Names
Edgar Drake
the main character of the story, is ordered by the British Crown to go to Burma to tune the grand piano Erard, is sometimes late because he is absorbed in his work, also he sometimes gets lost walking home from a new assignment, he lived Number 14 Franklin Mews
Pall Mall
A heavy fog drifted along Pall Mall as Edgar left the War Office.
November 26
The departure date was set for November 26 1886
a piano tuner is
Edgar Drake
an elephant
the Erard grand piano was shipped from England to Burma, and transported to Mae Lwin, Shan States by an elephant and on foot by Anthony Carroll himself
Her Majesty
Queen Victoria, who ruled British Empire at that time
Mae Lwin, Shan States, Burma
Anthony Carroll, a surgeon-major, was appointed there.
1840
Erard grand piano was shipped from England in January, arriving in Mandalay in early February of 1840
torch-boys
helped Londoners to make their way by lightening their paths
Erard grand piano
Anthony Carroll asked to deliver this piano to Burma, where he was appointed. Later he asked for a tuner to come and tune the piano, which was not only a musical instrument but also a political tool.
Anthony Carroll
a physician, a surgeon major, was appointed to a remote post in Mae Lwin in the Shan States, spoke the Shan language fluently.
Number 14 Franklin Mews
Edgar Drake lived there
60
sixty years ago (from 1886) British Empire occupied the coastal states of Burma
a teacher of Greek poetry and prose at a boarding school in Oxfordshire
Mr. Thomas Carroll, the father of Anthony Carroll.
corduroy jacket
Colonel Killian was wearing a corduroy jacket when Edgar Drake came to his office to have a talk about his mission to Burma
Katherine
the wife of Edgar Drake
the Salween River
a small village called Mae Lwin, stood on the bank of the Salween River.
October 24, 1886
Colonel George Fitzgerald, Assistant Director of Military Operations, Burma and East India Division wrote a letter on October 24, 1886 to Edgar Drake about his mission to Burma.
monkey
Beneath the glow of the fountains around Nelson’s Column, Edgar Drake stopped to watch an organ-grinder, an Italian with a screeching monkey, which hopped around the barrel organ, waving its arms while its master turned the crank.
Alexandria
is where Edgar Drake arrived by ship on his way to Burma, first mail stop, where he was able to send the letter to Katherine, after Marseilles
a rabbit
the Orientals believe that there is a rabbit in the moon, the words Edgar Drake wrote his wife from Alexandria