In poetry but also in prose Eliza Ogilvy had a fondness for the word ‘repine’, a useful rhyming word but one that jars on the modern ear. Interestingly (not surprisingly) the word was already archaic in the 1850s and ‘60s when she was using it. I checked Google ngram, which shows a sharp decline ...

Dear music lovers (especially of opera): This manuscript is said to have been retrieved by David Ogilvy from the Crystal Palace after the fire that destroyed the North Transept in 1866 (hence the burned edges).

The Second Opium War of 1856-60 was one of the first to be photographed (the Mexican-US war in 1847 was the first, then Crimea). Today Felice Beato’s images are a powerful reminder of the terrible destruction wrought on the Taku forts east of Beijing by the British Armstrong guns.

William Prinsep’s voyage from Singapore to Canton in 1838 was ostensibly to take news of London silk prices to Lancelot Dent. However on arrival his activities focused on learning the secrets of tea: how it was cultivated, processed and prepared for consumption. 1/4

October 1838: In Macao with the artist George Chinnery "[William] Jardine was sitting for his portrait but I observed that though his pencil was as true for design as ever, his painting had certainly gone off."

Archival discovery at NLS: an illustration by W.M.Thackeray found in a letter of Jan 1847 to William Edmondstoune Aytoun. It reads: “As I was walking in just now I met this fellow singing ‘I dreamed I had dwelt in marble halls’ driving a dustcart. I burst out laughing and so did he'. It continues...

White town in Madras, west of Fort St George. When Eliza visited her uncle, Major General Sir Robert Dick in 1839 he was living in 129 (Bottom left, N. Of the river, above Poodoopauk) one of many generously spaced villas within large gardens.

Black town in Madras, c.l1840, densely packed against the city walls and the coast, north of Fort St George.