v DOUGLAS HAMILTON 97 



Douglas Hamilton ! He played with you all at 

 Sudbury ' long, long ago. 5 Dear old Sir George he 

 remembered with feelings of great respect. He fancies 

 you were too young to remember him, but Sophy, as he 

 calls her, he well remembers. There was a large family 

 of them. How things do come to pass in this world. 

 Fancy him meeting me out here and finding all his old 

 childhood's days brought back in a great big flood to 

 his mind. I cannot tell you how I love the dear old 

 fellow. He is the acknowledged best sportsman 

 (stalker ; he never shot off an elephant in his life) in 

 Southern India Old Velvet Foot, as he signs himself in 

 his letters in the Sporting Magazine. He is the most 

 exquisite draughtsman, and is employed by Government 

 to sketch different parts of the hill ranges in this 

 Presidency. Every adventure (and there are some 

 funny ones) he has a small rough sketch of, and for the 

 twenty-five years in India he can give an exact account 

 out of a most accurate journal. Since I began this, I 

 have been out with him after ibex (wild goats), the most 

 difficult animal in India to bag ; the account will come 

 in its place. I was four days out in what he calls his 

 * wigwam ' (the old hunters' wigwam). It is a hut he 

 built to shoot ibex from eight years ago ; he is forty- 

 five years old and is going to retire, and how I long to 

 introduce him to you. The dear old boy ! Fancy him 

 in England ! He has the most glorious beard, like a 

 great waterfall, and as silky as silk. He will win you to 

 him by his genial manner in half an hour, and his funny 

 way of telling adventures would amuse you uncommonly. 

 One thing you will thank him for, I know, is, he makes 

 me draw ; he says it has been the greatest pleasure in 



collection of sambur heads is, I believe, the finest ever sent out of India ; 

 he presented them to Victor Brooke. General Hamilton died about two 

 years ago. 



