48 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



these occasions the camp of the Club was quite imposing, 

 with the great mess-tent and kitchens in the centre, a dozen 

 private tents grouped around, and nearly a hundred horses 

 picketed behind them ; while a score or more elephants stood 

 in the adjacent groves. At such meets, too, there was high 

 feasting ; and the by no means Arctic cold of a Bengal 

 winter sufficed as an excuse for hot punch, over which good 

 songs and stories went the round till midnight, or even to the 

 small hours. 



The lapse of less than a quarter of a century leaves me 

 stranded as the sole surviving member of the old Club, with 

 vivid memories of the happy and merry times spent among 

 the best of good fellows and sportsmen ; thankful that the 

 relish for sport remains as keen as ever, although all those 

 with whom it was shared have passed on to the happy 

 hunting-grounds, or have left the country long ago. With 

 the unceasing progress and perpetual changes going on 

 around us, together with the strong drams of excitements 

 and exaggerations provided by the Press to meet the cravings 

 of: a somewhat hysterical public, we are told that we must 

 be happier than those who lived in simpler and ruder times, 

 when blunted senses were satisfied with plain fare, mental 

 and moral, and less sensitive natures were content with 

 bloody wars and wholesale catastrophes at rare intervals. 

 Those who tell us that we are happier for the superior 

 blessings we now enjoy ought to know best ; and therefore 

 we are and must be happier, since they cannot possibly 

 be mistaken. But I doubt it ; for all the changes have not 

 been improvements, and some, at least, have been very much 

 the other way ; this, however, is only a matter of opinion and 

 personal feeling. 



For sport alone, I always thought a small party of two or 

 three spears preferable to a much larger number, and have, 

 when quite alone, enjoyed hog-hunting more than with a 

 crowd ; obtaining longer runs, ending with more desperate 

 fights, when the boar had but one adversary to contend against. 

 On the other hand, I have felt the want of a companion 



