, while the ovmer is up country. But I hope it will improve, 'as it is not raining to-day as yet. The country here is so soft, that rain makes it all one huge bog. China New Tear begins on Monday, and lasts about a week. It is their one annual holiday, and everything is shut up. All the business places close for two or three days, the daily paper doesn't appear, and all the shops are shut for the week. Helen has to lay in stores. It is a good thing for her that her servants are all Cantonese, and it is too far for them to want to go home. The Chinese decorate their houses, and I have seen heaps of branches of what I believe to be blackthorn blossom, iuthe streets as weU as jonquils, their New Tear's flower, and a very pretty kind of miniature bamboo, which they call " heavenly bamboo." I believe it would be a very pretty thing for the conservatory, The foliage is smaller than the ordinary bamboo, and it has large clusters of red berries rather like mountain ash. .They have already begun to make night hideous with banging gongs and letting ofE crackers, and I suppose they will do it more and more. I was vaccinated yesterday. They say everybody here ought to be, if they have not been done lately, and I am sure it is a long time since I was, so I thought I had better be on the safe side. I was going to see the Chinese city last week, but they thought I had better wait till I had been vaccinated, as there is always a lot of small-pox there, and the gentle Celestial walks about with it all out on him. The result LETTERS FROM THE EAST. 39 is the Europeans here go in for vaccination " early and often," and I don't think our anti-vaccinators would get much of a following here. The Europeans are very rarely attacked, while you see plenty of scarred Chinamen, and lots of them die of it. They cling to their own doctors, and their remedies are curious and original. We went to hear Madame Patey the other night. She put it ofi one night as she caught cold coming up from Hong Kong ; I suppose the difference in temperature tried her, but she sang very well, and the people applauded vehemently. She had Mr. Patey, her husband, with her, who sang Mendelssohn's " I'm a roamer " — that EoK sings so well — and you couldn't distinguish a single word. The concert was in the theatre, to which I had not been before. It is a very good theatre indeed, with stalls and dress circle and boxes all complete, rather like the new Plymouth one, only that the boxes run all round behind the dress circle like they do at the Gaiety. We have been rather gay the three last nights, for the concert was on Wednesday, and last night we were dining out, and to-night there is a dance. Some people here dine out every night, and they look as if it didn't agree with them. I should think they must be bored to death, for dinners a/re monotonous. We tiffined with Endymion Palgrave last Sunday. He lives in a very nice house with three other men. The bachelors here very often chum together, it is cheaper, and house rent here is tremendous. We diaed with Americans last night, and found some of their food rather Americany, and they had the prettiest little cheese knives I have ever seen. I think they go in for pretty little silver fruit and cheese things, for I was tiffin- ing with some the other day and they had very pretty 40 LETTERS FEOM THE EAST. tldngs. I hope it •will be fine this next week — so many men are going up country shooting, and it must be horrid for them if it is -wet. They go in house boats, which I shoidd think were damp residences in wet weather. I believe they get very good shooting here, pheasants and partridges, and snipe and quail, and lots of wild duck. They used to get plenty close to Shanghai, but now they have to go a day or two's journey. Shanghai, February 12th, 1891. There has not been very much going on this week. W© have been out to tiffin twice, and people have been here to dinner, and I have been out riding twice ; it has been rather quiet. We went to hear Madame Patey again last night. It was a better concert than the first, and I think they were aU in better voice. She is giving four concerts, and a great many people go to them all. We have been to two, and I think that is enough, for the tickets are rather dear, 3 dollars each, which is half a guinea. She sang "My Boy Tammie" last night, and did it much better than Antoinette Sterling, and she sang " The Laird of Cockpen " for an encore. It has been very cold this week, the ground has been like iron, and the hunting has all been stopped. It has been a funny week, for aU business is stopped. It is the only holiday for the year that the Chinese take, and they make the most of it. All the shops are shut, except the eating ones, and that makes the place look LETTERS PEOM THE EAST. 41 very queer, as they are always open, Sundays and week days. There is a curious smell of burning joss sticks about too, so I suppose tbey do a little joss pidgeon, as they call it. Chinamen are all very magnificent for China New Year; they take their best clothes out of pawn, and swagger about the streets, looking lovely in satin and brocades of all the colours of the rainbow. The little children look almost the funniest, as they wear wonderful beaded caps and headgear almost like the women, and they look a good deal broader than they are long, their clothes are so thickly wadded. Several of the men here have been up country shooting for China New Tear, and they must have found it pretty cold, I should think, though I believe the houseboats are hot enough with the stoves. The spring is the nicest time, they say, to go up country. There are some hills several days' journey up, and they are all covered with wild azaleas in the spring. Friday. — I am going on with your letter to-day. I generally begin early in the week and write a bit every day, finishing Friday or Saturday — often Friday, as the mail generally closes too early on Saturday to be able to write letters that day. It is a nice bright morning again to-day, and I am just going for a little ride to try a pony that has been lent me for the run to-morrow — it has never carried a lady. People have been very kind to me about lending me ponies. I have hired very few times, and as the hired ponies are not nearly as good as the private ones, it has been very nice for me to have them. I hope the very cold weather is going now — it is nice enough when the sun is shining — but else the air is bitter. 42 LETTERS FROM THE EAST. The last two days the water pipes in the house were frozen, and things come to table quite hard and icy. I have just seen in the paper that the English postage to China is reduced to two pence halfpenny ; I think it is a very good thing, it seemed so absurd to have to pay five pence one way when we could write back for two pence halfpenny. We are going to a baU. to-night, given by the Engineers, or something of the sort. I expect it wiU be rather amusing, for there will be aU sorts and conditions of people. I daresay a good many "black and tans," as they call the half castes. The mail this last week was a day "later than usual. We generally get our letters by the English mail on Saturday, but this time they did not get in till Sunday ; I believe they had head winds all the way up from Hong Kong. When I came we got in on the Friday, but then we had rather a quick passage. The P. and 0. steamers nearly always come in two days ahead of their time, which is the reason you saw the Pekin's arrival before you expected. I suppose they like to have a margin in case of accidents, for they have to pay a heavy fine if they are late with the mails on board. I hope you have finished with the bitter weather at home, it must have been dreadful for the poor people ; you said in your last letter that it was thawing, and I hope it hasn't frozen again. There must have been quite a lot of skating — here they never get any except in the early morning — people have told me that a winter or two ago they got some two or three mornings by getting up at six o'clock. The sun thawed it later on ; this time there has not even been that. lbtieks feom the east. 43 Shanghai, Fehruwry 20th, 1891. Tou have had quite a gay Christmas ; ever so many more dances than last year. I don't think dances here make nearly as much fuss as they do at home. It never takes more than ten minutes at the outside to drive anywhere, so one doesn't lose any time over that, and the dances always begin at nine o'clock and are over by one or two. People would never alter their dinner hour for a dance here I think ; they love their dinner too much, and the men don't like to be up too late, as they all have business to do the next day. I am going to a dance to-night at the County Club — they are the nicest dances here. There has only been one since I came here, and I enjoyed that very much. They have a very big room, and the floor is excellent. I went to hear Mdme. Patey again last Saturday. Mrs. Macrory, an American, took me, her husband had gone up country shooting, so she bestowed the ticket on me. Mdme. Patey sang splendidly; she sang "Oh Pest in the Lord " twice. The poor soprano came to grief. She was down to sing " Angels Ever Bright and Pair," and she got as far as " Angels " in a rather quivery voice, and then she said, "No, I can't do it," and bolted. She had a bad cold, poor thing. I went to a most amusing ball last Priday, the day I wrote to Papa. It was given by the engineers of the place, and there were heaps and heaps of people, aU sorts and conditions, and lots of wonderful old frumps, who frolicked gaily. It was very funny to watch, but the first dances were rather perilous, people ran into you and trampled you under foot; very different to the ordinary 44 LETTERS PROM THE EAST. dances here, wMch are rather slow and stately. We went to some very amusing tableaux on Tuesday, which were very well arranged indeed, and some were very pretty. They did the Three Young Maids of Lee, and then the Three Old Maids — terrible-looking old people (I hope I shall never get like them). They also did " You Dirty Boy " — Pears' Soap picture — and the two priests laughing, " Une Bonne Histoire," it is called, and did it wonderfully well. After- wards we danced, and altogether it was very nice indeed, and not late. 1 have had a good deal of riding the last week. Dr. and Mrs. Major have lent me a very nice pony. I have hunted it three times and it jumps beautifully and is very fast ; so I have enjoyed myself thoroughly. Last Saturday we went to see the finish of the Paper Handicap ; only men ride in it. It is a sort of steeplechase, and they go as hard as they can. When a man has won a paper chase he is entitled to wear pink ii he likes, so they look very pretty — much gayer than the drag hunt. They finished over a jump, or rather wide ditch, and the amiable Chinamen were digging deep holes on the take off side, so as to throw the ponies down. Dr. HiU and some other people pacified them, and got the holes filled up before the hunt got in, else there would certainly have been some horrid spills. It is very hateful of the Chinese to behave like that, for the hunts never go over the country where the riding would be hurtful ; they stop the minute the wheat begins to come up. It is rather short sighted, too, for so many Chinamen are employed as mafoos — far more than would get work if there were no riding. Saturday. — The mail came in last night, so when I got back from the dance I found letters from you and Papa LETTESS FBOM THE EAST. 45 and Alfred and Penelope Bone waiting for me. It was so nice ; please thank Papa for his ; I will answer it when I write to him next week. The mail closes presently, so I must hurry and finish this letter. Please tell Papa I will send him a paper. I will look for one with Chinese translations from the native papers in it. They are most ridiculously dear here — more than a shilling to buy singly, and are worse than a halfpenny paper at home. Shanghai, Februwry ilth, 1891. The maU came in early last week, late on Friday night, so I got your letters before I finished mine. It is the first time it has happened since I have been here. "We were at a dance at the .County Club, and Mr. Jasper and Mr. Eider had to come back early. It was very nice to come back and fijid letters. I sat by the fire and enjoyed them. Tou must have been having the most dreadful weather. It seems as if it was never going to change. Quite lately I have seen the most gruesome telegrams about it. It seems to have been the worst winter this century. I think I am well out of it. The weather here has been much warmer and rather wet ; last Sunday it was so warm that at Mr. Hall's, where we went in the afternoon, they had tea in the garden ! It was a lovely day, and I walked nearly aU the way out, about four miles, with Mr. Jasper. We passed hundreds of blue-clad coolies pumping out the creek. They are pumping it dry to clean out the mud, and they 46 LETTERS FROM THE EAST. pump the water into the narrow creeks and ditches by means of a sort of treadmill business, just like I have seen photographs of at home ; they stand in rows working with their feet, and making a sort of groaning noise, which I suppose they find inspiriting ; I should not think anyone else did. I should like to take a photograph of them, but I'm afraid it would be difGLcult to manage ; a man tried to last week, and they threw mud at him. I have not been out riding this week. Mr. Dandy, the master, was going to mount me yesterday, but it rained so the night before that the hounds could not go out. To- morrow is the last meet for the season; the crops are coming up so fast they cannot ride over the country any more. I had several letters last mail from you and Mamma and Alfred, and also from Penelope Bone and Miss Kemp. I do like getting letters, it is so nice hearing all the home gossip. Penelope wrote me a capital letter, and told me of aU the festivities and lots of news ; she writes very amusing letters. Miss Kemp wrote me a long letter from Switzerland; she had lost my address, so it came addressed to Miss Radford, of London (which I am not), Shanghai ! It arrived all right, though, which was the main thing. She wants me to stay with her when I go back, and I should Uke to very much, she is a very nice girl, I think you would like her very much. We went to a "Bats" performance on Wednesday, at the County Club. They acted a little play called "Bubbles," and then had a short dance afterwards, the whole thing was supposed to be over by twelve. It was very nice indeed. I like mixed entertainments like that. LETTERS FKOM THE EAST. 47 "We dined with Mr. Palmer first, and as Mr. Jasper and Helen did not stay for the dancing, he brought me back. There was a most fearful thunderstorm after we got hack. I could not sleep for a long time ; sheets of rain, and the claps of thunder seemed to shake the house. We went to a big tiffin yesterday, at Mrs. Hill's; a tremendous affair, about forty courses. I think they are very stupid, and I can't think why people have them ; the men are always in a great hurry to get back to work. Mr. Jasper and Mr. Eider were on thorns yesterday to get away. It was quite comic to see them the minute tifEn was over, tear down stairs and plunge into Mr. Eider's brougham. I have found out a man at last to develop my photos, and I took them to him the other day ; but something has gone wrong with the roll-holder, and I can't get the films out. The man, a Frenchman, doesn't understand about them ; so I must get Dr. Marsh to come to the rescue. I hope it hasn't gone altogether mad ; I shall be disap- pointed if the photos I took have come to nothing, but I shall be able to tell you about that next week. Saturday. — I had not time to finish this yesterday. To- day is a lovely day ; I hope it wiU keep fine for this after- noon, as it is the last meet. I am going to ride a pony of Mr. Dandy's ; I believe it is rather slow, so there is not much chance of my coming in first. We went to an organ recital last night at the church, or cathedral, I suppose I ought to call it. They have a very good organ, and I enjoyed it very much. A man sang, " If with all your hearts," very well. We are going to dine with a Mr. and Mrs. Beech to- night. She is a cousin of Miss Tree, of Exeter, who used to act so well. I have not heard yet of anyone going to Japan about the 48 LETTEES FEOM THE EAST. time I want to go. So many people are going home this spriug, hut I've no doubt some mil soon turn up. They had a small fire in the hold of the Bengal, a P. and 0. hoat, the other day, and Mr. Jasper has been rather busy about it. They promptly arrested the coolies who had been working there, as they thought they had been smoking and so caused it ; but now it turns out to have been the quartermaster in charge who smoked, and he has three months' hard labour. There have been several fires on board diEEerent ships lately ; some they seem to think were purposely caused by the Chinese. There was an awful one soon after I arrived, where 200 or 300 Chinamen were either burnt or drowned, and though it was in the river and there were lots of junks and a Chinese man-of-war close by, no one helped, they only robbed the luckless people who managed to swim ashore. They are not an amiable race. Has anything been settled about the Lydf ord living yet ? Shanghai, Mm-ch bth, 1891. Now I must give you a sort of diary of what I have been doing the last week. Last Friday evening we went to an organ recital at the cathedral. The organist plays very well, so I enjoyed it. Saturday was the last meet for the season, and Mr. Dandy, the master, lent me a pony, so I tiffined with Mrs. Hill, and she drove me out to Jessfield where the meet was. We had a very good run, and I had a great race home with a German woman called Slazengen (dreadful LETTEES FEOM THE EAST. 49 name isn't it ?). She tried hard to beat me, and as Mr. Dandy told me the pony was lazy and I was to whack it, I did whack it, and came in well ahead of her. It was an awfully funny finish, but there, they are aU alike. We finished back at Jessfield, and the Jaspers and several people who had come out to see the finish stood on a grave, a big mound, to watch. Mr. Dandy put on a tremendous spurt, and I knew they would aU be mad if I let the German woman win, so I worried along aU I knew, and they all applauded me. It is a very funny sort of hunting ; I think Tommy BickeU would have a fit if he saw them. Sunday afternoon I went down the river. The Clarksons asked me, and a good many other people, on a new big river boat, the Teh Sheng. It was her trial trip, and it was very pleasant, as it was a very fine day. She was ■dressed with flags and looked very smart. We went down to Woo Sung, and passed the French mail on her way up, and lots of junks and steamers lying at Woo Sung, over the bar. One ship, "The Hampshire," was stuck on the bar. I had not been down the river since the day I arrived ; it has been too cold for that sort of thing. On Monday Mr. Dandy had a bye day, to really finish the season, and leant me his pony again. Mrs. Major drove me out. It was a rather wet day, and a very small field turned up, only sis altogether. I did not have as good a time as usual, for my pony fell at a dyke. It was rather a nasty place. A Mr. Hope, who was just behind, put me up again ; and by that time the hounds had vanished. We rode wildly round the country, and my pony collapsed in another dyke. I think he was making up for his good behaviour of Saturday ; and we finally 50 LETTERS TKOM THE EAST. arrived at the finish, to find the others there, all ready to chaff us. I have not had a fall here before, so they thought I was making up arrears. I did not mind at all ; but I am sorry the cross-country riding is over. We dined with some people called Macshane in the evening, and I was asked to go on to a little dance, but I couldn't manage it, I don't think the people would have liked it if I had bolted the minute we rose from table. I heard afterwards the dance was very dull, so I didn't miss much. Tuesday it poured all day, and on "Wednesday some people came to tiffin, and I went for a long walk with Edie Bell in the afternoon. Friday is a nice bright day again, and I think I am going for a walk in the country with Mrs. Hill and Mr. Palmer. I like going in the country, it is a change from walking on the Bubbling Well Eoad — though when you get near a village the smells are really something awful. I have sent Papa a newspaper by this mail. I don't think it is possible to get a real Chinese newspaper, but the translations from the Pelcin Ga%eUe in this are inter- esting. The P. G. is the official Chinese paper, and sometimes the statements from it are rather amusing and sometimes ghastly. I saw in this one that a poor wretch had been condemned to death by the lih chin process, that means to be cut into 1,000 pieces whUe he is still alive — isn't it horrible ! and even for that death you can buy a, substitute. It does seem a most curious state of things in a country that is so highly civilised in many ways. I am glad Papa has really started the electric light. I think it will be a great improvement. A good many of the houses here have it, and Helen is always wishing LETTERS PEOM THE EAST. 51 that she had it. Endymion Palgrave has it in his house, and it looks very pretty inside rice Chinese lanterns. I expect you wiU be interested in the market price list in the paper — 30 cents is about eq^ual to a shilling. Butter is a doUar a pound and very bad. Everyone here eats English butter, salt ; I expect I shall make myself ill when I get home to nice fresh home-made butter. Shanghai, March IZth, 1891. I don't think there is very much news to teU you this week ; the weather has been beautifully fine and bright, but with a cold wind. On Saturday there were some races for the ponies that had been ridden with the paper hunt. The weather was very fine, and there were a lot of people. They have a nice racecourse here, about a mile round. Some of the races were very good, especially the steeplechase ; the ponies do jump most wonderfully, the biggest water jump was thirteen feet, and nearly aU. the ponies cleared it well, and they all carried at least eleven stone. They had a bare- backed race to finish up with, and it was very comic, no one fell off, but they hadn't the least control over their ponies, and couldn't stop them at all. I have been for a good many rides this week, riding either Mr. Dandy's or Mrs. Major's ponies. They have both been very nice to me, lending me ponies ; and as they are both very good riders, it is very nice riding with them. 62 LETTERS PKOM THE EAST. Mr. Dandy knows the country very well. When I was out with the hounds I always used to fix one eye on his white hair, and try and keep as near as I could ; and now that the cross-country riding is stopped, he takes us in the country along the paths, which is much prettier and more amusing than going along the Bubbling Well Eoad or the Sicawei Road, the only other alternatives. On Tuesday evening I went to the Club concordia, a concert and dance given by the Germans here. Helen and Mr. Jasper did not care to go, so I dined with the Elands, and went with them. It was not very exciting. The concert was very long, and I suppose very classical ; but I did not think it very good. There was a long comic (!) recitation, but it was all in German, and full of puns, which no one seemed able to follow. Afterwards they cleared the hall and danced, but the floor was very bad, and it was not as good as the English things I have been to here. Yesterday afternoon I went to a wedding, quite an event for Shanghai. I have been to very few weddings at home, but I did not think it compared favourably with home weddings. The bride had the funniest little bouquet — I think you would have laughed if you had seen it — it was only about four inches across, and was made of all sorts of flowers, but she had a white satin dress with a very long train to make up for it. We went to the " At home " afterwards, and shook hands with the bride and bridegroom, who both looked very miserable, and looked at the presents, but it was such a crush that we didn't stay long. It is a lovely day to-day, it was so hot riding this morning, just like summer at home. LETTERS FROM THE EAST. 53 The Chinese grow such pretty Kttle fruit trees just for the sake of the blossom ; you see them in nearly all the big Chinese shops. Helen has two very pretty ones in the drawing-room now. They only stand about 18 inches or two feet high, but they must be old, for the trunk is as thick as one's wrist and all gnarled. I suppose they cut them constantly back to get more blossom. They call those Helen has pear trees, but the blossom is bright pink and double. It is very pretty, but I never saw pink pear blossom before, did you? A lot of the cherry blossom, too, in Japan, is pink also. We are going to-night to a performance of the Amateur Dramatic. They are going to play a piece called " Mother- in-law," in three acts. I hope it wHl be good, but I think it is rather ambitious. I have at last started keeping a diarj', one something like yours, but with a little more room in it. I have kept it for some little time now and find it very nice to refer to when I am writing. I put down all my letters too. I wish I had kept one before. I bought some little books before I left Surbiton, but I never wrote anything but accounts in them. Now I have the diary started, I must try and keep it up regularly. I am going into the Chinese city to-morrow with Mr. Jasper. I have wanted to go for a long time, so I am very glad it is really coming off. Everyone teUs me I shall want to run the minute I get inside the gates, the smells are so awful and the people so dirty ; but I expect they are exaggerating, and I feel I must see one native city or I shall not have made the most of my opportunities. The Chinese streets here in the Settlement are very interesting, and I think pretty dirty, but they are all under police supervision, so they cannot get very, very bad. 54 letters eeom the east. Shanghai, JIarch 18th, 1891. The flowers I saw in Hong Kong and wrote to Papa about were not orange begonias but bignonias, a climbing plant and very pretty. I have beard of tbem often, but I don't fancy we have any. The lillies of the valley must be lovely ; how I wish I could have some of them ; I think I miss the flowers here more than anything. There are only a few people who have greenhouses ; the Jasper's nave nothing but a few unhappy looking ferns in the verandah. I am very glad indeed that you like my letters, I was always disappointed in them, and thought I did not describe the places and people nearly as well as I ought to, though I tried my best. The enclosed bit of paper is a programme of a Chinese theatre I went to the other night. We dined with Dr. and Mrs. Marsh, and went with them — it was very funny indeed — we drove through crowded Chinese streets, and then went in through a placelike a coach house, full of chairs and rickshas waiting for their owners who were in the theatre, and then proceeded upstairs to the table reserved for us. The P. and 0. compradore had carefully arranged it for Mr. Jasper, and two shroffs (Chinese clerks) were in attendance. I believe it is necessary to arrange the performance when ladies go, as it is apt to be rather too realistic. The place was crowded with Chinese, and they all sat solemnly at tables, smoking and drinking tea, women and men alike, and watching the proceedings with immovable faces. We were the only Europeans. The hall had a gallery round three sides, and we sat at the middle table just opposite the stage, so we had an excellent view of LETTERS EEOM THE EAST. 55 everything. They prepared refreshments lor us of fruit and various weird and terrible looking cakes and sweets, and gave us tea in regular little Chinese covered cups. I just tasted mine, but I can't say I appreciated it. The cup was half full of green leaves, and the tea was a pale greenish yellow. The music was truly terrible, gongs and cymbals going ihe whole time ; it even went to my head. I think it would have driven Papa distracted in two minutes. They had a sort of little play, all men, of course, with huge beards put on, and their singing was awful — a kind of cracked squalling, more like cats than anything else I can think of. After the play they had some acrobats, which was more amusing ; one dressed as a woman, with little feet, was very good — I can't think how he balanced him- self. We stayed about an hour and a half and had quite enough of it. It was very interesting, but not a thing I should care to go to often. I believe the Chinamen sit there for five or six hours on end. Last Saturday I went to the Chinese city with Mr. Jasper; a long promised expedition, whichlneverneverwish to repeat — it was too awful. We drove through the French concession, which is much dirtier and less flourishing than the English concession, as far as the gates, then we had to walk. The streets are only five or six feet wide, so that nothing but chairs can go inside, not even rickshaws. The place is full of the most dreadful beggars, and directly I got through the gates I saw a loathsome, half-clad creature rolling on the ground. I would have given anything to have run away, but I didn't like to, I knew I should be so laughed at afterwards. We did not see a single European all the time we were there. We went through lots of these little narrow streets, 56 LETTEKS FEOM THE EAST. all very much alike, ■with small shops on each side. They have all the different trades apart, so that you went by a lot of fan shops, and then a lot of clothes shops, and so on. The only shops it was any pleasure to pass were the carpenters', as they were using a nice-smelling wood ; I think it was a sort of coarse camphor-wood, which smelt fresh and sweet. The smells all through the city were too awful for words. Mr. Jasper smoked, and I kept Ta.j muff up to my nose, and longed to smoke too. You never smelt anything like it in your life; I shouldn't have thought such smells were possible. And the manners and customs of the natives were beyond description. Here in the settlement they are obliged to behave decently, and to keep their houses clean ; but in the city they were like the South Sea Islanders, of whom the midshipman remarked that "their manners were none and their customs disgust- ing." There are several ditches and creeks intersecting the city, and these are simply open drains ; and every- thing is carried in buckets. So it is here, as we have no drains ; but it is done at night. There, in the city you meet lots of men carrying these awful-smelling uncovered buckets, splashing as they went along. We went into several temples, rather poky, dirty little places, with a big joss, with joss-sticks burning before him, and lots of little gods round the walls. The people had no reverence for their temples, and one man was having his pigtail dressed, sitting in the middle of the temple. We did not go to the prisons, and I was extremely glad for Dr. Marsh told me afterwards that you were very likely to see the prisoners being tortured ! He was there one day, and he saw a man hung up by the neck so that his toes just touched the ground ! I should have had a fit if I had seen any. .-''".»^-''-, '^-'^^i^^ TEMPLE GATEWAY, NIKKO (JAPAN). LETTERS FROM THE EAST. 67 The prettiest thing I saw was a tea house in the middle of a small lake. Ton reached it by a quaint bamboo bridge, and it was just like a bit out of a willow-pattern plate. I will buy a photo of it and send you next week. I should like to have photographed it, but it was impos- sible. We should have been mobbed, and there are no police, so one has to be careful. I bought two fans as a memento of an experience I never want to repeat. It has been very wet this week, and I have only been for one ride. I am very sorry, as Mr. Dandy is going to Japan for a trip to-morrow, and I'm afraid we shall not get such nice rides while he is away. We were to have gone to-day, but it is pouring with rain. I went to a dinner on Mondaj' where there was a mixture of six nationalities ; I didn't enjoy it much. This is a very Chinesey letter — a little too much so I am afraid — but I thought you and Papa would like to hear aU about the city. Shanghai, March 2&th, 1891. Thank you very much for your long letter, and for the papers ; I am afraid I don't always acknowledge the latter, but I am always delighted to get them, and read them with great interest. Thank you for sending Blade and White ; I think it is very good ; it was very much ap- preciated ; I think a brand new thing always is out here. 58 LETTERS FKOM THE EAST. I don't think I have as much, news to tell you this week as last, certainly not as much Chinese news. Last Saturday we went to a big tiffin on board the Oriental — a big P. and 0. ship that is up here now ; there were about 30 people there, and we went off in two launches. Everything at the tiffin, except the dessert, was English, and the people thoroughly enjoyed themselves and tucked into the English meat and turbot and butter in grand style. The " Clyde," with the Everys on board, came up just as we finished tiffin, and Mr. Jasper and Mr. Eider had to hurry off and receive the mails, etc. After tiffin several of us walked out to Mr. Hall's to tea. He has a lot of big Czar violets in bloom out of doors ; I was so glad to get some — they reminded me of home. On Sunday I rode to Woosung. I had never been there before, and as it was a lovely day I enjoyed it very much. It is about a dozen miles below Shanghai, at a place where the Whangpoo, on which Shanghai is built, tlows into the Yantze river. There is a bar there which prevents ships coming up except at high tide, so the mails and passengers nearly always come up on the "Gutslaaf," the P. and 0. tug. I rode with the Hills and Clarksons and Mrs. Major and Mr. Hunter, Mr. Milkins and Mr. Palmer. It was Mr. Palmer's picnic, and he sent down two houseboats by a tug— his own and one he borrowed; and we had tiffin on board. Such a big tiffin, just like a dinaer, soup and ices and all sorts of things, all cooked on board. I think an English cook would have a fit if it were suggested to her to go on a small house boat and cook a big and elaborate meal while the boat was in motion. It was a pretty ride, partly along the fore shore, where there was plenty of water jumping, and partly along a LETTERS PROM THE EAST. 59 tigt embankment. The big river looked so pretty with the junks and steamers. We are going for a ride to- morrow afternoon to the Pagoda. Mr. Palmer is going to send up his boat for tea. It is the only Pagoda about here, and I am very anxious to see it. I mean to take my camera. I tooK it to Woosung, but had no time to take any photographs. I am very disappointed about the films. AU the views I took on my way out are spoilt, hopelessly over-exposed, besides being spotted. Several people here say the films are not nearly as good as the plates ; they do not give such a sharply defined image. I wiU. put in a photo I took of the Jaspers' drawing room, and you will see what I mean. It is the only one that is at all fit for anything that I have taken. I shall use plates on m.y way home. I can get them out here, and I am quite sure the films are too rapid for very bright sunlight, like one gets in the tropics. They may do for dull days here. Last Saturday we dined with Mr. Bunting, a very nice old man here, and he showed me all his curios ; he has lots of beautiful blue and white china, and old carvings in ivory, and one or two lovely bits of gold lacquer. I have never seen anything like it before, it is beautiful, but I don't think I should care to possess it. It is very expen- sive, about £20 for a tiny bit, and unless you keep it wrapped up in tissue paper it tarnishes. Mr. Gaunt and Mr. Dandy went to Japan last Saturday. I don't get so many rides now Mr. Dandy is gone, though I can have his pony in the intervals of its racing education. The races come some time in next month, and lots of ponies are being trained. I believe it spoils them to ride 60 LETTERS EEOM THE EAST. after, it makes their moutlis harder than ever, but th& owners don't seem to mind that. I see lots of ponies being galloped round the racecourse by mafoos with their pigtails tightly wound round their heads. The last few days have beeu beautifully fine and warm, and things are really beginning to sprout. Everyone says it is a very late season, but a few days of this will make a lot of difference. Some very pretty trees are coming into blossom now, a sort of small magnolia, very strongly scented — the flowers come out before the leaves, and the- tree is about 15 feet high. I am sending you by this mail a book called " Chinese Characteristics"; everyone here speaks very highly of it, and says it gives such a very good idea of Chinese life and character, so I was sure it would interest you. Mr. Jasper has gone up country with Mr. Bunting for Easter ; they started last night, and I am afraid they won't get much shooting, it is the wrong time, but the weather is lovely. I am looking forward to my ride to the Pagoda this afternoon, it will be only too warm. I went to a bowling dinner last night, the first I have been to here ; we had dinner in the usual way, and then adjourned to a bowling alley and played bowls. I had. never tried before, so my efforts were rather unsuccessful, but it was very amusing, and I got a prize. I think bowls are a favourite American game ; it was an American party. Besides the Jaspers' drawing room, I am putting in a photograph I took of the Logan baby and his amah, and you wiU. see how bad the definition is. I am hurrying to get this finished before church, as the mails are different this week owing to Easter. letters from the east. 61 Shanghai, April 3rd, 1891. Here tlie weather has been very hot most of the week. On Monday the thermometer was 8 1 deg. in the shade, so you can imagine what it was like. Ton saw people coming out in print dresses and dark glasses. Lots of people wear dark glasses here in the summer, because of the glare. Yesterday it was much colder, only 65 deg. ; and to-day it is just an ordinary breezy spring day. I think I finished my letters last Thursday, as the mails were altered, owing to Good Friday. On Thursday evening I dined with some Americans, and went afterwards to a bowling alley in the Maloo and played bowls. It is a very good game and it was very amusing. I got a very pretty little silver brooch for a prize. I played very badly, but that didn't seem to matter. We went to church, of course, on Friday morning, and in the afternoon I rode to the Pagoda with Mrs. HOI and Mrs. Major, and Mr. Palmer, and Mr. Wilkins, and Mr. Hunter. It was a lovely day, rather hot, but with a little breeze, and I enjoyed the ride very much. We had to go through the country, along narrow paths, and over lots of bridges. We had to get off at several, as they were too narrow and ricketty to ride over. We went through several peach orchards, where the buds were quite red, just ready to burst. I expect they are out now, and it was altogether very pretty. The Pagoda is close to a big Chinese village or town, and is on a creek or river, so Mr. Palmer had his house boat there, and we had tea on board, and I took some photographs of the Pagoda. One of them has turned out all right, but the roU holder broke, or some- 62 LETTEES FROM THE EAST. thing went wrong in its works, so I couldn't take any more views. It was most annoying, but I have got som& plates now, and I shall use those when I go out on expeditions in future. It was quite exciting photographing the Pagoda, suck heaps of Chinamen assembled to watch — there must certainly have been several hundred. They behaved very well on the whole, and Sir. Palmer and Mr. Wilkins kept them off — it is not nice having them touch you, they are so horribly dirty. I went half way up the Pagoda ; it is seven or nine stories high and is painted red and green. I had quite a pretty view, and actually saw the hills, three of them, in the distance — one a little like Brent Tor, with a temple or something on the top. It was qmte hot, riding, and I envied Mr. "Wilkins the broad terai hat which he wore. Saturday morning was so hot that Helen and I just crawled into the public gardens and sat in the shade, and even there we were grilling. The gardens are looking very pretty now with all the spring flowers, hyacinths and anemones and violets ; they always try to get as many home flowers as they can, and the magnolia trees have been perfectly lovely this week — ^masses of sweet-smelling white flowers. They are falling now, and the purple variety is beginning to flower. I think it is what they call the tulip tree at home. They grow very large indeed, and look perfectly lovely covered with flowers, but without leaves. The church looked very pretty on Easter Sunday, and it was really full for the first time since I have been here. They had a collection, also the first I have seen, and in all the pews were put pencils and little printed forms, so there was no excuse for people not giving, and the plates LETTEES FROM THE EAST. 63 looked very funny, with far more paper in them than money. No one carries money here, unless it is small bits for the rickshas, and a dollar (3/6) is the biggest coin, so the church gains, as no one writes a cheque for less than 5 dollars. On Monday I went for a ride to Woosung with a party. We were about a dozen altogether, and it was perfectly blazing. I only wonder we didn't all get sunstroke. We had cabbage leaves inside our hats, and there was a breeze off the river, but it was hot. We rode down and back, and had tiffin at the Wards' (the people who got it up) afterwards. We had plenty of jumping and one or two people fell off, but some people always do here, at the very smallest occasion. It surprised me at first, but now I have got used to it. I went to Mr. Pringle's to tea afterwards. He is a funny old American, with a lame leg and a passion for ladies' tea- parties. He gives one lovely little hot scones, which he calls " hot biscuit." Tuesday and Wednesday were both very hot. I played squash racquets Wednesday morning — very warm work — and in the afternoon we went to Mr. Hall's, who had a garden-party. I wore a print dress, and they had tennis and ices. Fancy, on the first of April ! The Jaspers had a dinner-party last night. It was their wedding-day, and there were eighteen altogether. It went off very well, and the table looked very pretty, though it is difficult to manage when you can't buy nice flowers, and have to get them from different people. I expect the woods are looking lovely at home now, with the primroses and the Lent lilies all out. Here the people get very excited if they get nice pots of primroses to grow 64 LETTERS PKOM THE EAST. in their greenliouses — they don't seem to do -well out of doors. I expect the summer is too hot and scorches them up. Some of the people here have beautiful Czar violets, but I have not seen any double ones at all. Shau"ghai, April 9th, 1891. Last Saturday afternoon there was a review of the Shanghai volunteers on the racecourse ; it was rather amusing to watch. There were the Artillery with their battery of guns, the Light Horse, of which Endymion Palgrave is lieutenant, and the Foot Yolunteers in red coats. A major came up from Hong Kong to inspect them, and they marched past and fired off the guns and went through various evolutions, to the joy of several thousand Chinamen who were watching. The ponies behaved wonderfully well, only one got his rider off and bolted. On Sunday they had a church parade, it looked quite lite St. Leonard's, at Exeter, only the service was so long — two hours aU but five minutes ! They had a terribly long anthem, very badly done, and the sermon did not begin till half-past twelve. It seemed a stupid thing to do, for it annoyed aU the men, so that they won't come to church again for ever so long. Monday morning I played squash racquets ; it is a very good game, a sort of modified racquets, but it is a little bruising when you constantly knock yourself against the wall as I did. In the afternoon I went for a ride with Mr. Palmer, and he took me part way to the Pagoda to see the LETTERS FEOM THE EAST. 65 peacli blossom. It is such a pretty sight, I do so wish you could see it. Big orchards of peach trees, and the hlossom is all shades of pink, from almost white up to the brightest crimson ; the whole country in some directions looked quite pink. It reminded me a little of the apple orchards about Exeter, but there is a great deal more of it. There is a good deal of rape out too, and the bright yellow flowers look very pretty. I have taken several photographs this week, and now I have got plates ; they all have come out very well. I took several of the river, but it is difficult to get a really good junk carrying a lot of sail in a photograph. I haven't succeeded yet, but I mean to try until I do. We dined with the Prunts' on Tuesday. They have some very pretty things, but it was not very exciting. On Wednesday I played squash racquets and rode again, a rather tiringcombination. We rode to the Pagoda — aparty of seven — and had tea in Mr. Palmer's house-boat, which he had sent up the river to meet us. It was a beautiful day, and I enjoyed it very much. The blossom was lovely. I had no idea this flat country could look so pretty. In some places where the peach trees overshadowed the water, the efi'ect was beautiful. We had a gorgeous tea. Mr. Palmer's ideas on tea are are very broad. We had ices, and marrons glaces, and chocolate creams, as well as tea and cake ! It was very pretty riding back at sunset, the level rays of light are so beautiful on the water. We did not go close to the Pagoda on this expedition, as we went there last time, and the people are so horribly dirty and sometimes rather troublesome — though they behaved very well the last time we were there. We have had very good weather this week — not too hot, E 66 LETTERS FROM THE EAST. but just pleasant ; to-day it looks rather like rain. I suppose next week we shall hear all about the awful blizzard you had on the 12th of March. "We have seen short telegrams about it — one says that six trains were snowed up between Exeter and Plymouth, and of course I am very anxious to know which line they were on, and whether anyone I knew was in them. It must have been a terrible storm, and it came, too, long enough after the bad weather for people to have felt secure from such trifles. The last week or two I have seen lots of kite-flying in the country. The Chinese are very great on it, and their kites are most wonderful objects, some are rather the shape of a man, with arms and legs, and a great many are almost circular. They nearly all have squeakers fastened to them which make a kind of rattle or squeak all the time the kite is flying. The kites don't have tails like the English ones, but a long double piece of string that swings out and balances them. They have a most complicated arrangement of strings, and they look most difficult things to manage ; they say no one but a Chinaman can manage them. I hope the blizzard has not hurt the garden. It must be looking lovely now with all the spring flowers. I miss the garden here very much — it seemed so curious at first, living in a house without a scrap of garden. I often go in the public gardens, they have a very good show of flowers there, and also at the County Club — tulips and anemones and hyacinths, they aU. seem to do very well here. There are lots of globe trotters in Shanghai just now ; one meets nothing but strangers in "rickshas." The "Em- press of India " has just brought a lot on their way round the world. She is one of the big new boats that are to LETTERS PilOM THE EAST. 67 run from Yokohama to Vancouver on the Canadian Pacific Line. I am very well indeed, ia fact I don't think I have had half-a-dozen headaches since I have been here. Shanghai, April nth. I am going to Japan this day week. It will be horrid saying good-bye to all the people here, they have aU been so very nice to me ; but it's got to be done. I have been here longer than I intended, and if I want to see the cherry-blossom and wistaria out I must hurry. I am going by the Japanese mail. It takes a little longer than the French mail, the only other line from here ; but it is much nicer, as it goes by the inland sea, and stops at Nagasaki and Kobe, while the French goes right through to Yokohama. When I leave Japan I shall go from Yokohama by a P. & 0. to Hong Kong, and then change to the home- coming steamer. Mr. Jasper is going to transfer my ticket from Shanghai to Hong Kong, to Yokohama and Hong Kong. I expect I shan't get my letters nearly as regularly now ; there will be horrid gaps. The Jaspers will send on my letters to Japan for a bit, and then send them down to Hong Kong. I think you had better write to me to the " Poste Eestante, Colombo." That really sounds as if I were 68 LETTEKS EEOJI THE EAST. coming home, doesn't it ? And as soon as I know which hoat I am coming by, you can write to the different ports — Aden, Malta, &c. — to me on board that boat ; then they bring the letters on board directly you arrive. At Colombo you must write to the post-office, as I don't know what boat I shaU come by ; so I hope I shall get a little sheaf of letters there. The mail flag is fluttering gaily on our flagstaff, which means that the mail is coming up the river, and I am hoping every minute to hear the guns go. It is very seldom the mail comes in before the out- going mail leaves, but this week it is doing it. I am busy gathering my things together, and buying odd trifles. I wish I were going back through America. I know several people going, but I have my return ticket, so of course I can't. People tell me the most fearful legends of what the heat will be, but I am quite sure they do it to excite me, so I don't bother. I am going out to several dinners next week, and a big ball next Thursday — the last for the season, and quite the last as far as I am concerned, as it is the night before I start. There seem to be always a good many changes going on here — people go home for good, and others come out, or else they go away for a year's leave. Endymion Palgrave is going home nest autumn or spring ; he has been out liere six years. The letters have come and I have them from Amy and Alfred, who says, writing on the 14th, that he has just had a letter from Papa, dated the 9th ! I expect the delay was caused by that awful blizzard. What a dreadful time you must have had ! I hope it didn't do much damage. Alfred said there was deep snow at Tavistock and all shops were shut ! LETTERS PEOM THE EAST. 69 I took some photographs of Mrs. Hall's house. We ■went there to tiflS.u and I took my camera. He has a Chinese house with tip tilted corners to the roofs, and it looks very pretty in the photograph. I must try and take as many as I can in Japan, but of course I shall buy some too. It would hardly do to trust to my unaided efforts, would it ? I shall be very busy this week packing and saying good- bye to people. I shall not take all my luggage to Japan ; the heavy part wiU. go to Hong Kong and meet me there. I do hope I shall have fine weather in Japan ; sometimes it rains there a great deal. I am finishing this on Saturday, just before the mail closes. The paper this morning has the most harrowing account of the blizzard. It must have been most awful. Heaps of shipwrecks ; and the farmers must have suffered dreadfully. I am afraid lots of the poor moor ponies must have been buried alive. I saw some very prettj' flowering shrubs at Mr. Hall's last Sunday. He has a good big garden, the best about here ; there were a lot of tree spireas out, both white and pink, such pretty trees, I don't remember seeing them before, and they are not at aU like the ordinary spirea. He had a good many Judas trees too, covered with small magenta coloured flowers. I shall write before I start for Japan, so you will get a letter as usual. 70 letters fkom the east. Shanghai, Ajjril 23rd. I am beginning my letter to you surrounded, by a perfect chaos of boxes and packing. It is a dreadful business packing up and leaving, especially the saying good-bye. I have been "At Home" this afternoon, and crowds of people have been to see me, and I expect there Tvill be a lot to see me off on the jetty to-morrow morning. The boat starts at 10.30, rather a nice time. It is a very good boat I believe, electric light and all that sort of thing. It is called the " Saikio Maru." All the boats on that particular line are called the something Mai'u. I have not got very many Chinese things, as everybody says the Japanese are prettier, besides, I can always buy things at Hong Kong if I find I have enough money — but I beUeve the Japanese shops are fascinating. I bought some Shanghai photographs for you this morning ; they are not as good as I could wish, but they are the best I could get, and give a very good idea of the place. I have a very nice book too that Mr. Eider has given me. I have taken some more photographs of the country, but I am going to keep them to develop till I get home ; they wiU. travel just as well, and I would much rather develop them myself. I was so disappointed at not getting letters last week. It was that dreadful blizzard ; I shall hear all about it in my next letters. I am afi-aid you will not hear fi-om me for ten days or a fortnight, as it takes a week to get to Yokohama, and I shall very likely miss the mail from there to Hong Kong, but you will understand the reason. Mr. Jasper says he thinks it will be safer if j'ou address letters to me at the P. and 0. office at Colombo, rather LETTERS FROM THE EAST. 71 than the Post oiSce. He has been very kind indeed ahout managing for me, getting my ticket, etc., and looking up people for me to travel with, and introductions. They have hoth been as nice as it is possible to be, and I am dread- fully sorry to say good-bye to them. I have had a perfectly splendid time hero, everybody has been so kind, and I have had lots of fun, but all things must have an end, and although I know I shall feel quite happy and delighted when I get to Japan, still it is a wrench to leave this place. I am going to the St. George's ball to-night, so I am finishing up gaily. It is the last dance of the season, and seems just as if it has been arranged as a farewell festivity for Mr. Eider and for me ; he goes on Saturday, the day after I do. There are several people I know going to Japan by the same boat, so I shall not feel at aU. dull. The races come off here next week, and a good many people who are not going to the races are going to Nagasaki instead. The races last four days and are a sort of general holiday. I am sorry to miss them, for they are sure to be very amusing. I expect I shaU. find the voyage to Japan very inter- esting. First the boat touches at Nagasaki, which is only two days' from Shanghai, and then it goes by the inland sea, which, I believe, is perfectly lovely, to Kobe, and from there by the open sea again to Yokohama. I am afraid this letter wiU not be as long as usual, but I am finishing this after the ball, and it is past three o'clock, and I am so sleepy I can hardly keep my eyes open. It was a very nice ball, and everyone said they were coming to see me off to-morrow. I think there will be a regular mob. I sent you a paper last week, and will send some more from Japan. I am very anxious to get 72 LETTEES FEOM THE EAST. your next letter and paper, and to hear wliat damage the storm has done ; I hope nothing very serious. This is the shortest letter I have ■written you since I have been away, but I hope you won't mind, for I am so tired. Geajstd Hotel, Yokohama, May Uh. Here I am at last in Japan, and it is such a pretty place. I wish you were here, you would like it so much. It seems such a long time since I wrote — I suppose it is because I have been travelling — that I must begin at the beginning, and go straight through, like Papa does in his letters, or I am sure to leave out something I want to tell you. I am sending you some photographs. They are only cheap little ones of Kobe, but they will give you an idea of the place. I mean to bring home some really nice ones and a menu of a real Chinese dinner the Colins took me to, I am sure it will amuse you. We had it all out of little bowls and ate it (as far as we could) with chop-sticks. I think I told Papa all about it but I couldn't send him the menu, as I didn't get it till the morning I left. I finished my letter to Papa after the baU about four o'clock the morning I left, and I am afraid it was a very stupid letter, but I was so tired. I left about ten o'clock, and Mr. Jasper saw me off. Helen wouldn't go ; she says she likes going to meet people, but not to see them off. I was very sorry indeed to say good-bye to her. Lots of people came to see me off, and brought me flowers and all sorts of things, and they LETTERS EROM THE EAST. 73 ^ nearly all stayed on the jetty tiU the steamer started, and the last I saw was a great waving of hats. It was horrid saying good-bye to them, and to think that perhaps I shaU never see them again ; but I shall hope to, anyhow. Mr. Jasper put me in special charge of the captain, and also introduced me to a very charming couple, called Spinli, who were going home on leave. I knew quite a lot of people on the steamer besides, as there were a lot of Shanghai people going over to Nagasaki for the trip ; and a nice time the dear creatures had, for we had an awful crossing. I went to bed just before dinner (Friday), and did not arise till we got into Nagasaki on Sunday morn- ing. We had really horrid weather. Only one lady appeared at meals. I had a funny little Chinese stewardess, who looked after me very well ; and there were a lot of Chinese and Japanese on board. Nagasaki is a lovely harbour, more like Dartmouth than any place I can think of, only on a very much larger scale. We all landed and had a very nice day on shore. Monday I went for a lovely excursion with the Spinks and Mr. Hooper (American) to a little place called Mogi. We went in rickshas. The country was lovely, and the people looked so pretty and picturesque after the Chinese. We had wonderful prawns for tifSn, about six inches long and very good. We left Nagasaki at five o'clock with a wonderful mixture of passengers — American missionaries, a fat Chinaman, and a lot of Japanese of all sorts, including a very small daimio. We reached Shimanasaki early next morning, coaled, and went on through the inland sea all day. It was perfectly lovely, and I took some views of it. You would have enjoyed it. It was just like a lake — in some places 74 LETTEKS rHOM THE EAST. SO narrow you could almost throw a stone on shore, and in others you could only just see the land. Wednesday we reached Kohe, and as we had to the middle of next day, the Spinks and Mr. Hooper and I rushed on shore, got our passports — you can't go anywhere in Japan without a special passport — and after looking about Kobe a bit, took the train to Kioto. I had not been in a train since November, and never in such a one. It took two hours and a-half to go thirty miles, and it was so funny to see the Japs crowding in and out. Kioto is a large old city, and very interesting. "We went to one or two temples and to some big pottery works, and also sa'w them making cloisonne, which was very interest- ing indeed. The country round was beautiful. It lies in a plain quite surrounded by hills, and the azaleas and cherry trees were lovely — such a contrast from flat flowerless Shanghai. We stayed the night there, and caught the 7 o'clock train down, and left in the steamer at 12 o'clock. Friday morning we got a beautiful view of Fuji, the great mountain of Japan. It is an extract volcano and is 12,000 feet high. It looked lovely towering up above the clouds, a regular coned-shaped mountain, much more pointed than Vesuvius, and a snowy white. We reached Yokohama about 4 o'clock, and I came ashore with the Spinks, went to the P. & 0. office, and got my letters and came here. I was very sorry to say good-bye to the Spinks, who start for San Francisco to- morrow. They were very'kind to me, and are some of the nicest and most refLned Americans I have met. They are probably coming to Europe next spring, and then I hope I shall see them again. LETTERS FROM THE EAST. 75 1 met Mr. and ]Mrs. Eamsay tere all right. He is on the "Omaha," the American admiral's flagship, which is stationed here. I met them in Shanghai first ; she IS a very nice little woman and has taken me round a great deal. This is a very good hotel, crowded with people, especially globe trotters. There is not much to see in Yokohama ; it is quite a modern place ; lovely shops, of course. It is built on a large bay. and the view out to sea is lovely. The sea is so blue — such a contrast to the Tangzte — and the sampans and junks and little launches flying round look so pretty. Saturday I spent trotting round with Mrs. Eamsay, looking at the shops, &c. Sunday it poui-ed all day, but to-day it is a lovely day, very hot and bright. Air. Jasper thought I should have to get a guide here, but the Spinks and Eamsays, who have both lived here, strongly advised me to get an amah — i.c\, a woman, instead — as being miich cheaper and very much more useful to a woman, so I engaged one this morning, and she is here sitting in my room, making a case for my treasured pillow at the present moment. She is a funny little thing, about three feet high, but she has a very high character, and I think I shaU find her a great comfort. I pay her 2i dols. a week, and here in Yokohama she feeds herself out of that — that is about 7s. or Ss. a week, and I think is pretty cheap. I have settled to go to Aliyanoshta to-morrow, which is about two houi-s from here. Everyone says it is a most lovely place, so I and the amah are going to journey up to-morrow afternoon. When I leave there I shall have to come back here and then go to Tokio where there are the most wonderful temples. 76 LETTEES rEOM THE EAST. It is very funny going over a temple; they tie loose blue shoes over your shoes and you go round feeling like a cat in walnut shells. They themselves always wear sandals which thej' leave outside on the steps, and trot round in their stockinged feet. They wear stockings with a place for the great toe, just like baby gloves, and the fastening of the sandal comes between the two. They seem such bright, merry people after the Chinese, and so polite. When you go into a shop they bow almost to the ground, before you. The shops are curious little places and are raised about a foot ; you rub your feet on a mat, where they leave their sandals, and then you step up the platform, which is all covered with the cleanest matting, on which they sit, and work, and eat ; any sort of chair or stool is only a polite concession to us. Even in the railway train jou see a Jap who is tired of sitting on the seat in the ordinary way, arise, and sit on it with his legs folded flatly under him. The children are the funniest of all, they are exactly like the wooden Japanese dolls, and the mothers carry them slung on their backs. You see children, who only seem able to walk, carrying smaller ones on their backs. I saw one at Nagasaki carrying an enormous doll on his back, and it really looked several sizes larger than the child. The women's dress is very pretty, and they looJ£, at least some of them do, very graceful, but it is wrapped round them so tightly that they look as if they could not possibly move'; it is a great contrast to Chinese trousers. Sometimes you see nasty sights, though not as often as in China. To-day I saw a man with leprosv, his hands were all twisted up and looked dreadful. I think I have given you a big dose of the Japanese this week, and I had better stop. lettees from the east. 77 Kachin in Kaitakuka, Maij 10th. I don't quite know when the mail goes ; but there is such a variety from here — the English, and the Vancouver, and the American — that I ought to catch one of them. I have not had any letteis since I wrote to Mamma, last Monday ; but I expect I shall find some at Yokohama to-morrow. I have been away from there since Tuesday, and have had a delightful little trip. I went to Miyanoshita with my amah on Tuesday. It is a lovely place when you get there, but the journey is a little involved. First, you have about an hour in the train ; then a long way in a tram, drawn by two unfortunate Japanese ponies, and filled with all sorts and conditions of Japs, the conductor blowing a horn the whole way, and making a fearful noise. The rest of the way is done in "rickshas," up a fear- fully steep road, two men to each "ricksha." The road winds up a pass, and the scenery is beautiful — mountain streams, and the sides of the hills all wooded, and show- ing here and there a brilliant patch of scarlet azalea. Miyanoshita is quite a little place with two hotels. The people make rather nice things of inlaid wood. It is very like a place in Switzerland or even Scotland. The people go off for long expeditions over the hills. I went for some beautiful walks and took a good many photographs ; I do hope they wiU turn out all right. I met Mr. Linden again there ; I am not sure if I told Mamma I met him at the hotel in Yokohama. It is very funny how you keep on running up against people. I went for one lovely expedition to Lake Hakone. The paths are too steep for 'rickshas, and one has to go in 78 LETTERS mOM THE EAST. chairs. It was very funny. I started on Thursday directly after breakfast in a chair with four bearers and the amah in a kago, a native, and a very weird-looking palanquin arrangement with two bearers. We went up and down the most awful paths, and the chair tipped forward and backwards at such an angle I expected to fall out or to lose the camera every minute. At the lake we had tiffin, which we brought with us, at a tea house, and then crossed the lake in a large boat — it took a large boat to hold us all — to a place caUed Ajizoku. It was beautiful on the lake. We had a lovely view of Fuji-yama, towering above the other hills, the snow ghttering in the sun. I took a photograph of it, and I hope it wOl be a success. I saw a good many camellia trees covered with flowers, single red ones, among the woods by the lake, and also quantities of azaleas and arbutus trees in blossom. We came back another way over hills with sulphur springs, where the way was so rough we had to walk. Some of the way was very like the top of Vesuvius — steam rising from the ground and bare sulphur rocks. Some of the waters are said to be very good for dijffierent complaints, ophthalmia, &c., and we passed some bath houses in the village, where the people were gaily bathing in full view of passers-by. All the hot water at the hotels is brought from these springs by bamboo pipes, and the baths are very nice indeed. Friday I left Miyanoshita, and went to Enoshima — a charming little island, a little bit like St. Michael's Mount ; it is only an island at spring tide or very rough weather. I stayed the night there at a tea house, and had a very amusing time. I don't think there was another European on the island, and I and my camera created quite a LETTERS FKOM THE EAST. 79 sensation. My room at tlie tea-house had no proper doors or windows, only screens that you can slide back, and I slept on the floor on several mats, and the amah slept in another comer of the room. There was no furniture whatever in the room ; they bring in the mats when you want to go to bed, and take them away in the morning ; but they brought me in a chair and a very ricketty table at which I had my meals, and verj' funny meals they were. Of course they had no bread and no meat, but they pro- vided me with a fowl of such wonderful toughness that I couldn't eat a mouthful, but I had eggs and fish and rice, so I managed to exist for twenty-four hours very happily. There were lots of little waiting girls belonging to the tea-house, and they all came in to watch the amah pack my things in the morning, and chattered in the most excited way over the things. They are all very inquisitive, and come and look and ask you about anything that takes their fancy. My watch wristlet always excites them very much ; they come and look at it and then jabber excitedly to one another. I am learning a little Japanese ; it is not difficult to pick up a few words, but I expect I shall forget it again directly. The next day, Sunday, I went to Kamakura by ricksha. It was Ascension Sunday, but I couldn't go to church for there was none. It was a very rough sandy road and horribly bumpy. We went to Dai Butsu — a very big bronze image of Buddha ; it is the second largest in Japan and is 50 feet high. I photographed it, and then we went on to Kamakura, where there is a very fine temple and beautiful cedar avenues. I took another photograph there and then went on to the hotel which is about a mile away by the sea shore — a rather dismal place and nearly empty. 80 LETTERS FROM THE BAST. I went on the beach, in the afternoon and picked up a few shells — some rather like elephant's tusks but grooved, and some very delicate little purple ones the shape of mussels. I went to see another temple and saw a very curious sight. It is a Buddhist temple, and is specially resorted to by people with bad eyes, and it was nearly full of men, women, and children praying. They knelt in rows, and some of them banged gongs and others knocked pieces of wood together, and they all recited prayers aloud as fast as they could, and the priests came along and gave them stuff to apply to their eyes. I never heard such a noise as they made, you could hear them ever so far off, and my amah said they kept it up for many hours at a stretch. She believed in the efficacy of it thoroughly. I came back to Yokohama on the Monday — you see I am finishing the letter here — and found the Eamsays very glad to see me. They are nice people. We had a great excitement at dinner over the report of the Czarewitch's assassination, but it turns out he was only wounded. I suppose the Jap suddenly went crazy. It is a gi eat pity for Japan, people will give the nation the credit of it, and they really are trying so hard to advance, and doing all they can to improve themselves. I spent the morning shopping with Mrs. Eamsay, and this afternoon I went to a Japanese theatre with my amah ■ it was very funny indeed. The theatres go on all day ; some people come at eight in the morning and stay till nine at night — they certainly get their money's worth. The place was crowded. I sat upstairs in a little sort of pen, on a chair, in state. The amah sat on a cushion on the matting. I think I was the only European in the place. TEMPLE AT NIKKO (JAPAN). LETTEES FROM THE EAST. I The acting and scenery were very good, and some of the scenery was quite elaborate. They had real fires, and very good imitation snow falling. The play seemed to be a very gloomy tragedj', the actors wept and moaned, and wierd musical instruments kept up a constant accompani- ment. My amah wept plentifully, and thoroughly enjoyed herself. I am going to Nikko to-morrow, and expect I shall like it very much. Almost, if not quite, the best temples in Japan are there ; and the country is very beautiful, too, I believe. It is quite hot here now. We have strawberries for tijffin and dinner, and the weather is as hot as August at home. I think I have settled to leave here on the thirtieth of the month, and to come home by " The Sutlej," i.e., as far as Colombo. I don't know the name of the con- necting steamer there, but you will see it in the P. & 0. book. I should like to have stayed here longer, but the steamer a fortnight later is not nearly as good a boat. It is called "The Eavenna," is an old boat, and a non- refrigerating one, which makes a lot of difference. I know Captain Worcester, of " The Sutlej," too, and like him ; so I shall be home very soon after you get this letter. I am sending you some photos by this post of Miyanoshita and Hakone, and one of the hotels I stayed at with the Spinks at KJioto. If you think them good enough you might send them on to Willie ; he asked for some. I am afraid this letter is a little disconnected, but a Japanese band has been playing all the evening and making a fearful noise. It is half-past ten now, and I think they might stop. 82 LETTERS FEOM THE EAST. NiKKO, Mmj 19th. I find that I wrote to Papa on the IStli from Tokyo, where I stayed a night on my way here, on purpose to see the wistarias, and I was extremely glad I did, for they were perfectly lovely. I never saw anything like them. I photographed them to the delight of scores of Japanese. I am quite used to an audience now, and don't mind it at all, but I verymuch prefer having a Japanese to a Chinese one — it is cleaner. The wistarias were grown by the side of a large pond, trained so as to form a complete roof of hanging blossom, purple and white, and I sat under their shade in the company of many Japs, and drank tea and fed the gold fish. I never saw such huge gold fish, they were 'as big as salmon peel ; I wish you could have seen them. I came on here the next morning, and had a most exciting journey to the station, by 'ricksha, of course. Tokyo is an immense place, and the station was three or four miles away, so we each had two men tandem, and they tore along, yelling as they went to clear the way. We had plenty of time, but they seemed to think it the right thing to do, and I didn't mind for I love going fast. They did the distance in just over half-an-hour. It took five hours to Nikko, quite a long journey, but the trains are so slow, and the ground rises all the way, for Nikko is 2,000 feet above the sea, while Tokyo is on the sea level. I like Nikko better than any place I have seen in Japan ; the scenery is lovely and the trees and temples magnificent. For miles before you reach Nikko you pass avenues of I/ETTEES FEOM THE EAST. 83 splendid old cryptomerias. I tliink they are mostly the same sort as those at Grenofen that form a hedge to the tennis court. The hotel at Nikko (it is quite a small place) is quite Japanese. The rooms have no doors or windows proper, •only screens, opening on to verandahs — it is really very pleasant. Almost directly I got there I met the Lardners — very nice people, that I came from Shanghai with ; I was with them all the time, which was very pleasant, and I expect to meet them here (I am finishing this at Tokyo) this afternoon. I stayed at Nikko from Thursday to Wednesday (to-day), and spent a good deal of the time in the temples ; they are are simply magnificent, the finest in Japan. They are built entirely of wood and are about 250 years old, but they look perfectly fresh, the colours even of the paint are not touched. They stand in several courts, one above the other, ter- raced in the hOl-side, and approached by long flights of granite steps. The raUings around are all granite, and there are these beautiful fir trees aU about, and the con- trast between the dark trees and moss-covered granite, and -the temples gorgeous with gold and brass and all the colours of the rainbow, is wonderful — I never saw anything like it. I took a lot of photographs (I had to beard a priest in his den and get a license to do so), and I hope they wUl be successful. All the woodwork is carved most wonderfully, and the floors of the temples are of lacquer. Tou have to take off your shoes before you are let in; in fact, you spend a good part of your time putting them on and taking them off, and I quite envied the Japanese their sandals, they were so easy to kick off. The temples contain the 84 LETTERS FROM THE EAST. tombs of tlie first and greatest Shogun and of the third. Their graves are on the hill behindj up long flights of moss- covered steps. I spent all Friday about the temples with the Lardners, and on Saturday we went to Lake Ohiu^enji. We rode. Tou have to either ride or be carried in chairs, it is so hilly, and I never saw such scarecrows of horses and saddles in my life — they were too terrible. We went up the most beautiful pass, over mountain streams, and up a winding path with great cliffs towering up. The vegetation was lovely. I never saw anything like the azaleas — in some places the woods were quite scarlet with them — they were nearly all scarlet, pink or white. 1 saw very few magenta ones about Nikko. They were quite large trees and were a mass of bloom. The flowers are just about the same size as those we have at home trained in shapes. I saw quantities of wUd wistaria too in the woods. It completely covered some big trees it had climbed, and quite buried them in a mass of purple bloom. We were rather unfortunate in the weather. It rained fast before we got to Chiuzenji, so we decided to go on to Yumoto (another village with a lake and hot springs), and stay the night in the hope of having a fine day to come back. We had not so much as a comb between us, but what of that ? Chiuzenji is about 4,000 feet above the sea, and has a beautiful lake. Mrs. Lardner's horse feU with her by the side of the lake, but they neither of them suffered. I believe aU our horses were over thirty, and nothing but siiin and bone, poor things. The cherry blossom was lovely, just in perfection. I never saw any like it at home — pale pink blossom, and the young leaves looking quite brown, before they were fully out. LETTERS FKOM THE EAST. 85 Down here all the blossom is quite over, but I suppose the difference in the height would account for it. We got to Yumoto about six o'clock and it was quite cold. There was lots of snow on the mountains, down quite near the village. We saw several beautiful water- falls, and the little lake of Yumoto is very pretty ; it lies more than 5,000 feet up. The sulphur springs bubble out close to the lake, and there are clouds of smoke. We passed several public baths, and the bathers gaily looked out at us ; their ideas of modesty are very funny. We stayed the night at a real tea house, and it was very funny. Of course, we slept on the floor, but we had sheets, which was a distinct improvement, and the Lardners' guide cooked us quite an elegant dinner. It was a sort of picnic, and was really great fun. We got back to Nikko the next afternoon, and I found my little amah on the look-out ; she thought I was lost. I took several photographs on the way, with Mr. Lardner's help. The Lardners left on M onday, but I stayed till Wednes- day (to-day), and took more photographs; and this morn- ing 1 arose at half -past five — think of that ! — and got here by tiffin-time. I have been pottering round Tokyo a little; but I feel rather tired, the train was so shaky. I expect I want my dinner. The Lardners were to come up from Yokohama to-day, so I expect they will appear soon. I am very sorry my time in Japan is coming to an end. It is a most fascinating country. I should like to stay here for months. If I meet with any nice people going to break the journey at Ceylon, I may very likely stay there over one steamer. I should like to see the place immensely, and it will be the cool season ; but I wiU let you know when I 86 LETTERS FROM THE EAST. write next week. I always feel doubtful about the time these Japan letters take, but you ought to get them sooner than you did from Shanghai. Yokohama, May 27th. Thanks very much for your letters and the papers. I got them at Nikko. Mr. Eocket sent them on to me there. I shall not get any more till I get to Hong Kong, and after that not till Colombo. I am leaving here on Saturday in the " Verona," and I change at Hong Kong for the " Sutlej " ; that is a very good boat, and the captain, Captain Worcester, is very nice. I met him at Shanghai. I have not quite made up my mind whether I shall stay over one steamer at Colombo or not ; if I do I shall come on in the "Ravenna," but it depends whether there are any nice people going to stop or not. I think I know some people who are going to ; but I am not quite sure yet. I shall have lots of room, the whole ship to myself nearly I expect. I only hope there will be a few nice people, but it is quite comic. The American boats are aU crowded ; people can't get cabins for love or money, while the other way there doesn't seem to be a single soul. I think I shall have two cabins, one each side of the ship, then I can keep the windy side, and just change when it gets at all rough, for the ports on the windward side are always closed before the other. I do hope the monsoons won't be very bad. It would be dreadful to have very rough weather and every aperture closed, in broiling hot weather. LETTERS PBOM THE EAST. 87 I think I told Mamma all about Nikko when I wrote to her. I think it is quite the loveliest place I have seen in Japan, and I feel inclined to rave whenever I think of it. I would not have missed it for anything, and yet some people advised me not to go as it was so far ; but people are so very funny sometimes. I have got some very nice photographs of it, especially of the temples. I have got you an album, and after great consideration I have chosen painted photographs. I know you said you liked them uncoloured, but when I compared the two, the painted ones gave such a much better idea of the buildings and scenery, and they are not at all like ordinary coloured photographs. I came here from Tokyo last Monday, two days ago. I liked the place very much ; there are some very fine temples there, and the country round is very pretty. I went a long excursion one day by 'ricksha, about thirty miles, there were two men to each 'ricksha, and they ran the whole way except up hill. They seemed quite fresh at the end, and raced a tram all the way into the town. Tokyo is a very large town ; it is about ten miles each way ; it is the capital of Japan, and used to be called Yeddo. There is a castle and barracks, &c. There are three large moats round the castle and palace, and next month they will be covered with lotus, the leaves are all showing now, but the flowers don't come out till the end of June. I should like to see them, but perhaps I may at some other other place. I saw the Mikado and the royal family. It was a most lucky chance, for they are not often visible. But the Emperor went to Kioto to condole with the Czarewitch, and when he came back to Tokyo the Empress and the Crown Prince and all the court went to the station to meet him, so I had a full view of all the dignitaries. All the 88 LETTEES FROM THE EAST. houses in the streets were decorated witli lamps and flags, witt tlie Rising Sun on them, and there was an immense crowd. The Mikado went by in a carriage alone, and was in European clothes, so was the Empress and aU the court. He had a wonderful-looking man in a general's cocked hat on the box, else the whole turn-out was quite European. The Empress came next with two ladies — European clothes did not become them — and then the Crown Prince, a boy of 10 or 12. The police and soldiers were very comic in their efforts to keep back the crowd. The Lardners go to-morrow by the ' ' City of Eio " for San Francisco with this letter. They are very nice people, and I have seen a good deal of them. I only wish they were going with me. "We have made a good many excur- sions and done a lot of prowling about shops together. The shops are dreadfully tempting and the people are so nice. They may decline to take what you offer them, but they never get angry about it and always bow and smile sweetly. I have been trotting about shops the whole afternoon with Mrs. Lardner, and we have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It has been very hot to-day; it has been over 90 degrees in the shade several days lately ; and to-day the sea has been looking lovely. This hotel is built on the beach. There is the road in front and then the sea, and at night it looks very pretty with all the lights on the ships. But I expect I shall have enough and rather too much of the sea soon. I hope I shall have time at Hong Kong to run up to Canton, it is a very interesting old town, and I should like to see it very much. LETTERS ritOH THE EAST. 89 I mean to buy photographs on my way home, as well as taking them, so when I get back there will be enough for two albums, the Japanese one, and one of China and the other places en route. I have taken a good many photographs here, over 70, I think, and I do hope they will turn out all right. I have done them all on plates. I am not going to risk the film. I shall wait and try those when I get home. T have written to Mr. Snell this week ; I thought he would like to hear how I was getting on. I am bringing him back a few photographs ; I thought he would like that as well as anything. I went to see a kiln opened this morning where they had been iiring pottery. It was very interesting to see the different things coming out, some of them very nice, and some all misshapen and a wrong colour. Mr. Duncan took the Lardners and me. He has the best collection of curios by far here, and has two shops, one is joined to the hotel, and lit by electricity, and is a delightful place to wander about in after dinner. He has the most wonderful things I have ever seen. His cabinets are perfectly beautiful, and too dreadfully , dear for anything. I ha've bought some little things of him ; but it would be very easy to spend thousands of dollars there, and one would not want a very large ship to take away the things in either. I am afraid this is a rather stupid and disjointed letter, but I am writing under difficulties. The Yokohama band is playing. It plays very well, but very loudly ; and there is a blind shampooer going up and down the Bund, tootling shrilly on a pipe. The combination is rather dreadful. The harvest is much earlier here than it is at home. I have seen a great deal of corn and barley cut, and the 90 LETTERS PEOM THE EAST. rice is beginning to show quite green. I should like to see it full grown, it must be so pretty. I have seen a great many nice ferns here — plenty of beech ferns, and a great deal of osmunda, as well as ribbon fern and other sorts that only grow in green- houses at home. This is the last letter I shall write you from so far away — the next wlU be either from Colombo or from. Brindisi. If I do not stop at Ceylon I shall be due at Plymouth July 22nd, and if I do stop there, on August 5th. Of course, I shall get off at Plymouth ; there would be no object in going on to London and back again. I could stay a fortnight longer and come back August 19th ; that would be the extreme limit of my ticket, but I don't think I shall do that. I have had a lovely time away, and have enjoyed it all, every bit ; but it will be nice to get home and see you all again. I am quite well, and have been all the time I have been away. S.S. "CARTHAaE." July Wth. [Posted at Brindisi.] Thanks very much for the Aden and Port Said letters, I got one at Aden and two at Port Said, besides two other papers and letters. I missed the letters at Colombo to my great disappointment. It seems such a long time since I wrote to you, not since I was in Japan. I have had a very good voyage on the whole, and have had some nice people all the way, and I have hardly been ill at all. We had very good weather from Yokohama to Hong LETTERS EROM THE EAST. 91 Kong. Being very lucky, we just escaped a typhoon, and had pouring rain. I never saw anything like the tropical rain. We had four or five days in Hong Kong, and it poured nearly the whole time. I wouldn't live there for anything, because of the fearful damp heat. I went to Canton, which was very interesting, and stayed with the Logans at Hong Kong, they live on the Peak, 1,600 feet ahove the sea, you are enveloped in mist, but it is very much nicer than being in the town below. There is a railway, very like the Vesuvius one, that goes up to the Peak, everyone goes by that, or in chairs, there are no carriage roads. I got letters from you at Hong-Kong, sent down from Shanghai, including the draft. I took it to the Hong Kong branch of the bank, and got them to make it payable to Mr. Jasper. The manager said it was quite irregular, but he did it with a sweet smile. He was sitting under a punkah in his shirt-sleeves, panting. I sent the draft to Mr. Jasper, but of course I have had no acknowledgment yet. I came from Hong Kong to Colombo in the " Sutlej," a very nice boat, and the captain was extremely nice. I was very sorry indeed to leave it at Columbo, and very nearly went round by Bombay and home that way. If only another lady had been doing it, I certainly would have. We had nasty weather from Penang to Colombo. The monsoon was gaily blowing, and for two days an Australian lady and I had our meals on deck. I was not ill, but I should have been if I had run about. Captain Worcester is very musical, and we used to have concerts every evening. Oqc man played the violin and another the banjo ; it was really verv nice. 52 LETTERS EBOM THE EAST. I nearly stayed a fortnight at Colombo, but gave it up and came on in this boat. It was very hot in Colombo, though not quite as bad, I think, as Penang. At Colombo we aU divided. There were two boats to ohoose from — the " Valetta," which touched only at Mar- seilles, and the " Carthage, " which goes to Brindisi and Malta. I chose the latter, as I wanted to see Malta; besides, it gave one longer in Colombo. This is an Australian ship, very large, with a big hurri- cane deck. I have never been on an Australian boat before, and I don't think I should choose one again — the people are very funny. We had awful weather between Colombo and Aden, and strange to say I was not ill. The port holes were closed the whole way, and the heat below was something awful. I got very bruised falling about my cabin ; if one left go for a minute you were sent fljdng. One poor old lady in the second class got her face very badly cut. We had the fiddles on the tables the whole way, and even then you had to clutch at your tumbler with one hand and your plate with the other, and heard crashes all round. I can't imagine how they cooked at all. The captain said if it had been any worse we should have had to have scratch meals. A good many people were ill and I was quite proud of myself, for no one would believe me when I said I was a bad sailor. The scenes on deck were very funny, we aU. had to have our chairs lashed, and then had to hold on to them tight and the water used to wash right over the decks knee high. I got perfectly drenched one day, a big sea came right over everything and came plump. I was lying in a chair next to the captain. He was nearly asleep and he gave such a jeU. LETTERS FEOM THE EAST. 93 We took on several passengers at Aden, all men. AU the way up the Eed Sea it was delightfully smooth; of course it was very hot. From Hong Kong till yesterday the thermometer on deck, in the shade, has not gone below 80°, and it has generally been from 90 to 96°. It was very hot in the Canal, the glare from the sand was dreadful, I had quite a headache the next day. I did not go ashore at Port Said, there is nothing much to see, and we got there at 6 a.m., and left again at nine. "We coaled there and the dirt was awful. We have had several dances and concerts, and a fancy dress ball on board, and to-night there are theatricals. To-morrow we get to Brindisi, and we shall lose a good many people. It wUl be very nice to see you all again. I hope you will be able to come and meet me ; but if we get in very early or very late I shall be able to manage all right. There are several people going off at Plymouth ; our luggage will all go through the Customs together. Good-bye ; it is reaUy less than a fortnight before I shall see you all, which seems hardly credible. GEO. BARBEK, PRINTER, l6, CURSITOR STREET, CHANCERY LANE, E.C.