Mr Rudyard Kipling. 1 2 1 



for horses and sport ; although he is now altogether devoted 

 to his military duties. His chief thought in life is how to 

 improve the men under him in discipline and morale. Lord 

 Herbrand Russell, who is now the Duke of Bedford, was also 

 in my Simla horsebreaking class, and was kind enough to 

 lend my wife his handsome pony, Countryman, to ride while 

 she was in the hills. He was a good horseman, and used to 

 take a great deal of interest in pony racing, which was the 

 only form of racing that was possible on the small course in 

 the hills. 



During my tour through Burma, I had the honour of 

 meeting the present Commander-in-Chief of India, Sir 

 George White, at Mandalay, where he was commanding. As 

 soon as I had seen him and had answered his kindly greeting, 

 I thought his hard resolute face and tall athletic figure were 

 strangely familiar to me. And then came gradually to me 

 the memory of a summer's morning at Glenbrook, on the 

 Cork River, twenty-three years gone by, when I was a 

 Woolwich cadet, home for the holidays, which I was spend- 

 ing by getting into training for some rowing races. A young 

 officer in a Highland regiment, who had been staying with 

 a gentleman who resided close by, had backed himself to 

 do a weight-lifting feat against any Irishman his host could 

 produce. He selected me, with the result that I proved good 

 enough for the task ; although he might have got other men 

 much better than I was to compete against the future Com- 

 mander-in-Chief of India. 



At Lahore, I had the pleasure of meeting for the first 

 time, Mr Rudyard Kipling, who was then a clever lad of 

 about nineteen, and as yet unknown to fame. He was on the 

 staff of the Civil and Military Gazette, and was doing much 

 to brighten its hitherto somewhat staid columns. Although 

 his tastes were wholly literary, he wrote for his paper a 

 graphic and interesting account of my horsebreaking per- 

 formances, which he witnessed, and which seem to have 

 impressed him, if I may judge by his mention of my name 



