33 2 A Sportswoman in India 



like one vast cherry-pie blended with essence of violets ; 

 roses, dahlias, fuchsias, camellias, orchids nothing in 

 the world in the way of a plant but would grow in 

 glory there. 



The ever-varying and never-ending bowers recalled 

 Tennyson's lines, 



Me rather all that bowery loneliness, 

 The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring, 

 And bloom profuse and cedern arches 

 Charm. 



Ootacamund ought to be a first-rate place for sport ; 

 and while there is none of the " horrid grind " of life 

 in the plains, yet it need not be, as in most hill 

 stations, equally divided between a dawdle and a 

 doze. 



There is hunting : the sholas (rocky ravine and 

 jungle on the edge of the downs) are hard to draw, 

 impossible for horses to get through, consequently 

 half the pack may be running jungle sheep and 

 half jackal ; but after a while a jack breaks cover, 

 and there is a merry ten or twenty minutes' burst 

 across the downs to a neighbouring shola, with lots 

 of excitement at the boggy bottoms between the 

 hills pitfalls to the unwary who do not know the 

 country. It takes a fast horse to get up and down 

 the hills with hounds. 



As for shooting, the sholas hold sambur, spotted 

 deer, pig, black buck, cheetah, and bison, and even 

 tigers have been killed close to the station ; but 



