There’s been much discussion over British aid to booming India, but in the 19th Century a village in southern England was saved by aid coming the other way. It was the mid-1800s in southeast England, and a little boy was being beaten by his mother for drinking the last of the water in their house during a drought.
Thousands of miles away in India, the story was narrated by Edward Anderdon Reade, acting governor general of the United Provinces, to the Maharajah of Benares (now Varanasi) at the latter’s palace over dinner. Moved by the story from the Chiltern Hills, the Maharajah agreed to fund the sinking of a well in the village of Stoke Row, still recognisable today by the golden elephant that adorns it.
looking beyond borders 