A most singular diary of a passage to India written by a scholarly, priggish young Englishman, seemingly the Etonian-educated son of a Kent clergyman, largely oblivious to his surroundings at sea, but obsessed with reading. Travelling on board the East India Company Ship, the Malcolm, from the moment the ship left Gravesend (May 20 1828) the diary writer recounts an orgy of reading that lasted throughout the three month sea voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, consuming Goldoni; De Lacy’s Grammar, Beattie, Gray, Collins, Byron and Milton’s Paradise Lost - in a copy that he lost at the end of the voyage when a fellow traveller refused to return the book he had loaned out.
One of the diarist’s obsessions is translation as he repeatedly works on passages from the writings of the Persian poet Sheikh Saadi Shiraz - ‘Analysed the 14th story in the Gulistan & made reference to each Arabic word in Gulis. Felt very well satisfied with my work.’ (30.5.28.) A key moment in the journey is the young traveller’s stand-off with the ship’s Captain, Mr Delafosse, over his theory of translation ‘I maintaining that you could not be said to have any perfect knowledge of an author from any poetical translation - He maintaining that Pope would give you more insight into the Iliad and Odyssey. (16.7.28). Despite their disagreement the Captain is a grateful recipient of some of the diarist’s loans including ‘Heber’s Journal & the Sketches of Persia to read to Mrs Delafosse’ (2.6.28).
When reading material ran short our diarist ‘Had my large chest of books brought out of the hold… selected the ones I was in the more immediate want of…’ subsequently working his way through Sketches of Persia, Malcolm’s Political History of India and Gil Blas. Reading Shakespeare’s Cymbeline the diarist can hardly contain his excitement, and he records his work translating parts of Dante, with the inevitable cumulative consequence on 25th June: ‘Gave up the whole of the day to the “Mysteries of Udolpho” and consequently felt somewhat melancholy.’
The diarist’s fellow passengers are generally a disappointment to him, apart from talking ‘a little in Hindostani to my friend the black lady’ but, just occasionally, they share his obsession: ‘Washbourne, the Assistant Surgeon agreed to read something with me - came at 12 & read the 1st Chap of Heber’s Journal - the Discussion of his approach to Calcutta.’
On September 19th the diarist ‘Woke with Madras in full view’, proceeding to Curzon House where he presented letters of introduction to Robert Conyers and Peter Cator (Registrar of Supreme Court), finding ‘Mr Cator at his office - Walked on the Mount Road close to the sea till 5 o’clock & then went with Mr Cator in his carriage to his country house at St Omai’. The diary concludes with half a dozen pages of entries in Madras (modern Chennai), transported by palanquins, overwhelmed by the heat, invited to a ball and instantly accepted into colonial high society. And of course his reading doesn’t stop - the last book he enjoyed before the diaries ‘after ‘Sir R[obert Comyns] left me all day for the Court. Lay on the sofa and read Campbell’s delightful Gertrude of Wyoming.’
DESCRIPTION: Small octavo, half red roan over marbled boards; marbled endpapers; 1826 watermarked, lightly lined paper. The wrriter uses black ink and writes in a cursive hand that is readable with a little effort. One leaf detached; a mixture of recto and verso over 200 pages, about 15,000 words. The diarist mentions St Andrew’s Rectory in the Downs as his point of departure and that he was educated at Eton. We have not managed to identify him.
