Balotra
23 March 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
It
is about 2 oclock and we are trying to pass the time till 5 when we shall make
a start for Baitu. Mr G. divides
his time between lying in his bed and reading and whooshing the sparrows out of
his room with a towel. He cannot stand their twittering.
Camp
Osia 4 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Jodhpur
6 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
U.
S. Club (Calcutta) 13th April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
I
got over to the office about midday and found nearly every man in the department
there. There is quite a crush up
in my room. I think everyone
except Mr. Vredenberg is there. He
is getting reconciled to his expedition now and wants to stay up in
Seistan. I had a good bit of a
talk with Mr Holland. He seems
much improved,
US
club (Calcutta) 16th April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Yesterday
evening just I was beginning to dress for dinner I got a note from Miss
Griesbach asking me to dine with them . I thought it would be only be an informal affair but when I got there I
found it was a departmental dinner. Everyone except Mr Oldham and Datta were there. The only other lady was Mrs.
Noetling (Mrs Smith is ill) very
much gotten up with a tremendous frizz of hair, it reminded me of the pictures
one sees of south sea niggers. [A
small ink sketch is placed on the line with balls of hair going largely
sideways] . She is not bad looking but I should say
very second rate. She smoked
cigarettes all the time after dinner. We all talked a most awful amount of shop and argued among each other
like blacks. Mr G., Holland and I
had an argument about staying out in this country. Mr H. thinks that a man who stays here till 55 must be a
fool, but I shouldn't wonder if he has to alter that opinion before he reaches
that age.
Calcutta
18 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr.
H. is going to Spiti tomorrow lucky man, and Herr Kraft is to go with him. I have a new pen with a broader point
for my Swan and its much pleasenter to write with. The old one seemed to get harder the more I wrote with
it. Mr Walker turned up yesterday
from Madras looking very well. He
has had no fever this year he says.
Calcutta
22 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
I
am just off to join Mr Griesbach's tennis party.
My
room measures 36x23 ft almost the size of those big rooms we had in Sukkur.
US
club Calcutta 22 April 1899 Mss Eur
C258/64
Mr
G. brought me a letter today he had received from Mr Creighton asking for the
post of registrar which is vacant as Mr. Webb has had to be dismissed. It seems he had been going in for all
sorts of queer dealings, and it is not at all certain that he will not have to
be prosecuted. Mr G. had
advertized for another man and Mr. Creighton has applied among a lot of others. he will certainly not get the
appointment. He said he had left
the NWR with a good character, but sent no testimonial from them, but there was
one from some native spinning mills in Lahore, where it appears he has been
working as an accountant from Nov. to the end of March. He is in Lahore now apparently doing
nothing. He refers to me and says that I am able to give a good account of his
attainments!
Mr G. is very civil these times and so is
Mr. O. I heard. It was Julia who told me that the former had been saying
some nice things about me, but that may be only her manner of speaking! Anyway
we have not had a row yet and I shall have none of it if I can help it. I must
get on with my memoir though.
Calcutta
23 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
hot
and dry, bicycle ride reading in the library all day.
Calcutta
24 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
This
afternoon I am going to play golf with Miss Griesbach and Sydney.
Calcutta
25 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
I
have been unpacking and labelling some of my rocks and the rest ought to come
tomorrow, It is very difficult to sit down and write in this hot weather and I
have done very little to my report yet, but I am getting it arranged in my
head, and when I do begion I don't think it will take very long. The heat seems
to drive away all ones ideas, though it is not so very bad.
Calcutta
26 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
The
dinner last night was very pleasant. we had it out on the lawn of the house
with a couple of electric lights over head and lights and flowers on each table
and Chinese lanterns among the trees. Each party had a separate table and the dinner was very good. Afterwards
we walked up and down the lawn while the band played.
Calcutta
27 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mrs.
S[mith] thinks Mr. G. very unsympathetic with married men and that he sends
them to out of the way places on purpose.
Calcutta
28 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr
G. came up just about the time I usually write and, as is his want, stopped,
talking for a long time.
Calcutta
29 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Messrs Oldham, Green and Holland dined with me here last night and we played billiards afterwards till after 11
& I got to play racket with Mr Green [chief of police].
Calcutta
30 April 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Miss
G. had a headache and did not come but Mr. G. was there.
I
am beginning to get prickly heat worse luck but one must expect that at this
time of the year.
Calcutta
1 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr
G smiled when I asked him if he had heard from the children but did not say
anything about the letter (Griesbach had sent a parcel of toys to them a few
weeks earlier)
Calcutta
2 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
The
latest idea Mr G has taken into his head is to send me as soon as I have
written my memoir up to the Himalayas to collect fossils somewhere to the east
of where Mr. Hayden is going.
Calcutta
3 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
I have asked Messrs Holland, Middlemiss and Smith to come to tennis
at the Sat. Club at 5 and it is 20 past 4 now & I must go
home and change
Calcutta
5 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
a
list of books he has read.
Calcutta
6 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
I
have not seen anything of Mr. G. these last few days…….
Calcutta
7 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
has
a plan view of his room
Dined
with the Smith's last night and had a pleasant evening. After dinner we played
that almost forgotten game, whist.
Calcutta
8 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
I
think, from what Mr. G. says (I saw him again this morning), there is not much
chance of the Govt. sanctioning his scheme. Mr Holderness has gone on leave and
his locum tenens Mr ?[Finicane], is
not likely to do much in the way of sanctioning schemes of that kind. So it may all come to nothing. The
funny thing about it is that Mr. G. asserts that it is on our account entirely
he wants us to go to the hills, to get us away from the heat of Calcutta, quite
forgetting that we must work like blacks through the hottest part of the year
here to get away at all, and that if we do go our work, mine at least, the
results of the last 3 seasons work, must be scamped [saboutaged] to a
certain extent. I could not
possibly do all I want ot make my memoir complete before July, but he thinks
that it could be done. I have been
trying to work today, but have not done very much. The heat seems to get worse and worse.
Mr. G. told me that
he is going to send Miss G. home in June as his sister cannot come out to look
after her next cold weather. I
shall be sorry when she goes for I think she distinctly "emollit" his
"mores".
Calcutta
9 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
We
are going to have another lady's dinner on the lawn at the club. I have asked
the Griesbachs and Godfreys & it will be a great party.
Calcutta
11 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr.
Middlemiss went off to Ooty yesterday morning to arrange for taking his family
home. He is going on two years
leave in August I believe. Mr. O. goes for 18 months in July so I shall be senior Supt. which won't be of any value. I
have not seen Mr. G. since the dinner.
Calcutta
19 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr
G. came up today and announced that Govt. has sanctioned our going to the
hills to collect fossils , so as soon as can get this memoir finished I shall
be off. He has not made up his
mind what part of the hills each of us is to go to, but I should not wonder if
I was to be sent to the snows north of Mussourrie.
Calcutta
23 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
There
seems to be a great deal of doubt as to whether this Himalayan expedition will
come off at all or not. Mr. G.
told Dr Walker yesterday to get ready to go as soon as possible as he had
finished his report and today he tells him there is so much work to do that
he cannot spare him, I hope he will know his mind better when it comes to my
turn.
Calcutta
26 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Miss
G is off to Europe next week and I suppose Mr G will go as far as Bombay wiith
her. I have seen nothing of him
these last two days but he told Dr. Walker today that he must be ready to start
for the hills on 1st July.
Calcutta
27 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
While
we were there (at tennis) we saw a balloon go up and a man drop from it with a
parachute. I don't know where he
started from. There was great
excitement and we all rushed up to the top of the museum to get a better view
but by the time we got there he had come down somewhere in the town. The balloon drifted away right across
calcutta.
Calcutta
30 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr.
G. came up today but did not say anything particular - only wanted some of my
time talking rubbish about Burma. He is going across to Bombay to see Miss G. off. Poor man I am sure he feels her going
very much. He is so proud and fond of her.
Calcutta
31 May 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr.
G. has juist sent for Messrs. Smith, Walker and myself to give us our
instructions. I am to go up the
Lissar Valley which is away to the north east of Naini Tal.
Calcutta
1 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
I
have just been getting the maps of the country beyond Naini Tal. It looks very
rugged! We shall all three- Smith,
Walker and myself, be able to travel several days march from Naini together,
and then we go in different directions, but I am to try to join Mr Walker later
on. He does not sem to like the idea of going at all. Mr. G. has been telling him awful tales of the kind of
country it is in.
Calcutta
2 June 1899
Mr
G. is to go to Madras when he has seen Miss G. off, and will probably not be
back till we leave. I am not very
sorry - but I hope he will give us definite instructions before he goes.---You
need not be afraid my dear about my sleeping without a punkah. I
really do not feel the want of it as I go to sleep as soon almost as I get into
bed. I really think it best to be
without it as one is very apt to get a chill after the punkah walla stops pulling and then goes on again when one has got
heated up. Dr Walker and Mr. O have just had fever from
getting a chill in this way. So there is method in my madness.
Calcutta
6 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr
G sent me up a paper sauing tha on reconsideration he had decided to keep me
here in charge ogf the office while he was away on tour. He goes tomorrow I believe and after he
has been to Madras is going up to
Kashmir, so that I would have to stay here till October
Calcutta
7 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr
G goes off this evening and has made over charge of the office to me for the
present.
Calcutta
8 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr.
& Miss G. went off to the Bombay mail yesterday evening. Mr. Holland and I went down to see them
off. I wish you had met her, she
is a very nice little girl. There was a meeting of the Asiatic society after
dinner at which there was a lively discusiion about some proposed alterations
of the rules. Nobody seemed to
know if we had the power to alter them , and instead of discussing the alterations
some of them began quarelling about that, so finally I got up and proposed that
we should accept them provisionally and put opff the discussion to the next
meeting, and this was passed. I
got the Secy out of a pretty fix for we found afterwards that the meeting had
no power to alter the rules without consulting all the members. It is not often that anything lively
happens at that assemblage of fossils.
Calcutta
9 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
The
King and Low case is discussed. Both imprisoned and fined. A case of cholera
Calcutta
13 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Many
thanks for the photo of Avice. Mr Holland paid you a great compliment,
unwittingly I think, when I showed it to him. The first thing he said was , "She's the very image of
your wife" and so she is dear, and then "she is a very pretty child" I like Mr H.
Calcutta
15 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
I
bought a second camera today second-hand a very nice one. I wish I had it in Rajputana. Mr Holland is very anxious for me to go
there again for some of the rocks I got last year are unique in India and he
says they are most interseting, but I doubt very much Mr. G will see it.
Calcutta
16 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
one
of his back teeth falls out by itself
Calcutta
17 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
finished
the index, and ready to start by next Thursday
Calcutta
20 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Mr
G wires yesterday afterenoon saying "await letter before heading for the
hills ' from Ootacamund if you please.What riles me mnost is that I shall be
more pressed for time at NT that if I had started on Thursday. Messrs Smith and Walker are also much
annoyed. Mr Smith is going to take
his wife, and I am afraid she will have a bad time.
Calcutta
21 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
Not
a word from Mr G, bother him.
Calcutta
22 June 1899 Mss Eur C258/64
the
letter from Griesbach has not come and La Touche indicates he must await its
arrival. Smith and Walker will go on Saturday.