Birds of Passage

by Henrietta Clive

  We are all going to William Calls, a very pretty place nine miles from hence for a week. Your nieces are packing up as if they were returning to England, which I believe they would perform with more pleasure.

  We all wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and that we were all sitting round the fire with you. I long for England more than I can say and am very sorry to see that Lord Clive’s really becoming attached to this place. It not only distresses me but this whole establishment who are all as anxious as myself to be at home again. I really think my stay will much depend upon the state of Signora Anna’s health while we are at Bangalore in the course of the summer. I say all I can to make Lord Clive think more of England than he does, as I am sure if the old proverb is right: ‘Learning is better than house and land’, I am sure health and happiness is better than money not to mention the sight of all, which I think, is worth all the luxuries of the East. Yet if I return, this increase of expense will, I fear, make him disposed to remain.

  July 23rd, Henrietta to George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My dearest brother – a ship came in yesterday that left England the beginning of March but had no news, having left England without having gone to Portsmouth and having left all the passengers and brought their baggage, besides a poor woman who took her passage from Deal to Portsmouth. Think of anybody coming to the East Indies by mistake!!!!

  Probert will be glad to receive £5,000 by this ship, which is much as could be expected the first year. The rest will be better I have no doubt. We expect £8,000 or £9,000. Adieu, My dearest Brother. How happy I shall be to see you again. I envy these people that are just setting out beyond all things.

  Ever your most sincerely affectionate

  H. A. Clive

  August 2nd, Henrietta to George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My dearest brother – The letters are not yet gone therefore I have a little more to add. I had the greatest pleasure the night before last in receiving your letter by Col Monson. It relieved me from infinite uneasiness from William Strachey’s account of Robert. Since I wrote my last, Lord Clive and I have had more conversation about our stay here. He dislikes it as much as I do. He has said so in a letter to poor Probert (whose situation seems a very despairing one) and I think he is not quite happy about his health. He is not ill but grows thin very rapidly indeed, and I have given my opinion of the wish for all and how little the money is in comparison of our health and he has gone so far as to talk over how we should live if we returned to England soon. I cannot help thinking that another year will be as much as he will stay in which case unless the children’s health requires it I shall not think any more of the first part of this letter.

  Charlotte has been bilious and yellow lately, but is now well. Really we suffer more than they do, as they grow fast. I was not surprised that they are thinner and I am much diminished, yet not ill. The complaints of Lord Clive outlined to you sometime ago could be whether it is owing to that he is so much thinner I do not know. It is all uncomfortable and he feels more and more so and is tired of it. In October we shall have saved all the expense of coming here. Therefore there will be only the old debts, which will be something. Another year saving in England and here will be considerable. I do not like to name a time, yet I think before two years more are gone we shall be in England. It is a frightful time, yet I cannot see much hopes of its being sooner, January being the best time for leaving this place. I long for that time more and more every hour and indeed so does every one belonging to us. How kind and good you have been to Robert during his illnesses … Mr Strachey’s first letter arrived Tues in good measure. Col P came two days afterwards and I am now quite happy. What a pity it is to waste our lives and perhaps our health so far from you and my Boys. God bless you again and again. How glad I shall be to see you again.

  August 5th, Henrietta to George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My dearest brother – I have this very moment received your letter of February 25th 1799, for which I thank you much. I am much obliged to you for the account of Robert and for the pleasant description of them and their disposition, and for all your kindnesses to them. I have always expected that Robert’s mind would sometime or another open though it was later than Edward’s and that he will turn out … I am very glad Edward is pleasant and growing too. I was a little afraid he would never reach the gigantic size of his Papa. It diverts me to see that since he went to Eton he has left off calling me Mamma. I am now his Mother … perhaps Bonaparte has got some of my manuscripts. Foolishly I never kept an account of what letters I wrote to England at the beginning of this year. I now keep a book … The fleet is certainly to sail on Sunday that is the day after tomorrow which it has been to do so often that I am quite tired of hearing of it …

  August 9th, Henrietta to Lady Douglas

  My dear Lady Douglas – I need not say how much pleasure I had in receiving a letter from you dated the 24th October. It is terrible to think of the chasms in one’s correspondence and that letters are such ages in coming to me. I assure you that I rejoice so much at the sight of a letter that I am sure you would out of common humanity have pleasure in occasioning it and every detail concerning Bothwell and Dalkeith really give me sincere pleasure. If there is beauty in contrast, my life is now beautiful as it is just the reverse of what it was in Scotland. You know I said a few words to you with my reasons for coming here one sad morning at Dalkeith and strange and absurd as it appeared to most people that I should choose to come here I know you understand me enough to make me now say that I am glad I came. I do not amuse myself as I might do in better places, but I feel it was right and that there are hours when myself and my girls are of use and my reason is satisfied and I only wish for the most happy day when I shall once more get into a ship (think what a wish for me) and sail towards England.

  The people here are in general not much enlightened. There are a few women that are good and many clever men, but the war dispersed them in general. I believe the women are afraid of me. I do not know very well why, as I am most outrageously civil but they are alarmed. I live a great deal with my girls. We have for some months occasionally had a house at the Mount and now on what is called the Island [about five miles from the Garden House]. It is a fine exercise; for I am really at the best of my health and amused myself as well as circumstances would permit with my works in a morning and walking in the evening with my damsels. In former wars Tipu’s looties came down to rob and kill, but as there were troops at the Mount I was bold and by that means had the place to myself. This continued till the weather was too hot. When the thermometer was 96 degrees in my room and at 102 degrees on the veranda, I was obliged to come back to the great house and my formality. Now I can go to the Island where my girls are established and walk by the seaside by moonlight.

  I cannot sit and be idle nor can I bear to have visits from people I do not care for by way of something to do, so I puzzle about something. I am beginning Persian and hope in all due time to be able to read Hafiz and all the learned books. Then I shall be romantic and so extremely flowery in my discourse that I suppose I shall not be able to give a rational answer to a common question. It amuses me much while I am learning my verbs I cannot think of England and what you are doing now which so often comes across my mind that I am glad to put it out again. My girls are going on as I could wish. They are not indolent with the heat and indeed improve as much as they could do in a colder climate. Harriet will be I am persuaded a remarkable good player on the harp for a lady. She loves it and takes infinite pains in other respects. They do well. Signora Tonelli is a treasure to me in every way.

  You have heard of all our victories in this country. I am almost tired of hearing of Tipu Sultan and all belonging to him. People think of nothing but pearls and emeralds. All the officers send heaps to their wives, but I do not think they are very fine, at least the few that I have seen. It is a very extraordinary event certainly, that five months ago at the beginning of March, the army passed the frontiers
of Tipu’s country and that within that time, he is dead, his country divided, the lawful sovereign restored and the English position secure for ever in all human probability. The only people that expressed concern at Tipu’s death were his immediate attendants and followers. He was hated and feared by everybody.

  Tipu’s sons never saw him, at least so seldom that there was no acquaintance or friendship between them. The first time they had been in his great drawing room was after Col Wellesley was living in it. As they grew up they were removed out of the palace. On the journey to Vellore, where they are now living, they said that they had never been so comfortable. They, too, were as society amongst one another. The oldest appears to be, I hear, of a much more tyrannical and disagreeable disposition than even Tipu himself and not much reconciled to his confinement. The only difference is shown to the legitimate son. He is a little boy; but they made him king, and pay some respect to him.

  I was terribly disappointed with the account of the zenana. I expected it to be like the seraglios in the Arabian Nights, but I am told it is only a number of small rooms not unlike the likes of a convent where each lady lives in one room. I expected to have heard of fountains of marble spouting up rose water and of cushions of finest embroidery. But not at all – the rooms were as dirty and as poor as possible.

  Some astrologers told Tipu that the 4th of May was an unlucky day to him and he was advised to take care of himself. He went through some ceremonies in the morning to avert their bad prognosis. Is it not very odd? Under his pillow was found a little book, which contained all his dreams. I should like to see it. I believe many people’s dreams might be as amusing as his, but it is an odd thought to write them all down.

  I have sent you a bottle with some seeds which I hope will flourish and that you may sit upon the bench and be shaded from the southwest corner of the SW hot house by the southeast pot of Indian creeper. Some are trees and from the Cape. The others are from this country and creepers.

  Adieu, my dear Lady Douglas, with all sorts of good wishes to all belonging to you in the hopes of hearing from you in this distant abode and of seeing you again some happy day.

  ‘That two months of War should have produced the changes in our situation is hardly credible,’ Lord Clive wrote to the Earl of Powis, after the fall of Seringapatam. ‘From a state of constant inquietude and exposure to the intrigues and attacks of an irreconcilable enemy whose position in the heart of the peninsula made him always formidable, we have attained to one of position and absolute security with the means of establishing and enforcing the maintenance of peace throughout the peninsula.’ He pointed out that additionally, ‘We have obtained a trailer line of fortresses.’ Along with the letter, he sent a blunderbuss made at Seringapatam and promised him ‘a most beautiful mare of Tipu’s’. Lord Clive also described his wife as ‘becoming slim and is just the weight she was when we were married’.

  The heat remained trying. Henrietta, waiting for the rains, held firmly to her intention to travel in South India. Fighting her ennui, she made plans to visit not only Bangalore but also Seringapatam. She and the girls attended yet another nautch given by the wealthy merchant Arnachellum Chitty in honour of his daughter’s marriage. There they admired eight Hindu and two Moorish dancing girls; ‘one tumbled backwards and picked up a ring, which was on the floor, with her eyelids’. Charly rode on an elephant without a howdah and found it to be a likable experience ‘though when the elephant knelt down, it was not so pleasant’. Friskey had four more puppies and Flirt seven.

  August 16th, Henrietta to George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My dearest brother – I keep all the dates and the names of my correspondents in a book. Therefore I am certain I cannot mistake, and though you have not heard from me, I assure you I have not omitted any opportunity of writing. Since I had your letter (that is yesterday) we have had an overland dispatch from Bombay with great news from Italy, Ireland and every other place. Before this time you have heard of the taking of Seringapatam. What a wonderful people, we are really, having the command of the whole world. It makes me very proud of being an Englishwoman.

  Signora Anna I hope will do well by degrees but the absence of people with the army has been bad for her. Now that they are returning I hope she will do better. She is a most excellent person and your nieces improve extremely with her.

  I think Lord Clive much better than he has ever been. There is now much less business, the war ending so well. We shall be quiet soon. Lord Mornington is to return next month, I believe. He seems anxious to get to Bengal but is terribly afraid of his health.

  Undated, Henrietta to George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My dearest brother – The bankers and merchants are losing some 700 pagodas a month by the delay of the ships. We have got Meer Allum here. He is, as you know in the Gazette, the Commander in Chief of the Nizam’s army. He is to be received by the Governors in form. They are to sit like the two Kings of Brantford† was upon two yellow satin chairs under a canopy to place him in the middle. It is a ceremony I will see. Lord Mornington has his coronet as large as the life placed upon the back of his chair and another on the top of the canopy which is all yellow and I think will be very unbecoming to their Lordships. Lord Clive has no coronet, but a plain chair. It is very comical how Lord Mornington likes all sorts of parade and show and such sort of things.

  Charly described Meer Allum’s arrival ‘in a gilt palanquin’ and described him as being ‘dressed in muslin, with no ornament but a pair of small pearl bracelets’. He was accompanied by his son Meer Dowraun ‘who is an enormously fat man, [who] wore a fur turban, with a sort of flower of table-diamonds; his dress was trimmed with fur. He came upon an elephant.’ On August 28th, Charly commented sadly that ‘Our poor dog Fanny died of liver complaint; and Friskey’s puppies so ill, that we were obliged to have them drowned.’ On August 29th the girls played their harp and pianoforte for Meer Dowraun who ‘had several rows of very fine large pearls, intermixed with emeralds round his neck; rubies and diamonds on his head, and emerald bracelets’.

  Undated, Henrietta to George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My dearest brother – I had the great pleasure of your letter of the 20tieth April yesterday with one from each of the boys. Thank you a thousand times for the goodness it contained. Your account of the health and tempers of my Boys is very pleasant to me. It gives me great pleasure that you have them both in hand and that they are so much with you and that you appear to like them. It is the only consolation we can have for losing sight of them at this time, which indeed is painful to think of, and I must sincerely wish I could find any time when we might hope to be released from this banishment.

  I am very glad to find Probert is so much better as to be able to go about. I am just returned from a wedding. I attended Mrs Wodehouse to church and she is now Mrs Rothman and going on Tuesday or Wednesday to Bengal. We are all sorry to part with her and shall not think of anybody in her place. He is a good sort of man, but I have not quite liked him so much just now as we did at first. However, I hope it will all end well. General Harris is now just arrived and therefore Lord Mornington will probably keep his determination of going on Wednesday next to Bengal which will not afflict the greatest part of this country. We are preparing for a great fête to be given to General Harris, which was to be done by Lord Mornington but now will be done by Lord Clive.

  We have Meer Allum and his son. They came to see Lord Clive. Meer Allum had a great curiosity to see English children. Two nights ago we came to him and the girls played and Signora Anna sang which he said he admired very much but I doubt if he understood much or comprehended. The experience of music that we have heard here and the songs of the dancing girls are not good … We are to have them, and I believe the Nawab, at the ball, with all the splendour of the East of which they have much more experience.

  On September 5th, Charly dutifully mentioned without elaboration the event of Lord Mornington’s departure: ‘Lord Mornington returned to Bengal.
’ The Governor-General sailed for Calcutta in the HMS Sybille. On September 6th Charly wrote of an entertainment given by Captain Malcolm for Meer Allum at the Theatre. ‘It began by an exhibition of scenes. 1st: A wood seen first by moonlight, then 2nd in a thunderstorm: 3rd A drawing room: 4th A street: 5th A little cottage and aqueduct, prettily illuminated: 6th A grove: 7th A garden: 8th: A gallery ornamented with statues, a view of a garden in the distance. Meer Allum was so pleased with one in particular, where a church was seen in the distance, he wished for his horse to gallop to it. We had afterwards dancing-girls. The fête ended with a ball, and supper, and some very pretty fire-works.’

  Then on September 9th Charly described yet another gala: ‘Papa gave a great ball to celebrate General Harris’ safe return from Mysore, and the capture of Seringapatam. The ballroom was erected for the occasion in the garden. Meer Allum and Meer Dowraun were present. The garden was illuminated. At the upper end of the room, there was a transparency, representing the storming of Seringapatam; and before supper fireworks, and figures in them representing ships fighting, a dog, a tiger, a carriage drawn by horses, and two figures “Tipu” “Sultan” written below; a tree on fire. Towards the close of the evening, Papa presented Meer Allum, his son, and suite with jewels and trinkets. Meer Allum did not remain for supper (which was in tents). His son stayed to the end of the entertainment, which lasted till 4 in the morning.’

  Charly’s journal entries for the remaining days of September are brief and to the point: ‘September 20th. We went to a dance at Mr Wescotts. It had rained so hard in the morning; there was a great deal of water in the roads and tanks. Mr Brodie’s pigeon house was struck with lightning.’ ‘September 21st. We went in our palanquins to a village on the road to Pondicherry. In the middle of a great tank is a pagoda, with an altar … ornamented with figures. There were two or three other pagodas and a choultry. Everything appears very clean and neat; the inhabitants, Brahmins gave Mamma a wreath of flowers for her neck.’ ‘September 27th. A violent storm of thunder and lightning occurred, during Mamma’s assembly.’ ‘September 29th. The Sybille towed in by the Suffolk, as she had lost a mast in the storm of the 27th. General Stewart and his suite were on board her.’