Monday 22 November 2010

More about Varikatt

Whilst sheltering from an unexpected monsoon burst of rather extreme proportions I can tell you some more about the house.

It has a rather romantic story attached to it.

In the late 1840s whilst on holiday in Yorkshire a Miss Blunket met a Mr Brown. He was a tea planter in Munnar and she was very taken by his stories and by him.

He was very much the ladies man, recounting tales and flirting. And she made no indication that he had made such an impression on her - well, a gently reared Victorian lady wouldn't!

After the holiday she decided to go to India and try to find him. She came to Trivandrum and had the bungalow built as her home.

And then she set about tracking down Mr Brown. Eventually they did meet again when a Capt. Williams found him in Munnar and introduced them.

And reader, she married him.

She loved her house but he had to be on the tea plantation in Munnar and he was still an incorrigible flirt and popular with the ladies. And she decided that she could no longer stay in her dear house, she really had to be with Mr Brown - because she loved him of course, and perhaps to keep an eye on him.

So she consulted her dear friend, an Indian lawyer, about selling her house. He asked her what she wanted for it and when said the amount he said "Madam, the house is sold". And the family have owned it ever since.

Eventually Miss Blunket - or Mrs Brown as we should now call her - returned to England with her husband. But the house she built stands as testament to someone who must have been a very determined woman with a madly romantic dream.

Location:Neyyar Dam

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