The Calcutta Gazetteer

Content

Open the Gazetteer — the handouts as physical props, set in period type on aged paper.

The Gazetteer is the portfolio of papers put into the investigators’ hands on arrival in Bengal, presented as the objects themselves rather than plain text. It currently binds in:

• A Griffin’s Vade-Mecum — extracts from Williamson’s 1810 guide with Meg’s corrections crowding the margins in her own hand. Plain copy: A Griffins Vade Mecum.

• The City of Palaces — some account of Bengal, its government, its commerce, and its two cities, privately printed. Plain copy: The City of Palaces.

• The Maps — Calcutta and its environs in four engraved plates: the river, the city, the compound, and Simms’s great survey of the streets with the story’s places as toggleable red-ink layers. Click any plate to examine it closely. Plain copy: Calcutta City Map.

• The Season — the month’s engagements as the cards and clippings on the hall table: the Magistrate’s invitation, the Gazette advertisements, and Meg’s memorandum. Plain copy: Calcutta Season Calendar.

• The Papers — the documents that have come into the party’s hands, bound in as they are found:

  • The Escort’s Letter — the Town Major’s assignment of Havildar Pratap Singh, presented on the landing steps at Chandpal Ghat. Plain copy: Pratap Singh Introduction Letter.

  • The Magistrate’s Card — Ashworth’s dinner invitation, brought by his chuprassy on Saturday evening. Plain copy: Ashworth Dinner Invitation.

  • The Bill of Fare — the menu of Ashworth’s welcome dinner at Garden Reach, laid at the ends of the table in the same office hand as the card. Plain copy: Ashworth Dinner Menu.

  • Harcourt’s Letter of Introduction — Harcourt to Renwick, carried by the party under the Wrexham seal. Plain copy: Harcourt Letter to Renwick.

  • The Salisbury Letter — Mr Duffield of Salisbury to Miss Wentworth, five months at sea and waiting at the agency house. Plain copy: Wentworth Letter From Salisbury.

  • The Government House Card — the Government House ball, Tuesday 11 October, by command of Lord Moira; brought by the Governor-General’s hurkaru with the Monday post. Plain copy: Government House Ball Invitation.

  • The Hunt Arrangements — Ashworth’s office confirming the tiger hunt for Saturday 15 October, on the same Monday tray as the Salisbury letter. Plain copy: Tiger Hunt Arrangements.

  • Mr Pargeter’s Letter to Sir Nathaniel — Pargeter to Sir Nathaniel Wentworth, written at Clive Street after the sisters called and sent up with the Tuesday post, with the memorandum of the share folded in. Plain copy: Pargeter Letter to Sir Nathaniel.

  • The Magistrate’s Chit — Ashworth to Adrien de Montferrand, sealed, on the Tuesday tray: the Chandernagore commission, and a second letter folded inside it. Plain copy: Ashworth Chandernagore Chit.

  • The Magistrate’s Letter of Introduction — Ashworth to Ghosh, enclosed open in the chit to be carried by hand. Plain copy: Ashworth Letter to Ghosh.

  • Mrs Courtney’s Note — Harriet Courtney to Meg Cavendish, on the same Tuesday tray; two lines of it read aloud at breakfast. Plain copy: Harriet Note to Meg.

  • The Charitable Disbursements — the Strand godown partnership’s abstract of charitable giving for the year ending 30 April 1814, from the revenue department’s files at the Writers Building. Plain copy: Syndicate Charitable Disbursements.

  • Found Drowned — a small paragraph in the Gazette of Wednesday 12 October, read at the Cavendish Compound breakfast table.

  • Mr Mullick’s Card — Mullick’s invitation to a Nautch on Tuesday 18 October, brought with a basket of mangoes on the Wednesday tray.

  • Mr Cartwright’s Proposal — Cartwright to Mr Cavendish, two sheets under a plain red wafer, Wednesday morning.

  • The Fort William Mess Card — the Mess at Fort William, dinner on Friday 21 October, on the Wednesday tray. Since moved to Monday 17 October at Mr Cavendish’s request.

  • From the Gazette Office back files (read Monday 10 October): The Zorab Sale Catalogue and The Inquest Notices; The Burial Ground, The Nocturnal Assemblies, The Missing Lascars, The Pamphlet That Never Appeared and The Correspondence That Stops; Absent from the Botanic Garden.

  • The Intercepted Letter — Brotherhood correspondence partially decoded in Harcourt’s pencil, from the Palais Modena briefing: five of eight, the eight cities, the arrow to Calcutta. Plain copy: Session 4 handouts, Chapter 3.

  • Letter from Calcutta — Ghosh to Herzfeld, recovered from the Vienna University assault. Plain copy: Session 13 handouts, Chapter 3.

Further papers will be bound in as they reach the compound.

About the Gazetteer

Every paper in the Gazetteer also exists as a plain page on this site. The Gazetteer editions are the props: the same words as they would look on the table.