158 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE, 



them for the month they had already spent on the Neilgherries. 

 Half the pack, it is true, were tried and trusty servants, the 

 chosen remainder from the previous year ; and their well- 

 deserved rest after the heat of Madras and Bangalore might 

 possibly not have elated them altogether beyond bounds. 

 Another three couple had recently arrived from Leicestershire, 

 and it was hoped that not even a sea voyage would have 

 entirely eradicated the discipline inculcated at Quorndon. But 

 of the rest no language can give any just idea of this band of 

 wild irrepressibles, of the atrocities they committed, or of the 

 anxiety, and oftentimes shame, that they caused before any 

 glimmering of the idea that they were to consider themselves 

 " component parts of one harmonious whole " could be made to 

 dawn upon them. 



" I am the Lord Card well, sir," was the closing sentence of a 

 hot argument held in a railway carriage some five years ago. 

 It was addressed by an elderly gentleman to a cavalry captain 

 of strong views and a good parade voice. The two were 

 travelling casually together ; the latter entertained a decided 

 opinion on the new military system, and was ever ready to hold 

 forth loudly, and perhaps rightly, on the subject of discontented 

 officers and pigmy recruits. His last vehement outburst, 

 ending, " Card well's the man who did it all, and blessed if they 

 haven't gone and made the beggar a peer ! " extracted from his 

 opponent an admission that might more discreetly have been 

 made earlier in the encounter. 



I have received no peerage for my administration of affairs, 

 nor, as a consequent counter-punishment, yet come unawares 

 across the plain speaker who should hold up the glass in which 

 each error was reflected and each shortcoming shown with 

 unsparing exactitude. But, to guard against either contingency, 

 I may here proffer the admission that it was I, the writer, who 

 had to bear the chief burden of the task of organisation in the 

 Ooty kennels. No apology is wanted for the declaration ; for, 

 while to the bulk of my readers it will merely serve as a 

 guarantee of facts, the individuality of the scribe being a matter 



