Letters of Antony Lytton - Chapter VIII

India: 1925-1927

By Ann Judge

Antony arrived in Darjeeling in October 1925 and spent the next 18 months with his parents.  He continued writing letters to his friends, and they beautifully describe his life there.  For example,

 “Dear Edward – I had always imagined that perfect living was to be found only in P G Wodehouse’s books, and experienced by the very rich in America.  I felt that the essential thing about the existence ‘sans reproche’ was Jeeves; that without a flat in London, a range of American expletives, a good cocktail-shaker, a pair of check spats and the inimitable ‘man’, one might as well be contented with an ordinary humdrum existence.  I was entirely wrong.  The perfect life, the only absolute luxury, is to be found amongst the poor inexplicably raised to the dignity of a Governor of India.  I have a divine bearer, black, & with a heavy moustache.  He wears a little round black hat, a blue serge frock coat, different coloured trousers every day, no shoes or socks, and he bears somewhat magnificently the name of Lal Bahadur.  He is supposed to know English, but his knowledge consists in repeating everything I say, answering every question in the affirmative, lying like a trooper, and doing exactly the opposite of everything he’s told.  In England one might feel this to be detrimental to the character of the perfect servant;  here it is oddly enough the essence of it!  He knows everything, and whatever he does is perfect.  He had nothing else to do except to look after me, and he sits outside my room all day.  I have also a private man who washes my clothes, and another who irons them.  Lal Bahadur dresses me as carefully & perfectly as Molyneux one of his mannequins.  My clothes are kept, washed, brushed, ironed, packed with a religious devotion worthy of the followers of the Prophet.  My bedroom is the size of an ordinary drawing room, and I have a private bathroom.  A man shaves me in bed in the morning before I wake up, so that when I’m called I am quite clean & washed!”

Antony went on various expeditions into the mountains, describing it in another letter to his friend

 “I’ve been having the most marvellous time in the maintains, & have crossed right through the Himalayas into Tibet and back over a pass 18,000 ft high, feeling dead ill, eating bovril, sleeping in a tent in 14 sweaters & riding a yak in the day time.  Thus it is that we men win through…..  So far I have only done the most interesting part of India (ie Sikkim and travelling).  It has been quite divine, & so far from tropical extremely cold…. The Governmental idea of camp life & roughing it is rather exceptional.  You have 50 servants, a laundry, a horse each, two hot baths a day, a bungalow to live in, 190 coolies, exquisite food, bridge & a private post office!   This is abandoned when you get up high.  There it is exciting.  I didn’t undress for 4 days & one night – slept very coldly in 2 pairs of trousers, stockings & socks, thick vest & pants, a flannel shirt, a jumper (high necked a la Noel Coward) a sweater, a Jaeger coat & an overcoat (blankets excluded).. NB this is quite true.    

This page was added on 22/03/2012.

Add your comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.

Start the ball rolling by posting a comment on this page!