POLERAMPTON'S LIFE AND LETTERS FROM LI:TE- M/AY—MRS. CASE'S DAY BY

DAY AT LIICENOW.* Mn. POLEHAMFTON, the subject of this memoir, perished at Luck- now in the discharge of his duty as an East India Company's chap- lain. But the siege is by no means the prominent feature of te h velume. In fact he himself was cut off at an early period of the defence by cholera supervening upon a gun-shot wound, and though his widow kept a diary during the siege, and has furnished some interesting reminiscences, they rather relate to individual occurrences or garrison reports than furnish much fresh inforina. tion. The character of the book is mainly biographical. We have the life and Indian observations of a pious, active, hearty clergy man, whose profession did not alienate him from the cheerful en joyments or manly exercises of his fellows ; indeed his frankness of spirit and healthy constitution occasionally lead him into farai. liar phrases, and the contemplation of sports (for his tiger-hunt_ ing was not realized,) that a more formal generation might have considered free for a clergyman. There was nothing remarkable in the career of Henry S. Pole- hampton ; at least till his arrival in India. He was connected with the church on both sides, his father being a clergyman, and his mother the daughter of a clergyman. He was born at his father's parish of Greenford, Middlesex, in 1824; was admitted at Eton on the foundation in 1832; and went to Oxford in 1842, as a scholar of Pembroke. He did not "become a candidate for honours "; but he was distinguished at Eton as a cricketer, and at Oxford for boating and swimming ; his skill in the last named exercise enabling him to save the life of a man under circum- stances of difficulty ; for which he received the Humane Society's medal. In 1848 he was ordained by the bishop of Oxford, and next year was appointed assistant-curate of St. Chads, Shrews_ bury:. Here he became very popular, not only by his regular ministrations, but through his exertions during a time of cholera. Without purchase or interest advancement in the Church seems slower even than in the army. In 1852 Mr. Polehampton became engaged to his future 'wife; but after six years' service as euratehe found himself where he was at starting. "Though his curacy was one of the most laborious in the diocess, and his merits were not unknown to the bishop, he was told on the best authority that he would have to serve twenty years before he could look for pro- motion." He, therefore, accepted the offer of a chaplaincy in the Bengal Presidency, married and sailed for India. He arrived at Calcutta in February 1856, and making choice of Lucknow as his station, remained there on hard duty till his death in July 1857.

The bulk of the volume consists of his correspondence. His let- ters are interesting for the thorough manner in which he pours out his mind to his family, and for his pictures of Indian scenery, habits, and modes of life, as they appear to an educated and ob- serving man fresh from England. In his remarks upon the native feelings towards us he was probably swayed unconsciously by the opinions of those about him ; for neither his position nor length of residence could have well enabled him to form an original judg- ment. Be this as it may, the propriety of annexing Oude, the advantages to the people, their sense of the benefit, and the writer's confidence in the security of Europeans, was that of many other people. So early as September 1856, a conspiracy—but pos- sibly local as limited to Oude objects—was suspected, and pre- cautions taken ; but it passed and left no impression beyond the moment. There are frequent indications in the book, either that the natives are satisfied with our annexations, our rule, and our- selves ; even when the mutiny had actually broken out, people thought Delhi would soon be captured, and the mutiny put down.

The domestic familiarity and perfect transparency of the letters which constitute their charm, render them as a matter of course desultory ; personal matters being mixed up with more general observations. Here are a few bits of Indian experience.

Bargaining in Calcutta.—" First come the English quarters, several very fine streets and squares. The shops are splendid ; no shop-windows, but everything inside. They are much larger than in London, and more showy, I think, and everything almost is nearly double the price of London goo. Then come the native quarters, narrow streets, &e. However, there are capital shops here, and here every knowing person will come to buy furni- ture, earthenware, &c. ; for they are to be got at half the price one payli at English shops. The natives attend sales, and pick up things cheap. They always ask a very high price, but no one thinks of giving it. Herd is an instance, which holds good in everything. I wanted a small mahogany 110, for Emmie ; a man ran after my gharree in the street with two. I selectel one, and asked, 'flow much ? " Four rupees." I'll give "u but look of disgust, and the man disappeared for three or four minutes , .1! presently ran after the carriage, put the box down on the seat, .and said, Take it, Sahib !' so I gave my rupee and got my box. I believe, gee: general rule, that if one buys of native tradesmen, and has one's clot112, made by native tailors, one may live much more cheaply than in England. Climate at Lucknow.—" Oh, no ! one's blood is not in a constant f` staeta of boiling' in India. We have, here at least, nearly six months of very agreeable weather. From the 15th of October until the beginning of men who can stand the sun upon their heads dining the day cricket. It is now like the end of September in England, sun in the middle of the day is fiercer from being almost immedia. one's head. We have a fire lighted atout seven o'clock everyexevelLtnte we burn wood, for there is no such thing as coal here. I wouldce not that atmn ooyvtliwirere:: • A Memoir, Letters, and Diary of the Beverend Henry Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, Chaplain of Liseknow d Pole" verend Edward Polehampton, M.A., and the Revetend To sS m

hampton, M.A.., Fellows of Pembroke College, Oxford. _

Day by Day at Lucknow. A Journal of the Siege of Lu w bcilis Widow of Colonel Case, Thirty-second Regiment, (Queen's.) r bY Bentley. Published ht Edited bya ith,h.ee 1‘

'shed by Bentley.

Th,,,mhers with you. They say it will be much colder yet, and that in and part of February we shall want fires all the day. The days e each other—bright, clear, and cloudless. It really is a are au just opiondid climate now, though we shall have to pay for it after March. In our house, and generally in cantonments, there are no mosquitoes. We have had curtains made, but never use them; but in the city they swarm ; at the Gubbins's, they almost pull you out of bed." Country and Cultivation in Oude.—" Now a word about the country through which I travelled to Sultanpore. It is a dead level all the way ; but everywhere the ground is covered, as far as the eye can reach, with aye De of wheat and barley, now about a foot high, and a lovely green. The -coulitry grain was also in flower, one sort a pretty light blue, the other llow. Almost every two thousand yards there are topes or copses of mango trees. The mango is not a very pretty tree ; it is too round and wig-like, as Miss Ansel' used to say of my attempts at trees when she was teaching me to draw ; but still it gives the country a well-wooded appearance. There were other trees occasionally, like fine elms, of which I don't know the name. It is impossible to conceive a more dead level than all this part °audio. Since two hundred miles from Calcutta I have not seen a hill. But one does not miss them so much, when, as here, the landscape is every- where bounded by trees. Most people tell me that this is the prettiest part of the plains of India. It is not, as you may imagine, to compare with English scenery. The want of fresh green grass is quite distressing to an Englishman, excepting just at this season, when all the country is covered with fresh green crops. There is an immense quantity of corn grown in Oudh, but the straw of the corn is very short and the ear small. The rea- son is, I am told, that the land is never allowed to lie fallow, and that the farmers put no chalk or lime on the land. The Chief Commissioner here told me that he believes many large tracts of land in India have had crops of wheat raised from them year after year for two thousand years. The land has never been allowed to lie fallow, except occasionally, when a change of government, and consequent anarchy, drove the people from their homes."

Soldiers' Deaths.—" lain certain cholera is not catching, or I should have caught it long ago. Many a dying man's hand has been in mine ; and the men who attend on the cholera patients run far greater risk; but I don't think one of them has died. Four men are told off to attend on each cho- lera case for twelve hours. They do everything for the sick men, including almost incessant rubbing of their legs. "It has gratified me much to find the men in several cases, when I have been talking to them on their sick, and sometimes dying beds, reminding me of things which I had said in sermons ; in one case, several weeks before. Two of the little band of fifty, who have a nightly prayer-meeting, have died ; and the contrast between the manner in which these and some of the other men have met death, has been very striking. In the latter case, sometimes great fear has been shown ; sometimes indifference to all but their pains ; sometimes trembling hope. In the former, the men have been so calm and resigned, and expressed themselves so much in accordance with the teaching of Scripture, that it has been quite a comfort to hear them. Several of the men, who attend the prayer-meeting, have been very useful to me in reading to and praying for their comrades, when I could not go. I see in the men, who strive to serve God, in the 52d regiment, the truth fully exemplified, 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.' With a private soldier it is almost as it was with the pri- mitive Christians—a man who professes religion, is sure to practice it too."

In the late notice on Longfellow's Miles Standish, we remarked on the wide-spread circulation of both him. and. Tennyson and. their influence on the mind in circumstances of distress. Here is a curious confirmation of this remark in the biography, referring to an illness of Mr. Polehampton, brought on by his exertions among the soldiers when cholera was prevalent about a year be- fore his death.

"He tells in one of his letters how at this time he delighted to meal to memory the hymns of his childhood. He would also ask his wife to read to him selections from the poems of Tennyson and Longfellow, and expressed his intention of writing to the former poet, to thank him for the pleasure which his writings had always, but then especially, afforded him. It is at the desire of his widow that this fact is here mentioned, and it may not be unpleasing to those great poets, should these words meet their eyes.

The following passage indicates the frame of mind to which the atrocities of the natives had. brought more than one officer at Lucknow. The Cawnpore massacre had not then taken place.

"I was asked to go and fetch more ladies ; which I did, till all were brought away. Major Banks. with much feeling, commended the care of his wife to me, saying that she would be well content to be where I was. "I forgot to say, that in the night, on the house-top, he had asked me, as a clergyman, what I should advise him to do, in case of its being certain that his wife would fall into the hands of the rebels, and that they would treat her as they had done the women at Delhi and Meerut. It was a diffi- cult question ; but I told him that, if I were certain that my wife would be BO treated, I should shoot her rather than let her fall into their hands. Colonel Inglis afterwards asked me whether I thought his wife would be justified in killing her own children, rather than let them be murdered by the natives? I said, no ; for children could but be killed : whereas, we had been told that at Delhi young delicate ladies had been dragged through the streets, violated by many, and then murdered.)

"God forgive me if I gave wrong advice but I was excited ; and I know at the time I should have killed Emmie, rather than have allowed her to be thus dishonoured and tortured by these bloodthirsty savage idolaters."

The reminiscences of Mrs. Polehampton bring out with dis- tinctness the sad state of the hospital from heat, closeness with consequent malaria, and the plague of flies. She also marks plainly, though incidentally, the personal privations to which the dies were subjected, and the ruinous condition to which the fire of the enemy had reduced the Residency. The newest part of her narrative relates to the departure from the Residency, the escape march upon Cawnpore, and the reception of the rescued when they reached. the safer parts of the country. This was their greeting,

"Monday, 7th.—Arrived at Chimia, where the railway begins, at about six this morning. Part of the 23d are encamped there, on their way to Cavmpore. One of the soldiers brought me some tea and bread and jam from his own store. Great confusion in getting into the train. The sol- diers all came to see us off. Just as we began to move away they cried out, Vengeance for the daughters and babes of England slaughtered at Cawn- Pore! And we shall have it too ! ' They then cheered loudly as our train moved away. When we arrived at Allahabad, we found the station crowded vith the residents, officers, soldiers, ladies, &e. ; in fact, almost all the in- habitants seemed to be here to receive us, arranged on both sides of the train, and there was a burst of cheering as we came up. We found large

comfortable tents prepared for us inside the Fort. Today's parole hero- ine, M honour of our arrival."

The Day by Day Journal at Lucknow, by the Widow of Co- lonel Case (who was killed at Chinhut) extends from May, when apprehensions began to be entertained by the authorities, till the arrival of the rescued cortege at Allahabad, described in the previous extract. Strictly speaking, the book is not altogether ajournal nor entirely the work of Mrs. Case ; some letters are introduced that were the composition of a lady who is called Caroline, appa- rently a sister, and who held the pen when Mrs. Case was incapa- citated. by trouble or illness. The matter and character of the book are both feminine, throwing no fuller light on the siege itself even in externals, but presenting a picture of the tedium, pri- vation, and suffering, to which women of all ranks had to submit, except (as regards privation) those who were inmates of Mr. Gubbins's hospitable mansion, where a sufficiency of food reigned we believe to the last. Some of the notices are trifling enough : but they show the importance of trifles to which we are habituated. In September she writes—" I gave up taking sugar today and we are using our last piece of soap." In. October, allud- ing to the troops at Allumbagh having made a sortie and seized some provisions, she says—" Ours are rapidly diminishing, and today we have begun to restrict ourselves to two chupatties [a sort of cake], and soon I fear we shall have to eat horseflesh ; but as yet we have beef and rice. I have been hungry today, and could. have eaten more had I had it." Some of the soldiers foraged. "We were told that some of the soldiers belonging to the new [arrived relieving] force are so hungry that they will do anything to obtain food, and constantly run into the kitchens whenever they see cooking going on, seize on a chupattie and leave a rupee in its place."

The thought that crossed the mind of husbands was more com- monly discussed by wives.

" In the evening, Mrs. Inglis went to see Mrs. Cooper, and found Mrs. Martin sitting with her. They all had a consultation as to what they would consider best to be done in case the enemy were to get in, and whether it would be right to put an end to ourselves, if they did so, to save ourselves from the horrors we should have to endure. Some of the ladies keep lauda- nuni and prussic acid always near them. I can scarcely think it right to have recourse to such means ; it appears to me that all we have to do is, to endeavour, as far as we can, to be prepared for our death, and leave the rest

in the hands of Him who knows what is best for us. a a *

"Mrs. Gall came to see us this evening, and I found that they bad often, like ourselves, consulted together as to whether it would be wrong to put an end to our own lives if the insurgents were to get in. Different opinions entertained on the subject."