The talk will present a glimpse of the four years Gus spent in London apprenticing as a tea taster, preparing to join his cousins’ firm of Augustine Heard & Co. in China - 1861-1865. Gus’ letters describe the daily workings of the mid-19th century tea business in London and hint at his coming of age there.

Gus set off on his adventures in 1861 when he was just 17. Gus was young, naïve, and alone in the big Smoke. He encountered bullies in his lodging place, the hoi polloi crowding across London Bridge, clerks and fellow apprentices in the City, kind landladies, welcoming families, demeaning employers at Bullivant & Wilson and decent ones at Ripley’s on Mincing Lane. He roamed the streets of London, entered the Commercial Auction House, the Post Office, Customs House, and the docks. He rode to work on the Metropolitan subway line, just after it was finished. He ventured out to the countryside, visited Scotland in June and Paris for Christmas, and attended a Scottish church, where he met young ladies from Nova Scotia.

He made a best friend: ‘At Ripley’s, there are two other young fellows whom I like very much. They are preparing to go to China. There is one about my age, who is situated about the same as I am. He is from Glasgow, Scotland.’

The Speaker

Penelope Pelham West grew up in Washington, D.C., then went north to college to seek her New England roots. Being named Penelope Pelham and the subsequent gift of this woman's 17th century shoe initiated her into the pleasures of researching, travelling and writing. She lives in Maine. Over the years, she has worked in schools and libraries, founded and run the Green Store in Belfast Me and now lives in a cohousing community in a net zero all electric house.

The inspiration for London Letters Home sprang from a chance meeting in a youth hostel with Satsuki Yamashita, who was intrigued by the fact that Penny's grandfather was born in Japan in 1880. When she got back to Japan, she sent Penny a map of Yokohama showing where her grandfather had been born and where her great grandfather, Gus Farley, Jr., (the subject of this book) had worked. Then it turned out a cousin had a cache of family stories and the letters 17-year old Gus wrote home from London where he had gone to learn the Tea Trade, with the aim of going straight on to China to work for his cousins, the Heards.

Programme

Venue: Online on Zoom. Please sign up to receive the link

Admission: No charge, please register your attendance in advance

Booking: Please email membership@royalasiaticsociety.org.hk in advance to register your attendance