...and speaking of history lessons, here's a completely irrelevant factoid. I remember a spoonerism I learned at Lovedale: He hissed a mystery lesson and tasted a whole worm.

You there in the back! I see your raised hand. What's that? Are we going to discuss worms today and how to eat them? Well. No.

This post isn't about worms. But it IS tasty. Especially if you love history. and if you want to learn a bit more about Henry Lawrence.

You never quite know the reach of your blog, do you? That is, until you get an email from someone who never went to Lovedale and really, has no connection with the school at all! I had a delightful email from James Wallace the other day...with an attachment. He's passionate about history, read my blog and sent me this clipping.

It tells of a public meeting in memory of Sir Henry Lawrence and provides a fascinating glimpse into the way he felt about India and its people. With warm thanks to James, let's have a look at the entire article first:

If you click on the image, the article should also open in a pop-up window for easier reading.

What caught my eye was this bit of information about Henry...that intimidating figure who stared sternly out of portraits at generations of uncompromisingly snot-nosed schoolkids with untied shoelaces.

 

Now that certainly makes him a lot more benign - even if we are referred to as natives! I think I especially like the statement about mischief being done in India though overbearing demeanor, rude language...etc.   Christopher Hibbert's The Great Mutiny, India 1857 illustrates Lawrence's sentiment very well.

This article sparked my curiosity and as always, I wanted to find out more. James mentioned Google Reader and I did a bit of a search for books on Henry Lawrence. I didn't expect to find anything more than my previous search, but I was pleasantly surprised.

• Sir Henry Lawrence, The Pacificator: Lieut. General J.J. McLeod Innes, R.E., V.C.

• Life of Sir Henry Lawrence: Sir Herbert Benjamin Edwardes, Herman Merivale. This is the same book I've posted about earlier, but I did not know it was on Google Reader.
  
  • The section on Oudh and the Sepoy Mutiny.
• I also found a wiki from FIBIS. Remember them? They provide a terrific link to early mention of Lovedale in Allen's Indian Mail (September 16, 1856). I can't resist...let's pull up the(rather large!) image. I had to grin at the opening sentence: The serene dullness of Madras. Poesy! I'm going to co-opt that phrase.

Thus endeth the history lesson for today. Just in time for the serene dullness of breakfast. And the under-appreciated dullness of toast.

...I had a lovely email from alumnus Leslie Nicholass some time ago. Here's what he said:

Hi, I picked up on your site some time ago and put it into my favourites, I was a pupil in Lovedale in the 1940’s and I noticed a remark, on your site about Fibis which I joined last week and that when you were on the site some time ago now that they had featured your post and also a picture of the Post Office in Trimulgherry.  My father was in the 14^th/20^th Hussars who were stationed in Trimulgherry at the time I was in School in the Blue Mountains.  My fondest memories of India – I was there from 1934 until 1943 were of my time in the Nilgiris.

This is the post he was was referring to. I love it when my little hobby blog brings back memories for those who attended Lovedale.

Then I became curious. Where exactly is Trimulgherry? It's near Secunderabad, in Andhra Pradesh. Google Maps show a fair amount of greenery in the picture:

It looks like the area is part of a military cantonment, which would make sense given Leslie's note about the 14^th/20^th Hussars. The Post Office in the picture below was harder to pinpoint. I think it's a little to the North of the marker, but that's my best guess.

It reminds me just how many of Lovedale's alumni have parents with ties to the millitary - both Indian and British. My next post will focus on just that topic...

....notebook covers. I'm not sure what reminded me of them. Oh yes, I do.

It was my quick update a few minutes ago about dusting off second-hand schoolbooks! Now there's a memory. We never had to buy textbooks in school, did we? Each semester, we'd get a set handed down through generations. If you were  lucky, you got a newer copy. I invariably ended up with ones that had been bound with cardboard covers tastefully patterned with green, blue, or pink flowers. The ink-stained books were paper sentinels to history...containing scribbled notes, diagrams and one particularly sappy - and forgotten letter - to a secret crush. The books also contained the occasional silverfish, which were promptly shaken out of the book and stomped on. As one does. I don't believe the silverfish ever got a vote, and that's troubling.

The notebooks, however, were another matter. We had to bring them with us each school term and I loved going to the dark - and by extension - mysterious, stationery store in my neighborhood. Somewhere from deep within its depths, the store owner would pull out notebooks (ah - the smell of fresh paper!), pens, pencils, ink, while brushing off random cockroaches from a pile of geometry boxes . Topping the pile would be....brown paper.

There were variations on a theme here. You could get the regular kind, or the more expensive roll which had a bit of a plastic finish. I got the regular version, but threw in a bit of the expensive wrap only for my 'special' subjects...like English. Never Science. Never Science. Let me chew on that educational anomaly for a while.

Back at home, it was a project worthy of a craft fair. Lay out the roll of brown paper...measure each notebook...carefully cut a bit more than what was needed...trim, tuck and fold. Put a name tag on the front and stick the entire pile of wrapped books under the Christmas tree. Okay, they went straight to the bottom of my school trunk...never to be seen again. 

Did you ever wrap your books? Or...do you still...?