Notebook and postcards written by Florence Hobbes, c 1916-1917 - Part 3

Annie 

 

Grace.  -Jaundice brought on by chill?

with Chermain at -125

Parkes married - yes back to transport

& their if I have any more lives: I'll ask for a

transfer & almost sure to get it, if not I'll

resign -

Fancy meeting May Morris - re prices

re bag & hankies -

Els..    Re Mrs Mace from Archie's

office - Re mails - Re France

day - Got- odd mails re Laci

who was still was packing boxes

Where are jean & Barbie, Sorry re Maurice

Bartons wife etc.  You should see the

women of India -  does old [[C.G?]] & Josie -

glad the Snaps got out safely.  I've

some more for these Snaps -

wish I had my [[golz?]] sticks.

strikes - Civil war.  Gilbert gave me Ruths

address. Fred & Jack.

Those damned strikes, to dare to refuse to

handle the soldiers things.  Re Backwoods

so not Read Gallipoli, couldn't bear to- I get mail every

fortnight, it comes to Colombo, who are the Pattricks

sorry to hear about Mrs Harvey poor soul, Hope you

made plenty for W.C, day, too cold for very thin 

things, I guess there will be some corner in Hades,

for the men who have refused to help our soldiers

along the Trail, & I hope the heat will be some

considerable, rotten [?] [?], gosh there

are a few things I'd like to say to the curs,

darling don't send any more parcels to me, you

have quite enough to do with your money - 

 

Frank & G.B.

Re White - (?) & black to

re (?) trees & little balls,

re Geo & the address of P.S.

Re (?) Sikri & Taj Mahal

Young [Plasket?] -  7^th A.I. F.

My fish story,

undated letters to Geo, leave in

Cairo & London - manen c̄ Leopard -

Indian Ink notice - Jock coming to see me [[??]]

my tan xx  xxxx xxxx , Pussy cat on hat?

what are your colours -

my trips up a trek from xxxx-

the man & shirt c̄ the goat??
Kissing men of India (begin when
The the  americans leave off
re Fullers Earth
G: Back [fox?] blower"

 

McCowan

"The (?) Eaters" Re postage on letters

& parcel, her mothers 

 

Notes re places & things -

Of later Muslim art, the crown & flower is

the Taj Mahal at Agra; & of the Taj, what

can one say; it is a thing whereof it is

hard to write, for no writing can convey its

peculiar & unique appeal to the emotions.

There was an anecdote related to me

when I was at Argra, It was of a middle

class, middle-aged American, quite possibly

where at home, in "Pork", He was doing

India rapidly, with no trace of sentiment.

To all appearance, the price of things interesting

him far more than the customs of the East,

no more could have been less readerly suspected

of yielding to the emotions. Yet where they

took him to the Taj for the first time, on a

night of moon & stars, he gazed in blank

silence for a space as he came through the

entrance portal.  There he lifted up his voice

& wept, disturbing the the solemn stillness

with his sobs,  & ejaculations. So at least

the story was told, by a resident - in Agra,

who himself was present - & witnessed the

same.  It is not so hard to credit when

you. have yourself seen the Taj Mahal by

moonlight, or sunset, as I saw it.

One has seen it -1000 times in P.C, in feeble

photographs & clumsy process print. in

watry colours & oils,  They cut it out of

cardboard, in imitation marble. It has

been described to death. Tourists travel

half round the world to see it, & go home to

gush. If any object could awaken

disillusion & resentment by being too well

known, that object should be the Agra

shrine, But it comes victoriously through

all.  There is no spoiling it,

 

I admit the first view of the Taj is commonly

disappointing, but that is because of the

conditions under which it is so often

taken, the tourist, alert & anxious to lose

no time, makes for the tomb, as

soon as possible after his arrival in Agra

on the morning or afternoon he rushes

out in the heat, he has not time to

notice the wonderful old ancient gates

through which he passes, beyond a hasty

glance, on the Mosques. Then he stops

with a gasp of amazement, Is this the

Wonder of the World, this smallish square

building with its four dumpy cupolas

huddling under the dome, & the four

cylindrical lighthouse towers, looking in

the remorseless clearness of the atmosphere

absurdly distant from each other, one is

apt to be taken aback by the simplicity 

of whole thing, & one could even imagine

him admitting that it  was rather

pretty, but cold, unresponsive.  The

dazzling sunlight is [[?]] full on

its gleaming surface so white that no

bird will rest on it, there are no

shadows or softness about it and the

angles come out crudely. If he saw

it but once, & then went away, he would

probably continue thinking it "pretty"

& [[?]] derisively when he heard its

praises sung, but let him pass on

across the terrace into the soft glow of the

interior, Here the golden sunlight

strays in filtered through exquisite trellises

work of marble, till the whole chamber

if filled with a soft light, revealing the
flowers in the low relief on the mural tablets
of the anti-chapels, & the wonderful
inlay of turquoise, poppy, emerald, on
the walls of the shrine. Under the
vast dome lies the tomb of Mumtaz
Mahal, the great beauty for whom the
Sharjahan built this exquisite monument.
But to see the Taj at its best it must
be seen by moonlight, or the hour of sunset,
where its beauty is revealed, beauty that
is withheld from the day view. The marble
with the glow of sunset, or the
glimmering of the moon loses it cold
snow pallor, & takes on warmth &
life, its shadows are not black, but a
deep, almost purple. Seen like this,
there is something sensuous about it. Ive
heard people say it is feminine, that
it lacks strength. But of course it is
feminine. The Moslem art was forbidden
to imitate the human form, but it could
symbolise. Doubtless had the old
Shah Johan been an artist he would
have left a painting of the Mumtez
Mahal. As it is, you watch the face of some
loved face. The meaning which its
subtle & allusive art conveys is significantly
revealed when you see it neither in full
day nor by night, but at the moment after
sunset, when most of the light has faded
from the sky, & only a few flying streamers
of rose & opal are left under a canopy
of azure, paling swiftly into greyness.
The line shape, all shrouded in white
might be the figure of some veiled Eastern
Princess, walking with bowed head
& rhythmical footsteps in her gardens by
the shining river. And the four watching
minarets are the grave & kindly sentinals
keeping guard over the beauty & tenderness
the modesty & shrinking charm, which
so often find shelter behind the purdah screen
of Indian womanhood. "The Crown of this
Palace" as Mumtaz Mahal was known means
 

was famous for charity & mercifulness
as well as for beauty & wit. The Emperor
was inconsolable when she died. His had
been a true love-match. He tried to console
himself by sending for the most skilful
architects & craftsmen he could find and
with their help & a lavish outpouring
of treasure he built the tomb by the Jumma.
Surely a great artist was Shah Jahan
as well as a great lover. The Palace Fort
at Agra is full of gorgeous buildings, &
the finest are those which owe their origins
to him.The Pearl Mosque a dream of
delicacy & grace, by some thought lovelier
than the Taj itself. He was 75 when he
died, for 7 years he had been confined in
the exquisite pavilion called the Jasmine
Tower, in the Agra Fort, & in full view of the
Taj, an old & broken king, driven from
his throne by his own son Aurangzeb, & faithfully
attended by his daughter Jehauara, who
voluntarily shared his captivity & gave up
her life for him. His last day of life
he spent gazing down the river to the tomb
where Mumtaz Mahal lay. When
sunset fell, & darkness hid the domes from
his sight, he died, calling on the name
of Allah the Merciful. His sins be forgiven
him, he shed blood & broke troth. But
he made the world more beautiful, & he loved
much. They laid him beside
his wife he had loved so much, with the
same screen of laced & embroidered stone
thrown round both to shelter their slumbers
& the same unfading flowers blooming by
their graves. The Taj. seen from the Jasmine
Tower of the Fort Palace, itself a box of gems,
in a wonderful setting, as the sun sets,
is one of the most beautiful sights possible.
Fatepur Sikri (The dead city xxxx
India has numbers of dead cities, Chitor
Amber, near Jaipur, among its green deserted
hills. The huge fortress of Golconda, &
Vijanagar, the once mighty centre of the
Hindu Kingdom of Southern India, with
its forest of ruined temples. But none
of these can vie in impressiveness
with Akbars capital of Fatepur Sikri,
some 20 miles from Agra. For the other
places are more or less ruinous & timeworn.
But the Palace of Fatepur Sikri
looks as it must almost have done
when it came fresh from the builders
hand some 3 centuries ago. There is no
mould or clay upon it walls no
broken arches, or ruined columns, or crumbling
ornaments. It lies too far into the wilderness
for vandalism or Barbaric spite to have
wrecked it, and the clear dry air has
dealt so lightly with the red sandstone of
its fabric, that it stands today, intact
in its desolation, — an island fragment
of that vanished Moghul Empire.
Dead & still it lies, bare & cold its audience-halls,
its Council Chambers, its galleries
its temples, its baths & playing-grounds
& the cages of chiselled stone where
Akbars women lived. It seems as tho
the Destroying Angel had breathed upon
it in a night & swept all life out of
it in a blast, leaving the cenotaph
of empty courts to stand in petrified
perfection through the ages.
It dates back to no very remote antiquity
& in this it resembles all that is
best in the architecture of Northern India.
Elizabeth had been queen of England six
years when Akbar halted his men, on
his march at the lonely village of Sikri
 

where the Sheik Salem Christi, a holy
anchorite, prayed & fasted in his cave.
Akbar held his court there for no more than
17 years, when he removed to Agra. Some
accounts aver that the transfer was prompted
by consideration for the feelings of the Saint
Salem Christi; the holy man complained that
the concourse of human beings in the City
& Palaces disturbed his devotions & that
either he or the Emperor must go elsewhere,
but recent inquiries have suggested that
the City of Victory was more probably
deserted because the water supply was inadequate.
Whatever the cause, there it stands, the
most splendid & striking testimony to that
capricious & irresponsible Eastern
despotism, which could use the lives, the
labour, the destinies of men for its own
purposes, & could at its will call rich &
populous towns into being, in the wilderness,
& drop them back again into solitude
& silence. Nowhere does that come
quite so clearly before us as in the beautiful
dead city Akbar built & left.

Fears Re feelings, & natives
[[?]] horror of [[?]], Re old Williams
re Joan, poor Ena, re Pearsons,
& submarine _ My love, they wont be able
to see my heels for spray when once
the war is over & I hit the trail for Australia
Card from Les Château
 

PRO3708
Sister [[?]] Hobbes.
Military Hospital
Valletta _ Malta
Photograph - see original document

Ich Dien.
See that all diet sheets
are marked up.
Alter Diet- sheets on Wed or Tues
for Cigarettes & Tobacco.
Get list ready for Red X
for Wed morning. 9-30 a.m.
Ask about Garrison men
& their food, make order clear_
counter irritants.
for relief of pain by drawing
blood from inflamed surface.
- reflex action - local application.
Cupping _ mustard plaster _
mustard leaf _ iodine _
Linaments _ Ointments
lotions. Blisters. Croton oil
(few drops on lint: leaves scar)
Actual [[?]] _  Leiches _
 

Red X - Wed 9-30 a.m.
Pipes - Chocolate
Tooth brush & Powder.
face cloths - Matches.
Pen - Valentines Meat.
Juice - Writing block -
Lead pencil - Note book
Sweets - Handkerchiefs
See about gas ring.
Pte Mills - in place of [[?]]
Humanity & Un Humanity
by A.S. Elwell-Sutton
17
10
6
1-13
Commander of "Waterfly"

Washing 4-1-17.
[[?]] _ 1 Pillowslip one frilled _ 2
[[?]]  _ 2 Nightie _ 1
[[?]]   3 Cuffs _ 2 pair
[[?]]  1 _ Cap  1
10-1-17.
[[?]] _ 1  Overall _ 1
[[?]] 5  petticoat  1
[[Cap?]]  1  Cuffs _ 1 pair
Towels 2.
18-1-17
[[Sheet?]]  1 _ Pillowslip 1
[[?]] 4 _ Towels 2
[[?]] 1  Cuffs 2
[[Collar?]] 1 dress 1
 

Red X - Wed 9-30 a.m.
Pipes - Chocolate
Tooth brush & Powder.
face cloths - Matches.
Pen - Valentines Meat.
Juice - Writing block -
Lead pencil - Note book
Sweets - Handkerchiefs
See about gas ring.
Pte Mills - in place of [[?]]
Humanity & Un Humanity
by A.S. Elwell-Sutton
17
10
6
1-13
Commander of "Waterfly"

Washing 4-1-17.
[[?]] _ 1 Pillowslip one frilled _ 2
[[?]]  _ 2 Nightie _ 1
[[?]]   3 Cuffs _ 2 pair
[[?]]  1 _ Cap  1
10-1-17.
[[?]] _ 1  Overall _ 1
[[?]] 5  petticoat  1
[[Cap?]]  1  Cuffs _ 1 pair
Towels 2.
18-1-17
[[Sheet?]]  1 _ Pillowslip 1
[[?]] 4 _ Towels 2
[[?]] 1  Cuffs 2
[[Collar?]] 1 dress 1
 

Red X - Wed 9-30 a.m.
Pipes - Chocolate
Tooth brush & Powder.
face cloths - Matches.
Pen - Valentines Meat.
Juice - Writing block -
Lead pencil - Note book
Sweets - Handkerchiefs
See about gas ring.
Pte Mills - in place of [[?]]
Humanity & In Humanity
by A.S. Elwell-Sutton
17
10
6
1-13
Commander of "Waterfly"

Washing 4-1-17.
[[?]] _ 1 Pillowslip one frilled _ 2
[[?]]  _ 2 Nightie _ 1
[[?]]   3 Cuffs _ 2 pair
[[?]]  1 _ Cap  1
10-1-17.
[[?]] _ 1  Overall _ 1
[[?]] 5  petticoat  1
[[Cap?]]  1  Cuffs _ 1 pair
Towels 2.
18-1-17
[[Sheet?]]  1 _ Pillowslip 1
[[?]] 4 _ Towels 2
[[?]] 1  Cuffs 2
[[Collar?]] 1 dress 1