______________________________________________________________________________________________

8 Apr 60 Peter Hong Kong Mother 5. Hyde Park Place West ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hong Kong. 8 April ‘60

My dear Mother

You really must excuse my irregularity as I positively cannot write like I used to. I suppose it is because my spirit is broken & my energy gone. Today however I have made up my mind that I must do it, & so am beginning early – 7 a.m. – instead of taking my early walk.

Last mail brought me no letters & so I thought I would make it an excuse for not writing myself. It is very hard however that you will not send me the Illustrateds & Punch. I should then at least have something to look forward to with the arrival of each mail. I have asked so many times now & you cannot know how heartrending it is to see every body else with all their letters & their newspapers from home & poor I – with my solitary letters from yourself & my Father – for nobody else seems to care for poor isolated me.

I do what I can to keep myself up, but it is very difficult & my three dogs Dora & Charley & Typhoon, who are gambolling about me at the present moment apparently perfectly happy, little appear to know that I am in tears. But it is no good attempting to make others unhappy because I am so. Only I am sure if you could really appreciate my miserable isolated, solitary existence out here you would long since have made arrangements for to carry out my wish so often expressed.

I have not received a newspaper of any description for about 3 months. I am, as it were, perfectly alone & out of the world (except when I receive unfeeling & insulting letters from the Riley branch).

However the period of my stay in these quarters is fast drawing to a close. I say period of my stay, but I should perhaps say the period of my present agreement. Whether it will be of my stay or not, I cannot say.

I am going to write very seriously to my Father about it & I hope that you will talk the matter over with him & let me know distinctly what you think.

I received a rather strange communication a few days ago. It consisted of a letter from John dated February 1858 & was respecting my going to the Mauritius. It only shows how little one can depend upon post office regularity out here. There are others still missing & some from Arthur too. I seldom hear from my brothers now. I suppose the reason is that I was rather slack in replying to them, for it is a perfect toil to me to write letters now.

I have just taken to collecting butterflies & beetles, which is something to amuse my spare moments but I get so few spare moments that I fear I shall not be able to make much of a collection & in addition it exposes me to the sun which is very dangerous.

Will you please buy me an assortment of pins – not ordinary pins – but regular naturalist ones. Willie will show you & send them out to me as quick as you possibly can & I will manage to borrow in the meantime.

The best way will be to send them in a letter by post & you mustn’t mind the postage as & if they arrive too late I might just as well not get them at all. 3 months from this will be July which will just leave me half the summer. Please do not forget this.

I was put into a great state of excitement the other day by seeing in the paper that the 34th Regt. had embarked for here, but it turned out to be the 44th from Madras.

I never see the Adams or any body now. I have not in fact been to Hong Kong for 2 months. Last time I saw them I told them that, reversing the ordinary rules of nature, I was going to become torpid during the summer. The fact was I think I got a little tired of them. Miss Adams is a very pleasant & lively companion for a time but has nothing in her & moreover has an apparent peculiarity of looking two ways at once.

Mr A, I like very much, but he is so fearfully close that they must lead a very miserable existence. Whenever I dined with them it was always the same tough chicken bone. I never could quite make them out & I believe that they couldn’t make me out, for I have since heard that they told some one they thought me very eccentric.

Small pox has been very bad here & we have all been vaccinated. I was vaccinated yesterday. My dogs, my chief companions, are making such a noise that I can hardly write. Dora I think has been already introduced to you. She is a beautiful dog & a great favourite with every body. Having nothing else to set my affections upon, I am devotedly attached to her & like sky terriers in general, so is she to me.

Typhoon, a present from the Captain of the ‘Whirlwind’ is so called for two reasons. First because typhoon is the Chinese for whirlwind and secondly because, like a typhoon, he is of a fearfully destructive nature, sweeping all before him.

I have reared him from a pup & he is a capital fellow, but one of the most demonical looking creatures I think I have ever seen. He is only 5 months old & he walked 16 miles with me the other day. Charley (or Toby) is a little fawn colored spaniel but as yet quite a puppy. He was given to me by Mr Turner & I think will turn out a capital fellow, only it is such a nuisance rearing puppies. Puppies of any nature are disagreeable to have to do with.

I have had a grand field day at butterflies since I began this letter. Please do not forget the pins.

The other day I had a present of a mermaid* from Japan. A very curious affair & I will send it home to you as soon as I get a chance. None of your Barmecides* but a real genuine mermaid about 18in. long with human head & fish’s tail. It is dried like a mummy & there is no question as to its reality, any more than there was doubt as to the salamander feeling comfortable in the fire.

With love to all & kiss to Helen

Your affect. Son

Peter G. Laurie

Please don’t forget the pins, Illustrateds & Punch

* mermaid - The art of creating faux mermaids was perfected by fishermen and often involved stitching the heads and upper bodies of monkeys onto the bodies of fish

* Barmecides – Tricksters. The story of the Barber’s sixth brother (one of the stories in the Arabian Nights) tells how a Barmicide, a Persian nobleman, set a number of empty dishes in front of a beggar who had come to his house, pretending that they contained a banquet