‘A most indescribable wish to go and see.’
Charly’s journal entry of May 10th reported the end of the War with Tipu Sultan: ‘The news of the fall of Seringapatam is confirmed. It was taken on the 4th May. Tipu is killed; Major Allen found his body, it is said, covered with the slain. He was trying to escape to the palace. His sons and wives have been taken prisoners; the eldest, Futteh Haidar surrendered himself, and the army commanded by Coomer ud Deen to General Harris, a few days after. His throne is said to be worth three lacs of pagodas, which in English money is £120,000! We went to the fort to see the feu de joie; first the ships fired twenty-one guns each, then the troops fired, and lastly the guns of the fort, and Black Town.’
Henrietta, too, seemed to be caught up in British self-congratulation.
My dear Lady Clive – We are in great joy at the taking of Seringapatam, which was done in a most competent manner on the 4th May and happily with the loss of very few men on our side. You know by this time that Tipu was killed on the breach. His sons are prisoners and the other chiefs have surrendered. The war is therefore quite at end and most gloriously without the town being pillaged or any insult to the inhabitants. [Whether Henrietta actually initially thought this, or if she was protecting her mother-in-law from from the reality of the post-battle destruction and pillage, is not clear. The truth of the matter was that Colonel Wellesley had to put martial law into effect to bring order to Seringapatam.] Lord Clive and Lord Mornington are going to settle all their affairs at Seringapatam and I am in great hopes of going too. They are to proceed first, and if all is safe, we are to follow therefore you will probably have long accounts by our next letters of that place. I confess I have a most indescribable wish to go and see in the first place a victorious army of 40,000 and besides that a real native Indian city with all the chiefs and potentates that will accompany us assembled in great state upon the occasion.
You will have pleasure in knowing that everything goes well here. Lord Mornington and Lord Clive are as much together as possible in friendship and acting in complete harmony, which has not always been the case between these governments. I am happy to say it.
Daily life continued: Harry stepped upon a snake in the garden in the dark and Charly was so frightened that she threw down her lantern and ran screaming into the house. The snake charmers played their pipes and out crawled a snake, said to be ‘the very one’, which was immediately killed.
My dearest brother – I wrote to you by the last over land dispatch on the 12th May and again sent a few words with an account of the taking of Seringapatam and all the Gazettes by a ship. The plunder of Seringapatam is immense. General Harris will get between £150,000 and £200,000. Two of the privates of the 74th have got £10,000 in jewels and money. The riches are quite extraordinary. Lord Clive has got a very beautiful blunderbuss that was Tipu’s and much at Seringapatam. Some of the soldiers have got 20,000 pagodas; some have ten thousand pagodas, and one a large box of pearls. I should like to have the picking of some of the boxes. There was a throne of gold, which I am sorry to say they are breaking to pieces and selling by parts. Lord Mornington has presented me with one of the jewelled tygers from the throne.
We have been in expectation of going to Seringapatam. Lord Mornington and Lord Clive are to go together and I am to follow with my ladies. But Lord Mornington has people about him that did not like to go and frightened him about his health so that the journey was put off several times and now seems quite at an end. I believe it will be better for us as we may go in a cooler season and move at once. But the climate is so cool that it was very tempting to us who are expiring with heat. The thermometer is at 91 in my room.
The colours from Seringapatam are expected every day. They are to be received in form on the King’s birthday and we are to have a great ball, which I hate. It is very dull and I long for a little human converse very much. I have written to Robert about many affairs and have enclosed it to you.
I have seen Major Allen, whose name you will see in the Gazette as one of the principal people at the Storm of Seringapatam. His account of the town and palace is very wretched. The multitude of people in it immense owing to Tipu’s having obliged the families of all his chiefs to remain there as a pledge not daring to trust any of them. When his sons heard he was dead and believed to be found under a heap of bodies, the eldest who was one of the hostages in the last War* went to see the body and without showing any emotion said ‘It is my Father.’ The younger ones showed more feeling.
The room he slept in was small and grated with iron like a prison and he locked himself in every night. What a wretched being he must have been in continual dread of everybody. There were about 30 Europeans and native soldiers taken in some of the attacks and whose heads he cut off deliberately the day before the Storm took place.
It was decided that Papa and Lord Mornington should not go to Seringapatam.
At 5 in the morning I presented the colours to the Madras Militia, and made a speech or rather recited it, as I had no hand in its composition, it being done by Lord Clive I think most awfully well. Then at half past 5 in the morning, in the square of Fort St George, the officers of the Presidency met Lord Mornington, Lord Clive, and the principal officers of the Supreme and Local Governments. His Majesty’s 10th Foot, a part of the 51st Foot, and the Madras Militia, with their respective Bands, were paraded at the same place. Lord Mornington received the Standard of the late Tipu Sultan and the Colours of the French Corps in the service of Tipu, which had luckily arrived two days before with Lieutenant Harris of his Majesty’s 74th regiment from Seringapatam. Lord Mornington, with great joy and feeling laid his hand upon the Standard, bending it towards the earth. He then made a very good speech. Afterwards he embraced Lieutenant Harris and congratulated him. Then the Standard and Colours were carried into the church and deposited in the chancel. A Royal salute was fired from the Fort Battery and three volleys of musketry were fired by the troops on the Grand Parade. Later Lord Clive gave a public breakfast. At night we had a great ball.
It was one of the most pleasant and fatiguing days I ever had in my life. Lord Mornington said something to me that pleased me much. It was that it seemed appropriate there should not be a great victory in this country without a Clive being concerned with it. It was very handsome of him to say so.
Charly described the evening of June 4th in her journal: ‘At night Mamma gave a great ball at the Admiralty to celebrate the King’s birthday. At supper, the gentlemen drank the King’s health, and gave six cheers. Mrs Harris sang “God Save the King”.’
On June 14th Henrietta and the girls continued their pursuit of Indian religious celebrations. They went to Triplicane to see the Hussein Hassan feast where they got out of their palanquins to see a great many people (with sticks) grotesquely dressed, dancing round an immense fire, calling out ‘Hussein Hassan’. In Charly’s words, ‘They seemed to be fighting with the fire, dashing their swords and sticks into it; they were painted white, and some had masks, and seemed quite mad. Captain Grant says they do not know themselves the origin of this ceremony; at least no Mahometan he has conversed with could give him any explanation. The ceremonies of the Mohurrum, vary in different countries and depend a good deal upon whether the sect is a Shia or a Sunni, the liberality of the Sovereign, and the proportion of the followers of Ali. Tipu Sultan, a strict Sunni, had curtailed the ceremonies much. At Hyderabad, it seems that the Shia’s are numerous, and although the Nizam is a Sunni, he does not appear to trouble himself about these ceremonies, which they carry on in that city, to a great pitch in pomp and splendour.’
My dearest brother – Lord Mornington was praised for his successes at Seringapatam. He in turn acknowledged the ‘honourable, generous, and disinterested support’ that he had received from Lord Clive. I have something to say to you, which is only at present between us. Our lives are so very dark here and so really triste. Lord Clive does not dislike it, you know. He does not mind it for himself. He sees how very bad it is for me. There is an idea, spread about that we do not like company and therefore nobody comes near us except at my dull assemblies and his dinners. I believe they dislike me a good deal from Mrs White, a Salop lady having written a long history of my pride and formality, which makes people avoid me, though nobody was ever so civil to them before. Upon talking of this to Lord Clive, he very fairly said he saw how uncomfortable it is to me from the confinement to the house which the heat obliges you to and the dullness of that house and that if I felt, upon a little longer trial, unhappy or uncomfortable he would not wish me to remain here. This was said so kindly and his behaviour has been such that I will not do it till the last extremity, but really the solitude, the confinement and heat make me at times so low that I can scarcely support it.
I think there is no apprehension of our health being very injured. He is well. The girls grow fast and are well indeed much, much better than I had any expectation they could be from the first setting out. I am thinner and nervous but that is all. Lord Clive’s situation would be sad without us. I certainly will not go till I can bear it no longer and he expresses himself satisfied on that subject. I mention all this to you because at this terrible distance from one another I sit alone and think like this and I make myself quite uncomfortable. There are some pleasant people here but many very vulgar indeed and that is not a very good thing for your nieces. When there are things to be done out of this house, they go to them. The people here are in general in a state much like Ludlow. In two months more we shall have finished the first year of our banishment.
On July 8th Charly stated in her journal that it was her Uncle Powis’ birthday, ‘so Mamma gave a ball’.
My dearest brother – The weather is what is called cold. The thermometer is at 6 in the mornings at 66 degrees, the lowest it almost ever has been at Madras. It agrees with us. Your nieces grow tall and increase in weight and I do not now grow thinner. Signora Anna is the only one who is very often unwell. She has lately had a bilious attack with very low spirits, which is usually the case. I wish Lord Clive did not expose himself so much to the weather as he does. I am afraid he will suffer, but there is a new farm yard in addition to the garden which he attends as much as he can morning and evening.
You will be surprised to hear that Mr Thomas besides his other perfections has one that a person never dreamt of before. He is really a very good actor. There is a little theatre and plays enacted by gentlemen … in women’s clothes most extremely well.
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.
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
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.
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 …
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.
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.
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’.
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.’
My dear Lady Clive – I shall not let the ships go without saying a word to you though the chance is that you are a very long time before you will receive it as we have not yet heard of the arrival of the Dover Castle in England, which left this place this time last year. Therefore it is most likely you may be many months before you receive this epistle. We are much disappointed in not having the letters from England. The ships that left in June are supposed to have gone on directly to Bengal from the Season being far advanced. They were seen on the 29th of the last month by a vessel, which told another ship and we have heard it here. The monsoon being expected everyday from tomorrow, as you know well. No ships will come in here any more. It is a sad thing to see the Road without a ship for two months. We shall probably have the letters in a fortnight or three weeks from Calcutta.
Did I tell you in my last letter that Mrs Woodhouse was going to be married? She is so now to Mr Rothman, one of Lord Mornington’s secretaries, a very good sort of man with a good fortune and will probably increase it. He is not young and has been here many years. She went with her spouse to Calcutta so that we have only Signora Anna with your granddaughters who go on as usual to perfection. I assist as much as I can and so we go on. We are still at the Island, which probably was not a place you ever saw as I doubt if its merit was known or that there were any houses on it at that time. It is near Mt Thomas, but across the river. The air is perfect and so fresh that I delight in it. The girls are in the most perfect health and spirits growing both tall and stout. They will soon arrive at the size of their grandmamma, Harriet being now 4 feet 10 and ½ inches and Charlotte one inch shorter. In the last three weeks, Harriet has increased three pounds in weight. Lord Clive is quite well and I think looks much better than he has ever done since he came here. I am so, too; except now and then I still grow thin which though you know I can bear it I do not wish to do too much. The cool Season will do us good. I did not ever think till I came here that I should long for a rainy day, which I assure you I do extremely.
The long expected ships are gone on to Calcutta. The monsoon is expected every day but at present there is not any appearance of it. We must wait for letters with as much patience as we can till their return from Calcutta. It is a sad disappointment to us. With every good wish to you and all belonging to and with you from every person here particularly Lord Clive and the girls who are now really growing great girls.
Adieu my dear Lady Clive,
Your affectionate daughter.
During October, Charly indicated that there were few activities. Her time seemed to have been spent between the Island and Garden House. On October 25th she noted: ‘no event, but the arrival of Lord Mornington’s picture’.‡
My dearest brother – I did not write by the last overland dispatch because I was at Ennore or rather at Pulicat§ where Lord Clive went on an expedition that was pretty equal to any. We went to Irum, which is usually inhabited only in the land winds on account of its being surrounded by water, just as the Monsoon began. We had one expedition by water and palanquins in a most decided rain in an open boat that was nothing. A few days afterwards we set out in spite of some black clouds and some rain to Pulicat. We arrived in palanquins and crossed two rivers in perfect safety. We were received very hospitably by the Commandant and saw the remains of the Dutch fort in a fine shower. The next morning we were all to go to the lake. It poured with a great deal of wind and considerable waves. We females declined going with Lord Clive who set out in a great unwieldy boat and men that were never used to anything but the surf at Madras. The boat could not sink as it is made to resist all dashing waves. He was to return at the latest in the evening. We were foolish enough to go in another great boat to fish, but were wet to the skin in half an hour and glad to get home.
Lord Clive did not return that night. I had great uneasiness … The rain was incessant. The squalls were so violent. The river so much increased that in another night it would have been impassable and the only chance of getting to Ennore was by water. Lord Clive did not arrive at Pulicat until 8 the night following. He was 30 hours in the boat. It was impossible for his party to land on the Island. The Dutch people have talked of nothing else since and I am persuaded will do so for sometime. I assure you I was in very great alarm.
Your nieces are growing very much. Harriet will be a large person I believe. It is very extraordinary but they are never so well in this house at Fort St George as in any other place. We have colds more or less now but that is not to wonder at. It is nearly decided that I and my girls go to Bangalore in March and remain there till August or September. It is quite cool at that time and will be very pleasant. I hope Lord Clive will come to us there in the summer and go on with us to Seringapatam and from thence by Madura and Trichinopoly is my scheme by which means we shall see all the great horn and the most beautiful country besides, avoiding the land winds. Captain Brown will go with us as we shall have tents and camp everyday and from Bangalore may go on any little journeys where there is anything to be seen worth our observation. The life here is so dull and so much the same that a little change is absolutely necessary to keep on being alive.
I have sent a letter to Probert enclosed to you about my affairs, which are certainly flourishing. I am very rich and have a great increase British pounds 800 (£800) in all here and British pounds 200 (£200) in England as I had settled when I left it for things to be sent. British pounds 800 here sounds prodigious but really every thing as to dress is just two thirds more than in England and I have had as yet but one small collection of things sent out.
I do not think I have anything more to add at present. We are all well. Signora Anna is the person that complains the most and has almost said that the climate will not do much longer. She is now unwell and low and I believe has not made so much as she expected to do here. I have told Lord Clive of it and very much doubt her remaining.
You will be glad to hear that Lord Mornington has said at Calcutta that Lord Clive and he lived here like brothers, which came round to me by William Rothman. I believe he is very anxious Lord Clive should remain here as long as he does at Calcutta and I believe feels much about him in regard to his good conduct and assistance to himself. He said that if it had not been for that Seringapatam would not have been taken. My Love to my dear boys. I shall send them some little odd things by the fleet.
Charly’s journal added a few more details about her Papa’s adventures: ‘November 1st. Having no tidings of Papa, we were very near remaining the day at Pulicat, but as the weather was getting worse, and the night passage would not be safe, we started and went by the seaside and saw the wreck of a sloop from Vizagapatam. There were not two planks together. Two boats sunk in the night, and their crews lost. We crossed the river at Ennore in a ferryboat. When we arrived, we heard of poor Friskey’s death the day before.’ ‘November 2nd. Major Grant came from Madras to breakfast with us, and after breakfast a letter arrived from Papa to say that he had arrived at Pulicat. They arrived at Irum at 5 o’clock the day they started. For thirty hours, they had nothing to eat but a pamplemousse. Major Grant came over, in the full belief that they were drowned. They arrived at Ennore very tired. Major Grant went back to Madras.’ ‘November 3rd. We returned to Madras, via Tripatore, where there is a fine pagoda.’ ‘November 5th. We went to a breakfast at the Patheon, given by Colonel and Mrs Floyd. The Star and Badge to be presented to Lord Mornington from the army was shown to all the party. They were very handsome, especially the Badge. We went into the Theatre to see some jugglers. Lord Mornington sent Papa a severe reprimand for his Pulicat expedition, adding that Madras would not do without a Governor or Lady Clive without a husband.’
* The Mysore campaign that ended in 1791.
† Perhaps a reference to Joseph Brant, a Mohawk leader and British military officer during the American Revolutionary War. Brant met many of the most significant people of the age, including George Washington and King George III, founded Brantford (in Ontario) around 1784 and, on numerous occasions, tried to intercede between British, French and American forces. In his constant negotiations with heads of state, Brant was clearly duplicitous; wearing whatever ‘hat’ suited his sense of whom to trust and which way to turn. Likewise Meer Allum was duplicitous in his relationship with the British and the Nizam.
‡ A portrait of Mornington painted by Thomas Hickey after the surrender of Seringapatam. It was hung in the Madras Exchange along with those of Cornwallis and Eyre Coote.
§ Small towns a few miles north of Madras at the mouth of the River Cotteliar