SOME CHRISTMAS TREATS
For Christmas I've found some goodies from
the collection, happened across recently during the cataloguing project. Just
picking my way painfully through the 5000-odd remaining titles! Other problems
keep cropping up all the time - gee, our maps need cataloguing. (I knew that.)
Any qualified map cataloguers out there? We’d love to hear from you! In fact I’d give you a medal. (Not one of
those ones kept in the safe, no. But definitely a medal.)
To be more serious for a moment, it has
been a stressful few months at the Royal Geographical Society of South
Australia. It isn't helping that the lift in the beautiful old Mortlock
Building of the State Library of South Australia is out of order and will not
be fixed for some time. That’s a lot of stairs for a person with a crook hip
like yours truly. But we are still open, Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.,
and browsers are welcome. If there’s a notice up, as often on Fridays, saying
that the wing is closed to the public, this does not mean to users of the
RGSSA. Just tell State Library Security (you’ll see the desk right there on
Level 1) that you would like to visit the RGS. Walk right through the main
floor of the Mortlock Building towards North Terrace, up the stairs past the
first gallery, and up the next 1/2 flight to the mezzanine, and there we are.
Do ask if there is anything in particular you would like to see.
And so to the Chrissie treats! Well, you
may decide they’re oddies rather than goodies, but that's the joy of the
collection: you never know what you’ll find next.
Campbell, Donald,
1751-1804.
A narrative of the extraordinary
adventures, and suffering by shipwreck & imprisonment, of Donald Campbell,
esq., of Barbreck: with the singular humours of his Tartar guide Hassan Artaz;
comprising the occurrences of four years and five days, in an overland journey
to India. / Faithfully abstracted from Capt. Campbell's "Letters
to his son." The 6th ed. With plates. London : Printed for Vernor, Hood
and Sharpe, 1808.
Described in the preface
as an "abstract ... of the sixty-three letters" written by
"Capt. Campbell, (formerly a Commander in the Cavalry of the Nabob of the
Carnatic)", the work briefly covers Donald Campbell's journey across
Europe, describes his travels in the Middle East, and gives detailed
descriptions of his shipwreck off the Malabar Coast in western India, his
capture by the forces of Hyder Ali, and his imprisonment under "Hyat
Sahib", i.e. Hyat Saheb or Muhammad Ayaz Khan, the "jemadar" of
Bidanore (Bidanur, the Kingdom of Keladi), with a biography of the jemadar.
After describing the death of his companion, Mr Hall, in prison, the narrative
finishes with Campbell’s release and return home, the British forces under General
Mathews having relieved the Malabar forts.
Here is an example of
the text, where we learn how Hyat Saheb was adopted by the ruler of Mysore,
Hyder Ali. This is also the point at which Campbell mentions one of the famous
figures of Indian history of the period, Hyder Ali’s son, “Tippoo Sahib”. That
is, Tipu Sultan, Nawab of Mysore, 1753-1799, “the Tiger of Mysore”. Wikipedia
has a very detailed article about the life and times of this extraordinary man,
who was fluent in several languages, sent ambassadors to Europe, and died
gallantly at the head of his troops fighting the British (causing Sir Walter
Scott to compare him to Napoleon, greatly to the latter’s disfavour!):
“IN
the evening. of the day on which the jemadar Hyat Sahib had honoured Capt.
Campbell with an audience, given him clothes and money, and informed him that a
proposal, which he called flattering, would be made to him, he was sent for to
attend, not at the court, but at the house of a man high in office. As he
expected to meet Hyat Sahib himself, and trembled at the thoughts of his
expected proposition, our traveller was surprised, and indeed pleased to find
that it was with one of his people only that he was to have a conference. This
man received him with great kindness, encouraged him, made him sit down with him,
and began to speak of Hyat Sahib, whom he extolled to the skies, as a person
endowed with every great and amiable quality, and possessed of the friendship
and confidence of his master, Hyder Alli, in a greater degree than any other
person, Tippoo Sahib, his own son, not excepted: he then gave him the private
history of Hyat - saying, that he was born a Gentoo Prince, of one of the
provinces of the Malabar coast, which had fallen beneath the irresistible arms
of Hyder, and had been by him annexed to the vast Mysorean empire. Hyat, he
said, was then only a boy of eleven or twelve years of age, of a most promising
genius, and a quickness of mind unusually met with in one of such tender years.
Hyder, who was in all respects a man of unrivalled penetration, thought he saw
in the boy that which, if properly cultivated, would turn out of great use to a
state; and as, in all Mahomedan governments, unconnected, isolated boys,
oft-times slaves, are bred up in the seraglio to succeed to the great offices
of the state, Hyder adopted the boy, had him made a Mahomedan, and, in fact,
treated him as if he had been the issue of his own loins, and brought him up
with all the affection and tenderness of a fond parent. ...”
One
does wonder, rather, what Tipu Sultan thought of his father’s favouring another
boy!
As
you can see, the narrative based on Campbell’s letters is very readable.
However. it suffers, typically of many of the memoirs written in the very early
19th century, from an inability to construct a coherent and logical narrative.
Thus it isn't always clear exactly when and where, and often why, a given scene
takes place. Much of the context is ignored or taken for granted. Another
example is the following. Here it’s not only very difficult to establish the
context, it’s also hard to fight your way through the pompous moralising. It’s
a pity, because the factual bits are really unusual.
Howell, William, 1753-1842
Some interesting particulars of
the second voyage made by the missionary ship, the Duff, which was captured by
the Buonaparte privateer in the year 1800 / by W.H., Superintendent to
the Mission. Knaresbrough [Yorkshire] : Printed and sold by Hargrove and Sons,
1809.
As far as I can tell “W.H.” was William Howell (1753-1842), the
pastor at Knaresborough, Yorkshire. You might expect this to be the tale of a
Christian mission to the heathen of some remote place, but it isn't. Howell‘s
group of English missionaries started out with this intention but never reached
their destination. Approaching Rio de Janeiro they were taken by the French
privateer, the Buonaparte, under
Captain Rivière, which then sailed, along with the captive Duff, to Montevideo. It was very frightening, especially as the men
were separated from the women of the party and nobody knew what was going to
happen to them all. But at Montevideo the captives spent some time in
comparative freedom. Howell records his observation of the customs, especially
at Easter, of the people of Montevideo and the surrounding region. He then
recounts his party’s transfer to a Portuguese ship, the Medusa, and the voyage back to Lisbon, where they were freed. The
actual events are interesting and so is the record of life in South America at
the very turn of the 18th century - but the pious asides are not only very
tedious in themselves but make the story very hard to follow!
In
the context of our collection, those two are quite expectable. Goodies, then?
Though they have their own oddness. The third Christmas offering, however, is definitely
an oddie for our collection: it's not travel or exploration or even remotely
connected with geography - unless you contend, as some geographers do, that
geography is the study of world everything! ...Maybe it's their detractors who
say that. Never mind, it's all part of the human pageant - and the collection
most certainly shows you that!
Uzanne, Octave, 1852-1931, and Courboin, François, 1865-1926
Fashion in Paris : the
various phases of feminine taste and aesthetics from 1797 to 1897 / by Octave
Uzanne ; from the French by Lady Mary Loyd, with one hundred hand-coloured
plates & two hundred and fifty text illustrations, by François Courboin.
London ; New York : W. Heinemann ; C. Scribner's Sons, 1898.
 |
| "The Eiffel Tower, from the Exhibition Gardens (1889)" |
For
me, this is definitely a goodie: I’ve been interested in the history of costume
since I was old enough to haul Dad's two big art books off the bottom shelf and
onto the carpet - without lifting them, you understand. If you share this
interest you might like to know that Courboin’s pictures of earlier periods
often pop up in other sources as unattributed examples of the fashions of those
times. Be wary: there is obviously a lot of research behind them but they are
not, of course, contemporaneous with the fashions they illustrate. You can see
particularly in the two examples below that although the fashions have changed
drastically, the artist’s distinctive style is the same.
 |
| "A drive in a whiskey, Longchamsps, Year V (1797)" and "A smart corner of the Rue Richelieu: the East India Company's warehouse (1854)" |
Mille remerciements, cher M. Courboin, for this reminder of the Rue de Richelieu; I
walked down it every day for months to the BN when I was a student in Paris.
(It is “de”.) Ah, me, the long ago... Or you could say, it's serendipity! Its
just wonderful, the unexpected treats that turn up in the RGSSA’s collection!
Thank
you so much for your support throughout the year, dear blog readers. It’s so
encouraging to see the stats go up and to get some feedback, too. The kind
remarks at the RGSSA volunteers’ Chrissie lunch party were most appreciated. As
was the lunch!
Wishing you
all merry Christmas, happy Hanukah, happy holidays,
and all the
very best for a peaceful and safe New Year.
