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10 Feb 61 Julius Fyzabad Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Fyzabad

Feb 10 – 1861

My dear Mother

I have been very busy for the last week with my ‘District Inspector of Musketry’ who has been making a stay with me & seeing the way we do things in the 34^th Regt. He left us yesterday & of course his report is flattering. The Colonel sent me his copy which I have just been looking at.

I am glad to see by your letters that there is some expectation of my obtaining a Company sooner or later, and here we are in happy ignorance & depend entirely on news on this subject on what comes out every Mail in private letters from England. So the more my Father or John can pick up from Powell the better. Our great doubt is whether the money of Dunbar, the present Company ‘locum tenens’ is forthcoming or not. If it is not, then I am (after Holroyd who will take his (Dunbar’s) place) the first for Stuart’s [sic] vacancy. I understand Stuart is likely to wish to go as soon as possible. John might easily arrange for me when once the Coast becomes clear. I am afraid I must bore you all continually, harping on the same subject, but I know that in a business of this sort, there is nothing like pushing it in England.

I am glad to hear my Father at any rate does not get any worse. I hope therefore that his state of health is slowly but steadily improving and that he may see many happy new years yet with us all.

I am living alone again in my house. Cochrane has left us for a Staff Appointment, the C in C having promised him an Adjutantship of Irregular Cavalry. He is a very good fellow & a great loss to us, though he still remains in the Regt. he will always be away from it.

We have been having nothing but inspections lately. Three times have we now undergone the ordeal with different Generals & people. My stable is not in a flourishing condition just now. My horse is as lame, according to a vulgar but very excursive expression, as a tree. My new purchase, the Mare, is out of condition from over-work. Unaccustomed to being ridden, she got off her feed & will want a little rest to bring her round again. So much for ‘Pig Sticking’ – that being of course, the cause.

I am sorry to say the cold weather is rapidly going. One feels it getting warmer & warmer almost daily. This year I have been able to get no shooting at all so I am afraid I shall not be able to ‘hit a haystack’ when I begin again.

The Civilians of Fyzabad give a dance on Thursday which of course we are all looking forward to. Such entertainments are few & far between in this country. It would rather strike a person lately arrived from England as odd to see the very uneven (spare the pun?) proportion of ladies to gentlemen. The first mentioned poor creatures are danced off their legs while a man considers himself very lucky to get partners for half the dances during the evening. One great advantage here is that the rooms are large & the couples few in number, so you do not meet many obstructions in your careers, but have a clear course. In consequence of which you get tolerably done up by morning.

My garden, although but a small one, is the most productive, I think, of flowers of any in the Station. I pride myself principally on my grass plot in front of the house. It has to be inundated morning & evening from the well. By this means it is kept tolerably like grass & rather more green than hay is as a rule.

Thank John for his letter to me which I received shortly after I had written to him upbraiding him for not writing often. I hope all is going on well at home and that my Father’s health is gradually mending.

With best love to Helen & All

I am yr affect Son

JDLaurie