CHAPTER II 
EARLY DAYS IN OUDH 
I sorinED the Indian Forest Service on December 38, 
1873, at Lucknow. At that time the bridge over 
the Ganges at Cawnpore was not completed, and 
Oudh was a non-regulation Province ; that is to say, 
it was administered by a Commission whose members 
had been recruited chiefly from military officers— 
men who were here, as in the Panjab, in the Central 
Provinces, and in Burma, preparing the way for more 
settled rule, and, their work accomplished, were 
being replaced by members of the Indian Civil Ser- 
vice, men who had no experience of the sword, 
which in the East has inevitably preceded the more 
mighty pen. It was but fifteen years since the 
great Mutiny had been quelled, and our companions 
were, some of them, men who had taken part in it ; its 
memory had not been forgotten by the people, who 
could tell more than they cared to of the pacification 
of Oudh. The numerous extensions of the Oudh 
and Rohilkhand Railway were at that time not 
opened, and the Rohilkhand and Kumaon line was not 
commenced ; the Bengal and North-Western Rail- 
way had not extended its operations towards the 
northern districts of the Province. 
But good-fellowship resulted from isolation ; the 
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