Secrets in the Stones
Page 34
smeared with honey: According to George Ryley Scott’s History of Torture, one method peculiar to India was to tie the victim against a tree, smother him in honey, and allow red ants to eat him. Another insect employed for this gruesome purpose was the carpet beetle.
Chapter 30
news from the customhouse: Major Scott had written earlier that he hoped he had arranged for Mrs. Hastings’s baggage to pass without being rifled, “but there are not such a Sett of Vermin in England as our Custom House Officers.”
the customs men have detained: A list of goods belonging to Marian Hastings that were detained can be found in the British Museum. Everything made of silk was prohibited, as well as a velvet riding habit worked with pearls, and curtains and dresses containing gold or silver thread. It seems she was in danger of forfeiting all her own clothes except those taken ashore with her at Portsmouth and all the items brought as gifts.
Arab horses: According to the Lady’s Magazine, on October 8, 1784, “a few days ago two very fine young Arabs, a horse and a mare, were presented to his majesty from Mr. Hastings.” Scott later wrote the king was delighted with them.
Chapter 33
Carl Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae: The Swedish botanist and physician published a system of classification in 1753 that divided the natural world into three “kingdoms”: animal, plant, and mineral.
acacia honey: This honey has a distinctively sweet smell.
Chapter 34
White’s on St. James’s Street: During the eighteenth century the exclusive gentlemen’s club gained a reputation for the shocking behavior of its upper class members.
Chapter 35
khanjar: The widely used name for a dagger that varies from region to region, but usually has a curved blade.
Chapter 36
Magpie Ale House: The current pub on this site, the East India Arms, is located on Fenchurch Street next to the place where the East India Company once had its headquarters. From at least 1645 the Magpie Ale House stood here.
hot springs at Bath: These are the only hot springs in Britain. Bath’s spa reached its zenith in popularity in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
moon-curser: A linkboy with a lantern to guide a traveler through the dark streets.
Pool of London: An area of the Thames between London Bridge and Rotherhithe. As early as 1586 William Camden declared: “A man would say, that seeth the shipping there, that it is, as it were, a very wood of trees disbranched to make glades and let in light, so shaded it is with masts and sails.”
Chapter 37
Philip Francis: Francis was a civil servant in India and is best remembered for his animosity toward Warren Hastings, whom he accused of corruption in India. The two men fought a duel on August 17, 1780. Francis was severely wounded but recovered shortly afterward and left India a few weeks later. He continued to oppose Hastings in England.
Chapter 39
Musi River: A tributary of the Krishna River in the Deccan Plateau, upon which Hyderabad stands.
famous Pitt diamond: Thomas Pitt was the grandfather of William Pitt the Elder, and his exploits caused the latter much embarrassment. Later known as “Diamond” Pitt, he is best known for buying a huge diamond that was purportedly smuggled out of a mine in the wound of a worker’s leg. In 1791 the stone, which was sold to the regent of France, was valued at £480,000. It was placed in the French crown, and is now in the Louvre.
twelve thousand pagodas: The pagoda was a unit of currency, a coin made of gold or half gold minted by Indian dynasties, as well as the British, the French, and the Dutch.
budgerow: A large Indian boat with a long cabin that ran the length of the craft.
Chapter 40
indigo: A blue dye derived from the leaves of a leguminous plant, it was a popular crop in India and was supplied to Europe since the Greco-Roman era.
Chapter 41
Cheapside: The area takes its name from “chepe,” a Saxon word for a market. It was long associated with the nearby Smithfield meat market, although in 1775 a visitor observed that with its “many thousands of candles . . . the street looks as if it were illuminated for some festivity.”
Square Mile: The boundaries of the City of London have remained almost constant since the Middle Ages, and it is often called the Square Mile as it is almost exactly one square mile (2.6 square kilometers) in area.
jail in Calcutta: Among the Impey manuscripts in the British Museum is a petition from Thomas Motte written from Calcutta Jail in 1783 in which he begs his creditors to assent to his release.
Chapter 42
a common torture: Buddhist texts like the Milinda Panha, from the second century AD, catalog some strange and inhuman methods, such as flaying and boiling a victim alive. Torture was abolished in England and Wales in 1641, and in Scotland in 1707, but remained common practice in India until the start of the nineteenth century.
Chapter 43
the elephant in St. James’s Park: King George III was presented with an elephant in 1763 that is thought to have been exercised in the park. The British Museum has a print of this elephant, His Majesty’s Elephant, from Bengall, and the curator mentions the animal being exercised in St. James’s Park, but gives no reference. According to historian and London guide Peter Berthoud, the Gentleman’s Magazine says the animal was presented “at the Queen’s House,” later to become Buckingham Palace, adjoining St. James’s Park. If it was kept in the vicinity, it is possible that it was exercised in nearby St. James’s Park, and is most likely to have been stabled in the King’s Mews, close by.
mines at Golconda were all but exhausted: The last large diamonds were mined around two hundred fifty years ago.
Chapter 44
the governor-general’s impeachment: Talk of Warren Hastings’s impeachment first surfaced when he was personally attacked by Charles James Fox during the presentation of the India bill in 1783.
opium: Smoking opium was not illegal. The British began trading in it after they took Bengal in 1757. By 1764 the British exercised a monopoly over opium production.
Chapter 45
Dr. Johnson: The literary genius took opium as a painkiller, but cautioned that it should only be taken as a last resort.
Lord Clive: Major-General Robert Clive, also known as Clive of India, was a British officer who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal.
Narrative of a Journey to the Diamond Mines at Sumbhulpoor in the Province of Orissa: Thomas Motte’s account was not published until 1799.
Chapter 46
Charles Byrne: An Irishman measuring almost eight feet, Byrne came to London to exhibit himself. His tragic story is explored more fully in The Dead Shall Not Rest, the second novel in the Dr. Thomas Silkstone series.
the New Archway: Built in 1697, it is one of three principal entrances to Lincoln’s Inn and leads to New Square.
Chapter 49
by express permission of the king: In 1775, King George III ordered that only those whose names were on a list were permitted to pass through St. James’s Park and Green Park. Access to both was only gained via approved ivory passes.
fireworks: In 1746 nearby Green Park was used for a national party, celebrating the end of the War of Hanoverian Succession, that included a great firework display set off to music by Handel. Another huge celebration was held in 1763 to mark the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
a keeper dressed: In Splendour at Court, authors Nigel Arch and Joanna Marschner describe how George III commissioned special liveries for his elephant keepers in 1763. An embroiderer named Richard Harrison made a large blue cloth and lined it with red baize and fringed it with gold, while renowned tailors made suits for the two Indians who had been sent with the elephants.
King’s Mews: These were located in a building that is now the site of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
half a dozen guards: The fate of Chunee, the Indian elephant who was brought to Regency London, w
as a cause célèbre. In 1826 he became agitated, killed his keeper in the Strand, and was finally fired upon with muskets by soldiers at nearby Somerset House. Still he refused to die and was finally put out of his misery with a sword or harpoon.
Chapter 52
a climbing boy: Also known as a pipe boy or a chimney sweep’s boy.
Chapter 53
the execution, by elephant, of an Indian merchant: The warrior Santaji Ghorpade (1764–1794) delighted in this form of execution and, for the slightest misdemeanor, would order an offender to be crushed under the feet of an elephant. The punishment was also adopted by Tipu to suppress a revolt at Seringapatam. Many English prisoners were dragged to death by means of elephants or hanged after having their ears and noses cut off.
Chapter 54
loud roar: Several exotic animals were kept in the mews, but most of the dangerous ones were housed in the Tower of London.
Chapter 56
mahout: The man or boy who rides on the back of an elephant and commands it.
Chapter 57
a wooden engine: The 1708 Parish Pump Act ordered every parish in London to keep a water pump and designate men to help extinguish fires. Several people began to design fire pumps, but it was Richard Newsham’s creation that proved most effective. His famous No. 5 engine could throw 160 gallons of water per minute to a height of 165 feet.
Chapter 58
“No one saves us but ourselves”: This quote is said to have come from Buddha.
Chapter 60
a dress of oyster silk: Red was a popular color for a wedding dress at the time that Jane Austen’s parents were married in the eighteenth century.
wedding breakfast: Weddings were normally held in the morning, traditionally after a Catholic mass, so the celebratory meal was a breakfast.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2016 by Tessa Harris
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-9341-1
ISBN-10: 0-7582-9341-0
ISBN: 978-0-7582-9341-1
First Kensington Electronic Edition: March 2016