THE PEINCE OF WALES AT MADRAS, 1875. 



I. 



EACH item of his Royal Highness's progress and doings was 

 no doubt before the public, as the next morning they skimmed 

 the telegrams over their breakfast. Later on they would read 

 more fully from the letters of the " specials " how the Prince 

 shot antelope, rode to pig, and witnessed the black buck run 

 down by cheetahs at Baroda ; and how, under an equatorial sun, 

 he stood up to elephant in the jungle, and walked snipe in the 

 paddy fields of Ceylon. I will speak only of what his Royal 

 Highness saw and did of sport in Madras. 



Nor must readers expect the orthodox Indian type, either of 

 fact or narrative, in what I have to tell ; for, as far as scene and 

 circumstances would allow and British sympathies could con- 

 trive, the facts bore a marked English outline, while I promise 

 the story shall be as free from embellishment as if it came not 

 from the gorgeous East. 



The long-and-much-desired trip to the Annamully Hills had 

 to be abandoned, as the whole country from Mysore southwards 

 across the Neilgherries to this fine hunting ground was marked 

 and reported as cholera-stricken. So it was, to the same extent 

 that any and every village and portion of India where natives 

 do congregate in their crowd and filth irredeemable has its 

 cholera cases at one time or another of the year. However, let 

 this be as it may, his Royal Highness was obliged to give up his 

 promised excursion against ibex, bison, and sambur, and to take 

 his amusement in what the city of Madras could offer him, 



