470 THE LAST YEAES 



had known my wife as a girl. We inhabited there a cottage, 

 charmingly furnished, and rented by my son, the Captain in 

 India, who is devoted to the place and dreams of retiring 

 there 20 years hence ! I tell him that he reminds me of 

 the many Indian friends I knew, who dreamt of retiring 

 to their old homes in the Highlands and Lowlands, and 

 whom I found spending their last years in Bayswater and 

 S. Kensington ! 



I rejoice that you can feel free from any chronic pain. 

 I hope you may yet walk a little with a stick. It may amuse 

 you to hear that my cousin, Mr. Inglis Palgrave, who was 

 knighted the other day, wrote me previously in dismay, say- 

 ing that if he had to kneel to receive the accolade he could 

 never get up again ! I told him to take a walking-stick, 

 and lent him a nice ebony one that he used, and the good- 

 natured King seeing his difficulty had him helped by some of 

 the attendants. He is over 80. 



Old interests were again revived by a letter from Mr. 

 T. D. La Touche, son of his old friend, with descriptions of 

 Sikkim and recent changes in the country. 



To T. D. La Touche 



July 8, 1909. 



MY DEAR MR. LA TOUCHE, I thank you very much for 

 your long and interesting letter of the 4th inst. from Jongri. 

 The contents have intensely interested me, recalling so many 

 scenes once familiar to me. The Oscillations of the Glaciers 

 must be very difficult to determine, for in most cases they 

 debouche in narrow valleys, not as in Switzerland in open 

 meadows or flats. I think that the Lachen and Lachung 

 Glaciers would serve your purpose better than the Western 

 ones. 



What you tell me of the destruction of forests, the spread 

 of cultivation, export of maize, the dying out of the Lepcha 

 and his replacement by the Nepalese, and the rarity of 

 Murwa beer, are all shocks to me. 



The improvement of the roads alone gratifies me, and I 

 could certainly put up with the bridges, and the diminution 

 of the leech attacks. I hope too that the ticks which I most 

 especially abominated, are less accessible to the traveller. 



