By John Pennington
He was a highly decorated soldier of the Napoleonic and
other wars and later a servant of George Bankes, living in Studland.
Thursday, 21 September 2017
A PASSAGE TO INDIA
by Lester Cowling
When you think about it the remarkable thing
about the British presence in India is that the Brits ever bothered to go there
at all. Because, to start off, it was incredibly difficult to get to.
In comparison North America is relatively easy.
Newfoundland for instance - just sail
out into the Channel, turn left and head west.
Two thousand miles later and Bob’s your uncle - Newfoundland. In the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries both Weymouth and then Poole regularly
sent men in the summer to fish its cod-rich seas.
Take a slightly more southerly course and sail a
wee bit further - and you have New England. Easy. And no wonder Dorchester’s
relationship to establishing of Massachusetts has been described the same as
Mission Control’s to the Moon.
Even West Africa was a relatively easy
destination.
But India?
A DORSET NABOB
by
Lester Cowling
Nabobs - the men who went to India and made a fortune - usually through
some very dubious deals - and who returned to Britain seeking to use their
wealth to buy property and power.
They were the seventeenth and eighteenth century equivalents of today’s
trade fund managers and City bankers. And they were regarded, it seems, in much
the same light - a mixture of envy and contempt.
Were there any local examples of this breed?
I’ve discovered a truly classic example. It’s a bit tricky to unravel
his life altogether, but here’s my attempt.
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