2 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



made aware that it would require a great stretch 

 of the imagination to idealise the fact that the 

 writer of these pages once rode seven stone eight, 

 and is the same slim curly-headed youngster who, 

 in those days, glamoured the heart of many a 

 bearded veteran when he trod the Thespic boards, 

 arrayed in the corsage et jupons that once belonged 

 to a fascinating and piquante little partie who shall 

 be nameless. Heigh ho ! — 



" Fair woman was made to bewitch, 

 A pleasure, a pain, a disturber, a nurse, 

 A slave or a tyrant, a blessing, a curse, 

 Fair woman was made to be loMch ? " 



But to my story. Never were a merrier set of 

 fellows assembled than met at the Hydrabad Club 

 to settle the preliminaries of Sky races, and discuss 

 the prospect of the Deckan hunt, then one of the 

 most celebrated meets in India. 



Tiffin was over, and had been voted a complete 

 success — how could it have been otherwise ? for 

 was not the roast ruled by the mighty Tatiah, 

 aided by the inspirations of the greatest gastronome 

 of his day, Riddell, of the Nizam's service, the 



