REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 295 



Infant, he is all right/' was the invitation for the evening 

 drive. But now and then things did not turn out all right for 

 the Infant. One day when the horse bolted the bit broke and 

 Jimmy nipped off by the back seat. The Infant, unaware of 

 the cause of the manoeuvre, valiantly seized the reins to try 

 his hand. But the harder he pulled the faster they went, 

 until at last he was deposited with his pipe, lit, between his 

 teeth on the slope of an embankment and the horse was cap- 

 sized into a river. 



Jimmy has been a steadfast lover of polo from its birth. His 

 play, like that of most men in Behar, is not scientific ; but for hard 

 hitting and fast going and ardour of inclination he is not to be 

 beaten. Indeed, feeble folk would rather he did not go so 

 fast or shave so closely. Swish, and the vacuum he creates 

 as he rushes past is enough to take the wind out of one. 

 " Holloa," you hear from the corner of the ground, " there is 

 Jimmy on that pulling brute Lucifer : he will be the maiming 

 of some of us before long." But though upsets and incidents 

 of various kinds have been frequent, nobody has yet been 

 badly hurt. Many is the tough game that has been played at 

 Lall Serryah, and long and animated were the discussions after 

 dinner, when the owner of Geraldine was in a mood to descant 

 on his mare or to set the table into a roar. 



The Behar Light Horse have pretty well been consumed 

 by the fuel of red-tapeism, but they now show signs of playing 

 the Phoenix. Under great discouragement and difficulties 

 Colonel Hudson, Major Macleod and others have struggled to 

 maintain the one link connecting the planters with the com- 

 monweal. Lieutenant-Governors of Bengal have hitherto 

 taken a " from-in the-clouds " view of the Corps. We have 

 scarcely heard one of them, save Sir Steuart Bayley, express 

 a desire for the prosperity of the Corps or give an indication 

 that he considered it worth the trouble of inspection. An 

 expression of boredom that His Excellency should be pestered 



