Birds of Passage

by Henrietta Clive

  April 25th, Henrietta to Lord Clive, continued

  I heard yesterday from Captain Brown at Bangalore. The thermometer was that day exactly which it is in this house. He says the palace wants little besides cleaning and as all the troops are ordered to Chitteldroog it will be quite empty. I am wishing much to hear from you, as much in vain I am afraid as far as the rain. Perhaps both may come together. We are all pretty well but in want of exercise, which is impossible to have. We have not much space here. Below it is too hot. The journey is sufficient to fatigue us.

  Although we have not heard any more of the goddesses on the hill, we have discovered that there is an old unfrequented way by which I am persuaded the person came and which is just by the battery from whence the sepoy was frightened. The ladies always bathe on a Sunday. I shall have more trusty guards on the night than the sepoys.

  April 26th, Henrietta to Lord Clive, continued

  My dear Lord Clive – we are all pretty well in expectation of rain of which we had one shower yesterday with a great deal of wind and thunder, but it is not sufficient and it is very hot again today. I am nervous and weak.

  Brown has sent me such a description of Bangalore that I shall like much to go to Colar as soon as we have had sufficient rain to make the journey tolerable. At present I dare not risk the heat of the tents in the daytime.

  I am very glad that the directors have appointed Henry Clive. You certainly deserve that sort of compliment at best from them. The newspaper says you and Lord Mornington are to receive some conspicuous mark of approval. I think the best thing would be to send for you to England as I do not see any reward can be sufficiently great except that. If they were to consult me I should advise it with a large additional income. Don’t you think that would be very good and right and pleasant?

  I do not quite comprehend the house plan* from the description, but I conclude it is what you mentioned to me before we left the Garden House. I shall be very glad to see the plan and to know when it will be finished. If the girls have what you then proposed by the music room, may it be as much out of my hearing as it can because here I enjoy it so much that I shall be glad to have a cessation now and then. There are discordant sounds and a little scolding of Signora Anna, which altogether is not amusing, you know. All the other apartments remaining I approve much, being very unwilling to give up my little room where I have vegetated so long.

  The rain will not come in spite of the appearance of the clouds, which have travelled round us for these three days. I am anxious to hear again from you though I had a letter a few days ago, as I am not a little anxious to move towards Bangalore for which we wait for orders from the Governor in Council.

  May 1st, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  My dear Lord Clive – we heard that Josiah Webbe was at Vellore which surprised me to find he was so gay as to have left Madras and I am afraid than an overland dispatch to my brother will not be in time as it was directed to him. He must have been at Vellore at the time it arrived at Madras.

  We have no rain and are very impatient for it, as you may well suppose, and not a little for your answer about Bangalore. We are anxious to go there and Dr Hausman wishes much for it from our inability to use much exercise. I wish to go there next week at least to set out from hence and only wait till I hear from you. We are all pretty well. Charly’s nose has not bled these ten days which is very pleasant to me and makes me afraid of going down the hill till we have some rain, as it is evident that any increase of heat brings it on.

  I hear you are well. Thomas says so, though still with a large shoe.

  May 2nd, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  My dear Lord Clive – A thousand thanks to you for the letter and the plan, which I received yesterday. I am sorry to find that you have any remains of complaint and uneasiness in your foot. I am quite persuaded if you can come up to us it would be of the greatest service to your health.

  We are expecting Josiah Webbe desiring to borrow my bearers. He must be Governor to be so in his time and to come to see us. I shall tell him so as we expect him [to be] passing this place and perhaps [he will] dine with me on my Rock.

  I am much pleased with the plans which I see are just what you spoke about before I left you and approve of everything except I see that you take away my little dressing room. I doubt if the new room will be too hot for me. I think the garden room will be really magnificent and I begin to collect plants for you, which you will like. You do not say when it is to be built nor if the new great room is where the old one is.

  Colonel Close is now sitting with us and speaking Mussulman and has been reading Persian. I think he will be a great amusement to me in these hot days.

  The girls are very merry and desire their love to you.

  Ever yours, very affectionately

  H. A. C.

  May 4th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  I have this moment received your express. Rain having fallen yesterday evening and in greater abundance around us, I had just settled with Brown that we would go in two or three days to Bangalore. Therefore your letter came just at the right moment. We will not be taken by Dhoondiah† most certainly. I had thought of him and Captain Brown asked Col Close when he was here if he thought there was any risk and he did not think there was any. Col Close mentioned his house to me and I shall like it much and am very glad we may move. Many of the followers have wishes made to move therefore it is not my own fidgety disposition though I really believe I want change of air or at least more exercise than I can use. Dr Hausman advises bathing and driving out which I shall do as well as I can, but that is not much exercise for me.

  I am very sorry that you say that obstacles increase to prevent your coming here because though we are all well here I feel uncomfortable at the distance we are from each other and the length of time. What a pity it is that Dhoondiah got out of his confinement at Seringapatam to torment this country. I have no doubt it will end in his destruction, but from the account they give me of his way of fighting it may be a long time before it is done.

  I have an excellent Mussulman from Colonel Close. He was about Tipu and in great trust of treasure, I believe, or keeper of all the necklaces that I cannot now get in the jewel lottery. He understands a little English and seems a respectable person. The girls come to speak Moors and I see he is much amused with Charly and her disposition for speaking languages.

  May 6th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  This morning Colonel Close arrived and found us breakfasting under a tent in the midst of Colonel Mackay’s garden with peaches, some of which are just going to you. I consulted him about my movements as you desired and he says he cannot see the smallest risk in my going to Bangalore that Dhoondiah is more than one hundred miles now from Bangalore, that it must be known at least three weeks before he could at all approach. But he advises us to wait till Josiah Webbe comes up and goes to Seringapatam where he will see everybody and hear everything and may write to you directly. All this will be left for you to decide. I expect to see Josiah Webbe today at dinner. Colonel Close is just going off with my palanquin boys.

  We had a violent storm the evening before last with wind beyond everything and a good deal of rain, but less than has fallen around us. Colonel Close was surprised with the girls’ good looks. We thought of you and your ball while we were walking up the hills by moonlight with a fine breeze in our faces and rather thought you would have envied us as that you perhaps would have preferred sitting upon one of the rocks to the yellow sateen chairs in the great room. I cannot help the paper being so shamefully bad and my writing not being very neat.

  I wish much you would send me a good whip for the lion. Anybody coming up in a palanquin might loan it for me.

  Adieu, my dear Lord, ever yours very affectionately.

  H. A. C.

  On May 7th Charly wrote joyously that ‘The Mornington packet arrived in Bengal’, which is to say there would soon be mail.

  May 7th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  I am so happy at ha
ving the letters safe that I do not know what to say or do. I am surprised not to have heard from my brother, but he is well. He is mentioned in some of my letters as being quite well. He is to give fêtes to the King and Queen and that he has Guntier the Confectioner for the summer. All this sounds as if he must be quite well and in good spirits.

  Yesterday Josiah Webbe arrived and I talked to him and he will write to you from Seringapatam but he agrees with Col Close that there is now no risk in going to Bangalore. The preparations have made Dhoondiah turn toward the Nizam and by letters he has lately had he says he is quite satisfied that all is safe. Col Close said that Dhoondiah’s Army was nominally 10,000 men but not so in reality, and not at all likely to attack your frontier. However at Seringapatam he will hear everything and will directly write to you. He was not at all well before he left this place. He had not kept himself well and had starved himself, which made him unwell.

  I could not omit writing to tell you that you were perfect for sending an express and that we are quite happy to hear from these good souls in England. Poor Henry Ashton’s executors have a mind to dispute the will made here with the legacy to Major Cragrie, which I am sorry for. He left her no ready money nor anything but a bare jointure. She will live at Ashton.

  May 8th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  You are really so wonderfully good that it is quite charming two letters in a day. We suffered much yesterday from the land wind. The only thing that revived us was the letters. If you have my newspapers when you have done with them we should like much to have them.

  Adieu, my dear Lord,

  ever your very affectionate

  H. A. C.

  I am sorry to see my eldest son’s handwriting is so much worse than the younger. We are in great want of writing paper.

  On May 11th Charly received information on their intended route along with a letter addressed to Miss Charlotte Clive from Captain Thomas Sydenham in Madras: ‘I am going to trouble you once more, with the perusal of an historical sketch of the Mysore country, which I have requested Lady Clive to have the goodness to forward to you. Another packet of information, containing an account of the principal places between Ryacottah and Seringapatam, is preparing, and will be shortly completed. Mrs Sydenham was so kind as to let me have a peep at your journal, and I was happy to find you had made such good use of your time. I perceive that your name is enrolled amongst those, whom curiosity has prompted to ascend the Coverum of the Conjeveram pagoda but I hope you did not follow the footsteps of T. Sydenham, who very imprudently, and at the risk of his life, walked round the outer cornice at the very summit of the Coverum. But this was done in his juvenile days, and we both know, that he is now grown more cautious, and sedate.

  ‘On Friday last, I dined with Lord Clive at the Garden, from whence we proceeded to a grand ball at Mr Chinnery’s. On Saturday we met his Lordship at Mr Webbe’s who had a small party to dinner, in celebration of his birthday, and yesterday we spent the day at the Red Hills, and returned at night.

  ‘The climate at Kistnagherry, and Ryacottah, will be a most seasonable relief after the heat, which you must have experienced through the Carnatic, and Barahmahal. The weather at Madras had been sultry, but a constant succession of southerly winds, and sea breezes, prevents the heat from being very oppressive. The thermometer in the house about noon is generally between 85 degrees and 7.

  ‘As the homeward bound ships are positively to sail on the 15th of this month, you may conceive how busily Mrs Sydenham is engaged in her final preparations for the voyage. I request you will do me the favour, to present my respectful compliments to Miss Clive, and Signora Tonelli.

  ‘I am, your obedient, humble servant,

  ‘Thomas Sydenham’

  May 13th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  My dear Lord – I thank you much for the letter I had from you yesterday after the leave to go to Bangalore for which we are all extremely anxious. The great heat affects us and we are certain that it is much cooler there and that we shall have more space. You cannot imagine how we have been annoyed in town and land. We shall make our journey as quick as I can that we get through the heat to a better climate. I think we shall meet Josiah Webbe in the road.

  Charly is better but delicate and requires some care. If it is not hot she will grow better every day after we go from hence. We are working hard with Persian and Moosulman and the most excellent old Munshee from Colonel Close who was of consequence in Tipu’s time. He tells me stories of Tipu that I begin to comprehend. The girls work with the Moor’s language and in a few months they will understand it completely. It amuses me much. They desire many loves to you.

  Ever, my dear Lord, yours very affectionately

  H. A. C.

  On May 13th the travellers went down from the Rock in order to start for Bangalore the next day. They went to see the Bull’s Mouth, a spring in the rock that flows continuously from out of a bull’s mouth carved in stone. No more was heard from the seven goddesses; the Hindu priests told the servants that the goddesses were so offended that they had left the Rock.

  May 15th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  We are again descended from the fort and are now in preparation for the journey to Bangalore. I mean to set out tomorrow evening by which we shall avoid the heat of that day and only one in the tents which will be a great saving and shall of course get to Bangalore on the next. I am very anxious to find myself there.

  On May 16th the party started at four in the afternoon for Bangalore accompanied by Col Mackay and Captain Graham; they soon lost sight of Ryacottah Rock, from the number of hills which surrounded it. They arrived after dark at Kattymungalum, where they found their tents pitched. Near the door of the dinner-tent Charly observed a collection of fireflies in a tree which ‘appeared illuminated and, contrasted with the dark leaves, had a beautiful effect’. On May 17th they started in ‘a very cold morning’ and journeyed about fourteen miles to find their tents pitched in a mango tope at Attapilly where ‘the water was very bad and muddy’.

  May 18th, Attapilly, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  As I am in a most blessed land I must write to tell you so. Yesterday evening we left Ryacottah and went to Kattymungalum. We had a very pleasant journey as we quitted the hills it became cooler and today it is quite delightful. The country is open and there are little streams occasionally, which remind one of the appearance of a common field in England. It was really cold this morning and the thermometer at 73. We are all revived and changed astonishingly. The feel of the air is quite different from any I ever met with in the Carnatic and indeed it promises to be delightful to us. We wish much for you, as you cannot imagine the feel it gives us of freshness and health.

  * Lord Clive is remodelling the Garden House in Madras.

  † After the fall of Tipu Sultan, Dhoondiah led an uprising against the British.

  Bangalore: May 18th to July 13th

  ‘All being the only thing like India I have ever seen and perfectly unlike everything else except an old Japan cabinet … a complete idea of an Eastern palace …’

  Henrietta, Anna Tonelli, Charly and Harry arrived at Bangalore at eight o’clock in the morning on May 18th, without any troops in attendance other than their own escort of sepoys and bodyguard. Captain Brown commanded at Bangalore. In 1791 Tipu Sultan, having vowed never to enter any place that had been taken by the English, had dismantled Bangalore when he thought it would not stand against Cornwallis. He had, however, left Haidar Ali’s magnificent palace intact: the interior, painted by Delhi artisans, still glowed with patterns of flowers in rich reds, greens and gold. The travellers were delighted to stay there. In 1799 Tipu’s palace at Seringapatam had not been long finished before it, too, was besieged by the English.

  May 18th, Bangalore, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  We came here this morning after a very pleasant drive. We set out at 4 o’clock and the thermometer was then at 70 and we were really cold. I even put on a shawl to drive. I cannot say how much we are pleased wi
th this place. We shall go to the garden this evening; it seems delightful. The fort is as it was left by Tipu and very dismal in appearance, but the strength of the gates seems prodigious. There are many marks of cannon balls in the top of the walls and Captain Brown showed us the place where the troops got up the march, which is as it was then.

  The palace has a large square before it so the entrance is on one side of one of the main courts, which is therefore not handsome, but the appearance quite pleased us. All being the only thing like India I have ever seen and perfectly unlike everything else except an old Japan cabinet. It is so contrived that there must always be a through air, but the wind be in whatever quarter it chooses. There is a large open veranda very high upstairs and open where we shall dine. There is a small room from that on the right hand. An old door goes into a gallery which is open on one side, at each end of which are two rooms: one for Signora Anna and the girls and the other’s for me to sleep and sit. There is a court opposite to each gallery before our apartments that belongs to us as well as the rest and is not to be inhabited but by ourselves if we choose it. That opposite to the entrance is for Captain Brown and Dr Hausman. The fourth side we have not employed and have no opening into it.