156 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1907 



bank of the Dye. The house was finished in 1900, having been 

 built to the order of Mr Charles H. Holme of Rawburn. It 

 possesses a fine suite of public rooms entering off the spacious 

 front hall, which were thrown open to the inspection of the 

 visitors. Unfortunately a family engagement necessitated the 

 absence of its owner, to whose skill in handling the rifle 

 many objects of interest and of decoration amply testified; 

 but to save disappointment, and contribute to the Club's 

 intelligent survey of his trophies, a catalogue of them had 

 been prepared, which the Secretary read as the members 

 made their examination. During his long residence in India 

 Mr Holme had collected a varied assortment of the skins and 

 heads of wild beasts, with which he had skilfully adorned the 

 public rooms of his mansion, thereby affording an instructive 

 exhibition of specimens of the fauna of that portion of the 

 Empire. In the entrance hall were mounted on the walls 

 the heads of two male Gavials of the Ganges (Gavialis 

 Gangeticus), the entire length of which measured 20 feet, 

 and 20 feet 6 ins., respectively. Two unique and formidable 

 looking umbrella-stands had been constructed out of the 

 carcases of other representatives of the same genus, supplying 

 the doorway with anything but a pastoral aspect! On the 

 walls of the handsome front hall were displayed remarkably 

 fine skins of Tigers, Leopards, and the Indian Wild Dog, 

 interspersed with noble heads of Sambur Stag (Cervus 

 aristotelis), Spotted Cheetal (Axis maculata), and Indian 

 Antelope. The staircase also was hung with the skins of 

 the Himalayan Black Bear (Ursus Tibetanus), Sloth Bear 

 (Ursus labiatus), and the Fishing Cat, while a corner of 

 the upper landing was occupied by a beautiful case of 

 Monal and Tragopan Pheasants. The head of a Sambur, 

 and horns of the same species, adorn the smoking-room, in 

 which a souvenir of a forty days' shooting expedition was 

 to be seen in a photograph representing a "bag" of seven 

 Tigers and five Leopards. The dining-room likewise boasted 

 its sporting trophies, a splendid head of the Indian Buffalo, 

 and the imposing horns of the Nilgai or Blue Bull trans- 

 porting the mind to a l9,nd of sunshine, strangely at variance 

 with the bleak outlook presented to the visitors from this 

 hospitable upland home. Tl^eir l^ost for the present was abl^ 



