Elsie Inglis | Page 5

where he died, in 1834, in his gondola! He had
strong religious convictions, and would never infringe the sacredness of
the Sabbath-day by any "secular work." In a short biography of him,
written in 1835, the weight of his religious beliefs, which made
themselves felt both in Parliament and when Consul, is dwelt on at
length. A son of David and Martha Inglis, John Forbes David Inglis,

was Elsie's father. John went to India in 1840, following his father's
footsteps in the service of the East India Company. Thirty-six years of
his life were spent there, with only one short furlough home. He rose to
distinction in the service, and gained the love and trust of the Indian
peoples. After he retired in 1876 one of his Indian friends addressed a
letter to him, "John Inglis, England, Tasmania, or wherever else he may
be, this shall be delivered to him," and through the ingenuity of the
British Post Office it was delivered in Tasmania.
Elsie's mother, Harriet Thompson, went out to India when she was
seventeen to her father, George Powney Thompson. She married when
she was eighteen.
She met her future husband, John Inglis, at a dance in her father's house.
Her children were often told by their father of the white muslin dress,
with large purple flowers all over it, worn by her that evening, and how
he and several of his friends, young men in the district, drove fifty
miles to have the chance of dancing with her!
"She must have had a steady nerve, for her letters are full of various
adventures in camp and tiger-haunted jungles, and most of them narrate
the presence of one of her infants, who was accompanying the parents
on their routine of Indian official life." In 1858, when John Inglis was
coming home on his one short furlough, she trekked down from Lahore
to Calcutta with the six children in country conveyances. The journey
took four months; then came the voyage round the Cape, another four
months. Of course she had the help of ayahs and bearers on the
journeys, but even with such help it was no easy task.
John Inglis saw his family settled in Southampton, and almost
immediately had to return to India, on the outbreak of the Mutiny. His
wife stayed at home with the children, until India was again a safe
place for English women, when she rejoined her husband in 1863.
They crowd round Elsie Inglis, these men and women in their quaint
and attractive costumes of long ago; we feel their influence on her; we
see their spirit mingling with hers. As we run our eye over the crowded
stage, we see the dim outline of the rock from which she was hewn, we

feel the spirit which was hers, and we hail it again as it drives her forth
to play her part in the great drama of the last three years of her life.
The members of every family, every group of blood relations, are held
together by the unseen spirit of their generations. It matters little
whether they can trace their descent or not; the peculiar spirit of that
race which is theirs fashions them for particular purposes and work.
And what are they all but the varied expressions of the One Divine
Mind, of the Endless Life of God?
[Illustration: ELSIE INGLIS
AT THE AGE OF 2 YEARS]
CHAPTER III
1864-1894
Elsie Inglis was born on August 16, 1864, in India. The wide plains of
India, the "huddled hills" and valleys of the Himalayas, were the
environment with which Nature surrounded her for the first twelve
years of her life. Her childhood was a happy one, and the most perfect
friendship existed between her and her father from her earliest days.
"All our childhood is full of remembrances of father.[8] He never
forgot our birthdays; however hot it was down in the scorched plains,
when the day came round, if we were up in the hills, a large parcel
would arrive from him. His very presence was joy and strength when
he came to us at Naini Tal. What a remembrance there is of early
breakfasts and early walks with him--the father and the three children!
The table was spread in the verandah between six and seven. Father
made three cups of cocoa, one for each of us, and then the glorious
walk! The ponies followed behind, each with their attendant grooms,
and two or three red-coated chaprassies, father stopping all along the
road to talk to every native who wished to speak to him, while we three
ran about, laughing and interested in everything. Then, at night, the
shouting for him after we were in bed, and father's step bounding up the
stair in Calcutta, or coming along the matted