I'M GOING TO BOMBAY

I'M  GOING  TO  BOMBAY

“ Nothing venture, nothing have." - Old Proverb

.“ Every Indiaman has at least two mates." - Falconer’s Marine Guide

My hair is brown, my eyes are blue,

And reckoned rather bright ;

I 'm shapely, if they tell me true,

And just the proper height ;

My skin has been admired in verse,

And called as fair as day -

If I am fair, so much the worse,

I 'm going to Bombay !

At school I passed with some eclat ;

I learned my French in France ;

De Wint gave lessons how to draw,

And D'Egville how to dance -

Crevelli taught me how to sing,

And Cramer how to play-

It really is the strangest thing -

I 'm going to Bombay !

I 've been to Bath and Cheltenham Wells,

But not their springs to sip -

To Ramsgate - not to pick up shells -

To Brighton - not to dip.

I 've toured the Lakes, and scoured the coast

From Scarboro' to Torquay -

But tho' of time I 've made the most,

I 'm going to Bombay !

By Pa and Ma I 'm daily told

To marry now 's my time,

For though I 'm very far from old,

I 'm rather in my prime.

They say while we have any sun

We ought to make our hay -

And India has so hot an one,

I 'm going to Bombay !

My cousin writes from Hyderapot,

My only chance to snatch,

And says the climate is so hot,

It 's sure to light a match.

She 's married to a son of Mars,

With very handsome pay,

And swears I ought to thank my stars

I 'm going to Bombay !

She says that I shall much delight

To taste their Indian treats;

But what she likes may turn me quite,

Their strange outlandish meats.

If I can eat rupees, who knows ?

Or dine, the Indian way,

On doolies and on bungalows -

I 'm going to Bombay !

She says that I shall much enjoy -

I don't know what she means -

To take the air and buy some toy,

In my own palankeens -

I' like to drive my pony-chair,

Or ride our dapple gray -

But elephants are horses there -

I 'm going to Bombay !

Farewell, farewell, my parents dear,

My friends, farewell to them !

And oh, what costs a sadder tear,

Good-bye, to Mr. M. ! -

If I should find an Indian vault,

Or fall a tiger's prey,

Or steep in salt, it 's all his fault,

I 'm going to Bombay !

That fine new teak-built ship, The Fox,

A. I. - Commander Bird,

Now lying in the London Docks,

Will sail on May the third;

Apply for passage or for freight

To Nichol, Scott, & Gray -

Pa has applied and sealed my fate -

I’m going to Bombay !

My heart is full - my trunks as well;

My mind and caps made up,

My corsets, shaped by Mrs. Bell,

Are promised ere I sup;

With boots and shoes, Rivarta’s best

And dresses by Duce,

And a special licence in my chest -

I’m going to Bombay !

                          Thomas  Hood  1799 - 1845

NOTES

THE  MEMSAHIBS

During the reign of Queen Victoria, thousands of British women went out to India to live, work and to die, as wives, mothers and sisters and later as teachers, doctors or missionaries. Many were army wives, following their husbands to a land, which became for them a second home. Historians, like Correlli Barnett, have blamed these Memsahibs for exacerbating racial prejudices and dividing Indian society buy their failure to understand India's, speak any of their languages and by maintaining their inappropriate customs, arguing that 'in the early 19th century, Indian mistresses brought officers and men closer to Indian life: later stern Memsahibs, stiffly corseted with Victorian morality and etiquette, and resentful of the voluptuous competition of sari-clad brown bodies, stopped all this, with lasting damage to British relations with Indians. Writers, such as Rudyard Kipling who was born in Bombay in 1865, have written realistically of army life in India, portraying the typical memsahib as a snobbish and selfish butterfly, flirting, and flitting from bridge, tennis and garden parties to dinners and dances in the delightful hill stations, while her husband slaved at his job in the heat of the plains. 'From pedestals of sober respectability, Englishwomen have passed judgment on us', wrote Maude Diver. 'That have denounced us as idle, frivolous and luxury loving.' Nevertheless, many of these women, loyally and stoically accepted their share of the white man's burden and lightened it with their quiet humor, their grace and often with their youth.

THE  FISHING  FLEET

With the opening of the Suez Canal, officers were able to spend their year's leave in England and return with a wife or fiancée, instead of waiting for the arrival of the "fishing fleet", with its annual shipload of marriageable young girls, hoping to find husbands among the European civil servants and army officers. Those traveling alone were advised to stay in their cabins, Bible in hand, to avoid the temptations of the East and the shipboard romances-not for nothing was the British India Shipping Line known as the "bibi" line, the Hindustani word for "woman" or "mistress" coinciding with the Company's "B.B.' monogram. For a girl of Victorian England, without dowry, rich relations or beauty to make a suitable match, India offered, as soon as she landed, proposals of marriage 'from old and young, military and civil, nobles and commoners. She was counseled not to dance with anyone below a very senior civilian or a military officer with a staff appointment.' Thomas Hood satirized these ambitious husband-hunters with his poem “ I’m Going to Bombay”.

The arrival of a young lady in the station was likely to cause the uttermost excitement amongst officers and wives alike. 'No soon is it know that Miss So and So is coming to the station than everyone begins to speculate who she will accept', wrote Doctor Gilbert Hadlow/ 'For it is taken as a matter of course that all the bachelors will propose without loss of time (irrespective of suitability and antecedents). There is something very absurd in the race for a wife of here.' At least, while the race lasted, it helped to relieve the boring sameness of the days, and to provide a diversion for officers from pig-sticking and big game hunting in the foothills of the Himalayas or drinking and womanizing in the hill stations of Southern India.

The interest of the ladies was equally intense but for different reasons, as Lady Angela Falkland, wife of the Governor and a daughter of William IV and Mrs. Jordan noted in 1848:-"The arrival of a cargo of young damsels from England is one of the most exciting events that mark the advent of the cold season (in mid October) with its 4 months of concentrated gaiety of dances, balls and picnics. It can be well imagined that their age, height, features, dress and manners become topics of conversation, as they bring the latest fashions fro Europe, they are objects of interest to their own sex."

This note is from the book “ Judy O'Grady and the Colonel's Lady : The Army Wife and Camp Follower since 1660 “ by Noel St. John Williams