CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ARTHUR PROBSTHAIH Orrental Bookseller 41 Gt. Ruuell LONDON, Street W.C. I Library DS 421 DSl"*" ''"'™'^^''V ..Bygone days in India, 3 1924 024 113 833 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis 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/cu31924024113833 BYGONE DAYS IN INDIA : : BY DOUGLAS DEWAR WITH EIGHTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LTD. LONDON MCMXXU 5* 3/ '^-^ Printed in Great Britain at Tki Mayflcwer Press, Pljimmth. William Brendon & Son. Ltd. CONTENTS PAGE I. To India via the Red Sea in 1837 . i II. From Bombay to Simla by Palanquin in 1838 II III. Some Old Handbooks to India ... 25 IV. David Price and His Friends ... 42 V. The Sola Topi 53 VI. Some Journalists ..... 58 VII. A Pioneer of Steam Navigation in India . 87 VIII. Ganges Steamers 96 IX. The Punka ....... 104 X. Shigrampo 112 XI. A Journey through India in 1840 . 125 XII. Some Literary Ladies ..... 136 XIII. Some Obsolete Anglo-Indian Words . 152 XIV. "Peregrine Pultuney" . .160 XV. A Change in Governors-General and other Calcutta Gossip . .169 XVI. Literary Civil Servants on the Company's Bengal Establishment . .178 XVII. LucKNOW in Nawabi Times . .194 XVIII. Three Frenchmen on English Society in India ....... 211 vii VIU CONTENTS XIX. A Calcutta Dinner Party early in the Nineteenth Century .... 234 XX. Naini Tal in the Days of the Company . 240 XXI. Mackintosh and Macaulay in India . -257 XXII. Hot Weather Amenities in 1837 . 264 XXIII. Calcutta in 1840 270 XXIV. Home by P. and O. Sixty Years Ago . 278 Index ........ 285 ILLUSTRATIONS Sepoys of the Company's Bengal, Bombay and Madras Armies ....... Frontispiece facing page Lady Interviewing her Darzi . ... 26 A Nautch Girl Dancing before Three Europeans . 28 Sircar Presenting an Account to his Master ... 34 Khitmutgars, or Boys, Laying the Table ... 40 View of Bombay, about 1790, as seen from Kamballa Hill 44 View of Bombay, about 1790, as seen from the Harbour 50 Snipe Shooting ......... 54 Europeans in Conversation being Fanned by a Flapper . 104 Family at Breakfast under the Punka . .108 A Newly-Arrived Subaltern being Introduced to his Colonel ......... 122 Gentleman Smoking a Hukka . -154 A Ball at Government House, Calcutta . -174 A SUBALTEftN ON THE MARCH . .214 Parents Visiting their Child in the Nursery . 222 A Picture of Bombay as it was about 1790 . 230 A Griffen, on Landing at Calcutta, being Besieged by Rum Johnnies ........ 270 The Strand at Calcutta 276 Some of the chapters which compose this book have appeared in the Pioneer and the Empress. The author takes this opportunity of thanking the editors of those papers for permission to repubhsh the articles in question. BYGONE DAYS IN INDIA BYGONE DAYS IN INDIA I TO INDIA VIA THE RED SEA IN 1837 these days of high fares and slow and over- INcrowded steamers it is interesting to read the experiences of an Indian official who came out to India by steamer nearly eighty-four years ago. The officer in question is Captain T. Seymour Burt, of the Bengal Engineers. He wrote an account of his journey in the India Review. This account was repub- lished in book form in 1840. If it be true that variety hath charm, Burt must have been charmed with his journey, since he transhipped twice between London and Alexandria. He left London on the 13th October, 1837, in the s.s. Tagus, belonging to the Peninsula Steam Navigation Company, which has since become the P. and O. Burt describes the Tagus as "a splendid 400-ton steamer of 250 horse-power." He lavishes praise on Captain Symmons, the Commander ; Mr. Wymer, the " steward ; and the crew. Everything," he writes, " was done on board by the Steamer Company in the most liberal manner. I never, indeed, saw such splendid dinners placed on any table on board ship." Among the 2 BYGONE DAYS IN INDIA " luxuries provided were : Ginger beer, soda water, aerated or derated (as some people call it) lemonade, champagne, claret, etc., and a pretty and useful library of elegantly bound books." What, however, took the gilt off the gingerbread was "the extreme confinement or closeness of the cabins ; one of them, that in which I had the pleasure of being stowed away, was calculated to contain ten persons, and we actually had in it at one time nine, although the dimensions of the room were only about twelve feet long by eight or nine broad, includiag the bed places (which were arranged in double tiers) and all, so that four slept on one side and four on the other, and one at the end, where there was also a spare bed occupied by a number of trimks, hat-boxes, towels, etc." The Tagus was able to steam about io| knots an hour; she took thirty-six hours to go from London to Falmouth, where she stopped a day in order to pick up the London mails. The journey from Fal- mouth to Gibraltar lasted eight days, including two hours' stay at Vigo, the same at Oporto, two days at Lisbon and six hours at Cadiz. The fare to Gib- raltar was £i8 including messing charges. At Gibraltar Burt had to tranship to the Firefly, a steamer of the Royal Navy. She mounted two i2-pounder guns. She took passengers. Her cabins were very small, but each contained only one berth. Eight knots was her maximum speed. She left Gibraltar on the evening of the 26th October and reached Malta on the early morning of the 1st November. She was commanded by a Ueutenant of the Royal Navy. The charge for the passage was £13, including messing, which was good. Burt had to TO INDIA VIA THE RED SEA 3 wait some time at Malta for another steamer. He could, had he so desired, have travelled from there to Alexandria by a French steamer, but he preferred to wait for an English one because the entertainment on board the French vessel was not so good and the French ship went to Syra in order to pick up passengers from Constantinople, " from whence," says Burt, " you stand the pleasant chance of receiving the plague." At that time there was much fear of plague spreading into Western Europe. " Burt writes : The quarantine house is a curious place at Malta. People in pratique (or quarantine) are kept on one side of the suite of rooms with two walls separating them from those who wish to converse with them from the other side, and if money or other articles have to be passed from the parties under quarantine, it must firs't be thrown into basins or jars of water lying conveniently by, before it can be touched by the other party." In those days the slumbers of the people of Valetta were, Burt tells us, disturbed by the tolling of bells all night. Bell-toUing at night was a common form of penance ; the greater the offence the more times had the bell to be tolled. Burt strongly disapproved of the greater part of the community almost losing their hearing merely because " these rascals have taken it into their heads to confess their sins, preparatory to the commission of others more heinous, perhaps, than the former." On the 17th November Burt steamed from Valetta on the Volcano, a Government vessel commanded by a lieutenant of the Royal Navy. He was not at all satisfied with the catering on that ship. " The table," he writes, " was very scantily supplied with dishes and also with wine after dinner, the coffee being introduced much too — 4 BYGONE DAYS IN INDIA soon." The weather was rough, and Burt spent four and a half uncomfortable days on the Volcano. At Alexandria there was an hotel under Italian manage- ment, but Burt coiold not stay there more than a few hours without fear of losing the steamer at Suez. He engaged an Arab, who consented, for the sum of 15 dollars, to serve him and another man during the journey across the desert. At Alexandria Burt was able to procure at exorbitant prices the necessaries for the journey crockery, cutlery, food, drink and a blanket (with pockets in it to hold drinks and biscuits) to be slung over the camel. He spent that night in a country boat passing up the Mahmoudi Canal, and transferred himself and his belong- ings next morning into a Nile boat which he hired for the purpose. He arrived at Cairo on the fifth morning after leaving Alexandria. " It may seem strange to notice," he writes, " that although the nights were, so extremely cold I was so dreadfully annoyed all night by fleas, small bugs and little ants that I could get but little sleep until I was worn-out with vexation and fatigue ; I was obliged to keep on all my clothes and kid gloves well buttoned over my hands and wrists, cover up my face, and render the way as impervious to the intruders as I could. In addition to this, mosquitoes buzzed in delight- ful harmony with the squeaking of some rats which inhabited the sides and bottom, of the boat which contained us." At Cairo Burt repaired to Hill's Hotel, then he went to see Colonel Campbell, the agent of the British Govern- ment at Grand Cairo, for whom Burt had despatches. Thomas Waghom, who did so much to open up the ; TO INDIA VIA THE RED SEA 5 overland route to India, was at that time Campbell's assistant.