White Mughals (86 page)

Read White Mughals Online

Authors: William Dalrymple

BOOK: White Mughals
10.61Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
2
David Burton,
The Raj at Table: A Culinary History of the British in India
(London, 1993), p.208.
3
Shushtari, op. cit., p.427.
4
Quoted in John Keay,
India Discovered
(London, 1981), p.22.
5
Hickey, op. cit., Vol. 2, p.187.
6
Shushtari, op. cit., p.434.
7
Ibid., p.137.
8
Ibid., p.301.
9
OIOC, Fowke Papers, Mss E6.66, Vol. XXVII, J. Fowke to M. Fowke, Calcutta, 12 December 1783.
10
Shushtari, op. cit., p.432.
11
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.128, 9 April 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell; and p.176, 30 August 1806, Henry Russell in Calcutta to Charles Russell in Hyderabad.
12
Ibid., pp.190-2, 7 November 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
13
Ibid., p.138, 9 May; p.152, 11 July; and p.128, 25 June: all three letters from Henry Russell in Calcutta to Charles Russell in Hyderabad.
14
Ibid., p.140, 2 June 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell; and p.158, Calcutta, 23 July, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
15
Ibid., p.164, 16 August, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
16
Ibid., p.190, 7 November, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
17
Ibid., p.162, 3 August 1806.
18
Khan,
Tarikh i-Khurshid Jahi
, op. cit., pp.713-14.
19
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts D151, p.96, Poona, 31 May 1810, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
20
Quoted in Anon.,
Some Notes on the Hyderabad Residency
, op. cit., p.4.
21
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts D151, p.120, c.June 1810, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
22
Ibid., p.11, 1 March 1806; and p.126, 24 March: both Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
23
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts.
24
Ibid., C155, p.155, 18 July 1806.
25
Ibid., p.132, 14 May.
26
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts D151, p.76, Poona,19 May 1810, and p.96, Poona, 31 May 1810. For his vow not to employ anyone disloyal to James, see Ms Eng Letts C155, p.132, 14 May.
27
Bodleian Library, John Palmer Papers, Ms Eng Lit C76, pp.82-3, 8 September 1813, John Palmer to William Palmer.
28
Hastings Papers, BL Add Mss 29,180, Vol. XLIX, October 1804-December 1805, f.328, William Palmer to Hastings, Berhampore, 12 October 1805.
29
Bodleian Library, John Palmer Papers, Ms Eng Lit C76, p.115, 25 July 1810, John Palmer to William Palmer.
30
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.138, 29 May 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
31
Ibid., p.142, 5 June 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
32
Ibid.
33
Ibid., p.145, 13 June 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
34
Ibid., p.198, 29 November, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
35
Ibid., p.140, 2 June 1806, Calcutta, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
36
Ibid., p.150, 4 July 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
37
Ibid., p.158, Calcutta, 23 July; and p.150, 4 July: both Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
38
Ibid., p.155, Calcutta, 18 July, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
39
Ibid.
40
Ibid., pp.190-2, 7 November 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
41
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C172, p.5, 25 November 1806, Thomas Sydenham to Henry Russell.
42
Ibid., p.7, 26 December 1806, Henry Russell to Thomas Sydenham.
43
Ibid.
44
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C168, p.1, 24 December 1806, N.B. Edmonstone to Henry Russell.
45
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C172, p.7, 26 December 1806, Henry Russell to Thomas Sydenham.
46
Ibid., p.1, 14 January 1807, Thomas Sydenham to Henry Russell.
47
Ibid., p.11, 20 February 1806, Hemming to Henry Russell.
48
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, pp.205-6, 22 March 1806, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
49
Ibid., p.207, 14 April 1807, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
50
Ibid.
51
Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, GD135/2086, The Will of Lieut Col James Dalrymple, Hussein Sagar, 8 December 1800.
52
Jacon Hafner, from his
Reizen van Jacob Haafner eerste Deel
, pp.112, 135, quoted in Sinnappah Arasaratnam and Aniruddha Ray,
Masulipatam and Cambay: A History of Two Port Towns 1500-1800
(New Delhi, 1994), p.116.
53
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.213, 27 April 1807, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
54
Ibid., p.216, 14 January 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
55
Ibid.
56
Ibid.
57
For Madras see Dodwell, op. cit., pp.187, 217, 220. Also Jan Morris,
Stones of Empire: The Buildings of the Raj
(Oxford, 1983), pp.214-15, Davies,
Splendours of the Raj
, op. cit., p.30.
58
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C156, p.4, 7 April 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
59
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, pp.226-30, 4 March 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
60
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C156, p.21, 21 April 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
61
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.31, 7 March 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
62
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C156, p.51, 14 May 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
63
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.236, 9 March 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
64
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C156, p.29, 29 April 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
65
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C155, p.236, 9 March 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
66
Ibid., p.244, 10 March 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
67
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C156, p.4, 7 April 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
68
Ibid., p.18, 19 April 1808.
69
Ibid., p.30, 1 May 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell
70
Ibid., p.41, 7 May 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
71
Ibid., p.51, 14 May 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
72
Ibid., p.88, June 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
73
Ibid., p.89, 11 June 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
74
Ibid., p.91, 11 June 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
75
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C152, undated letter (c.1809), Sir Henry Russell to Charles Russell; also letter from Sir Henry to Henry Russell, 13 November 1818, reprinted in
Indian Archives
, Vol. VIII, July-December 1954, pp.135-6. See also Peter Wood, ‘Vassal State in the Shadow of Empire: Palmer’s Hyderabad, 1799-1867’ (unpublished Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981), pp.106-7.
76
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C156, p.98, 20 October, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
77
Ibid., p.102.
78
Ibid., p.107, 29 December 1808, Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
79
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts D152, p.8, 9 October 1810.
80
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C156, p.279, n.d., Henry Russell to Charles Russell.
81
Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C172, p.67, 7 June 1813, Lady Hood to Henry Russell.
82
Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, GD46/15/3/1-30, Henry Russell to Lady Hood, Hyderabad, 23 September 1813.
83
Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, GD46/8/1, Henry Russell to Lady Hood, Hyderabad, 5 November 1813.
84
See Lady [Constance] Russell,
The Rose Goddess and Other Sketches of Mystery & Romance
(London, 1910), pp.1-18.
85
Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, GD46/8/1, Henry Russell to Lady Hood, Hyderabad, 5 November 1813.
CHAPTER 10
1
Quoted in Archer and Falk,
India Revealed
, op. cit., p.54.
2
Captain George Elers,
Memoirs of George Elers, Captain of the 12th Regiment of Foot
(London, 1903), pp.179-88.
3
I would like to thank Michael Fisher for this information.
4
For the children pining for India see Lady Russell,
The Rose Goddess
… , op. cit., pp.1-18. For Kitty apparently referring to a ban on correspondence with her mother, see letter in the private archive of her descendants, in which in 1841 she tells Sharaf un-Nissa: ‘I longed to write to you & tell you these feelings that I was never able to—[express?], a letter w[hich] I was sure wd be detained.’
5
Edward Strachey, ‘The Romantic Marriage of James Achilles Kirkpatrick’, op. cit., pp.27-8.
6
Certainly it was always William, not the Handsome Colonel, who wrote occasional progress reports on the children to Henry Russell. His letters clearly describe the children from observation rather than report, so it can safely be assumed that they spent a fair amount of time together.
7
As he described Kennaway in his will. I have been unable to trace the whereabouts of the original of this document, and have worked from a copy made by William’s descendant Kenneth Kirkpatrick which he sent to Bilkiz Alladin in Hyderabad. I am very grateful to Bilkiz for twice giving me access to this and to her voluminous collection of Kirkpatrick papers.
8
Brendan Carnduff, entry for William Kirkpatrick in
The New Dictionary of National Biography
(forthcoming). Brendan tells me that Kirkpatrick’s letters to Kennaway at this period seem to hint at serious opium abuse.
9
The East India Company Collection is now part of the Oriental and India Office Collections in the British Library. William’s description of Nepal was published as
An Account of the Mission to Nepaul in 1793
(London, 1811)
10
In
India Inscribed
, op. cit. (p.235), Kate Teltscher comments that in his preface ‘Kirkpatrick describes Tipu’s epistolary self-portrait in terms drawn largely from the vocabulary of despotism: the cruel enemy, intolerant fanatic, oppressive ruler, harsh master, the sanguinary and perfidious tyrant … the final sentence [of the preface] which leaves much inferred rather than stated, suggests that Kirkpatrick is attempting to answer those few writers who depict the sultan in reasonable guise and dismiss the tyrannical image as an exaggeration.’ There is a direct parallel to this selective publication of documentation with a view to showing Muslim rulers in the worst possible light in the selective translations from the Arab and Islamic press produced by various pro-Israeli lobbying organisations today.
11
Mark Wilks (1760?-1831), Military and Private Secretary to Lord Clive 1798-1803, Resident in Mysore 1803-08, when he left India. In retirement in England he wrote
Historical Sketches of the South of India in an Attempt to trace the History of Mysore
(London, 1810-14), and an analysis of the
Akhlak i-Nasiri
, a Persian metaphysical treatise.
12
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/21, pp.1, 7; 4 and 12 November 1809, Mark Wilks to William Kirkpatrick.
13
I am very grateful to Brendan Carnduff for his help with William Kirkpatrick, and for his clever and generous suggestions, especially relating to William’s possible opium addiction and his obsession with Tipu’s astrological systems.
14
For William’s overdose see Strachey Papers, OIOC F127/478a, ‘Sketch of the Kirkpatrick Family by Lady Richard Strachey’. His granddaughter Clementina Robinson (daughter of Clementina, Lady Louis) wrote: ‘I think he suffered from rheumatic gout but he died from drinking laudanum which his servant had put by his bedside believing it to be senna.’ William was buried in St Clement Danes church in the Strand. His death notice in the
Exeter Flying Post
reads: ‘Thursday Sept 3rd, 1812: Died, Near London, on the 22nd Ult, most suddenly, Major General Kirkpatrick, of the East India Company’s service, late resident in this city. He had long filled high and important public stations in India, and was alike distinguished for his literary attainments, political knowledge, and private virtues.’
15
There is an undated letter in the archive of his sisters’ descendants which refers to the amputation he was going to have to undergo, but does not specify which limb was concerned. The accident is mentioned in Sir Edward Strachey’s unpublished memoirs, quoted in Charles Richard Sanders,
The Strachey Family 1588-1932: Their Writings and Literary Associations
(New York, 1968), p.122.
16
From the private archive of their descendants. The Handsome Colonel to Katherine Kirkpatrick, Hollydale, 8 September 1812.
17
The Handsome Colonel died at Hollydale and was buried in St Clement Danes church in the Strand. There was a memorial plaque to him and William high on the north wall of the church, but it was lost when the church was burned down in the Blitz.

Other books

Tabloid Dreams by Robert Olen Butler
Versed in Desire by Anne Calhoun
The Constant Heart by Dilly Court
Fallen-Angels by Ashlynn Monroe
Kolchak The Night Strangler by Matheson, Richard, Rice, Jeff
The Turning by Erin R Flynn
Bells Above Greens by David Xavier