A RECENT RIDE TO HERAT. 121 



and, if possible, to see the place itself, was hailed 

 with thankfulness. The party consisted of Colonel 

 Stewart and two engineer officers Major Holdich, 

 E.E., and Captain Peacocke, E.E. Once before 

 much the same little party had tried to reach Herat, 

 and had failed signally. Political reasons for not 

 even approaching the neighbourhood were forcibly 

 urged by the Governor, and the party returned to 

 headquarters. 



Glad as we all were to be off again over new 

 ground, or rather to see old ground under new 

 aspects, we none of us quite expected to reach Herat. 

 The road for two marches was familiar, and we saw 

 what we had seen before in November, only gilded 

 and painted by the hand of spring. The change 

 was marvellous. Instead of bare, brown, dusty 

 plains, flanked by rugged hills equally bare and 

 brown, there was a bright green stretch of prairie 

 (it might have been prairie), besprinkled with flowers 

 of every conceivable hue, amongst which the scarlet 

 poppy was distinctly the most aggressive, gathering 

 himself together with many other poppies in huge 

 knots amongst the wormwood scrub, and covering 

 great patches of country with brilliant red. The 

 villages, too, had put on a clean and Sabbath-like 

 appearance. Mud, under some aspects, is cer- 

 tainly clean and respectable. Perhaps it was the 

 setting off of the fresh green mulberry-trees, or the 

 brilliant emerald -coloured wheat- fields, or the prim- 



