A Letter from Mabel

Been a while since I transcribed one of my great-grandmother’s letters from her time in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon. (Trigger warnings: she was from another era, another time so her words are not always PC.)

Horekelly, Madampe, Ceylon

December 4th, 1900

My dearest Mother

A Happy Christmas to you and everyone, and I hope you will all have a good time. It seems such ages since the Christmas before last. I don’t count last year at all because it was so muddling and strange. I suppose George and I will have a very quiet time by our lone lone selves. I don’t even expect there will be a service at the church and even if there is it will be such a one-eyed show that I would just as soon not have one at all.

I do hope the box will have arrived quite safely long before this. It went off some time ago while we were at Nuwara Eliya so you ought to get it in plenty of time. I am afraid you will all laugh at our funny little offerings, they are so very primitive but we hope another year to be able to run to something better in the way of presents. I am sending a packet of cards off today. They are addressed to Amy and I want her to open them. I thought she wouldn’t mind leaving the Canning Road people when she leaves her own. There are such a lot of stamps. Also I have lost Jessie’s letter and I can’t remember her address, so will Amy send it off for me? She is not to open any of the home ones unless they don’t arrive till Christmas Day but they ought to come on Sunday or Monday.

Did I tell you in my last letter that we did go up Pedro* after all. My word, it was a climb! Not really very steep but the continual ascent did give my knees beans. It took us just two hours to get to the top, with little rests every now and then, but when we got there the view was most splendid, well worth all the trouble. Such a lot of mountains, one ridge behind the other as far as you could see, all blue and misty in the distance. I took a photo of George standing on the cairn on the very top to prove that we have really been. We took a cooly to carry our raincoats and umbrellas but luckily did not need them. It is 8,300 ft high but we only had to climb 2,000 ft as Nuwara Eliya is already 6,300. I have put a white violet and another little flower in your Christmas card that I picked at the very top. Also the piece of fern on Amy’s photograph I picked there too.

We came here on Friday, slept Thursday night at Negombo Rest House and came on by coach. The dogs were most delighted to see us, nearly went mad and now Gretchen and Nipper will hardly let me out of their sight, they are so afraid I may be going off again. Nipper has grown a good deal and is nearly as big as his mother now. I have taken some more photographs of them and I do hope these will turn out all right. We were going to develop them and use them as Xmas cards but found the Boy had packed the bottles of chemicals in a big box that is coming up by boat and it hasn’t arrived yet. When we have developed them all I am going to send you a little book with one of every photograph we have taken, good or bad, in case there may be some you have not seen.

I don’t believe we are ever going to see the end of this wretched case of George’s, I am getting sick of it. He went over to the court yesterday and found that it had again been put off. Now he has to go to Chilaw on the 10th and Mr Martin says that he doesn’t think the actual trial will come off till the second week in January. I did so hope it would have been off our minds before Xmas, but it can’t be helped. Anything to do with law always seems as slow as possible. The only notice those beasts at the Home Office take is to say it was ‘very silly of George to get mixed up in the affair’! I suppose if he had not gone when he was called for and there had been murder committed, they would have said ‘why didn’t he go?’ I wonder what they would have said if he had really got mixed up in the fight and very likely been killed. They would have had his funeral expenses to pay at any rate, nasty beasts. It is rather horrid coming back here because we can’t settle down with any comfort. I suppose we shan’t move till after the trial, so I suppose it will mean another month.

We shall think of you all on Christmas Day eating lovely beef and shall drink all your healths. I wonder if you will go up to Hurst. I do hope you’ve got a servant,.

We both send lots of love to you all

Your very loving daughter, Mab xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I have put in a ten cent piece each for the chicks to hang on their bangles, but I couldn’t get the holes bored and the rings put in here. They can have them in their little cards to open and then they can be done afterwards. I hope the packet will come all right and that the PO people send out the coins. George thought I had better put the Justican’s cards in with your as as they would get bent by themselves so if they come in time perhaps Amy will be able to put them with her things for them. I am wondering where they will go for Xmas.

Tell Jack I am afraid the little views will look very stupid in the frames. I wish George had made a narrower one afterwards. We have got some beading stuff but is is rather a dirty white, and the brown is so much prettier.

Of course we have left a lot of our cards to the last and have got to scramble. We have not had much time since we got back. Mab.

*Pidurutalagala is the tallest mountain in Sri Lanka.

My Dearest Mother

Negombo Rest House
May 14th 1900

My dearest Mother

I expect you will wonder where on earth we are and what we were doing. I told you in my last letter that we were most probably going down to Colombo for the weekend to get money, but on Wednesday George had a letter to say they were sending someone over to us with it instead. Mr Marshall, the accountant, came – a very nice man indeed and easy to get on with. George went down in the launch to Negombo on Friday to meet him, that is halfway between us and Colombo. He came the first part by coach. Then yesterday (Sunday) we brought him back here in the launch and he went on to Colombo in a regular steamboat which goes backwards and forwards. We are staying here till tomorrow. We shall start away about 12 and get home between 5 and 6. We had to get up at 5.30 yesterday morning. Neither Mr Marshall nor I appreciated it. the water is rather low now so we did not get along as fast as usual and got stuck once or twice. It was very hot too so we were fairly tired out by the time we got here. I did not envy Mr Marshall having four more hours of it.

This is not a bad little place and has water nearly all round it, as the lake and the sea join here. The rest house is on the edge of the lake. I wish it were on the sea as it would be cooler. It was frightfully hot last night. Our room had only one window and as we could not very well have the door open, there was no draught through. George was so hot and sleepless that he got up and had a whiskey and soda which made him feel much better. I was too tired to notice it much and slept very well.

A rest house is a sort of inn which is under government. The man in charge is appointed and has certain regulations as to price etc. This is a fairly good one. The sanitary arrangements are rather unwholesome but they might be worse.

This afternoon we are going out in a catamaran. I must tell you my experience tomorrow. A catamaran is a boat cut out of a single cocoa nut trunk and is about a foot wide and then it has to have a huge out rigger made out of another log of wood to keep up the balance. You sit on a tiny narrow seat with your feet screwed into the trunk. The men paddle them along and they go at a tremendous pace. I can imagine your horror at the sight of one but they are very safe and, besides, the lake is quite shallow. I am very glad for George to have the days rest in between going and coming as Jeremiah is still ill so he has to drive the engine himself and it makes him dreadfully hot and tired.

Tuesday, 9.00 am.

We got home from our sail safely last night although we got drenched as it came on to pour when we were halfway home. It was very jolly though and a very novel experience. I was wrong about where you sit. I did not have to screw my legs inside the boat but we sat on a board put across the out rigger. We had a cushion on the board and rested our feet on the side of the boat. They put up a huge sail when we got into the wind and we simply spun along. It was lovely but I don’t think a nervous person would enjoy it much as you felt you were suspended on one frail board over the raging ocean.

We did get wet coming back. I was worse off than George as my sunshade dripped so much it was like a little torrent on my back. On my hips where the rain beat, I was wet to the skin. I had got another pair of combies, of course, but I unfortunately had not brought another skirt or petticoat as I only thought we were going to stay one night. I could not get my things dried as they don’t have any proper fires, only smoky wood things and my clothes would have got pitch black. I thought I should have to return to bed and have my diner there but George suddenly had a brilliant idea. I pinned my waterproof cape round me as a petticoat and wore my skirt above it and no wet could come through. I went to bed directly after dinner though as it was not exactly comfortable and George dosed me with hot whiskey and water in case I might have caught cold, but I am quite all right this morning.

The men were awfully funny on the boat. We could not understand a word they said as they spoke Tamil. One of them took off his skirt and put it round us to keep off the rain and then kept on jabbering away to me and laughing but as ‘lady’ was the only word I could understand I could only smile back at them.

We shall start off this morning about 12 o’clock. I hope it won’t be very hot, but the rain last night has cooled the air a little.

Tell Amy not to get excited if the moonstones drop out of her ring. They are so roughly made but what can you expect for 1 rupee, and besides moonstones always come out, George says, because they are so smooth and hard. I hope Tommie’s bruises soon got better after falling off the little bathroom steps. However much does she weigh? I always thought those steps were fairly solid.

I am afraid I have got used to seeing George walk about with his trousers inside his socks. He does it partly to prevent animals crawling up his legs and also because the sand gets so into the hems of his trousers. His moustache is quite a decent size now and he is secretly proud of it. I must say I don’t like it very much but then I never do like moustaches. But it was best to let him try as he wanted to and he will get sick of it himself presently and will shave it off again.

I am not writing to anybody this week but you as I have not had any time. The coach passed here yesterday with our mail in it; it was so tantalising not to be able to have it. I hope you will be able to read this, but I have been writing on the verandah in a long chair so it is rather difficult.

Lots of love and kisses to everybody

Your very loving daughter, Mab

Hope you got nice and fat while you were at Fairbank.