2 Marion Richardson Hong Kong July 11th 1885. My dear man: I suppose you are down at Beverly and asleep while I am writing this letter. The Bay of Hong Kong is very pretty with mountains All Around The Bay. We live about half up the peak so we get a lovely view. We live on Robinson Road, brockhurst, is the name of the place. The Terrace wines round and you have to go up steps and then you come to the flat tennis ground, then more steps and another Terrace, the house is very large, with a wide Aranda on three sides of it and at the back, is called the bungle because there is no upstairs.
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In the second of Mary Unsworth's memoirs, she tells us about Chow Sing, the Chinese steward on her husband's boat. (Her husband, Richard Unsworth, is the "Captain" in the following text). Chow Sing suffered greatly when the plague hit Hong Kong, but in an unexpected twist the story has a happy ending.
"Chow Sing" by Mary Unsworth, copied from her original handwritten account.
In the third and last of Mary Unsworth's memoirs, she tells us the sad story of Ah Hop, a Chinese nurse she came to know. Unlike Mary's previous tale of Chow Sing, this one doesn't have a happy ending.
"Ah Hop" by Mary Unsworth, copied from handwritten pages, punctuation as original.
This speech was gven to the Manchester Geographical Society at Finchwood, Marple, on Saturday, June 30th, 1900, at 6 p.m.
A LADY'S IMPRESSIONS OF HONG-KONG.
By MRS. UNSWORTH.
LIU KUNG TAO
In September 1915 we left Wei Hai Wei for Hong Kong, our father having been appointed to the Victualling Store Office in Kowloon. I was almost five years old and Audrey was three.
We went to live at Eden Court, a boarding house in Kowloon run by Mrs. Railton. It was a large house with a garden and tennis court, and a bamboo grove. We were told not to go into it, because of the bamboo snakes, but we could not resist eating the soft tightly rolled new leaves of the bamboos.
HONG KONG
I think it was in the Autumn of 1917 that Mamma joined the
staff of Shewan, Tomes and Co., the mercantile firm in Chater Road, as an accountant. We left Kowloon, and Mamma went to
Audrey and I began our school life at the French Convent
(also known unromantically as St. Paul's Institution) at Causeway Bay. Our nuns were of the Order of St. Paul de Chartres. We loved them,
From Kennedy Road we moved to Happy Valley. It was our home for some years, and the part of Hong Kong most closely associated with our childhood. We lived in one of a long terrace of houses in Wong Nei Chong Road, and at the seaward end of the road we caught the tram to school. The trams were double-decked. The upper deck and a small section of seats behind the driver were the 1st Class; and the 2nd Class was the rest of the lower deck, with its own door at the back.
At our Convent: Ma Mere,the Reverend Mother,was French; and the Head Mistress of the school, Ma Soeur Beatrice, was English. Sister Beatrice was severe, and we were rather afraid of her. Most of the nuns were French, with a few Chinese and Portuguese.
The funeral processions were very dramatic. A band came first,
playing weird sad music, then the coffin, carried on poles on
men's shoulders, and following it the mourners, all dressed in white
In 1923 we moved up to a house in Broadwood Road, on the
Ridge overlooking Happy Valley. It was a lovely tree-lined road of
houses and gardens with wild violets and ferns growing in shady
In 1924 I had reached the top of the school (ed. note - she was 14), and my school days ended. The nuns asked me to stay on and teach English to a class of Chinese girls, as many of them knew little English. I agreed to try, but was not happy and gave it up after a few months, and began to learn Pitman's shorthand and typewriting to prepare myself for a career as a Secretary.
There were furniture shops with blackwood stands, marbletopped, low blackwood tables, chairs and stools, intricately carved in bird patterns, flower patterns, dragon patterns; camphorwood boxes carved with Chinese scenes, emitting a delicious aroma when opened. Camphorwood was in great demand for storing things against moths.
Mah Jong sets had their own shops, this being the national game. Sets were in great variety, the traditional style being tiles of bamboo and ivory.
In 1928 we left Happy Valley and went to live at Braemar
Terrace, Quarry Point. This was a new terrace of flats, two-storeyed
with a flat roof, as in most Hong Kong houses. Ours was an
The Clementis went Home on leave in 1928, and the Colonial Secretary, the Hon. Mr. Wilfrid Thomas Southorn, became acting Governor, or to give him his correct title, Officer Administrating the Government. He was a large man, rather colourless after Sir Cecil, but his wife certainly made up for that. Mrs. Southorn was Bella Sidney Woolf. Her brother and sister-in-law were Leonard and Virginia Woolf.
The "Drive round the island" was traditional. Hire-cars were stationed outside the Hong Kong hotel, driven by Indians or Chinese. In those days cars ran slowly, so that one could enjoy the colourful scenery and the very winding road without being tossed about. Around the small island, only 32 square miles, the road curved all the way. At night it was a romantic drive, past hollows in the hillside twinkling withfireflies; and fishing boats, with their bright lights reflected in the calm sea.
In the summer of 1932 we left Braemar Terrace and went to live in Kowloon. As we were going Home on leave in 1933, we did not take a flat but stayed at the Knutsford Hotel. It was a long journey for me in the mornings and evenings because H.E. and Lady Peel were in summer residence at Mountain Lodge. From the Knutsford Hotel, I travelled by bus to the Star Ferry, then by ferry across the harbour, by rickshaw to Battery Path, by chair to the Peak tram, tram up the Peak, and Governor's chair to Mountain Lodge. However, I was quite happy!
A Chinese street is crowded, colourful and noisy. Shops are
open fronted. Boards are pat up over the front late at night,
and taken down early in the morning - the Chinese never
When we were children, the Compradore Book was an important
item of housekeeping. Every day Mamma would write in it the
food and household things needed, and the Boy or Amah would