Marianne North: To India

"The Great Lily of Nainee Tal, North India"
by Marianne North

"While back in London, the Kensington Museum sent two gentlemen to look at my different paintings, asking me to lend them for exhibition in one of their galleries. I was quite flattered when I heard afterwards that in the cab on the way to my flat, the one had said to the other, 'We must get out of this civilly somehow. I know what all these amateur things always are!' but in the cab going back, he said, 'We must have those things at any price." I employed the last few weeks of my stay in England in making a catalogue as well as I could of the 500 studies I lent them, putting in as much general information about the plants as I had time to collect.

I left Southampton once more by ship on the 10th of September 1877 for India. On the 24th of December 1877 I reached Tanjore, India, where I stayed at Dr. Burnell's, a friend and expert in botany. Living with him was like living with a live dictionary, and was a delightful change. He had all sorts of sacred Hindu plants ready for me to paint (he having undertaken to write their history at the same time, and to publish it some day with my illustrations). He and his friend showed me the splendid temple of Tanjore, lingering over all its rare bits of carving and inscriptions till I felt at home there, too. I know no building in its way nobler than that, and did one large painting of the outside, driving every afternoon to the point of view I had chosen, where the Princes of Tanjore had ordered a small tent to be put up for me and a guard of honour to attend me!

I also enjoyed travelling to Beypur close to the sea. I could walk on the rocks and sands, watching the shrimps, crabs, and other strange creatures in their own home circles. I made a long sketch of the river and distant mountains. It was very pleasant sitting on the clean sand, but it was hot. The jack-crows were the chief objection to my quarters at Beypur. They flew in at the window and stole every small thing they saw. I caught one just hopping off with a tube of my precious cobalt one day, and only came into the room in time to make him drop it. " 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North" by Marianne North.)