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Many Memories
Of Life in India, at Home, and Abroad
"Die Bilder froher Tage, Und manche Hebe Schatten steigen auf."
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
University of Toronto
http://www.archive.org/details/manymemoriesofliOOrive
From a /'koto by
G. !!'. Lawrie & Co., Luckt
J. H. RIVETT-CARNAC,
BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE, COLONEL GHAZIPORE LIGHT HORSE, AND AIDE-DE-CAMP TO QUEEN VICTORIA.
Ma Memories
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Many Memories
Of Life in India, at Home, and Abroad
BY
J. H. RIVETT-CARNAC
ESQUIRE, C.I.E., V.D., F.S.A.
LATE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, COLONEL VOLUNTEERS, AND AIDE-DE-CAMP
TO H.M. QUEEN VICTORIA AND H.M. KING EDWARD VII.
KNIGHT GRAND COMMANDER OF FRANCIS JOSEPH AND OF THE POLAR STAR
FELLOW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BOMBAY, FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL
ACADEMY OF SPAIN, OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SWEDEN, AND OF
BELGIUM, THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES, THE
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF FRANCE, OF THE
BERLIN SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, ETC., ETC., ETC.
William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London
1910
AT.T. PTflHTS PFSFPIS F n
3
TO
mY HILDEGARDE,
THE MOST VALUED OF ALL MY MEMORIES.
PREFACE.
In launching this, my literary venture, I am unfortunately unable to protect it with the conventional declaration that these notes have been collated without the remotest in- tention of publication, and that it is solely owing to the insistence of friends that they now see the light.
As a fact, like many old men who, after an active life, have retired from affairs, I have been much interested in my later years in talking over the times of the gone-by. And when I have lacked an audience, I have been amused, conversing as if it were with myself, and jotting down now and again some of my reminiscences. These I have wished to see in print ; and with this desire I now send them forth, but not without a hope that they may amuse some of my old friends who still survive, to whom many of the incidents are well known, and that they may also help to entertain others to whom the stories are new.
I am fully conscious of the faults and shortcomings of this collection, and realise that it would be well to follow the advice of Horace and put the manuscript aside for a time, and then carefully to revise the text.
But I have now passed my seventy-first birthday, and having recently suffered from a long and dangerous illness, I have neither the health nor the patience to support the revision required. So these notes must go out even in
Vlll PREFACE
the careless, conversational way in which they have been chronicled.
No attempt has been made in this volume to enlarge on the social, economical, and political condition of India in my time. During the greater part of my service there I was closely associated with my near kinsman, the late Sir Richard Temple, and that very able and industrious man has left on record, in several published volumes, full in- formation on all these subjects. But whereas his valuable works are the records of the council - chamber and the study, my contribution relates, so to speak, more to the smoking-room and the camp-fire.
As this volume has assumed an autobiographical form, the first personal pronoun necessarily recurs. Under the circumstances, it is hoped that this offence may be con- doned.
J. H. RIVETT-CARNAC.
SCHLOSS ROTHBERG (CHATEAU DE ROUGEMONT),
Switzerland, December 1909.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 1838-1857.
Birth and parentage — Ryvet family of Suffolk — Foreign blood — Boileau de Castelnau — Grandfather, Mr Davis, R.E., defends the staircase at Benares — Visits of Mountstuart Elphinstone and Lord Hardinge — Life at Broadstairs — Charlie Dickens — Foreign water-cures — School at Bonn — Prince Frederick of Prussia, afterwards German Emperor — Prince of Anhalt — Mr Bulwer-Lytton — Our connection with Lord Palmerston — Promised appointment in Foreign Office — Lord Palmer- ston's advice — Have to take up Indian appointment — Haileybury — Last term — Fall of Delhi — The " Legislator " — Balls' Park and its guests — United Service Club and the Admiral's Corner— Raynham — Political friends — Eartham coterie — Lady Palmerston's Saturday evenings — Story of Lady Palmerston — End of Haileybury — Across Europe — Leighton at Giotto's Chapel — Tegernsee — Munich — Sir J. Milbanke — Baroness Tautphceus and ' The Initials ' — Vienna — Birth of the Crown Prince Rudolph — Lord A. Loftus — Austrian review — Trieste — Eastward ho !
CHAPTER II.
ARRIVAL IN INDIA, AND LIFE IN CALCUTTA. 1 857.
Calcutta — Arrival of the mail — First impressions — India trans- ferred to the Crown — Colonel Mundy on caste — Sir H. Thuillier on Indian servants — The Bengal Club — The Calcutta season — The so-called college — Munshis — The competition men — Cream of the universities — Some draw- backs — Twins — Changes in society — The old style — Hospitality — Stay with Sir James Outram — His consider- ateness — Illness — The Bheel^Lady Outram's two Wallahs
CONTENTS
— Sir Bartle and Lady Frere — Their delightful hospitality — Major Malleson — Colonel Nassau Lees — Am appointed Master of the Revels — The town band — Lord Clyde — Memorable dinner given by Right Hon. James Wilson to Lord Canning — Sir John Peter Grant — Am passed out of college in Calcutta ........ 28
CHAPTER III.
IN THE MOFUSSIL, MIDNAPORE, AND THE INCOME-TAX COMMISSION. I 86 1.
Appointed Assistant - Magistrate at Midnapore — Mr F. R. Cockerell — My work there — A dacoity case — Bears — Visit to Calcutta — Mrs Monty: Turnbull : her salon and its terrors — The Income- Tax Commission — Appointed Secretary to Commission — Press criticism — Shoe question and truculent Babus — They answer it for themselves — Appointed Under- Secretary in the Home Department — Red office-box — Political uniform — Trap for a gobe-mouche — My new work — Anxieties with first despatch — Lord Canning on my hand- writing— Appointed Joint- Magistrate at Burdwan — Our pleasant life there — Arrival of Lord Elgin — Reception held in Calcutta — Cholera — Colonel Denny attacked — No medical aid available — Incident at mail-train — Doctor refuses to come — Death of Colonel Denny — Indignation in Calcutta — Orders by the Viceroy on duties of medical officers — Temple appointed Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces — Offers me post of Assistant-Secretary — Farewell to civilisation !...... 49
CHAPTER IV.
UP-COUNTRY AND THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. 1 862.
The journey up-country — Lepel Griffin — After a bear — Benares — In a bullock-coach to Jubbulpore — The mail-cart — Arrival at the Residency, Nagpore — The Central Provinces Com- mission— Value of the appointments — Temple, my new chief — His industry and power of work — Simplicity of his char- acter— Formation of his staff — Distinguished careers of Temple's lieutenants — His method of work — Nagpore in the 'Sixties — The museum — The old chiefs contribution thereto — His disappointment — The scientific Governor and skulls in duplicate — Dangerous results of the order — Wild tribes and skulls plentiful — Fate of the anthropological collection ......... 69
CONTENTS XI
CHAPTER V. AT NAGPORE. I 862-1 864.
European Society — " Camp fashion " — Ladies in Lower Bengal — The terrors of precedence, its difficulties and pitfalls — The army chaplain and his new rank — My blunder — The amende — A secretary's announcement.
Tigers I have known — First experience at Dacca — Tiger on elephant — Tigers in the Chandah district — Merited apprecia- tion of the tiger by Mr Rees, M.P. — The tiger's place in the village economy — The "virtuous" tiger — Relapse from virtue — Cattle-killer and man-eater — Death of a village scourge — Tiger killed on top of a man — My Swiss servant improves my tiger-skins — Merits of spherical bullets at close quarters — The panther — Tragic death of Lieutenant St John Shaw, R.H.A. — The brave Gondh beater — His reward, and consequent domestic ruin.
A search in the Nagpore record-room — Original despatches of General Wellesley (Duke of Wellington) — "Wesley Sahib's" certificate in hands of a native landholder — Camping — The Chief Commissioner's big camp — Temple on the march — His patience with natives — Flying camp across Baitool — Major Baldwin and his district notes — Gives me the idea of a Gazetteer — My proposal — Testimony of Sir Alfred Lyall — Great Indian Gazetteer of Sir William Hunter follows . . 89
CHAPTER VI.
IN CAMP BOMBAY. I 864.
The so-called Indian bison — Old men and new methods — Deputy- Commissioner No. 1 — Book-circular on arboriculture — The old officer's failure — The young civilian No. 2 — His marked success — The impudent mango bantlings — Halts by the way — The colonel's discomfiture — Administrative ability — Timely breakfast and appreciation in camp of this quality — The hideous secret of the great mango trick — Am sworn to secrecy — Punishment of the peccant tehsildar and its results — The Alfred Lyall Avenue in the Hoshungabad district — Afternoon tea on Terrace of the House of Commons thirty years later — The two Privy Councillors — The secret revealed — Temple's fury — Sir Alfred Lyall vicariously to blame — The astute police inspector, an Indian village idyll — Import- ance of explaining orders to the people — The new tax and official seal — The Gondh shikari and increased tiger reward
Xli CONTENTS
— "Progress" since those days — "The Old Pindaree" — Popularity of Sir Alfred Lyall's poem — First published by me in local newspaper — Story of the Temple medal — His entire innocence of the whole matter — Proposed as Exhibition medal during his absence in England — My successful oppo- sition— Medal struck privately — Mint-master adds laurel- wreath as a bad joke — Temple unfairly blamed — Visits to Bombay with Temple — The cotton famine — Wild specula- tion— Sir Bartle Frere's warning to the services — Hospitality at Government House — The Governor's great charm — His appearance at the Poonah review — Shares offered to Temple — His righteous indignation — His strictness in this respect — Insists on officers banking with Bank of Bengal instead of with native shroffs . . . . . . .116
CHAPTER VII.
CHANDAH. I 865-I 866.
Am appointed Settlement Officer — The assessment of the Govern- ment land revenue — The bestowal of proprietary right — The question in the Gurboree district of Chandah — The claims of the absentee Court-favourites versus the Coerie cultivators on the spot — The great tanks, or artificial lakes, made by these latter — I decide a ruling case in favour of the cultivator — Great joy throughout the district — My pleasures in camp — The people by degrees gain confidence — Commencement with the children — Elephant rides — Magic-lantern — The duck, fish, and magnet — Parents join in the revels — My success — Destroyed by counter-attraction — A six weeks' British baby arrives in camp — Is powdered twice daily in public — My shows are deserted — Companions of my solitude — Sport — Sketching — 'Cello — Intelligent young elephant — My beloved " Selim" — How the old sheikh selected him for me — The Arab's companionship in camp — Horse has no chance against dog as a house companion — Selim's services, extending over more than twenty years — His devoted old groom, Kurban — Selim dies of snake-bite — Sorrow and depravity of Kurban — Takes to native liquor, and follows his beloved companion — My books — Prinsep's ' Antiquities ' — ' The Initials ' — ' Undine ' and ' Sintram ' — ' Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour' — Dangerous companion to a young man — Melancholy story of "Black Tommy" and this book — My successors with Temple — The brethren of St Francois de Sales at Nagpore — I assist their colony, and shoot heretic tiger — The band — Priest on the committee — The sick young priest's reasons for declining my hospitality — He is persuaded . . . . . . . . .144
CONTENTS Xlll
CHAPTER VIII.
COTTON COMMISSIONER. I 866-1 868.
Appointed Cotton Commissioner — My duties with the trade — With the cultivation — Difficulties of the road-carriage — Cotton delayed at the railway stations — Lack of waggons — Bribes to station people — Regulation of traffic and institution of cotton yards — Become Puss-in-Boots on the line — Euro- pean firms begin to come up-country — Foreigners and steam machinery introduced — My initial success in Bombay, thanks to a story — My Bombay friends — Little Birdwood — Indian • Punch ' — Charley Watts-Russell — Dr James Wilson — Rev. Mr Stephen Hislop — Temple goes to Hyderabad as Resident — " The Nagpore Cinderella," by Sir Alfred Lyall — Temple and the caricaturist — Ride with Temple across from Akola to Hyderabad — The Eastern mandate, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord" — The delights of the 320-mile ride — Excellence of the arrangements — My ride from Oomrautee to Nagpore — Visits to Khangaon — A rotund table and impossibility of "sitting on its head," according to Teutonic ideas — Some expensive liqueur brandy — Temple Finance Minister — Lord Lawrence as Viceroy — Am summoned to Simlah — Its delights — Interview with Lord Lawrence — His great State services — His kindness and encouragement — I find my Hildegarde — Engaged to be married — Lord Lawrence comes up to congratulate us — His magnificent present — Our marriage — M'Gregor as my best man — His distinguished career — Marries one of the bridesmaids — Sir Henry Durand — My devotion to my father-in-law — His splendid qualities . 165
CHAPTER IX.
WITH LORD MAVO. 1 868.
Lord Mayo succeeds Lord Lawrence as Viceroy — We visit Lord Napier of Magdala at Bombay — Summoned to Umballa — First interview with Lord Mayo — Confides to me the con- struction of the first State Railway in India — The Amir of Afghanistan at Umballa — Simlah — Difficulties with the rail- way— Mr Alex. Izat appointed Engineer — His success — Capture rails from Bombay — General Trevor, R.E. — Major O. Burne as Private Secretary — His excellent management — Sir Henry Maine lends us his Simlah house — Personal work with Lord Mayo — Major Lucie-Smith's coal-mine — His discoveries in Chandah — Opposed by the Geological Depart-
Xiv CONTENTS
merit — His perseverance — Lord Mayo shows me the file — Orders further investigation — Tour in Chandah — Plot by the Staff — Lord Mayo's night-ride in a bullock-coach — Opening of coal-mine — Distribution of rewards — Major Lucie-Smith's great services — Lord Mayo opens Khangaon State Railway, the first in India — Rewards my Private Secretary — A Gov- ernor's views on patronage — A shoot in the Sauthpoorah jungles — The Viceregal, or so-called Local Fund, tiger — Expenses incurred therewith — Bullocks — Indisposition of tiger from overfeeding — Expensive medical attendance neces- sary— The shoot reserved for the Viceroy — Catastrophe of a chance shot — Lamentable immediate decease of the tiger — His cost — Difficulties raised by the Accountant-General — The Rev. Dr Wilson's veracious story of a Bombay tiger . 190
CHAPTER X.
WORK UNDER LORD MAYO — HIS ASSASSINATION. 1 872.
Sir Henry Durand goes to the Punjab as Lieutenant-Governor — I am appointed Commissioner of Cotton and Commerce with the Government of India — At Simlah — Franco-German War — Lord Napier's view of probable effect — ' Alice in Wonder- land' dramatised by us at Simlah — Lord Mayo and his household assist — Great success — Interview with uninvited " plunger " — Death of Sir Henry Durand — Foreign visitors — Employed as cicerone — Russian Mission — Austrian Mission — Appointed Knight Grand Commander of Order of Francis Joseph — General Vlangaly, Russian Minister — His ideas about dangers on the road — Monsieur Jacques Siegfried deputed by the Emperor Napoleon — Peace by establishing strong commercial relations — Germans find M. Siegfried's Report on Emperor's table at Fontainebleau — Our visit to the Chateau de Langais, since gifted to the French nation — Lord Mayo on infallibility of a Viceroy — Correspondent of ' The Times ' temporarily — Of ■ The Manchester Guardian ' — Sir George Campbell and Sir Charles Bernard — Bernard not in accord with Campbell's policy — Leaves Secretariat believing Campbell his enemy — Campbell chooses Bernard as Secretary for Bengal — Asks me to sound Lord Mayo — Bernard's astonishment — Appointed Secretary — His im- mense success and merits — The Kipling family — Mr Lock- wood Kipling at School of Art, Bombay — Young Rudyard's early theological ideas — His later contributions to ' The Pioneer ' — Mr Lockwood Kipling undertakes for me sketches of Indian craftsmen — His visit to us at Simlah — High price realised for copy of Rudyard's early poems — Sketches of Lord Mayo — Master Terence in possession — His discretion — Lady Connemara's story of Lord Dalhousie's
CONTENTS XV
only confidante in India — With Lord Mayo in Calcutta in January 1872 — Dine with him on last evening — His con- versation with my wife — Good-bye — Assassination of Lord Mayo — Universal sorrow — His lovable character and success as Viceroy — Qualifications required for the office — Lord Minto's resemblance to Lord Mayo . . • .213
CHAPTER XL
HOME. 1872.
Homeward bound — The P. and O. steamer — Angels unawares — Dignatories of the Italian Court — Attention at Naples — Reception of Siamese Mission — Royal box at the opera gala — Charlie Dickens — Rome — Monseigneur Howard — His Holiness the Pope — Cardinal Antonelli — Cardinal Barnabo — Monseigneur Stonor — The Archbishop's servant — System of tipping — Indian definition — Across the Continent — My uniform at the customs — An Elder Brother of the Trinity House and his alarming French — Foreign idea of a lady from India — Back at Bonn — Sad story of Sidonia — London — Northumberland House — Albury — Syon — Duke and Duchess of Argyll — Placed on duty at the India Office — The Ex- hibition— Mrs Rivett-Carnac's collection of women's orna- ments— Lac ornaments — Derivation of the word — An invita- tion and its complications — Destruction of Northumberland House — The Duke's proposals — A posting tour — Bentley Priory — The Tile House, Denham — Lady Emily Drummond and the long ago — Bannerdown — Post and hearse horses — Salisbury — Mr Stevens the antiquary — To Manchester — Dinner in Town Hall given me by Chamber of Commerce — Gold medal of the Cotton Supply Association — My two supporters — Both now Privy Councillors — Difficulties of oratory — Mr C. P. Scott, M.P. — Sir Stafford Northcote — Mr Campbell of Islay — Lord Granville .... 237
CHAPTER XII.
AT HOME. 1872.
At Guy's Cliffe — Lady Charles Percy and smoking — Duchesse de la Marmora on my Italian acquaintances — Lady Dormer and the Tichborne case — Lord Dormer's entomological col- lection— General Jim Dormer routs the mission from the Mahdi — Kielder Castle — Chevy Chase — Grouse and my grey-hen — Alnwick Castle — Its splendours — Baron Hiibner
XVI CONTENTS
thereon — Mediaeval castles v. modern habitations — Cup- marks at Alnwick — Views of the Duke of Argyll — My hobby — Sir John Drummond-Hay — Lord Iddesleigh and Morocco — Artistic description — Sir John and the great Elchi — Visit to Edinburgh — Glories of the place — At Raynham again — How a barrister was created — Rougham Hall and its inhabitants — Sir Harry Keppel and naval gunnery — Castle Ashby — A distinguished medico — Lord and Lady Alwyne Compton — Lord Northampton — Lady Marion Alford — The footman on Niagara — Partridges in real stubble — Some experiences of London charities — The late Marquis Townshend — Large sums given in charity — My efforts to assist — Society of Universal Benevolence — A case before the committee — What resulted therefrom — Difficult question of charitable relief — My heretical views — Sir Henry Maine and incorrigible young civilian — Estimate of value of being relieved from the question of poverty ..... 261
CHAPTER XIII.
THE FAMINE. 1874.
Return to India — Change in the Government — My special duties nearly worked out — Proposals to abolish my appointment — Lord Northbrook's fairness and support — Major Baring his Private Secretary, now the Earl of Cromer — Appointed Special Commissioner for Bengal Famine — Purchase of grain and organisation of transport — Bullock-carts and mule- and pony-trains — Large number of military officers employed — Trains organised in charge of sepoys, commanded by British officers — Their patience, energy, and splendid ser- vices— Difficulties on the road — Sir Ian Hamilton's first appearance at Allahabad — Other workers on the Famine — The Native staff — Romany Babu — The Great Gugun — Appreciation by the British officer of the Native staff — The ocal chaplain and his candidates — Clerk and chorister — His disappearance — Accounted for — Subsequent career — A different specimen — A Rugby boy — Officer — Fireman — The new moon fatal — Efforts to pull him through — Vicissitudes — Ultimate triumph — Peaceful end as planter and sportsman — Experiences with drunkenness — My theories regarding food and cooking as a deterrent — Difficulties of providing for me — Am appointed Benares Opium Agent — Advantages of the appointment — In harbour — Babu's interpretation of a haven — The Indian opium revenue — The Benares agency — The staff — Methods — The pleasures of patronage — An impossible yet strictly true experience . . . .284
CONTENTS XV11
CHAPTER XIV.
AT GHAZIPORE. 1 876 onwards.
Examinations — Importance of the language question — My sym- pathy with the examinees — Old Nuckshahs and his terrors — Other members of the committee — The best bull-pup in Upper India — Lob Lane and Departmental Examinations — The old Colonel's views of the language — Original method of drawing a proof of an examination paper — The Powers that was — The Paramount Power — The " Belly- Gerant" Power — Their splendid conduct during the Mutiny — Storm in a flower-pot — Sad effects of a green waistcoat — Failure of my diplomacy — Our palace on the Ganges — Pleasures of life — The delights of camp — A morning in the bazaar — Coin-collecting — Metal work — The fiurana chiz — Old blue china — An enterprising collector — Lord Ralph Kerr puts us on the track — A friend from home — Native leather — A pair of bazaar shoes — Terrific result — Signalling by lollipops — An astute banker and peccant signaller — On the road to Fatehgarh — Railway ballast — The ruined temple — The pres- ervation of antiquarian remains — My paper before the Asiatic Society — Government complications — And orders resulting therefrom . . . . . . . . .312
CHAPTER XV.
ON THE GANGES AND IN THE HILLS. 1877-1885.
Ad montem — Pachmarhi — Mussourie — The Duke and Duchess of Connaught — Her Royal Highness's interest in everything Indian — Story of the book at Quaritch's — Value of the scien- tific collection at Bagshot — An enterprising little German boy — Field-Marshal Count von Moltke — Interest of the Prince-General in his command — H.R.H.'s happy manner with the native officers — Our visit to T.R.H. at Meerut and later at Bagshot — The American General, Lionel Wood, on the Royal General and his knowledge — Pleasant days on the Naini-Tal hilltop — Mai-trank on the mountain-side — My camp clerk on the hills — Sir Seymour FitzGerald on terrors of the Indian climate — Neues Palais at Potsdam — Am sent by the German Crown Prince to his surgeon, who orders a Carlsbad cure — Functions in India in my time — Visit of the Prince of Wales — Badmashes invited to garden-party in the
xviii CONTENTS
jail — My Bombay University gown — Effect at the levee — Political uniform — My bearer's mistaken views regarding breeches — The Imperial assemblage at Delhi in 1877 — Additional Private Secretary to Lord Lytton — His amiable considerate character — Increase of salutes to native princes — A Jemadar improves the occasion — A soldier's view of the herald — The Delhi medal — Sir Ashley Eden's reading of the legend — The grand manoeuvres at Delhi, 1888 — Command there the Volunteer Brigade — Substitute for white helmets — Durzis invited to an evening party — Torrential rain at Review — My wife's arrangements for drying the uniforms of the corps — Eminent success — American officers at the manoeuvres — Their cheery humour — Great durbar to the Ameer at Rawul- Pindi — Am appointed Honorary Aide-de-Camp to Sir Donald Stewart, Commander-in-Chief — Rain, rain ! — Difficulties with uniform — Visit of T.R.H. the Duke and Duchess of Con- naught — My mixed uniform exposed .... 338
CHAPTER XVI.
LATER YEARS IN INDIA. 1885-I894.
definition of idleness — The Volunteers — Foreigner's view of the wonders of the East — Am attached to the Cheshire Regiment — Cholera in Allahabad — A cholera camp — An undelivered sermon — General Sir Herbert M'Pherson on rifle instruction — Command the Wimbledon Team from India — Difficulties of Volunteering — Commencement at Ghazipore — Progress — Canvassing — Efforts to popularise movement — Two corps of Light Horse and a battalion of Infantry raised — Scheme of so-called Reserve to include stragglers — General success — Appointed Aide-de-Camp to the Queen in acknowledgment of efforts — Difficulty of ob- taining suitable Adjutants — Excellence of the Light Horse — Volunteer conditions in England and India widely different — The signalling sentry — The Assistant Adjutant-General's indignation — The General's personal inquiry — Result — Ex- cellent services of Colonel George Fox — And Colonel Holdsworth — Also of my Adjutants, Colonel Guy Vivian and Major Layton, D.S.O. — End of my Indian service — Hearty farewells — Ball given by the Civil Service — Banquet at Benares — Sir John Edge — The Rivett-Carnac Challenge Trophy — Government complimentary resolution — Journey through the Punjab and Sindh — Visit to the grave of Sir Henry Durand — Bombay — Homeward bound . . -359
CONTENTS XIX
CHAPTER XVII.
HOME AGAIN. 1894.
Return home — Marseilles — Wiesbaden — Precautions at the Post Office — Title of Colonel — Count Seckendorff — Invitation to Friedrichshof — The Empress Frederick — Her great ability and charm — Beauties of the Castle — Her Majesty's interest in India — 'Helen Treveryan ' and Sir Mortimer Durand — "Where is Ghazipore?" — Her Majesty answers — Benares — A ball at Benares — Mai-trank — At Potsdam — The Princess Victoria — At Bonn again — The Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe — The Konig-Husaren — The cavalry exercises — The British education of the German Emperor— A visit to the Palace of Ballenstedt — The Duchy of Anhalt — The Prince of Anhalt-Dessau succeeds — Relationship to the German Emperor — His war services — Banquet at the Palace — Life there — A pleasant week's visit — Glorious weather — The forest and game-preserves — Dinners in the forest — The hat difficulty abroad — Royal German etiquette — Purity and a head of hair — Suspicions of baldness — The reigning Duke and his Minister — Our leave-taking — The happiness of others — The much-dreaded etiquette . . 378
CHAPTER XVIII.
AT HOME. 1894-1900.
We rent the old Castle of Wildeck, in Switzerland — Difficulties of an Anglo-Indian in England — The old Hapsburg Castle — The Effinger family — Delights of the place — My wife's description of the birds — -A Swiss luncheon -party— The battalion of Rifles — Invitation — Willy Drummond and the Raynham trick — Consideration and tact of the then Prince of Wales — A successful luncheon — On duty in London as a Royal Aide-de-Camp — The first Jubilee — At Albury — In the Abbey — Excellence of arrangements — The German Crown Prince — My telegram— Sad predicament — The old Colonel and Collars — The Diamond Jubilee — The crowd at Hyde Park Corner — A tight corner - Lord Suffield saves the situation — ■" God Save the Queen " — The Queen's funeral — Depression everywhere — The enormous crowds — Their excellent behaviour — On the road — The scene at Windsor — The bluejackets — The Queen of the Seas taken to her last resting-place by her sailors — St George's Chapel — St George's Hall — Lord Dufferin — Story of his kindliness —
XX CONTENTS
The Coronation — A new charger — Joyful expectation of the crowd — Disappointment — Arrangements excellent — Lord Wemyss — His popularity with the crowd — His great ser- vices to the Empire — A visit to Ely — Garden-party at Windsor Castle — The four Aides-de-Camp on duty with the King — " Quite Elizabethan " — Advantages of the Alpine climate in the winter — Change in condition in recent years 396
CHAPTER XIX.
CONCLUSION. 1 903- 1 909.
A visit to Languedoc — The old Chateau of Castelnau — Cradle of my mother's family — The Marquis de Valfons — The Edict of Nantes revoked — The old noblesse— Their feeling towards England— At H.B.M.'s Embassy at Madrid — The Queen Regent and Infantas — Pleasant society — " II Barbiere " at Madrid — The Art treasures — The boars of Avila — Cup- marks — Monsgr. Fidel Fita — The Royal Academy of Spain — My address — Am elected a foreign Member — The Cor- onation Stone — Committee on it — Our cup -mark theory not accepted — My theories regarding ideographic origin — Further discoveries in Spain and Italy — -Search for place with a good summer and winter climate — The Swiss Alps in winter — -The "Wintere Sportes" — Excellent summer climate — Drive to Rougemont — Find an ally on the road — Inspect and buy the place offhand — The architect's verdict — The climate in summer, and sport — The delights of the winter — Variety of "Wintere Sportes "—Pleasant Swiss neighbours — History of the place — Benedictine Priory founded by the Count of Gruyere in 1074 — Government House of the Berne Baillis from 1555 — Napoleon expels the Bernese — The Burgundians and Allemani — Our many visitors and friends — My dangerous illness — Conclusion . 41 1
Index 439
ILLUSTRATIONS.
J. H. RIVETT-CARNAC, BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE, COLONEL GHAZIPORE LIGHT HORSE, AND AIDE-DE-CAMP TO
QUEEN victoria ...... Frontispiece
"my hildegarde " — 1868 ...... 186
MANY MEMORIES
CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE.
1838-1857.
Birth and parentage — Ryvet family of Suffolk — Foreign blood — Boileau de Castelnau — Grandfather, Mr Davis, R.E., defends the staircase at Benares — Visits of Mountstuart Elphinstone and Lord Hardinge — Life at Broadstairs — Charlie Dickens — Foreign water-cures — School at Bonn — Prince Frederick of Prussia, afterwards German Emperor — Prince of Anhalt — Mr Bulwer-Lytton — Our connection with Lord Palmerston — Promised appointment in Foreign Office — Lord Palmerston's advice — Have to take up Indian appointment — Haileybury — Last term — Fall of Delhi — The " Legislator " — Balls' Park and its guests — United Service Club and the Admiral's Corner — Raynham- — Political friends — Eartham coterie — Lady Palmer- ston's Saturday evenings — Story of Lady Palmerston — End of Haileybury — Across Europe — Leighton at Giotto's Chapel — Tegernsee — Munich — Sir J. Milbanke — Baroness Tautphceus and 'The Initials' — Vienna — Birth of the Crown Prince Rudolph — Lord A. Loftus — Austrian review — Trieste — Eastward ho !
As this volume is to assume an autobiographical form, the notes being linked together with some account of my life and movements, it seems desirable that the first chapter should be prefaced with a short notice of my forbears, which although not coming strictly within the scope of my " Memories," is still necessary as an intro- duction to the subject of this memoir.
A
2 PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE
I was born in Portland Place, London, on the 16th September 1838, being the second son of Admiral John Rivett - Carnac and his wife, Maria, daughter of Samuel Davis, Esq., an officer of the Royal Engineers, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
My father was a cadet of the ancient Suffolk family of Ryvet,1 members of which were for several hundred years lords of many manors and holders of large possessions in that county. A copy of a pedigree in his handwriting, copied from the Suffolk Davy Collection in the MS. De- partment of the British Museum, shows him to have been 16th in direct male descent from Thomas Ryvet, who held the manor of Freton and died in 1272. His descendant, Andrew Revett, purchased in the reign of Edward VI. the manor of Brandeston, and built there the Hall which still exists, and remained the seat of the senior branch of the family for several hundred years until it was sold to the cele- brated Parliamentary lawyer, Mr Charles Austin, in 1847.
My father's branch came from a younger brother of the above Andrew, from one Sir Thomas Revett of One-house Hall, Stowmarket, the " Maister Ryvet " who entertained Queen Elizabeth during one of her progresses, and regard- ing whom the chronicler records that " Then to Maister Ryvets, where all was well, and Meates liberally spent." The tradition of the family in this respect appears to have been well maintained in the county throughout several suc- ceeding generations, at the expense of many manors and broad acres, until, at last, Brandeston Hall, the last pos- session of the Revetts in Suffolk, passed out of the family, as noticed above. My father was 16th in direct male descent from Thomas Ryvet of Freton, and 8th from this Sir Thomas Revett of Stowmarket, and was descended from William, the younger son of Queen Elizabeth's host. The elder son, Sir Thomas, who, like his father, was knighted, and was a man of large possessions in Suffolk and the
1 The name is to be found spelt in a variety of ways, spelling not being included in ancient times among the exact sciences.
RYVET FAMILY OF SUFFOLK 3
adjoining county of Cambridge, his chief seat being at Chippenham, near Newmarket, married Griselda, daughter of Lord Paget of Beaudesert, K.G., ancestor of the present Marquis of Anglesey. As Sir Thomas Revett left no son, his large possessions in Suffolk, Wales, and elsewhere went to his two daughters and co-heiresses, one of whom, Alice, married Sir Thomas Gerard ; the other, Anne, the fifth Lord Windsor, ancestor of the present Earl of Plymouth. Thus many of the Suffolk manors passed out of the Revett family.
My father's grandfather, whose family had settled in Derby, was Thomas Revett, who in 1715 was Mayor of Derby and Member for that borough. His son, also a Thomas Revett, represented the borough in Parliament, and was High Sheriff of the county in 1745, the contest at Derby creating some excitement at the time, as described by Horace Walpole in one of his letters. But elections and other Revett extravagances must have told heavily on his resources, for, on his death, Mapleton Hall, the seat of the family, had to be sold, and the eldest son migrated to Lymington, in Hampshire. My grandfather, James, a younger son, appears to have tried his fortunes in India, and entering the Bombay Civil Service, rose there to be Member of Council and acting Governor of the Presidency. His sister, Elizabeth, had married General Carnac, M.P., at one time Commander-in-Chief in India. The General, of a noble French family of emigres, had sat in Parliament with the lady's father, and marrying the daughter, probably persuaded the brother to try his fortunes in India, then unknown ground to the family. The General and his wife (the latter of whom is known by Sir Joshua Reynolds' celebrated portrait of " Mrs Carnac ") having no children, the General left his property to his brother-in-law, Mr James Rivett, my father's father, on the condition that he assumed the surname and arms of Carnac. The neces- sary permission having been accorded by sign-manual in 1 801, this branch of the Rivett family henceforth came to
4 PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE
be known by the name of " Rivett-Carnac," although they are Rivetts, with no drop of the blood of Carnac in their veins. My grandfather, Mr Rivett-Carnac, acting Governor of Bombay, died in 1802, leaving by his wife, Harriet, daughter of J. Fisher, Esq., " Beau Fisher," of Great Yar- mouth, several sons, of whom Sir James Rivett-Carnac, Bart., M.P., was Chairman of the East India Company, Member for Sandwich, and, like his father, Governor of Bombay. My father, Admiral Rivett - Carnac, already noticed, was the youngest son.
In the meantime, all the other branches of the family having died out, my cousin, the present baronet, Sir Claud Rivett - Carnac, who is 19th in direct male descent from Thomas Ryvet of Freton, is now the representative of the ancient Ryvet family of Suffolk. A small foothold in the county has recently been recovered by me by the acquisi- tion of the manor of Stanstead Hall, which was long in the Rivett family, so that there is still a Rivett, lord of a manor, in the county of Suffolk.
My mother's father, Mr S. Davis, was a man of some distinction. The son of a military officer who died on duty in the West Indies, he entered the Royal Engineers, and serving in India was appointed an aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief there. Being an excellent artist, he was attached to Turner's Mission to Thibet in 1783, and, among other sketches, brought back with him a plan of the " canterlever " bridge used in that country. I first heard of this through an article published at the time of the opening of the Tay Bridge, when the discovery of this particular class of bridge was credited to my grandfather, who was described as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, instead of the Royal Engineers. For his services he was promoted, after the manner of the times, to a place in the civil administration, and the year 1799 found him Magistrate of the important district of Benares. My grandfather had a taste for astronomy, and his published papers on the subject, which are understood to have still considerable
DE BOILEAU FAMILY OF CASTELNAU 5
interest, secured for him at an early age the Fellowship of the Royal Society, an honour in those days unknown to officers serving in India. On the roof of his house at Benares, the well-known Nandesur House there, where His Highness the present Maharajah entertains royalties, vice- roys, and other distinguished guests, he had erected his big astronomical telescope, and this could only be reached by a narrow winding staircase with barely room for one person to pass at a time.
This staircase my grandfather valiantly defended with a spear when Vizier Ali in 1799, having massacred Mr Cherry the Resident and most of the British inhabitants of Benares, attacked the house. He not only saved the lives of his wife and child, but by keeping the enemy occupied until the troops came up, was thus the means of saving also the lives of the other European residents who had escaped the general massacre.
In those days the Pagoda Tree must have borne abundant quantities of fruit, for my grandfather retired with a fortune from India, was Chairman of the East India Company, wrote the celebrated " Fifth Report," and died at the comparatively early age of fifty-two.
Mr Davis married a daughter of Mr S. Boileau, of the ancient noble French family Barons of Castelnau and St Croix de Boriac, in Languedoc, whose name is well known in the history of the Huguenot struggle in France. My ancestor, the head of the family, renouncing his titles and possessions in favour of his younger brother, who remained Catholic, emigrated to England, where the family is now represented by my kinsman, Sir Maurice Boileau, Bart., of Ketteringham Park, Norfolk. The historical old Castle of Castelnau, built by the Boileaus in the fourteenth century, is still in excellent preservation, and in possession of one of the family, the present Marquis de Valfons, who keeps up the most affectionate relations with the British branch of the Boileaus, and has ever a warm welcome for us whenever we pass into Languedoc.
6 PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE
My earliest recollections are associated with what always seemed to me the vast expanse of Portland Place, the gardens at the park end of the street, and the daily appearance of the detachment of the Life Guards, which passed down from the barracks to the palace. There must have been in those days a distinctly Eastern flavour about Portland Place, not unlike that which now pervades certain portions of South Kensing- ton. For besides my grandmother, the widow of Mr Davis, there lived hard by, on different sides of the broad street, two of her sisters, married to Directors of the East India Com- pany, and also several other Eastern magnates with whom we were on intimate terms. And I retain a vivid remembrance of a grim old great-uncle, whom I was periodically dragged most unwillingly to see, who gave me much good advice, but never a single tip, and who lived in a big house, at the corner, half-way down Portland Place. In this same house I