"Dwarf Trees" from Hubert Edward Henry Jerningham's
From West to East


        Sir Hubert Edward Henry Jerningham, K.C.M.G. (1842-1914) was a British Liberal Party politician, a Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed from 1881 to 1885, governor of Mauritius from 1892 - 1897, knighted in 1893, and Governor of Trinidad and Tobago between 1897 and 1900.  In early December 1905 he started out from Paris, through the Suez Canal eight days later, a fortnight after that in Bombay, Ceylon a month later, George Town on the Malay Peninsula and Singapore in early February 1906, Hong Kong the following week, Canton the next, and Nagasaki the one after that.  Col. Sir Claude Maxwell Macdonald, His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo [to whom From West to East is dedicated], was able to get the Japanese Government to give Jerningham and his party permission to visit and transport to numerous sites in Japan and newly occupied Manchuria, including receiving hospitality from naval and military authorities in those areas.  They were in Honolulu at the end of April, then on to Chicago and New York. 1

 
      From West to East, Notes by the Way (1907):

        YOKOHAMA, 21 April [1906].
        We reached Yokohama last night, and became the guests for one night of Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins, to whose kind hospitality we owe much gratitude, and heard on arrival very disquieting news of an earthquake at San Francisco, whither we proceed to-morrow.
        Mr. Hawkins, who is one of the managers of the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank, has a delightful house on the Bluff, with a model Japanese garden into which one steps from the drawing-room.  It is one of those multum in parvo conceptions which delight the eye and rest it so long as the absence of flowers is not noticed.  Here, in a quarter of an acre, we found bridges, hillocks, dales, little ravines, dwarf plants ad libitum, maple and cherry trees, deodara pines from Simla, and a couple of cryptomerias.  The value of the whole is great: but why am I not educated to the necessary standard so as to admire, as I should, these pigmy masterpieces of horticultural fancy?
        Admiral Togo had two little dwarf trees in his cabin on the 'Mikasa,' which had been presented to him by Count Okuma, and were valued at £500.  I fear they went down with his ship when she was accidentally blown up in harbour [on Sept. 11, 1905], but I only fear it because of the grief it would cause that truly distinguished sailor.
        There is a tiny thing in Japan which interests me much more than dwarf trees and plants, for I suspect the greatness of Japan springs from that little well of attraction -- the Japanese woman...  2


NOTES

1     "Hubert Jerningham," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Edward_Henry_Jerningham ; "Mauritius," http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Mauritius.htm ;

2      Jerningham, Sir Hubert Edward Henry, K.C.M.G.   From West to East, Notes by the Way (London: John Murray, 1907), pp. 281-282

Wright, H.C. Seppings'  With Togo, The Story of Seven Months' Active Service Under His Command (London: Hurst and Blackett, Limited; 1905), "...The moment we came alongside Admiral Togo sent for me.  He was waiting for me in his cabin, and in his left hand he held a fan which he used throughout the interview.  He asked me if I had lunched, to which I replied in the affirmative, whereupon tea and cigarettes were ordered.  His cabin was furnished plainly.  On the mantelpiece there stood a basket of artificial flowers made of feathers, a present from some of his admirers at Kobe, and in the fireplace, over which there was a curtain, stood two little dwarf trees in the familiar china dishes; one was a cedar 500 years old, the other a fir, probably the same age.  These were presented to the Admiral by Count Okura.  There were two sofas, one on the starboard and one on the port side, and on the left-hand sofa lay two drawings of the last battle off Port Arthur." (pg. 110)

         See also Togo in Griffis; and Okuma in Clark, Clarke, and Stopes.

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