From Elephant Kheddcr to Crocodile Tank 373 



poodle, another for the General, and a third for his 

 staff. 



Government House, Guindy, outside Madras, is a 

 striking type of the best Indian houses, and a short 

 visit we paid there was a most enjoyable one. 



Having trained to Madras, we drove out seven miles 

 to Guindy. The Madras climate is shocking there is 

 no other word for it. A gentle perspiration was every 

 one's perpetual state ; the punkahs at Guindy never 

 had a quiet half-hour. Sir Arthur and Lady Havelock 

 were most hospitable, and the large garden party which 

 I recollect they gave impressed itself on the memory 

 by reason of the gallant show of top-hats and frock- 

 coats in such a temperature. 



Guindy Park reminded one forcibly of a park at 

 home. Six miles in circumference, well wooded, and 

 rather overstocked, if anything, with spotted deer and 

 antelope, there are plenty of hares, snipe, and quail as 

 well. Mr. Adam used to say : <c You have a charming 

 house out of which you can walk and shoot snipe ; you 

 have a swimming-bath outside your door, a cricket- 

 ground in your park, a racecourse at your gates, and 

 your own pack of foxhounds meets close to you twice 

 a week : what more can a man want ? In fact, Guindy 

 is an ideal residence for six weeks in the year Men 

 entendu" For a longer period the climate drowns the 

 most energetic life in enervating languor, and under- 

 mines the strength. 



Guindy consists of three garden houses, each two 

 stories high, and all three connected by long corridors, 



