______________________________________________________________________________________________

21 Oct 58 Peter Hong Kong Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hong Kong, 21 Oct ‘58

My dear Mother

I am at present moment preparing, in order to astonish you all at Christmas – or as near to it at any rate as possible – a case containing all sorts of little knick-knacks (how do you spell it) peculiar in their origin to China & the Chinese & which I hope therefore after having come so far & from one who tho’ bodily in China, lives spiritually in his home & amongst you all, will have an interest equalling if not surpassing that which is generally allowed to every thing connected with this funny place.

I before told you what difficulty there was in getting any thing worth sending, but by perseverance I have effected it & I was very lucky in getting as I did the two silk gauze dresses from Shanghai which I send, the one for yourself & the other for Mary. One of our Captains kindly offered to let me have a couple out of eight he had bought, so I took my pick & I think I chose the handsomest. There is nothing of the sort down here. You must wear them & think of me & of all your absent sons & how we may yet some day all meet again, all together, as we have as yet done but once.

Well then, talking of absent sons, most of whom are in India, I have got a relic left of Calcutta in the shape of two genuine native rings, the one with pearls, the other with turquoises; the former for yourself, the latter for Mary.

I was very fond of these two rings & always took great care of them, but some how I managed to lose them. You must get Taylor or his successor (a subject by the bye whh. you have never mentioned) to brighten them up & I think you will think them rather pretty. I had them tried by the first jeweller in Calcutta who pronounced them to be native made & thoroughly genuine. This jeweller had a golden throne in his shop just completed for some Nawab.

‘Nabob’ perhaps you may not be aware (tho’ I do not wish to impeach you of ignorance) is merely a corruption of the word ‘Nawab’).

I also send a tortoise shell chain & faith, hope & charity in tortoise shell set in gold, which is a relic of Ceylon. The charms are very pretty but it is a matter of taste as to whether the chain is – as a general rule it is considered very handsome. All the links undo, which is very interesting but then some of the extremities are apt to undo when you don’t want them to, which is awkward.

If you know any one to present this to, pray do so for I don’t. Or if you take a fancy to the charms, keep them yourself & give away the chain. I think the charms would look very well on a watch chain with others, only unfortunately I have lost all the little gold chains but one which were attached to them. I send you likewise a pair of Chinese hand screens with picturesque groups of Celestials portrayed thereon. The faces of all which beings you will observe are made of small pieces of ivory, which is a very favourite custom with the Chinese. These fans are very good ones & if I recollect rightly are worked with silk or have some connection therewith, but at the present moment they are all packed up, so I can’t ‘go look see’ as we say in the Canton dialect.

For Mary I send a fan, something in the same style as your screens. The wood is sandalwood & sheds forth a most delightful perfume. Of course I don’t know whether Mary wants a fan or you want screens, but I am obliged to guess on spec. However if it should be vice versa, of course you can annul my decision & arrange this & all other such little matters between yourselves.

For my Father, I send a piece of prime silk which I believe numbers 10 pocket handkerchiefs. It was purchased at Macao but I believe is the real Canton thing. I also send a set of carved ivory studs – very unique – after an order of my own. Nothing of the sort in studs having been ever seen before. I have a set of them myself & I also send Sir Peter, Messrs. G & J Laurie, Morley’s Hotel each one set.

I had great difficulty in getting them & two sets were spoilt before I got the right thing. However I never paid for the two sets, nor have I ever done so for the successful ones inasmuch as the Chinaman was away when all other Chinamen did & has never turned up since. I hope he never will!

There are two lovely grasscloth* Handkerchiefs (I think I called them Ponjee* on the packet), with gaudy silk embroidery to be preserved for Helen until she shall have reached more mature years & I send her a real pair of Chinese lady’s shoes, for real little tiny feet which are so much admired. I wanted very much to get a pair with bells inside as they have them up in the north, but they don’t seem to understand that here.

I think when you have seen these shoes you will own that if the little feet are not to be admired, at any rate the little shoes are. There are two small ivory figures of which Helen must take her choice & the other one will fall to the lot of John No. 5 for whom, if I can, I also intend getting a Chinese tumbler – i.e.: a fierce looking celestial who tumbles & rolls about & so creates a diversion which John No. 5 might appreciate.

There is also a pair of ladies shoes for Frankie – very little – but yet not the little shoes, inasmuch as they are indeed those of a full grown lady’s foot. You will be able to see by these how small the Chinese ladies’ feet naturally are & will perhaps be then more astonished that having such really pretty little feet they should ever be so silly as to distort them in the way they do.

To Alfred I send the real genuine chopsticks such as are in use. Those gaudy affairs are all nonsense & only got up to take in Europeans. Alfred’s are the correct thing & the pair I send to Frankie are those in use among the lower orders. I send each of them a pack of Chinese cards, those with red marks stamped upon them being the most desirable – in fact the picture cards. They are very small but then they make up for that by sometimes playing with 50 in a hand, but this number is not necessary I believe.

I send some for young Northall.* I can’t recollect his name. Also for Horace & some Rice pictures for my Aunt to amuse the young Barhamites* with.

There is also a packet of rice pictures for Alfred. In many of these pictures they have given them long noses. The Chinese have scarcely any noses at all (which may probably account for many of the sweet odours attendant upon everything Chinese) but the tartars have very long ones. The pigtail is a Tartar invention, so that what with long noses & long tails it ought not after all be so difficult a matter to ‘catch a Tartar’.*

For my Aunt at Barham I send a pair of Chinese vases with small wooden stands, which she must keep in remembrance of me & which you must present with all due form & kind speeches for I have not time for any speeches myself.

For Margaret there is a pair of carved bamboo vases, said to be I don’t know how many hundred years old & evidently from the strange figures portrayed, of great antiquity. Every thing in China is very old & if it isn’t, doesn’t go down at all. I have some very strange figures in my room which are said to have been manufactured or perhaps rather dropped out of the clouds at a period previous to the creation of the world, during the reign of the Emperor (something or other).

For my Aunt at Eastern Counties Terrace, as it is popularly called, I send a little bowl & stand which I think rather pretty & only hope it will not get broken. There really are a great many pretty things here but from constantly seeing them one becomes so accustomed as to think nothing of them.

And now I think I have enumerated all my treasures, all which I hope you will receive in safety & very shortly after receipt of this letter. There will be the duty to pay on them, it is true, but my Father must not mind that this time, for it will be the last. I have sent you all some little thing now. After this I shall no more send home these promiscuous packages. I cannot afford it, nor can I afford the time but I could not let this first Christmas pass without sending you all something.

I hope you will all like your several presents. You, your silk dress; my Father his studs & pkt. handkerchiefs; your fans, your screens, your Chinese shoes & cards & chopsticks & everything in fact. I am sure at any rate you will value them as having come from me in China.

And now let me add one small present to the lot & one which at any rate will not cost me anything, except indeed pleasure. I mean that of my usual kiss to little Helen & a merry Christmas & a happy New Year to you all

from your affect Son

Peter G. Laurie

* Grasscloth – Natural material now mostly seen as wall covering

* Ponjee – Pongee: a thin, soft silk from China, naturally coloured beige or tan

* Northall – He is probably thinking of Reginald Peter N-L who was six years old at the time. Interestingly, there was no gift for the eldest N-L sibling, Beatrice (later to be Mrs Julius Dyson-Laurie) who was then 12 years old

* Barhamites – Peter’s Uncle and Aunt, Edmund and Mary Lloyd, lived at Barham, Kent (about half way between Canterbury and Dover)

* catch a Tartar – Colloquially, to lay hold of, or encounter, a person who proves too strong for the assailant. To bite off more than you can chew