94 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



regiment was to start for home in a few days, 

 and the Nagpore Hunt, of which I was a member, 

 had organized a farewell meet in honour of my 

 brother-officers and myself who had been members 

 of the Hunt. Personally, though delighted at 

 the prospect of again being once more in Old 

 England, my delight was tinged with a shade of 

 regret at leaving the land where I had made good 

 friends, such friends as are only made by the 

 brotherhood of sport, and where I had spent some 

 happy years, and seen for a youngster a varied 

 and good amount of sport, and the tamer sports 

 of the West, in prospect, contrasted somewhat un- 

 favourably in my mind with the grander and 

 wilder ones of the East I was leaving behind. 

 However, a truce to moralizing. Let us come to 

 the point, and I will endeavour with the best 

 abilities of an unskilled penman to describe the 

 events of a day, which in my sporting calendar 

 and in my memory must ever be marked with a 

 very red stone, for on that day I had the good 

 fortune to participate in nay, obtain ' honours ' 

 in a form of sport that does not very often fall 

 to the share of many votaries of the chase. 



It was on the 21st of September, 1871, that the 

 Nagpore Hunt met at a place called Ghonee, and 

 two friends had kindly sent on horses for me. 

 Behold us then a merry party of some ten or 



