220 REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



by one of the most skilful English surgeons, but he obtained 

 but little relief, and only lived three days after it, and on the 

 1 5th April he breathed his last. Vale dear old Albert." 



And in July the awful news came of poor Gwatkin 

 Williams' sudden death. Of him in the I.P.G. appeared the 

 following : 



" Once more the sad task has fallen to our Editor of hav- 

 ing to chronicle in these columns the death of an old and very 

 dear friend. On Wednesday morning a telegram in the daily 

 Englishman bore to his many friends in Calcutta the awful 

 news of poor Mr. Gwatkin Williams' sudden and totally un- 

 expected death, while playing lawn tennis in Durbangah. To 

 say that a gloom has been cast over Behar and Bengal society 

 gives not the faintest conception of the terrible shock with 

 which the tidings were received for there were very few in 

 this presidency to whom the late gentleman was not a persona 

 grata. To know Gwatkin was not only to like and respect, 

 but to love him heartily, for his was truly a most noble character ; 

 of an extremely sweet and gentle nature, gifted with courteous 

 manners and an exceedingly handsome presence, he endeared 

 himself to all he ever met, Indians as well as Europeans, and 

 there will be no more sincere mourners for him than the native 

 servants and tenants of his old Chupra property, the Buhrow- 

 lee indigo concern. Before going any further, we wish to 

 mention a most curious circumstance which occurred in con- 

 nection with the portrait which appears on the opposite page, 

 and which was intended for our last issue. For the first time 

 since we have been publishing these pictures the collotype 

 company reported to us that they could not successfully print 

 off copies of the photograph we had sent them for that week's 

 issue, as, though they had made several different plates, and 

 the first copy from each came out fairly well, yet the second 

 was much fainter, and the next almost indistinct ; not wishing 

 to disappoint constituents we urged the manager to do his 



