Showing 10 results

Calcutta.—Congratulates him on his baronetcy. Describes his stay at Muzaffarpur, and refers to his plans to observe the eclipse.

—————

Transcript

Address c/o Thos Cook & Son
Bombay

Calcutta
Jany 5 98

My dear Uncle.

Hurrah! Just received your telegram & sent off mine. Bravo! Delightful news! I am ashamed to say I had not seen anything of it until I found your wire awaiting me here. I won’t try & put into words the sentiment all must feel, how well it is merited.

In your telegram as it reached me were the words “wire health” so in my reply I have said “excellent health”. I hope this doesn’t mean Harry has got one of his depressed fits on.

In point of fact I am particularly well & the climate at this time of year is delightful, just like an English September at its best, only the sun is rather hotter in the middle of the day.

Very many thanks for all your greetings for Xmas birthday and the New Year; I expect I shall get your special Xmas card in a few days; letters take some time because they go across to Madras first & then come nearly back again & up here, you will see from the heading of this letter that it will be better for them to be forwarded on direct from Bombay when they arrive.

I have written Dora a letter in answer to hers, {1} you will see from that that I have been spending 10 days with W. S. Adie at Mozuffapore which is about 200 miles from here, and to get there one has to cross the Ganges in a steamer. Mozuffapore is quite a large station (some 50 to a hundred Europeans) and I played lawn tennis, racquets & billiards & watched Adie playing polo nearly every day. Then on Xmas day we went to dine with the Collector (head magistrate) and on the Monday following we had a jolly little dance there. Altogether I got to know nearly all the people there & I shall probably go up again 23rd–28th inst when the special Mozuffapore week is on. The station is the centre of indigo planting, & I went over & spent 2 nights with an old Cambridge man who runs a factory. There is nothing going on now, as the indigo is not sown till March, but I saw over the factory, & looked at the fields—all as smooth as a billiard table—& learnt something about the curious sort of life the planter leads. The coolie who works in the fields gets something less than a penny a day.

Everyone here has a servant who looks after things; I have just got one at Cooks, and I have gone with him through all my clothes (I have left my big trunk behind with Campbell); he speaks English which is a blessing & I hope he will prove fairly honest. They are very serviceable when one is travelling, but if one lived very long in this country I am afraid they would make one lazy, as they take off one’s boots for one etc, they also wait at table wherever one is.

Tante asks from where I am going to see the eclipse; to tell the truth I don’t really know, possibly it will be from Buxar where the Bengal Astronomers are going, possibly a little further South where I think Christie & Dr Common are.

I have presented my letters of introduction to the Viceroy & his secretary, & I am going to the Ball to-morrow night, & to an Evening Party next week, & I shall probably see most of Calcutta there.

One more hurrah for yourself, love to Tante (I thought I would wait to write to her till later) & renewed kisses to Dora,

Your affectionate Nephew
Fredk W Lawrence

I have endorsed & returned chq to Sharpe

—————

{1} This has not survived.

Brixton Prison.—Nance has visited and Uncle Edwin has sent a goodwill message. Has been thinking about his defence and reading The Solitary Summer.

—————

Transcript

Brixton Prison
12th March 1912

Dearest

Just a word in pleasant anticipation of seeing you on Thursday. I had a delightful visit from Nance this afternoon and am looking forward to seeing May tomorrow. How very good everyone is to us!

I have been busy today looking into the question of my defence but of course there is not very much one can do until we hear what the other side have got to say.

I think I told you I had had a letter from my sister Annie, I have also received a message of goodwill from my uncle Edwin[.] I am going to write to him tomorrow.

The book Sayers has sent me is “The Solitary Summer” which is very good reading—I have only read before “Elizabeth and her German Garden” {1}.

I expect you see the Times, there is a capital letter today from Annie Besant.

Your own loving
Husband

—————

One folded sheet. At the head is printed, ‘In replying to this letter, please write on the enve-lope:— Number 3408 Name Lawrence F P’, the name and number being filled in by hand. The word ‘Prison’ of the address and the first two digits of the year are also printed, and the letter is marked with the reference ‘C1/12’ and some initials. Strokes of letters omitted either deliberately or in haste have been supplied silently.

{1} A popular semi-autobiographical novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, first published in 1898. The Solitary Summer, a companion piece, was published the following year.

(Calcutta.)—‘How stupid I am! I ought to go to school and learn how to address a letter to the wife of a baronet! Has it struck you that the roll of the titled families of Ascot is now complete!’

(With an envelope.)

Eton College, Windsor.—Thanks him for the gift of a drawing by Cox. Expresses his high opinion of Fred.

Downing College, Cambridge.—Congratulates him on Frederick’s ‘having won the blue ribbon of English University life’ and expresses high hopes for his future.

Calcutta.—Was delighted to hear of his uncle Edwin’s baronetcy. Has decided to go to Sahdol to view the eclipse. Refers to his activities at Calcutta.

—————

Transcript

Calcutta
c/o Thos Cook & Son
Bombay
Jany 12 98

My dear Tante

It was ripping news to hear of Uncle Edwin’s getting his baronetcy. I was tremendously delighted.

Ever so many thanks for all your good wishes for Xmas, Birthday & New Year. Letters get a good bit delayed in coming to me but if you send them to Cook’s at Bombay I shall get them very much sooner.

I have only just settled to go to Sahdol for the eclipse; it is a small place somewhere near Jubbulpore; if you have a map of India showing the railways you will find it on the line from Katni to Bilaspore. Campbell is going there with the Astronomer from Madras; {1} & I fancy Christie & Dr Common are to be there also. But by the time you have got this letter, the eclipse will be a thing of the past, and you will know how far the observations of it have been successful.

I have been generally “sloping” round in Calcutta. Last week I went to the State Ball, yesterday I went to an evening party at Government House, & to-morrow I am going to see the ceremony of Investiture; the natives are very resplendent in their jewels, & their costumes are interesting. I have also been to the Botanical Gardens where the trees are very fine; one Banyon tree has a circumference of 926 feet at its crown! You know it puts down fresh trunks in different places.

One way and another I have a fair number of friends here & I go out to dine with them some evenings.

I have been to see Mozoomdar whom you may possibly remember as a leader of the Bramah Somaj; & on Sunday afternoon I am going to meet a number of their people and talk a bit about Cambridge. Then on Monday I leave for Sahdol, & after the eclipse go back for a few days to Mozuffapore, then to Darjiling to see Mt Everest, then Benares, Delhi, Agra & down to South Canara, back to Madras, & so to Colombo some time in April & from there to Australia!

This afternoon I am going “slumming” with a member of the Oxford Mission.

With love to all & kisses to Dora

Ever your affte Neffe
Fredk W Lawrence

—————

{1} Charles Michie Smith.

Bombay.—Sends part of an ‘encyclical’ (part of 5/30b), and responds to her news of family members and neighbours. The plague at Bombay presents no danger to Europeans.

—————

Transcript

Bombay.
Feb 23. 98

My dear Tante

I am sending you with this the conclusion of my second encyclical {1} which gives all my movements up to date so that there is very little to add.

I think it is a capital plan of yours taking the name of Durning-Lawrence, and I, for one, thoroughly approve. (Not that my lordly approval was in the least required!)

I am glad you think Harry getting on a bit but one is always so afraid that it is only a case of up & down; from a letter which I have from him this week I understand that he is now at Cannes & is going on to Nice.

You seem to have been losing several Ascot neighbours Sir R Mead &, old Dean Liddell; it was strange that he should have died so shortly after Lewis Carroll; I think you used to say Alice in Wonderland was written for one of the Dean’s children.

Out at Fatehpur Sikri I met 2 Cambridge men, brothers, of the name of Reckitt {2}; I did not know them before, but I understand the elder is MP of N. Lincolnshire & knows Uncle E a little bit.

You will probably have seen that Bombay is somewhat stricken with plague just now, but there is not the smallest danger for Europeans. Even among those brought into close contact with plague stricken people it is exceedingly rarely that anyone is affected at all.

With best love to all, hoping Uncle E is in great form in the House.

Ever Your affte Neffe
Fredk W Lawrence.

—————

{1} PETH 5/30b, probably pp. 91–106.

{2} Harold James and Philip Bealby Reckitt. The former was the MP.

20 Somerset Terrace, Duke’s Road, W.C.—Comments on his and his uncle’s attitude towards his career, and refers to his forthcoming meeting.

—————

Transcript

20 Somerset Terrace | Dukes Rd W.C
12. 7. 00

Dear Mr Laurence.

Thank you for your letter. It suits me! It has put a great gladness & a new song into the day.

Of course it was not you who said your career was ruined! Did I ever imagine that it was? And if I had, should I have dared to say that it was nonsense? But I have to vent my native impatience on somebody & your Uncle—all due regard and respect to him—was far enough away to be a safe victim!

I am glad that you dont believe in selfsacrifice. Neither do I {1}—be it far from me!—nor resignation nor any of the peculiarly “Christian” virtues—which by the way are not a bit Christian. The great new freshening tide of life poured into the world-old world-weary stagnant stream 18 or 19 centuries ago—brought the very opposite of these things—joy of life, spirit of adventure, inconquerable triumph—overwhelming sense of purpose and worth of being—& beyond reach of imagination, a further weight of glory: Courage, adventure, faith & inconquerable triumph—these are the things we believe in—Comrade—nicht wahr {2}?

Of course everything that I wrote yesterday was unnecessary. It doesn’t matter: But when I thought of you facing alone men like Lionel Philips {3}, to whom there seems to have been given an almost diabolical power to work mischief in achievement of their ends, I did tremble for the moment. And you talked so dreadfully solemn about the truth prevailing and all!! I had no idea you had reached the point of which your letter this morning tells me. Now of course I have not a fear.

I daresay I should like your Uncle very much if I met him. But of course we cannot take our life cues from our Uncles. After all, the full & flowing tide comes to each of us only once in our life-time, it is our turn now, and we must use it to float our craft & attain life’s fulfilment. By & bye it will turn for us too—& the ebbing tide will take us out from the world’s life, our work done or undone. Life—our own life—free, unfettered[,] our own—is so infinitely—infinitely precious. Not to be thrown away—not to be doled out to relations, not to be divided piecemeal amongst a thousand petty claims—but to be reserved—concentrated—a force—one of the forces of the universe!

Yes—we will go into all these practical questions—presently. They are very important. Thoughts will come—even prematurely. And I long to have the ground cleared & to be able to enter into the future. But I must cultivate a little further my two acquired virtues of patience and philosophy.

Yours sincerely
Emmeline Pethick

—————

{1} Cf. Emmeline Pethick’s article ‘The Sin of Self-Sacrifice’ in The Woman’s Herald, 27 Apr. 1893 (pp. 152–3).

{2} ‘Isn’t that so?’ (German).

{3} Lionel Phillips had become very rich from his mining interests in South Africa, but had been banished from the Transvaal in 1897 for his part in the Jameson Raid.

† Sic.

13 Carlton House Terrace, S.W.—Invites her and Fred to spend a few days at Ascot before she (Emmeline) goes to Egypt. The differences between Fred’s views and those of herself and her husband have prevented them from being close in the past, but ‘time … has passed on’.

—————

Transcript

13 Carlton House Terrace, S.W.
Oct 27

My dear Emmeline

In response to your letter we shall be glad if you & Fred will come down to Ascot next Saturday & stay till Monday or the Saturday after or if neither of these proposals are possible can you run down for the day so that we may see you before you leave for Egypt—

If you come for the day do not come Monday or Tuesday as I am changing the monthly to the permanent nurse on those days

I shall always retain my love for Fred & so will his Uncle, but our thoughts & views have gone in such opposition† directions that intimate intercourse seemed difficult

Time however has passed on—Baby goes on well & you will like to see her & her surroundings before you leave

Believe me

Y[ou]rs affect[ionatel]y
Edith J. Durning-Lawrence

—————

† Sic.