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5 Oct 61 Peter Shanghai Mother 10, Hyde Park Terrace ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Shanghai. 5 Oct.1861
My dear Mother
We had only one mail this month & this is it which will account for my long silence. I find I never enclosed the letters discovered in my desk written last June, so now do.
I have been trying to get a portrait of my self taken for you but it is almost impossible to get a bit of sunshine in the intervals between the incessant rain which has been going on for the last month. I will however try & get you one as you wish, as soon as I can manage it.
I hope John will ride through his Examination as it would be very annoying to find out after all his hard work that he was sold. This I hope however there is no chance of.
I do not know what has become of Arthur as I have never heard of or from him but once. I believe he was in a native regiment, then exchanged into a European & now apparently from what my Father says, has changed into something else. I think the best thing that can be done with him is to change him once more & send him out to me & I will see if I can’t make something better of him than soldiering; for after all, it is poor work.
I am beginning to think that a merchant is the correct thing after all. Julius I never hear of, but I have no doubt he is thriving as he likes his profession, I believe, thoroughly.
What are you going to do with the two little ones. Give me one of them. I think Frank will be best suited but it will be a long time to wait. Mind, at 16, he commences under my instructions. How old is he now?
I shall be glad to receive the picture of Sir Peter which you promise me & should like a good picture of him as he is at present & seated as you describe in his armchair, for my baronial hall when I get it. A man always looks his best when he has arrived at a good venerable old age like Sir Peter & I need scarcely say that I respect him much, not merely as one who has done so much for his family, but as one who I sincerely believe had it in him to have been as great a man beyond the sphere in which he moved as he was within it. Do not forget this wish of mine & remember that every day makes the prospect of obtaining it less probable. I would not give a fig for those pictures which we have representing him as a handsome young man disguised in aldermanic robes.
They say the rebels are drawing near this place again so that I suppose we shall all have to move out again like last year – all business suspended & peaceable traders turned into warriors & doing trench duty through long, weary nights. Verily the Shanghai Volunteers have a more unpleasant berth of it than their brethren at home.
I think I told you that I had sent home some Crepe dresses in the ‘Polonaise’ in charge of the Captain. Phillips, Shaw & Lowther, Royal Exchange Buildings are the agents. I have also ordered half a chest of Tea to be sent to you by first ship from Foochow. I cannot understand how it is you have never said anything about the 3 boxes I sent in the ‘Chevy Chase’ which arrived months ago & which I presume you have never had.
You had better get my Father to look up Robertson & Co.
Usual kiss to little Helen from your affectnt. Son
Peter G. Laurie