Brindisi Sunday night, Jan’y 23/98.

It is now 8:15 p.m. Dinner is just over but there’s been a great commotion since 6:30, the overland passengers arriving & it appears their train was 2 hours late. We have got 2 batches of mails on board but the largest from England for the East is yet to arrive. We are likely to be here many hours yet: I got my letters about 10 & papers later. I sent you a p. card early after coming out of church, which is immediately opposite the ship, also one to Berwick.[1] Yours & theirs, if joined, gives an extended view of the harbour front, and as I have seen most of what’s worth seeing here, not a very charming place, I thought I would mail this home also, as I won’t have another opportunity till Port Said. By the way, you will get the letter posted on board last night, probably [1:52] by this same post. The silk was enclosed in it. Well, it has been a fine, dry day but cold, & this is my first experience of a continental Sunday. It is no more like Sunday as we know it than Wednesdays. Shops & labourers full swing, & while we were out visiting orchards, orange and lemon, many labourers were in the fields, mostly vines, & towards sunset droves came into town with their implements over their shoulders

Steamers loading & how very singular of two alongside the quay are named “Melo” and “Nilo”, & both big steamers. The former came in after us & began loading huge casks of wine & basses[2] of figs, numerous Customs & other uniformed officials moving to & fro, & several in attendance on our ship. What an excitement goes on around & about these P&O boats, & Cook’s agents [1:53] in uniform are much in evidence. They have a suit[e] of offices close to, not 1 minute from the P&O berth, & next door is the P&O offices. Street musicians were at the ship’s side before we were moored, & several mendicants, & as one moves about the very children ask for money. They seem to have been trained to it, & innumerable interpreters are ever on the look out for employment. Their street vendors are also about & 2 or 3 men with rows of deck chairs from 2/9 to 9/6, the latter just like mine for which I gave 12/6 in Leadenhall St.[3] Wine shops everywhere, & cafés, & especially in the former, card playing seemed going on continuously, & tonight there is a ball masque in one of the houses of entertainment. It appears this has been a church festival week & I suppose it finishes with this entertainment. [1:54] It will be the festival in commeration [sic] of the conversion of St. Paul Jan’y 25th. The preacher this morning dwelt at length upon it, & in Malta we were told it was being commemorated & finished next Tuesday. Brindisi has a fine harbour & beautiful for yachting. The buildings are wretched & only a few show signs of having been architecturally rich. There is a very huge, old castle here & it must have been a fine building once. It is now used as a convict prison & presently contains over 700 prisoners, & the guards are soldiers. Peculiar carts are used here, flats with very high wheels & drawn by mules. The carriages are drawn by small ponies, very sharp & seemingly well cared for. Goats here too are driven from house to house as in Malta. We saw one big herd coming in. Now the new [1:55] comers are begin[n]ing to move about. The ship is crowded. I see the Richmond heir[4] is here & sits just next table to where I am, & in company of Lord Locke[5] & family. So full are we, the down stairs saloon is full up with diners but a clearance will take place at Ismalia, as I told you in my last. The band discoursed most delightful music during dinner tonight & everything looks grand. I told you in my p. card how pleased I was with all letters & now I have the 2 parcels of papers & prospect a treat in them. During this afternoon we were in the grounds of the Turkish Consul. Very fine they’ll be in season, tho’ now the oranges & lemons look very tempting. In fact the oranges are perfectly ripe, & the lemons in beautiful bloom, no olives just now. In some [1:56] shops, which took my attention & much in our style, maccaroni was on sale in enormous lots, in many shapes & large patterns. Olives in great bowls, Italian cheese, many kinds & all sorts, shapes & sizes of dried polonies & sausage, wine every where & children carried bottles to these shops similarly to the usage at home with off beer shops. Electric light here. We are far behind, I see, in regard to electricity at home.

The preacher this morning before he began his sermon, (“Be ye followers of Christ as I also am” Ephesians) intimated evening service to begin at 5 or as early after the electric light was available, the building in & out is anything but church like. However, they have all arranged very precisely, cool stony floor but I see they have a wood platform & chairs thereon. Harmonium, 2 Ministers, no endowment, [1:57] supported only by contributions of visitors. The building was well filled, the hour couldn’t have suited better as just after breakfast & preparation, then came the hour of service & so close to the ship

Now the baggage of the newcomers is being stowed away & I expect there will be confusion till very late.

How sorry I was to learn from Willie’s letter the death of Mrs. Tate.[6] She has had a long life & well spent. How T. & D.[7] will miss her. I regret I could not be present at the last ceremony.

Pleased to receive Sir Thos. Lipton’s very kind letter & one of introduction to his agent at Colombo, with request to aid me in seeing all that’s interesting thereabouts, so I shall pay my respects Mr. Duplock on arrival.

I’ll get time to look more minutely over your letters, Willie’s & Mary’s[8] too, & revert more fully in my next, [1:58] & I must try & condense my writing else my books will very soon be exhausted. Besides, I fear I say too much & that chiefly personal.

Glad to hear of & about “My Comely”, & that he enjoys himself to your satisfaction & freedom. I hope to hear in Bombay of Albion’s[9] arrival.

Pleased Willie got so nicely home & entertained you thereafter. At 11 a.m. your time today Sunday, tho’ at service, I gave a minute of spirit with you.

My berth companion is here tonight & seemingly a fine young man. It’s astonishing the number of young men & women that are on board.

Now I’ll close. It is near 10 with us, so good night, & God be with us all till we meet again.

Posted at Brindisi p. office, Sunday night, Jan’y 23/98, SS Victoria, in harbour.

[1:59]

[1] Berwick-upon-Tweed, where William was born in 1847 and where his father, Andrew, and sister, Mary, still lived.

[2] Bass bags

[3] Offices of the P&O Steam Navigation Company located at 122, Leadenhall Street, E.C.

[4] Possibly Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, son of the 6th Duke of Richmond. He became 7th Duke of Richmond in 1903, but was styled Earl of March before this date.

[5] Unidentified.

[6] Sarah Tate (nee Gibson), wife of Ninian Sheraton Tate, uncle of William’s wife, Mary Tate.

[7] Children of Sarah and Ninian Sheraton Tate, William Thomas and Dorothy Tate.

[8] Mary Whitehead, William’s sister

[9] Albion Tate Whitehead, son of William and onboard the merchant ship Andorinha.