REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 221 



best, but though he tried over and over again the results were 

 still the same, and we were reluctantly forced to insert the 

 following explanation. 



" We are sorry to have to disappoint our constituents of 

 our usual fortnightly Portrait Gallery picture, but we have re- 

 ceived information from the Calcutta Phototype Company that 

 until the weather cools considerably they cannot work the 

 collotype process on account of its being mainly dependent 

 upon a solution of gelatine for the production of the pictures, 

 and this is so greatly affected by the present intense heat as 

 to be incapable of resisting the pressure required. Conse- 

 quently we must ask the indulgence of our subscribers for a 

 short while, assuring them that we shall do our best to issue 

 the next portrait as soon as the weather permits.' 



" The picture was that of Mr. Gwatkin Williams, and the 

 very morning the intelligence of his death reached us, the 

 Company delivered the pictures at our office truly a strange 

 coincidence. 



" Mr. E. Gwatkin Williams was born at that large Welsh 

 fishing village Llangwin, which is on the river Chuddy in Pem- 

 brokeshire, and of which village his father was, for over fifty 

 years, the highly respected Vicar. Up to the age of fourteen 

 Gwatkin was educated entirely by his father, who was very 

 highly cultured, and during this period he got an unusual share 

 of hunting, fishing, boating and shooting ; few lads have ever 

 passed a more enjoyable boyhood, or had more perfect training 

 as far as all sports went, and he was passionately fond of field 

 athletics and yachting, so he could not possibly have been born 

 in a country more suited to his tastes. Dr. Earle of Chig- 

 well in Essex finished his education, and finding that circum- 

 stances, would not allow him to follow his elder brother into the 

 army, he came out to India in 1863, and choosing indigo as a 

 future, started as an Assistant to Mr. J. F. Curtis of Ramkola in 

 the Chupra district. In a few years he was put in charge of the 



