DOI Artikel:
Swettenham, Frank Athelstane: The Ûnka
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25498#0195
The Unka
By Frank Athelstane Swettenham, C.M.G.
The other day I had to move from the house where I have
lived for the last seven years, and in the consequent upheaval
of accumulated rubbish—specially letters, papers, and books—I
found a note, or, to speak accurately, two notes written on one
sheet of paper, which brought vividly to my recollection an incident
that occurred while I was living with one of the writers, Captain
Innes of the Corps of Royal Engineers.
Innes and I had taken a house in Penang and had just moved
into it. The house stood at the junction of two roads, it was
surrounded by a large but neglected garden, and the place altogether
resembled an Eastern Castle Rack-rent, an appearance partly due
to the fact that it had not been occupied for some time. The
garden was a veritable jungle ; but the house was large and roomy,
approached by a rather imposing flight of steps which led into a
great marble-paved hall, lighted by long narrow windows, glazed
with small panes of glass. It was principally on this account that
we named our new habitation the Baronial Hall.
I remember that the stables contained but three stalls, to
accommodate Innes’s one horse and my three ponies. I thought I
might claim two of the stalls, but Innes’s horsekeeper, a Sinhalese,
in whom his master had more confidence than I had, insisted that
The Yellow Book—Vol. XII. m his
By Frank Athelstane Swettenham, C.M.G.
The other day I had to move from the house where I have
lived for the last seven years, and in the consequent upheaval
of accumulated rubbish—specially letters, papers, and books—I
found a note, or, to speak accurately, two notes written on one
sheet of paper, which brought vividly to my recollection an incident
that occurred while I was living with one of the writers, Captain
Innes of the Corps of Royal Engineers.
Innes and I had taken a house in Penang and had just moved
into it. The house stood at the junction of two roads, it was
surrounded by a large but neglected garden, and the place altogether
resembled an Eastern Castle Rack-rent, an appearance partly due
to the fact that it had not been occupied for some time. The
garden was a veritable jungle ; but the house was large and roomy,
approached by a rather imposing flight of steps which led into a
great marble-paved hall, lighted by long narrow windows, glazed
with small panes of glass. It was principally on this account that
we named our new habitation the Baronial Hall.
I remember that the stables contained but three stalls, to
accommodate Innes’s one horse and my three ponies. I thought I
might claim two of the stalls, but Innes’s horsekeeper, a Sinhalese,
in whom his master had more confidence than I had, insisted that
The Yellow Book—Vol. XII. m his