Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- List of Illustrations
- 1 ‘Watch Therefore for Ye Knows Not’: Birmingham, 1828–1841
- 2 ‘A Sharp Intelligent Lad’: Macao – Hong Kong – Shanghai – Nanjing, 1841–1842
- 3 ‘Not Sufficient to Satisfy Me’: Zhoushan (Chusan) – Guangzhou (Canton), 1842–1843
- 4 ‘Here I Am Now Perfectly Alone’: Amoy (Xiamen), 1844–1845
- 5 ‘A Continuous Settled Life Has No Charms for Me’: Fuzhou – Shanghai, 1845–1849
- 6 ‘I Saw a Good Deal’: India – Britain, 1849–1851
- 7 ‘I Distinctly Declined to Accede’: Formosa – Guangzhou, 1851–1854
- 8 ‘Hasty Love-making’: Bangkok – London – Bangkok, 1855–1856
- 9 ‘It Is the Cause of the West Against the East’: Guangzhou, 1856–1857
- 10 ‘Never Sparing Himself in Any Way’: Guangzhou, 1857–1860
- 11 ‘The Executioner Stood by with Uplifted Sword’: Beijing, 1860
- 12 ‘I Do Not at All Like Being in a Great Man’s Train’: Nanjing – Hankou (Wuhan) – Shanghai, 1860–1862
- 13 Sir Harry Parkes: Britain, 1862–1864
- 14 ‘The Drudgery of the Service’: Shanghai, 1864–1865
- 15 ‘The Appointment is Particularly Gratifying to Me’: Yokohama, 1865–1866
- 16 ‘The Most Superior Japanese’: Osaka – West Coast – Nagasaki – Mt. Fuji, 1867
- 17 The Meiji Restoration: Osaka – Kyoto – Tokyo, 1868
- 18 ‘We of Course Hope for Improvement’: Tokyo, 1869–1871
- 19 ‘This is Becoming Civilised with a Vengeance: Britain,1871–1873
- 20 ‘I Arrived Too Late’: Tokyo – Britain, 1874–1881
- 21 ‘I Am Deeply Sensible of the Services You Have Rendered’: Tokyo, 1882–1883
- 22 ‘The Last Semi-civilised State’: Seoul, 1883
- 23 ‘I Can Find No Rest’: Beijing, 1884–1885
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Index
- The Author
6 - ‘I Saw a Good Deal’: India – Britain, 1849–1851
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- List of Illustrations
- 1 ‘Watch Therefore for Ye Knows Not’: Birmingham, 1828–1841
- 2 ‘A Sharp Intelligent Lad’: Macao – Hong Kong – Shanghai – Nanjing, 1841–1842
- 3 ‘Not Sufficient to Satisfy Me’: Zhoushan (Chusan) – Guangzhou (Canton), 1842–1843
- 4 ‘Here I Am Now Perfectly Alone’: Amoy (Xiamen), 1844–1845
- 5 ‘A Continuous Settled Life Has No Charms for Me’: Fuzhou – Shanghai, 1845–1849
- 6 ‘I Saw a Good Deal’: India – Britain, 1849–1851
- 7 ‘I Distinctly Declined to Accede’: Formosa – Guangzhou, 1851–1854
- 8 ‘Hasty Love-making’: Bangkok – London – Bangkok, 1855–1856
- 9 ‘It Is the Cause of the West Against the East’: Guangzhou, 1856–1857
- 10 ‘Never Sparing Himself in Any Way’: Guangzhou, 1857–1860
- 11 ‘The Executioner Stood by with Uplifted Sword’: Beijing, 1860
- 12 ‘I Do Not at All Like Being in a Great Man’s Train’: Nanjing – Hankou (Wuhan) – Shanghai, 1860–1862
- 13 Sir Harry Parkes: Britain, 1862–1864
- 14 ‘The Drudgery of the Service’: Shanghai, 1864–1865
- 15 ‘The Appointment is Particularly Gratifying to Me’: Yokohama, 1865–1866
- 16 ‘The Most Superior Japanese’: Osaka – West Coast – Nagasaki – Mt. Fuji, 1867
- 17 The Meiji Restoration: Osaka – Kyoto – Tokyo, 1868
- 18 ‘We of Course Hope for Improvement’: Tokyo, 1869–1871
- 19 ‘This is Becoming Civilised with a Vengeance: Britain,1871–1873
- 20 ‘I Arrived Too Late’: Tokyo – Britain, 1874–1881
- 21 ‘I Am Deeply Sensible of the Services You Have Rendered’: Tokyo, 1882–1883
- 22 ‘The Last Semi-civilised State’: Seoul, 1883
- 23 ‘I Can Find No Rest’: Beijing, 1884–1885
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Index
- The Author
Summary
PARKES WAS NOW twenty-one and had not been to Britain for eight years, so had not seen it as an adult. He was determined to make up for lost time and take a voyage of discovery. As we may have guessed, he approached it with vigour.
The journey back was itself an opportunity to discover new places and he made a particular effort to experience India. His first significant stop was Galle, from where he toured Ceylon, whereupon he attacked the sub-continent travelling overland from the east to the west coasts: starting in Chennai (Madras), he went to Kanchipuram (Conjeveram), Arcot, Bengaluru (Bangalore), Srirangapatna (Seringapatam), Kozhikode (Calicut), from where he took a steamer up the coast to Mumbai (Bombay). The overland stage of the journey was about seven hundred kilometres, undertaken in a ‘transit-coach’ drawn by bullocks (there were no trains in the country at this point). He probably walked and the transit-coach took his baggage. The trip gives an interesting insight into his priorities – most people were satisfied with visiting the Indian ports, coupled with easy excursions inland, but Parkes wanted more from the experience. He probably thought he would never have the chance to spend an extended period in the country again (if so, he was right), so he took the opportunity. Pottinger had given him letters of introduction so he was welcomed wherever he went, and in Mumbai he was received by the Governor, Lord Falkland.
After India, he sailed on to Suez, rode on a camel from there to Cairo and then went along the Mahmudiya canal to Alexandria. He finally reached Marseilles on 18 March 1850, from where he took the train through France before arriving at Folkestone, where he ‘hurried to the best chop-house’ he could see ‘and ordered an English beefsteak with potatoes and ale as concomitants’. Unfortunately, the beef was badly-cooked and the potatoes underdone. The accompaniment however was a treat: ‘There is no resemblance I declare’ between British ale and the ‘bottled-up fermentation that we get in China.’
As is common for those used to the life outside Britain, London was a shock. Lord Dufferin once remarked that twenty-five minutes in Pall Mall would take the conceit out of any Viceroy.
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- Information
- A Life of Sir Harry ParkesBritish Minister to Japan, China and Korea, 1865–1885, pp. 45 - 48Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020