REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 263 



Lockhart, Hopkins, Hudson, " Bones " Wilson and Major 

 Ridley of the Manchester, which Regiment had replaced 

 the Queen's. The new officers were a rare good lot, and 

 at once on their arrival gave out that they intended to patron- 

 ise Sonepore and would do all in their power to add to 

 the fun. Major Ridley was a mighty pigsticker, and the 

 Doctor attached to the Regiment, Surgeon-Captain Osborne, 

 better known as " Begorrah," an accomplished race rider, 

 and excellent amateur trainer ; while in Abbot Anderson they 

 possessed a perfect brick of a captain and their boys were 

 all " the right sort." The entries for the races were confined 

 almost entirely to local horses, Mr. McGeorge and Mr. Ernest 

 Gregory being the only Calcutta, or outside, owners present. 

 Mr. Gregory's Harbour Light had been trained at Otter by Mr. 

 Rowland Hudson. Late rains had made the going on the 

 course sticky, and, most unfortunately, rumours got about that 

 the camping ground was dangerously damp, and it was 

 therefore scarcely to be wondered at if camps were not quite 

 as numerous as usual, but lovelier weather, or a jollier 

 gathering has scarely been known. This was to be the last 

 year of Harry Boileau's incumbency of the head bobbyship of 

 Chupra, and he was in consequence much depressed, though 

 to relieve his drooping spirits he had bidden as guest a fair lady 

 globe-trotter, to whom he was most devoted, and who left 

 saying, her dear little host was a pearl beyond price. Mr. 

 O'Donnell as Magistrate of Patna had, much to the disgust of 

 old Soneporeans, deprived poor old Behari Singh of the ticca 

 of the ghats, which he had held for so many years. It was an 

 arbitrary and unkind action, for Behari had done yeoman service 

 to the Sonepore Stewards, as well as to the thousands of native 

 pilgrims who yearly came to wash away their sins in the sacred 

 river. Behari was simply invaluable to Soneporeans. There 

 was nothing one fell short of he could not supply at the short- 

 est notice, from an elephant to take ladies to see the fair, 



