12th December
In December 1912 he was thinking about entourages. He described to his mother, in a letter sent from India, the elaborate preparations made for the Maharajah’s excursions: 'opera glasses, cigarettes, betel nut, umbrella, stick, and State sword, together with a bundle, which I suppose contains food’. The Maharajah had expressed enthusiasm for a visit to England, but Forster deemed this unlikely, since his Private Secretary ;thought that 60 or 70 servants was the least [he] could travel with. (Source: Selected Letters of E.M. Forster, ed. Mary Lago and P.N. Furbank (London: Collins, 1983-1985), letter of 16 December 1912)
