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21 May 60 Julius Fyzabad Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________
21 May 60 Fyzabad –
My dear Mother
Your last letter, written on Good Friday, reached me last evening. I thought they had been coming rather few & far between lately. I see you are fully occupied with No. 10. You say by the end of the month you hope to be in your new house. I hope it will please you. The garden, I daresay, will make up to you, to some extent, for the loss of the country.
I hope John will be able shortly to occupy the spare bed room which you have so thoughtfully arranged to have. He left England first & having had so much bad health, I should be very glad to hear he was able to get leave. By my last accounts, he was suffering from bad eyes – a very unpleasant disease (if such it is?) particularly in this country where there is so much dust.
I was very sorry to see in the last English Telegram that the Union Bank had suffered an immense loss. It would be, of course, no use my endeavouring to draw conclusions from a very short telegraphic message. Let me at any rate hope that the affair may not seriously injure any one in our family, all of whom I believe have great interest in that Bank. I do indeed hope that my Father will not suffer very much from the loss. You see I am speaking in the dark. The sum mentioned was very large, but how it can affect the individual shareholders, I have no idea. It appears to me that it must cause considerable loss to those like Sir Peter & my Father who have such a large interest at stake. I suppose the circumstance will also shake the credit of the Establishment a good deal. I believe the correct way is to look a danger straight in the face, expect the worst & hope for the best. Again, the fact forces itself upon me, that I am totally ignorant of the consequences of this piece of roguery, which I saw mentioned in the Telegram.
Still, supposing the worst may have happened, let me mention that we in India can & what is more will (if necessary,) get on very well by ourselves without being burdens on any one. There are plenty of openings in this country for resolute men & if required, I have no doubt some branches of the Laurie family can force their way to them as well as other people. There are some who only require an inducement to take a thing in hand to ensure their doing it.
I have always considered my stay in this country as merely a temporary affair & I have never taken any steps to force myself on here. My wish has been to serve in other parts of the world as well as India, but this is the place for a man who is determined to take trouble & work hard to mount the ladder. I try to make myself believe that the circumstance will prove of less importance than I fear. Until I hear about it I am throwing away my time in writing & yours in reading about the matter at all.
Cochrane, just returned from Genl. Inglis’ Staff at Madras, is staying with me at present. All officers have been turned out of the married people’s quarters, so those who have not quarters of their own, or of their friends, have no other lodging but the ‘cold, cold ground’. I take the Dogs out Wednesdays & Saturdays & nearly always get a good run. People said Fox Hounds would not live in the plains in the Hot weather & here am I hunting them. We start before day light & get home about ¼ to 7, which gives us about two hours.
The Colnl told me he would prefer my remaining with the Regt. to my going to Hodson’s Horse, so not wishing to make an enemy of my Commanding Officer, I agreed to do so.
I am going in shortly to be made a ‘Mason’. * I surprised the head man the other day by telling him I was not 21: that being the minimum age at which you are allowed to enter without a dispensation. No one ever believes me when I say I am not of age – it is taken as chaff!! I believe my Father was perfectly right in sending his sons early into the world. What they lost in learning, they counterbalance by something generally much more useful, viz. Experience.
Did you ever hear anything of Richardson, the V.C. man. I should have liked to do something for him. I am afraid he is not to be trusted with money or drink, but he is a plucky fellow & did a gallant action.
The dust is blowing very thickly. I am sitting behind a ‘Tattee’, made of a sort of grass ‘Kus Kus’ on which a coolie constantly throws water. The hot wind comes rushing to it & passes through quite cool. The stronger & hotter the wind, the cooler becomes the room.
Arthur & Peter I have not heard from for some time. The latter will see all the Chinese Expeditions. I should like to be with it well enough, but at any rate until I get my Company I must stay where I am.
I hope you are all well. The holidays will be just giving you a house full. With best love to all of you, including Helen – though last, not least.
Believe me
Yr affect Son
JDLaurie
* Mason – He was duly received into Free-Masonry on 23 June 1860 and admitted to the third degree on 5 October 1860 in the Light in Adjoodhia Lodge No. 1138, Bengal