REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 22^ 



wanted, and had he been a lighter weight he would have 

 proved himself a leading light among amateur race riders. 

 He visited the old country several times, and the Welsh squires 

 found the old Indian very bad to beat over the banks and 

 streamlets of their fine hunting grounds. He was one of the 

 oldest members of the Behar Light Horse, having served for 

 over twenty-two years, and he only gave up command of the 

 Chupra troop when going to Purneah. 



" In 1888 Lord Dufferin procured Mr. Williams' services 

 from H.H. the Maharajah, and entrusted him with the care 

 and organisation of a monster shikar party, lasting for six 

 weeks, at which were present the Duke and Prince Henry of 

 Orleans, the Duke of Montrose, the Marquis and Marquise de 

 Mores and many other notabilities, the party, thanks to his 

 perfect managment, succeeded in bagging twenty-one magni- 

 ficent tigers, and in gratitude therefor when Mr. Williams 

 went to England the next year, he was personally presented 

 by the Comte de Paris and Due de Chartres, with a very hand- 

 some piece of plate. On the retirement from the manage- 

 ment of the Durbangah Raj of Mr. George Llewhellin in 

 April last, His Highness sent for Mr. Williams and installed 

 him at head-quarters as his Private Secretary, and in all pro- 

 bability would very shortly have entrusted him with the entire 

 management of his vast estates, a position for which no one 

 in the country would have been better suited. But alas the 

 truth of the old adage of ' L'homme propose mats Dieu dis- 

 pose' was never more fatally proved, and ere this could come 

 about, poor Gwatkin was struck down in the very prime of his 

 life and manhood, the cause being heart disease. None of his 

 friends ever suspected his heart was wrong, though his liver 

 had, for many years, been seriously affected ; he had been ope- 

 rated upon for abscess on the liver, but thanks to his magni- 

 ficent constitution and abstemious life, he pulled through, and 

 save one or two attacks he enjoyed fairly good health. The 



