George Turnbull (1809-1889): Autobiography: Chapter 18

Note: This is a sub-section of George Turnbull (1809-1889): Autobiography

Important: View the pdf version for original scans with improved readability

---

Chapter 18. 1865-67. (pages 224-231).

1865. There was nothing of any interest in the early part of this year, merely negotiations with Capt. Henderson, and weary discussions with poor Morewood, about the Indian Rolling Stock Company and Adley, and others, about the Calcutta Dock Company; both of which became abortive, and faded away.

February 16th. Fanny ill.

March. On the 13th I called on Mr. Jonas Hall Pope, and found him ill in bed and very weak, and did not think he would live much longer.

April. Mr. Osler employed me to make a design for his firm, of a show-room for his crystal and glass in Calcutta.

Mr. Bourne’s “ Handbook of the Steam Engine,” which he dedicated to me, was published.

May. Fanny became very unwell. On the 20th my diary says she was taken ill again to-day, and we sent for Dr. Hensley. On the 5th June, being very low, we called in Dr. Greenhow, in consultation with Hensley. He came again on the 13th, and thought her better. Mary Cleverly and Charles were very kind, coming to see us, and Mary stayed all night with her sister several times.

June. It was arranged with Mr. Osler that Mr. Owen Jones should be employed to do the decorative part of the Calcutta showrooms ; in other words, I should do the skeleton, the bones and sinews in iron, and he to clothe them in flesh and garments. I was much pleased to make Owen Jones’s acquaintance, and on the 14th called on him with a complete set of working drawings of the iron frame-work and brick foundations and walls. He was mightily pleased with the idea, and I promised him some drawings of the Mohammedan buildings at Rajmahal and Monghyr.

This show-room, or rather building, which is a large structure, was eventually carried out according to the plans, and I am told is much admired.

James Perry came to me about this time and invited me to join him in taking a contract for the Chord Line on the East Indian Railway. I was much inclined to go into it, but on due reflection I considered that the risk and contingencies were too great, and so I declined the offer, with many thanks. No doubt I might have made a large sum of money out of it, but I foresaw that the anxiety and annoyance and jealousies would be many; and I think I was right in not going into it; partly on that account, and partly that, on account of my family, 1 would not run the risk of losing all.

August. On the 2nd we took Mrs. Bloxam’s house, 22, Church Row, Hampstead, for a while. I have a memo on the 4th that Fanny went out “for the first time for eleven weeks, and seems gradually, slowly gaining strength.”

I was almost daily at my office. Great George Street, and drew out many detail drawings for Mr. Osler and Owen Jones, of iron work.

September. Mr. Thomas Rhodes called on 5th September. I was much gratified at seeing my good old master. He said he was 75 or 76 years of age; a fine old man, hair white as snow.

Mrs. Denham died on the 22nd of this month.

General Mark E. Shervill died on the 25th.

October. We went to Brighton on the 9th October; first to Albion Hotel, and then to furnished apartments. No. 45, Marine Parade, opposite the end of the old chain pier. Fanny getting stronger.

Lord Palmerston died on the i8th of this month, 80 years of age, Prime Minister.

Charley Cleverly was then at Mr. Hewitt’s school at Rottingdean.

November 13th. On the 13th, we returned to London, to 38, Craven Hill Gardens, viz., Fanny, Nelly, Geordie, Duncan, Katey, nurse Phoebe and Emma; having been away 14 weeks.

On the 15th, Jonas Hall Pope was married to Miss Clarke in Wombley Church, he was 72 years of age, she about 45 it was supposed. The wedding breakfast was given at the “King’s Head,” Harrow-on-the-Hill. She had been with him so many years as governess, housekeeper, and account keeper, such a kind-hearted, amiable woman, and so much beloved by all who knew her, that his friends could not take upon them to advise him against it. We said he ought to know best. Old Robert Morison of Perth, married at a greater age, and his marriage was a happy one.

December 31st. A letter from my sister Jane, from Edinboro’, announcing the death of Mrs. Alexander Boswell, on the 28th, aged 80. She was Mary Sandeman, sister of Hector Sandeman, Tulloch, mother of a large family, and my mother’s niece; her son John was my age, and we were dear friends. He died in India. Mrs. A. B. as’ they called her, was always very kind to me, a very “ clannish,” warm-hearted woman ; she knew Johnnie and I were fast friends and she liked me.

1866. February. On the 5th February, a final meeting of the Indian Rolling Stock Company, passed resolutions to wind up the concern ; which was a relief. Sir John Peter Grant, General Pelham Burn, Mr. Stewart and I were there. It was an unfortunate enterprise.

March 10th. Being Duncan’s birthday - 3 years - we all went to Zoological Gardens in commemoration thereof.

On the 15th. Admiral Denham called to tell us that his daughter Lizzie, is married to Alfred Parker, of the firm of Mackenzie, Lyall and Co., Calcutta. They were married at Howrah.

17th. Geordie’s birthday - he was 6 to-day - gave him a model of a locomotive and a tram, wound up with a key ; it runs round the room.

I tried hard at this time to induce my sisters, Margaret and Jane, to pay us a visit, but could not persuade them to come.

April 2nd. Easter Monday, took Fanny and Nelly to Bath - and spent a few days there - “White Lion Inn.” We went to Clifton, and met Annesley Denham, and Jas. Waylen there. Denham’s gun brig, “Ferment,” is at Bristol. They came and dined with us at the “White Lion;” very pleasant. Waylen and I knew each other first in 1829, at St. Katharine’s Docks. There was a great political meeting at the Guildhall, passing resolutions in favour of the Reform Bill of that year, in which I took much interest, my instincts and connections making me a staunch Whig and Reformer, having been a member of the Anti-Corn Law League in Cobden’s time, and I may say in John Bright's early days.

I write myself down as “a man of progress,” who has no wish to repose under the cold shade of the aristocracy, and to stand still.

15th. Duncan and Katty were then at Mrs. Bloxam’s, Hampstead. Geordie at Miss Abbot’s, at Epping.

May. On the nth a great panic in the city - the Money Market and Stock exchange. The old house of Overend, Gurney and Co., stopped payment. Hallet, Ommaney and Co., and also Peto and Betts, the contractors; so I have it down in my diary.

On the 15th, my good friend Mr. Rough, of St. Paul’s Church Yard, died.

31st. My journal or diary says. The Cleverlys arrived to-day and came to dinner. Miss Shaw also.

June 6th. Maggie Allen went away to-day after a few weeks’ visit, all the better for her stay with us. My diary says she was excellent company and a very pleasant inmate.

“ Seth Thomson,” from Cincinnati, called and claimed relationship. A very agreeable man, what one would call a regular Yankee, a go-ahead man. An elder sister of my mother married Peter Thomson, who went to America and was prospering; this was his grandson. I remember he asked me whether I thought his Scotch relations about Perth would receive him and give him welcome ; I said that depended upon whether he wanted anything from them, or whether he went to spend money among them, if the latter, he would be received with open arms! He did not seem to know whether I was serious or not. I meant no reflection on old Scotland; the same remark may be made of any civilised community in the world, I suppose.

The Cleverlys are now living at Leinster Square.

July 2nd. Great battle at Koenigratz. Austrians defeated by the Prussians.

On the 10th I went to a remarkable meeting of the Working Men’s Institute and Club at Exeter Hall, Lord Brougham in the chair; good work done.

Riot. 23rd. The Reform League resolved to have a monster meeting in Hyde Park, and to march in procession, but the Home Secretary, Mr. Walpole, ordered Sir R. Mayne and the police to close the gates and prevent them from entering the Park, the consequence was that the mob threw down the iron railing nearly all along Park Lane and forced an entrance. Not only along Park Lane, but from the Marble Arch to Victoria Gate.

The Atlantic cable was successfully completed on the 28th and telegraphic communication began with America.

August. On the 21st we settled ourselves in Melville House, Melville Street, Ryde, Isle-of-Wight. Many pleasant excursions in the neighbourhood. Carisbrook Castle, a fine old ruin, originally a Roman fort, rebuilt and enlarged by the Saxons, then a Norman fortress. South gateway very good, two round towers and curtain wall between, built about 1450. The well is very curious, above 200 feet in depth, with never failing supply of pure water. I have called it a ruin, but it is only partly so, for there are large, well- proportioned rooms in it with coved ceilings. Here it was that King Charles I. was confined for more than a year previous to his trial and execution.

September. George Turnbull, my first cousin, died at Kinnoul, Perth, on the 9th. He was a year or two my senior, but he and I were schoolfellows at the Perth Grammar School in Mr. Cameron’s time. He and I were fast friends all our lives, we never had a quarrel, many a fishing expedition we had together. He was a good trout fisher and an excellent fellow.

Thomas Leahy joined us and stayed for nearly a month adding much to our pleasure and amusement. One day we made an excursion to Brading and saw “little Jane’s” grave in the churchyard there. A curious old church, built eight hundred years ago, restored at the expense (by Sir Henry Oglander) of £3,000. The family have been there since the time of King Henry II. Sir Henry is married but has no family, and it is said he has no relatives that bear the name of Oglander, so that ancient name will die out.

October. On the 1st we had a trip round the Isle of Wight in a steamer called the “Prince Consort.” Left Ryde Pier at 12 noon, passed the Needles Lighthouse at 2.30, St. Katharine’s at 4 p.m., arrived at Ryde again at 6.15 p.m.

James Waylen arrived on the 9th. We went to Newport by coach, and out to “ Marvel ” a little south of Newport and dined with John Harvey, a fine old gentleman farmer, Master of the Isle of Wight Foxhounds, thirty-four couples of dogs. He is in some way connected with Devizes and so well known to Waylen, his cousin. Here is a fine picture of Harvey’s two daughters, done by Waylen. It is in a round frame, a very pleasing picture.

Mrs. Waylen came on the 11th. Waylen and I had a long walk to Bembridge Downs and examined the Fort on top thereof to be mounted with big guns. The embrazure with iron shutters, but we could make nothing of it.

On the 23rd we returned to Craven Hill Gardens, viz., Fanny, Nellie, Geordie, Duncan, Katty, Nurse, Mary, Mitchell and Bolton, the man-servant.

E. Sandeman married a Miss Sutherland. A letter came from John James Sandeman saying that his brother Edwin died on 14th September. He was my first cousin - he was a few years my junior - a Perth schoolboy, never did much good for himself in worldly matters, but a most conscientious man. He married a lady in Calcutta and left a family. I put him into clerks work on the East India Railway and he did fairly well for a while; ending in various troubles.

December. On the 19th there were Admiral Robinson, Decimus Burton, the architect, Mr. Parker, and others. Burton was the architect of the new part of St. Leonards, also designer and architect of the Nelson Column at Charing Cross, and the ornamental facade and gates at Hyde Park Corner, and the Triumphal Arch there on which the Duke of Wellington’s Statue was placed. Apropos to preservation of marble statue columns, etc., exposed to the English climate. Burton said the only thing he knew of that was efficacious, was beeswax, melted and laid on with a brush ; but how it was to be managed I do not remember, for melted beeswax laid on a cold piece of marble becomes hard at once and will soon peel off.

Sir R. M. Stephenson came and asked me to become a Director of the Copper mines of England, which I eventually agreed to after some consideration.

This closed the year 1866.

1867. January. My dear sister Margaret died at Edinburgh on the 15th of this month. Aged 60 years.

Joined the Copper Mines, Cwm Avon. On the 21st I attended, for the first after my election, a meeting of the Court of the Copper Mines of England - Mr. Haslewood, the Governor, in the chair - present Fowler, Harman, Bawker, G. T. Frewer, secretary.

February. On 27th February there was a “court-day;” present: Haslewood, Stephenson, Wade, Shaw, Harman, Fowler, Needham.

Seth Thomson and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Shervinton, came to dinner on the 23rd. He is an American, and came to claim relationship, which I admitted at once, and welcomed him to England. My mother had an elder sister, who married Mr. Thomson, a business man in Perth and emigrated to America, some where in the Southern States. Seth was his son, and made a good fortune as a railway contractor. They were pleasant people, but had no family.

March. Fanny and I took the children on the 9th to Dr. Pope’s, 3, Manchester Square, where Jonathan Crowley exhibited the magic lantern to our four and his three children. It was a pleasant party, and all were delighted.

On the 11th visited the Cwm Avon Works for the first time with Haslewood (chairman), Harman, Needham, and Frewer, the secretary. This was the annual visitation of the Governor and Committee of Court of Assistants. We arrived at Port Talbot Station, Aberavon, at 11.30 p.m., and were very hospitably received and entertained by Mr. Struve, the manager. The three following days were spent going over and examining the works—tin-plate works, smelting furnaces, puddling furnaces, rolling-mills, copper smelting works ; lastly. Port Talbot entrance loch gates breakwater.

[missing lines]

Miss Marshman; Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Sandeman, Mr. and Mrs. David Cowie, Baron von Streng, Mrs. Cubitt, Mr. Fletcher,

June. John Lindsay died at Woodend, Perth, on the 29th of this month, at a good old age. He was Geordie’s godfather. He was attended by Dr. Butehart.

The furniture, books, &c., were all removed from 38, Craven Hill Gardens, to 23, Cornwall Gardens, on the 21st. All was done very cleverly in one day, by Taylor, of the Repository; five wagon loads in all. They began loading at 7 a.m,, and worked till 11.30 p.m., unloading and storing it in top rooms, Cornwall Gardens. All the family and servants moved out to Heathland Lodge, Vale of Health, Hampstead—Bradley’s cottage.

Messrs. Lee, Watson, and Alton came to me to consult about their claims on the Great Indian Peninsular Railway Company, in respect to their contract on the Nagpore branch. Their claims for extras on the 250 miles came to no less than £230,000.

On 28th June the annual general meeting of the Assam Company took place ; a stormy meeting, as there was no dividend. Mackinlay proposed a committee of investigation, Theobald supported him ; the meeting would not have it, and the report was received and approved.

I was busily employed for some time going through Lee and Co’s, claims, and made out a critical analysis and epitome, and added a general report, and took it to them to 6, Spring Gardens.

August. On the 21st I went to Port Talbot and met Struve, and over Harbour Loch breakwater, &c. ; then to Cwm Avon, and stopped there: Mr. and Mrs. Struve, Miss S. Wm. Mackworth, Mr. Charles, Miss At ken, and Miss Mackworth ; the last mentioned became by-and-bye Mrs. William Cubitt. The next few days were spent going along a line of railway from Bristow Ferry to Glyn Corryg, and so down by Cwm Avon works.

On the 29th Fanny, Nelly, and I started for a trip to Paris, to see the Exhibition there. We went to the Bedford Hotel, Rue de 1’arcade. It was very full, an excellent hotel. We saw, besides the Exhibition, all the usual sights, and some of the amusements, which need not be described, as every one knows about them. We returned on 14th September to Hampstead, and found the dear children all well; Geordie was at the gate to receive us, Duncan and Katty asleep.

October. On the 4th October we left Vale of Health Cottage, Hampstead, and took up our quarters in the new house. No. 23, Cornwall Gardens, South Kensington.

November 19th, my diary says ; “ Rode out with Nelly in Hyde Park, Rotten Row, for the first time ; we rode all round the park. She could not get the horse to canter, but she rides well already ; dear little Nell, in her blue riding habit.”

21st. General Beadle called in great spirits, to say he is going out to India again as agent for the Rohilund Railway for three years, with a salary of ^3,000 a year, and reckons on coming home with a lakh of rupees added to his fortune.

See Also

Loading...