Washed and Away                                      03.03.18

‘On the banks of our River Thames I bore witness to such a strange affair as I had never upon my life seen before:

The River’s edge became a place of extraordinary spectacle; several Lascar’s from the ship walked down the gangway carrying a wrapped body between them and dropped to the mud beneath where a tremendous pyre of wood  and debris from the river had been prepared.

With some ceremony the body was lifted atop this structure and their created beneath such fire as I have seen and after some time of bustle and general hooha of chanting and music from a strange singled string instrument called a dodro [as I learned from one of them who spoke our tongue], great clouds of smoke erupted forth and as the furnace consumed the body I was also told that some six hours would elapse before the ashes were complete and that such extravagance was common in their home country.

Further, I was told the day following such a burning would be of tremendous reverence and the powdered remains and ashes be gently allowed to make passage down the river to the sea!

Leaving the spectacle I found it hard to contemplate it possible to view such a thing in this most modern of times within the greatest city the world has ever known, let alone they were allowed to promote such spectacle by the authorities, who seem to turn the blind eye to such practise and the fact a lone woman be aboard the hulk in the first place made me muse upon the fates as I left.

My ’tis truly a world we live in today…’

Diary of The Reverend Henry Turnbull   May 1866

attrib: Thomas Bell’s ‘The Turnbull’s of Suffolk’ pub 1947