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1 Sep 61 Peter Shanghai Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Shanghai. 1 Sept. 1861

My dear Mother

I did not get a letter of any kind last mail so I hope the next may make up for it.

I know I am getting a very bad correspondent myself. Not naturally so, but simply from force of circumstances & you know the reason but do not for one moment let that weigh with you because recollect that you are not similarly situated to myself inasmuch as you have not got some twenty long letters to write every mail, inasmuch as you have always something of interest to me, while I have nothing whatever to tell you.

I found two letters in my desk the other day which never appear to have gone. They are dated June & I enclose them in case there may be anything interesting in them.

You talk a great deal about wanting tea. I see the Str. Chevy Chase has long since arrived in which there are 3 Boxes marked JI FI X HCA, being the duplicates of those sent home last Christmas but which arrived too late. I am not sure that I did not obliterate these marks & substitute others, but I told you of it & forwarded receipt to you at the time.

I hope you have not overlooked this & let the Tea go begging.

I have written to Foochow for a whole chest this time & you must tell me how long this lasts so that I may know how often to send it to you. I do not know however whether you are aware that Tea is very expensive out here – much more than it is at home – for the simple reason that it is unadulterated & unmixed with any inferior leaf.

I am in the green tea country now. Do you want any of that. I think it is a mistake although you must not believe the stories about it being coloured to suit our fancy. Fine black tea with a little pure cream in it is the thing – no sugar or other barbarian abominations to spoil it.

The Chinese themselves, as you are doubtless aware, drink it without sugar or milk but they drink a scented Tea which is very nasty.

I have sent you, in charge of the Capt of the ‘Polonaise’, a small parcel containing 3 silk gauze dresses as I believe you liked the last. I intend these to arrive about Christmas as presents. One is 21 yards, one 18 yards & one 15 I think. I need scarcely say that they are intended for yourself, Mary & the last for little Helen. More than enough for one dress, I should think.

I believe Phillips, Shaw & Lowther are the London Agents who will know when the vessel arrives.

It is beginning to get a little cooler here now, but I have suffered dreadfully from the heat. I think I suffer more every year & upon my word I almost made up my mind this time that I must throw up China, for you can have no conception of the torture I endure from a rash which in its mild form is called ‘prickly heat’ but which breaks out all over me, making me all over one mass of red, like a boiled lobster & attended with the most frightfully irritating pains.

It is horrid suspense to have to look forward to the recurrence of this every year, especially when it is attended with complete prostration from heat & other concomitants of climate. However I suppose the cool weather will cool me down and put me through

[remainder missing]

This, and other letters from Peter about this period, were written on watermarked paper torn to size, perhaps using the straight edge of a ruler. The watermark is ‘J Whatman 1860’.

James Whatman started a paper making business in Maidstone, Kent, in 1733 and is credited with the invention of ‘wove’ paper, which has a finer texture than ‘laid’ paper and gives the appearance of woven linen.

James Whatman became ill and sold the business in 1794. In 1805, his protégé, William Balston left to start his own paper making concern using steam driven machinery at Springfield Mill, Maidstone. By 1861 it was known as W & R Balston (and had acquired the rights to the J Whatman trademark).

During WW1 the company responded to a demand for filter papers for military use and steel making. Today they trade as Whatman plc, specialising in separation technologies used in laboratory and healthcare markets