70
J. L. CRANMER-BYNG
The life of a young attaché is described by Freeman-Mitford in all its facets; fun and boredom together. By mid-June the temperature in the Legation was between 95° and 107° Fahrenheit, so the majority of its members moved out to the Western Hills and took up residence in part of the Pi-Yün Ssu, the Temple of the Azure Clouds, the most beautiful of all the temples in the Western Hills. But even then he had to ride to the Legation (a distance of about 12 miles) from time to time to 'copy despatches'. Even while in the Western Hills it was not all sightseeing, as his teacher went with him, and Mitford had to press on with his Chinese studies. However, he contrived to ride out to the Great Wall and to visit the Ming Tombs and the Summer Palace (the I-Ho Yüan) among other places. Not all was heat and perspiration. By the end of October he was writing: "Outside, the rain is falling fitfully and the wind blowing a hurricane; it moans and howls dismally through the courts and cranky buildings of the Legation, piercing its way into all sorts of odd nooks, and routing out old bells that jangle in a harsh and discordant way from the quaint eaves, as if they were angry at being disturbed in their dusty dens. Doors are creaking and timbers groaning in every direction, and the windows threaten to burst in, but the stout Corean paper holds good, though it gets stretched and flaps unpleasantly like loose sails in a calm, and on the whole I confess I prefer glass. Every now and then, as the storm abates for a while, I hear the tap, tap, tap, of the watchman's bamboo as he goes his rounds.
In short, we are working gradually into winter."13
The rest of his letters are principally concerned with snow and ice, and on 25th November he mentions that they are sending off the mail that day "in the hopes that it will yet be able to leave Tientsin for Shanghai before we are finally shut out by the frost from all communication with the outer world." However, in winter there were compensations. A skating rink was fixed up inside the Legation; food was more enjoyable because there was now plenty of game—hares, pheasants, wild duck, and venison; and also by now pears and grapes were available. In February
13 Ibid., 163-4.
70
J. L. CRANMER-BYNG
The life of a young attaché is described by Freeman-Mitford in all its facets; fun and boredom together. By mid-June the temperature in the Legation was between 95° and 107° Fahrenheit, so the majority of its members moved out to the Western Hills and took up residence in part of the Pi-Yün Ssu, the Temple of the Azure Clouds, the most beautiful of all the temples in the Western Hills. But even then he had to ride to the Legation (a distance of about 12 miles) from time to time to 'copy despatches'. Even while in the Western Hills it was not all sightseeing, as his teacher went with him, and Mitford had to press on with his Chinese studies. However, he contrived to ride out to the Great Wall and to visit the Ming Tombs and the Summer Palace (the I-Ho Yüan) among other places. Not all was heat and perspiration. By the end of October he was writing: "Outside, the rain is falling fitfully and the wind blowing a hurricane; it moans and howls dismally through the courts and cranky buildings of the Legation, piercing its way into all sorts of odd nooks, and routing out old bells that jangle in a harsh and discordant way from the quaint eaves, as if they were angry at being disturbed in their dusty dens. Doors are creaking and timbers groaning in every direction, and the windows threaten to burst in, but the stout Corean paper holds good, though it gets stretched and flaps unpleasantly like loose sails in a calm, and on the whole I confess I prefer glass. Every now and then, as the storm abates for a while, I hear the tap, tap, tap, of the watchman's bamboo as he goes his rounds.
In short, we are working gradually into winter."13
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The rest of his letters are principally concerned with snow and ice, and on 25th November he mentions that they are sending off the mail that day "in the hopes that it will yet be able to leave Tientsin for Shanghai before we are finally shut out by the frost from all communication with the outer world." However, in winter there were compensations. A skating rink was fixed up inside the Legation; food was more enjoyable because there was now plenty of game-hares, pheasants, wild duck, and venison; and also by now pears and grapes were available. In February
13 Ibid., 163-4.
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