City of Birmingham [ship: 'Port Said' written then crossed through]. - Will arrive in Bombay tomorrow morning, but have 'already seen a bit of India': some butterflies blown out to sea by the wind. They have had a good voyage since Messina, and have '… read more
City of Birmingham [ship: 'Port Said' written then crossed through]. - Will arrive in Bombay tomorrow morning, but have 'already seen a bit of India': some butterflies blown out to sea by the wind. They have had a good voyage since Messina, and have 'suffered very little from heat'. Is writing to Bessie at the Shiffolds, where she will be if the Bottomleys [Gordon and Emily] went there on the intended date, though she may be in the Netherlands by the time the letter arrives; heard from her at Port Said. He and his companions did not know then how serious 'the trouble in Turkey [the beginning of the First Balkan War] might be', only that Montenegro had declared war and Greece was likely to; will be interesting to see the newspapers in India. Hears the next mail to England will leave on Friday, so he will wait till they reach Bombay to finish this letter. Will be glad when the voyage ends, as he is 'heartily tired of most of [his] fellow-passengers', though some are interesting, like [Kenneth] Searight, a young officer they will see again at Peshawar.
Continues the letter on 24 October. They have been in Bombay two nights and leave tomorrow; the weather is 'good and not too hot'. [E.M.] Forster has gone to visit his Indian friend [Syed Ross] Masood in Alighur, and will meet them again at Lahore around 2 November. Is going to Ellora for a few days tomorrow, then to Ajanta, then on to Lahore; Robert will stay there with his Harrow friend Stow and [Goldsworthy Lowes] Dickinson with another friend. They will spend a week or more there and at Peshawar. Hard to say much about what he has seen of India so far, the 'people are always interesting, and the town usually so, though the show buildings are ugly'. Finds 'the scenery round the harbour' as 'fine as Naples', in a different way, and the light 'more beautiful than anything... in Europe, especially in the evening'. Only sees English people in 'Cook's [travel agency]... and the Army & Navy Stores', but 'plenty of Eurasians, and Parsees in odd-shaped black top-hats' who 'own most of Bombay' and are said to be 'generous and public-spirited'. They passed their 'burial-towers today' and saw the vultures in the trees nearby. Went to Elephanta Island this afternoon, which was well worth seeing.
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