Miss Eden's Letters Part 37

The fleet left Singapore for Macao on the 30th May; the fear of bad weather prevented their waiting any longer for Admiral Elliot. William Osborne and Lord Jocelyn seemed very well satisfied with their accommodation in the _Conway_, and were gone on in her. William asked some of the Chinese at Singapore whether their way of making war was like ours, and they said, "Much the same, only more guns and less drum."

He asked what they thought of the steamers, which were, in fact, quite new to them, and they said, "Oh, plenty at Pekin; only little smaller."

I am in a horrid mood of mind at all these requisitions from home that are to keep us here another year; and have turned rank Tory on the spot, and can think of nothing but the quickest means of turning the Ministry out, and then of rushing down to the river-side and beckoning to the first ship. But surely we never shall be kept here. I don't think the people at home have an idea what a place it is, but they _will_ know hereafter, if they go on behaving so in this life. And as for the idea that any Governor-General is to stay till everything is quite quiet and peaceable in this great continent, you might as well ask the fish to stay in the frying-pan till they have put out the fire.

There always must be some great piece of work in hand here. In the meantime, life is pa.s.sing and friends are dying, and we are becoming so old that it will be impossible to take up the thread of existence again with the young things like the Drummonds, etc., whom I had looked upon as the supports of my old age. It will never do to stay.

We are to have at dinner to-day a son of Theodore Hook's, just arrived.

He does not look as if he could improvise, or do much better if he _provised_; but I never saw the father, so he may look stupid, too, without being so. I see there are two of T. Hook's novels published lately, and trust the son may have partially brought them out.[485]

I have become a great whist player upon the one-eyed monarch principle.

n.o.body else can play at all, and when the Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief dine together, it is obvious that they must have their rubber, and so I and the Aide-de-Camp or the Doctor play with them. Can't you see the sort of thing? Shocking whist, but it helps the evening through. I play much better than Sir Jasper,[486] but worse, George says, than anybody else he ever saw. Ever yours,

E. EDEN.

_Miss Eden to Lady Campbell._

CALCUTTA, _July 17, 1840_.

MY DEAREST PAM, Your friend Mr. Taylor arrived this week with the letter you gave him ten months ago--perhaps not bad travelling for a letter of introduction, though not exactly rapid as a means of receiving intelligence. However, a letter's a letter, and I am the last person in the world to complain.

George has seen your Taylor, and says he is very promising, and I have asked him to Barrackpore for love of you and in the strongest reliance on your Edward's[487] judgment. Otherwise, there _is_ a brother of his in this country now (thank goodness up the country) that used to drive me demented--just the opposite to all you say of your friend--not good-looking, not a "chap" at all, and rather a black sheep--though, poor man, I should not say so. But you cannot imagine the provocation of his manner or the excess of his conceit. It induced a freezing sort of snappishness in oneself that was, however, utterly unavailing; it only made him more affable and jocose. And, to crown all, he shaved his head after a fever, or his doctor shaved it to tease him, or something of that sort, and he came dancing about in a little velvet skull-cap.

I think my health has been so good this year at Calcutta because Pearce Taylor was not there.

No, dearest, I never blame you for not writing. I always feel that I know you just the same as ever, and that it is not your fault if your children take up all your time. I only regret that the world should be such a very large, thick, slice of bread, and that b.u.t.ter should be so scarce that they should have been obliged to spread us at the two opposite ends. We should have been much happier in the same b.u.t.ter-boat, but I suppose it could not be helped. My side of the bread too, is turned to the fire and I am half-roasted, which, if I do not write twice to your once, is my _set off_ against the claims of your children.

I have always wondered how much you liked Mrs. Fane. You mentioned her in one letter as liking her very much, and she is a good-natured little woman, but not _one of us_, is she, Pam? I think she must have felt Sir Henry's death.[488] He was always very kind to her in his way, without putting her at her ease.

Our George has done very well in India, has he not? You know we always thought highly of him even in his comical dog days.... Now I think he has done enough, and might as well go home, but none of the people at home will hear of it, and this month's despatches have made me desperate. Moreover, I cannot stay away another year from Mary and her girls, and fifty others. I do not like anybody here, and if we try to get up a shade more intimacy with any lady, then all the others are cross, and her husband or brother wants something, and that makes a story, and so on.

William Osborne is gone with the China expedition, which is a sad loss to poor f.a.n.n.y. However, I believe that will be a very short business, and that he will soon be back again. The Chinese have already begun to say they hope there will be much talkee before fightee, which does not promise much fightee. William says that at Singapore they saw quant.i.ties of little dogs fattening regularly in coops for the table, and their captain's steward was looking at them, which gave Lord Jocelyn and himself an alarm about their future dinners.

Your little picture is still such a pleasure to me. Mind you keep like it, that I may know you again. None of the children know me, which is shocking and foolish. Your most affectionate

E. E.

_Lady Campbell to Miss Eden._

DUBLIN, _September 27, 1840_.

Just so my darling. I am rather glad you wrote before you saw the Taylor I sent, for fear he should be a beast in spite of Edward's good word.

Emmy, this other year seems harder to swallow than all the rest. But I will not touch upon it; it is too raw. There has been a talk of our asking for something in India; I thought it just probable that we might pa.s.s each other at sea! However, we should have to leave so many children they said it would not pay, and I could have hugged them. One man I can scarce bear to look at who put it into Sir Guy's head at first, and how much we were to lay by, and how charming the climate was, and how I should marry my daughters!

Yes, Sir Guy's f.a.n.n.y is married and very happy. Captain Harvey[489] is a very handsome, nice person; they have not much money at present, but that cannot be helped. Pam[490] has been with her for the last month at Carlisle, where f.a.n.n.y is quartered. Pam was very ill with ague, so I sent her to the Napiers. She comes back to me next week. I long to show her to you--not for the beauty, for she is no beauty, tho' nice-looking.

But, Emmy, she is quite, quite one of us--I need not explain how pleasant, how good, how full of sense and fun. She is such a comfort to me.

The next, Georgina,[491] is very pretty and very dear, but not so gentle and patient as Pam.

I had my sailor boy for two blessed months. This boy, Guy,[492] came home so improved, so gentle and affectionate, and delightful from sea. I felt so thankful, as I rather feared the sea. It is a dreadful life to be the mother of a sailor; so hard to bear. Wind always to me was a sad sound, but now I can hardly help crying. All the rest are good little nice things, and I have no governess, so I have a good deal of their company more or less. We are quaking for the Brevet, but I will not entertain you with my hopes and fears, and want of pence, or what you call _Pice_, don't you?...

I like Lord Ebrington, and he seems to like you all so much. I get on much better with him than with Lord Normanby. However, he does not give dinners and b.a.l.l.s and parties enough, and the _trade_ complain. Dear Lord Morpeth is coming to dine with me to-day, and won't we talk of you?

He is such a charming person, and my most particular friend. You gave him to me, you know, when you went away. Mary will have told you how we had settled I was to go over and see her. Her girls are so nice, and she herself dearer than ever, and all the better from going out more. For a little while she really ensconced herself inside the high wire nursery fender, and one saw her in the uncomfortable way in which when we were bairns you may remember we used to see the fire, never getting at it enough. I was sorry she gave up poor Grosvenor Place. I like all those old Grosvenors; I could have cried when I looked at No. 30! _Du reste_, I rather like getting old; there is wonderful repose in it; it saves one so much trouble--so much of the work done. I am so glad you are getting fat, so am I, and I combine also the grey hair which you mention George has a.s.sumed. I am very grey; fat and grey sounds like an old cat, but what does it signify? when once we meet, how young we shall feel then.

Emmy, do you remember your aversion to mittens? My dear, I was in advance of my age. When I wore them, like Bacon and Galileo I appealed to posterity, and posterity made haste, and everybody wears mittens, morning, noon, and night. The only chance you have is, that they will have burnt out before you come back, and my hair too. Everybody _lisse_ and banded, and they little know that George and I were the only two people that wore close heads in our day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Omery Galber

Eleanor, Countess of Buckinghamshire.]

The Lansdownes spent a week here. She is looking well, and in much better spirits, and her countenance so much softer and gentler, that I think her more loveable than I ever knew. I never knew how much I loved her till I was with her in her grief.[493] Louisa[494] looking well for her, and ready to talk and be pleased. Lord Lansdowne rather older.

I was wondering what made him look so well and distinguished and conversable, and I found he was set off by Lord Charlemont, who rejoices in a brown natural hair wig, which made Lord Lansdowne in his nice grey hair look quite beautiful.

I have got a nice two-year-old[495] baby just _pour me desennuyer_; such a nice duck! The youngest after six girls. Pam says he is doomed to wear all the old bent bonnets out, and accordingly I found him in the hay with a bonnet on.

_Tuesday, September 20, 1840._

I wrote all this Sunday and I must just add one word. Lord Morpeth dined here early with me and the children, and was to start by the eleven o'clock train to the packet for to sail for England to attend the Cabinet Council, _as we vulgar_ imagine, upon peace or war, _rien que ca_. However, my delicacy was such I did not pump at all. He is a real good soul, and I have scruples about pumping him. Old Berkeley Square I always make a point of pumping till the handle has come off in my hand often, but very little water ever! Yours ever,

PAMELA CAMPBELL.

_Miss Eden to the Countess of Buckinghamshire._

CALCUTTA, _January 15, 1841_.

MY DEAREST SISTER, After a long cessation all our letters came to hand--all from September to November 4th. You had been doing your _Mimms_, which I never think sounds comfortable. Indeed, I remember seeing the place once and thinking it very melancholy, damp, and dead-leafish.

Yes, as you say, as long as Chance is alive there is a wall between Dandy and death; but then you know spaniels live longer than terriers, and at all events it would be a sort of preparation to Dandy to insinuate to him that Chance has lost his last tooth, which the faithful Jimmund, his servant, has had set in a silver ring.

You have never mentioned that you have a new clergyman of the name of Hazlewood at Greenwich. You never tell _me_ anything in confidence whatever, after so many years; and after all, I don't see the use of making such a mystery of it. "But I have often observed a little spirit of nonsense and secrecy," as Mrs. Norris says, about your clergyman, that I would advise you to get rid of. Your Hazlewood (you see I know his real name) is brother to our Captain Hazlewood, commonly called Harum Scarum. Hazlewood Scarum got a letter by this last post saying: "Lady Buckinghamshire, who is a constant attendant at my church, is, I find, a sister of Lord Auckland's. You cannot imagine how much I wish to make her acquaintance. I think our mutual interests in India," etc., etc.

Probably by this time you may have seen him. Our Hazlewood is going home next week in the _Hardwick_. The wounds he received at Ghazni[496] were very severe; and he rattles about, and dances and rides, and proposes and breaks off his engagements, and altogether he has never let himself get well, and has suffered so much from his arm lately that his general health is beginning to give way, and Doctor Drummond has ordered him home. A man who goes home on a medical certificate has his pa.s.sage paid by the liberal Company, and gets 50 a year while he is in England; so that upon the whole a slight wound is not such a bad thing. I am rather on the look-out for a generous adversary who will wound me just up to the pitch of being ordered home, and having my pa.s.sage paid, but not a bit more. Poor Hazlewood's is much more than that; but the voyage will probably set him up, though he will never have the use of his arm again.

As he will go to Greenwich to see his brother, I have given him a line to you. It will not entail upon you more than a dinner, and he is a very good-humoured, obliging creature, and not at all vulgar. There is not the slightest chance of his spoiling the view at Eastcombe by setting that little wretched stream the Thames on fire; though I have no doubt he will try, as he always must be busy about something. He may give you a flourishing account of us, as we are all going on very well, I think.

The Admiral[497] has made a shocking mess of China--at least he has done nothing, and the force and the ships and the money have all been wasted, leaving things just as they were a year ago. Now he has given up the Command, writing most pitiable accounts of his being in a dying state from disease of the heart, with no chance of reaching home alive; and for the last ten days we have been believing this and pitying and defending him. And now to-day George has a letter from him, written on board his son's ship, saying they were all on the way home; that he thought he had mistaken his complaint, which was now merely liver, and that he felt nearly well again. It is an unhappy bit of his career, and such weakness is rather odd in such a stern, stiff-looking man as G.

Elliot.

Charles[498] is now left sole Plenipotentiary, and if he can but keep to his own mind two days running is clever enough to do very well; but he is terribly vacillating. She wishes very much that she was with him just now, and I can fancy she might be of use in keeping him up to the mark; but she cannot go during the present monsoon, and except for the pleasure of seeing Charles again, I think she will be very sorry to leave Calcutta. Ever your most affectionate

E. E.

_Miss Eden to Mr. C. Greville._

CALCUTTA, _January 17, 1841_.

MY DEAR MR. GREVILLE, I am grieved you were so troubled with the gout when you wrote, as I have never been of the opinion that a fit of gout is a matter of that perfect indifference which people who are not sufferers from it claim to a.s.sert. I think you had better come out as Lord Auckland's successor, if you cannot come and visit us. n.o.body has the gout in India. I suppose it is _perspired_ out of them. And even General Elphinstone,[499] who was a wretched victim to it when we met him going up to Meerut--almost the worst I ever saw--has, I hear, lost it quite during the hot season. He is going to succeed Sir W.