" The last week of April found the Vice-regal household settled in Simla, the place which Minto had found odious on his first visit, but which he was soon to appreciate.
It was a change of residence, but no change of life, for the inexorable files flowed in ceaselessly, and the Viceroy was fortunate if he snatched an hour's ride in the day. In June they had an alarming earthquake, and in July the community was saddened by the tragic news of Lady Curzon's death.
Lady Minto was hard at work at her organization of the Indian Nursing Association, and preparing for the huge Fancy Fete in Calcutta which was to provide it with endowments. In this scheme she had Mr. Morley's warm support.
"Do you know," he wrote, "that I have often wondered whether I would not rather be in Lord Shaftesbury's place on the Day of Judgment than in the place of all the glittering statesmen. I mean that I would rather have done something pretty certain-nothing is quite certain--to mitigate miseries such as your Nursing Scheme aims at, than have done all the grand things about which high speeches are made and great articles written in the newspapers."
There were expeditions in which the hard-worked Viceroy sometimes managed to join, and the marvellous ritual of the household never ceased to inspire awe. After a very wet ride they arrive at Fagu in the hills, and Lady Minto's journal notes: "The scarlet servants with immovable faces stood round the table as usual, looking as if they had never left Government House.
Francis Grenfell told me he expected a picnic luncheon, but I informed him that the Viceroy must have his silver plate, his Star of India china, and every variety of wine, even if he happens to be on the highest pinnacle of the Himalaya mountains, and somehow they always appear as if by magic!"
Above is from
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500261h.html#0500261h-08
.
