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28 Oct 60 Peter Hong Kong Mother 10. Hyde Park Terrace ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hong Kong. 28 Oct. 1860

My dear Mother

Mail day on a Sunday. It is really too bad is it not? But these are the unfortunate circumstances which in places like Hong Kong we are always subjected to.

Dr Menzies goes home by this mail & has taken a couple of parcels from me for you. He has promised to call upon you which no doubt he will do & you will find him a very nice fellow.

One of them contains an old pair of boots which I send home as a pattern & which I shall feel obliged by your sending to some first rate shoe maker with the enclosed instructions. I do not care one straw how expensive the shoemaker is, so long as his work is good. All I want is a first class article & I shall be quite prepared to pay a first class price. It is far cheaper to do so than to have inferior things & in fact I can’t afford to be dependent on rubbish at such a distance. Please put them in hand at once & you can send them out together with a lot of little things of which I will give you a memo by next mail.

In the same parcel is a photograph of this place (J.M. & Co.) which I thought you might like as a memento of ‘this child’. The large house on the Hill is Mr Percival’s (before, Mr Jardine’s). The house at the back of it is Mr Macandrew’s, another partner, & that above all is an old ruined bungalow which is going to be rebuilt.

I am speaking solely from memory. The large house down by the water is where we all live & although in the picture it looks small, being in bad perspective, when I tell you that it is really about 3 times the size of Mr Percival’s, you will have some conception of its enormous size.

In front of it stands ‘Jardine’s Folly’, some new godowns (or warehouses) in course of erection & over the top of which a large mat shed is erected. These godowns were placed right in front of us for no earthly reason & have completely spoiled the place, for which reason as a just judgement they are always tumbling in or getting in some trouble. So much so that Mr Percival has actually had it in consideration as to whether it wouldn’t be better to pull them all down. You will also see the creek with all the boats, the celebrated boat population of China. Things about the size of a baby’s cradle in which 3 or 4 people live. Many thousands of people live in this creek.

In the other parcel are a few little things which I have picked up from time to time. There is a pair of false small feet for Helen, as worn actually by Chinese ladies. Not the small feet, but the false small feet & it will easily suggest itself to you how to put them on. Many women who by their transcendent beauty or charms have reached a higher grade or Station in life than was anticipated when young are compelled in after life to resort to these to keep up their dignity & they are often temporarily adopted on grand occasions.

You must tie them on very tight & the wearer, unless accustomed to them, requires some support. Try Willie in them!

In order that Frankie may not be dissatisfied I have sent him some leaf pictures for his Scrap book & for Alfred in a separate parcel is a grand sword made of Chinese money which he must wear on State occasions with his uniform when he joins the volunteers. I am afraid the internal structure is rather fragile & it would perhaps be as well to have it put more strongly together.

I must write my Father about Peking so adieu & a merry Christmas & happy New Year to all.

I hope you have got the Tea. It went the last mail, but is often delayed on the passage.

Your affect. Son

Peter G Laurie