the best country in England, undergoes more frequent changes than any other. During the last seventeen years there have been seven fresh masters of these hounds; for instance, the Hon. F. Villiers, Lord Alford, Mr. George Payne, who has had them twice, Sir F. L. Goodricke, Mr. Smith, Lord Chesterfield, and Mr. Wilkins, the latter of whom succeeded Mr. Osbaldeston. A neighbouring country also, the Cottesmore, is given up by Mr. Greaves after a very successful series of seasons, and that gentleman removes to the South Wold. Next on the list appears the Albrighton, after a brief reign of their respected master, the Hon. Arthur Wrottesley. The Albrighton, like the Pytchley, seems to be frequently destined to change hands: in that respect only are the two hunts capable of comparison, inasmuch as the former is one of the most indifferent countries in England, and the latter the best. It is not therefore the goodness of a country which affects it as regards Masters of Hounds; it must be a sort of fate or destiny that cannot be accounted for. The vacancy in the Albrighton country will be filled by Mr. T. S. Hellier, who after having hunted the North Warwickshire some four or five seasons, and the South Wold country nine, returns to his native land. He has thoroughly established for himself the character of a first-rate sportsman, and an excellent judge of hounds and hunting. A better selection could not have been made; for, independent of his general knowledge of everything appertaining to the Noble Science, as he passed his noviciate in the country, he is perfectly acquainted, and in every way identified with it, in regard to birth and property. In Hampshire the changes are most conspicuous; every hunt in that county, with the exception of Mr. T. A. Smith's and the New Forest-and the latter at one time was likely to have been given up by Captain Shedden-is to be handed over to some fresh aspirant to the honours of Mastership. Thus the H.H., the Hursley, the Hambledon, and the Vine, will each go into fresh hands. The neighbouring country, the Bramshill, which the late Sir John Cope hunted so many years, is reported as about to be discontinued by Mr. Wheble, and that Mr. Garth will hunt a portion of it, but not the whole of what was known as the South Berkshire. The H. H. will be managed by Mr. R. Pearce, of South Warnborough, a young but very zealous sportsman, who commenced as a Master of Harriers two seasons ago. Mr. Wall succeeds Mr. Smith in the Hambledon country, but who will take the Hursley I am not yet able to state. Captain Mainwaring has undertaken to hunt the Vine country, and the members of that hunt are truly fortunate in being able to obtain the experience of so good a man, for he possesses every attribute to show sport. In addition to being an excellent judge of hounds, horses, and hunting-hereditary faculties which have descended to him from his father, Sir Harry Mainwaring, who hunted the Cheshire country with the greatest success and popularity many seasons-Captain Mainwaring is endowed with the inestimable quali fications, in a Master of Hounds, of affability, and of maintaining friendly associations with all classes. If his efforts are not highly successful it will not be from any fault of his, and if sufficiently sup plied by the subscribers" with the sinews of war," which no doubt he will be, the Vine will become the most attractive hunt within an equal distance of the metropolis.

THE

"TWA SAFT CUSHIONS;"

OR,

MY FIRST INKLING OF A ROYAL TIGER.

BY AN OLD INDIAN OFFICER.

"A change came o'er the spirit of my dream-
The boy was sprung to manhood: in the wilds
Of fiery climes, he made himself a home,

And his soul drank their sunbeams: he was girt
With strange and dusky aspects: by his sleeping side
Stood camels grazing; and some goodly steeds
Were fasten'd near a fountain-

BYRON.

Many years have elapsed since the occurrence took place which I am now about to relate; but the period is yet fresh in my mind, when, shortly after arriving at Madras, I was despatched on a march of several hundred miles to join my regiment, then stationed in the Deccan.

No sooner had our detachment crossed the rocky bed of the Kishnah, and ascended the table-land beyond, than we found ourselves in quite a different climate from the Carnatic. We now inhaled a dry and bracing atmosphere; the mornings and evenings were deliciously cool, and a blanket proved, under canvas, a not superfluous covering at nightfor it happened to be at that delightful period of the year when Nature, in these sunny regions of the East, is still arrayed in all her gayest holiday garb the verdant garlands with which she is then decked out not being yet faded by the withering influence of that simoom-like blast, which, periodically sweeping across the desert, soon licks up with fiery breath every sign of verdure and vegetation, leaving--except where patches of hardy jungle intervene-naught over which the eye can rest save a brown, arid, and burnt-up soil, here and there dotted with still more bare, brown, and desolate-looking masses of stone and rock.

I must not, however, anticipate. On crossing the Kishnah, we entered a region quite different in feature and aspect from that which we had hitherto traversed since leaving the Coromandel coast. High, undulating tracts of land-in some parts covered with low thorny thickets, in others (at this season of the year) with high waving grass, amidst which might occasionally be caught a glimpse of the graceful antelope, or from whence the florikan and bustard were sometimes flushed; whilst peering from an ocean of jungle verdure-like the back of a huge whalesome dark denuded mass of rock, all bristling with native battlements and forts, would occasionally protrude from the surrounding jungle or "meidan," and pleasingly diversify the scene.

The nature of the vegetation, and agricultural products of the country, appeared likewise to be completely changed, the moment we entered the "Deccan," from what we had been accustomed to witness in the

* A Persian term, much used in Hindostan, and signifying a plain open space of ground. G G

low and level plains of the Carnatic, which we had so recently left behind. The cultivation of rice, with its concomitant swamps, had in a great measure disappeared, and was replaced in the low grounds by waving fields of Indian corn, and occasionally-though as yet but rarely-by the tall and graceful sugar-cane; whilst Bengal gram, and other stunted pulse, marked the sites of the higher, and consequently drier and more arid portions of the cultivated soil.

*

The feathery cocoa-nut and fan-like palmyra of the lower country had now given way to the no less serviceable-and hardly less beautiful-date-tree, which, although in this part of the world yielding a scarcely palatable fruit, is nevertheless applied to an infinity of useful purposes, and yields, moreover, a very considerable revenue to the state. For each individual of these

"Groups of lovely 'date-trees',

Bending their leaf-crowned heads

On youthful maids, like sleep descending,
To warn them to their silken beds,"

was taxed to the annual amount of one rupee, which sum was strictly exacted from the poor oppressed Ryot, by the zemindar entrusted with the collection of the revenue of each particular district of the Nizam's dominions.

To the casual enquirer it might appear that such an impost would amount to almost a prohibition on the culture of this tree; they nevertheless abound in all parts of the country adapted to their growth; and this can only be accounted for, from the numerous and manifold purposes to which every portion of it is usefully and profitably applied. The fruit, although in this part of the world coarse and rough to the taste, is nevertheless made use of for different purposes by the natives; the stems and leaves are severally converted into baskets and mats, and are likewise employed to roof their lowly huts; but the chief produce of the Indian date-tree is the "tara," or, as called in English," toddy," it so plentifully yields, and which is extracted by making deep ineisions in the trunk, for here

"The date,' that graceful dryad of the woods,
Within whose bosom infant Bacchus broods,"

when thus tapped, readily gives forth a sweet, pleasant, and abundant beverage, which, if partaken of at the cool hour of early morn, is both refreshing and salubrious, but soon becomes a deleterious and intoxicating liquor when fermented, by being exposed to the powerful rays of a tropical sun. The tara, or toddy, in this condition is a liquor much sought after, and often conducive to great irregularity and erime amidst our English soldiery in the East; and the vicinity of a "toddy tope," or date-grove, should for this reason be sedulously avoided in the pitching of a camp.

On entering the Nizam's dominions, after the passage of the Kishnah, the sportsmen of our party found ample scope for the employment of their fowling-pieces; for although snipe and water-fowl were here much

* A sort of pea, on which the horses are fed in India, and which in Spain, under the denomination of "garbansos," constitutes a general article of human food.

more scarce than in the low ground of the Carnatic, this deficiency was amply made up, in the far greater abundance of larger and nobler game.

The rangers of the " meidan," or open grassy "prairies," through which the line of march would now often lie for miles, therein found abundance of hares, of partridges, and every variety of quail-occasionally got a shot at a florikan, or a bustard; sometimes even stalked an antelope; and enjoyed occasionally an opportunity of breathing their nags in a gallop after the dog-hyena, the wily little Indian fox, or a skulking jackal. Such as adventured into the jungle in quest of painted partridge or pea-fowl, sometimes recounted on their return to camp, that they had witnessed indubitable traces of animals of a more formidable kind, and described the appearance of what they concluded must be the footmarks of the royal tiger, which they had seen imprinted in the sandy bed of the dry "nullahs," or watercourses they had traversed during their sporting excursions from the camp.

Although these conjectures of being occasionally on the trail of a Bagh" (as the royal tiger is called in India) were repeatedly confirmed by the protestations of such of the camp-followers and other natives who might have been employed as "beaters," still such complete "Griffins were we all, that we could not bring ourselves to the belief of being actually in the vicinity-perhaps often within the springof so dangerous a customer, as, even in our profound ignorance, we were all perfectly aware that a royal tiger must undoubtedly have proved.

Rife with the impression that all "natives" are necessarily liars by nature, without any "old hand" in Indian sports, to instruct and inform us of the real state of things; and in spite of the repeated warnings we received from our servants and camp-followers, we began, after a few marches north of the Kishnah, to be extremely sceptical as to the very existence of any tigers, near so much-frequented a thoroughfare as that between Hyderabad and Madras; and it was only after a laughable adventure, which might have been attended with fatal results, that we at last found out our mistake.

Our camp was, on the occasion here alluded to, pitched near a large village, or more strictly speaking, a small Mahommedan town, situated between two lofty hills, composed of those bare and gigantic masses of granite, so characteristic of the strange geological features of this part of the country. I am however wrong in describing both these elevations as bare and denuded masses of blackened rock. The most northerly of the two possessed, in a most remarkable degree, those stern features of aridity, but the crest of its opposite neighbour, crowned with ruins-apparently the remains of some old stronghold or castle-rose from amidst huge chaotic masses of granite, whose interstices nourished the growth of innumerable parasitical lianes and creeping plants, mostly of a thorny or prickly nature; amongst which the wild cactus might be distinguished, even from the valley beneath, as luxuriantly flourishing and widely spreading its fantastic, fleshy, and thorn-covered growth.

The tents, pitched in the valley formed by those "ruins of some

* A term usually applied to a new-comer in India, and having a synonymous meaning to that of "greenhorn."

former world," had the full benefit of the refracted heat emanating from both; and to this moment I can well remember the grilling we underwent on that day, and the delight with which we hailed the prospect of the declining sun, in order to be able to sally forth, and take our usual evening stroll.

Accompanied by the Assistant-Surgeon doing duty with the detachment-a remarkably short and corpulent personage from the "land o' cakes," who stuttered intolerably, besides speaking the broadest Scotch-accompanied by this nondescript character, who, with all his national peculiarities, was, however, a most excellent fellow, and whom, for want of a better "nom de guerre," I shall here designate as Doctor Macgillivan; and attended by a single "ghorawallah," or "saïs' (Anglicè, horsekeeper or groom), did I, at the period in question, sally forth from the stifling atmosphere of my tent, in order to breathe the cooling and refreshing evening breeze. Thus accompanied, the Doctor and myself bent our footsteps towards the native town, in the vicinity of which our camp had been pitched. We were soon within the precincts of its narrow streets; and wandering through a densely-crowded bazaar.

To a “tazawallah” (a native term corresponding to that of a "Johnny Newcome")—to a young hand lately imported from Europe-in short, to the animal commonly yclept a "Griffin," in the East, the usual resort of a large concourse of natives generally presents an untiring source of interest and amusement. The different strange sights, sounds, and "smells," which meet the eye, the ear, and the olfactories of the un initiated, would in themselves require a long chapter to describe.

This was the first place of any size or note we had yet visited since entering the domains of His Highness the Nizam; and a single glance, as we sauntered along the bazaars, sufficed to show that we were amongst a people quite different from the long-subdued, slavish, and submissive Hindoo inhabitants of the Carnatic.

Here the general outward characteristics of the natives appeared to be a loftier bearing and a lighter hue of complexion to what we had hitherto seen within the territories of the Company, to the northward of Madras. The predominant race-at least in the town itself-were (as Chiniah, my horsekeeper, informed us) followers of the Prophethaughty-looking Mussulmans (Moormen, as they are often denominated by our countrymen in the south of India), who, with erect gait and swaggering step, moved proudly past us, their dark eyes flashing fire, their bearded lips curled with contempt for the uncircumcised infidel Nussaranee: the hated "Ferringhees," whom they longed, but dared not openly to insult. Chiniah, who appeared to entertain a salutary dread of such formidable-looking customers, begged us in no way to interfere with their movements

66

Becase why, said he sotto voce, as if fearful of being overheard, "Becase why-all Moormen great rascal, but these Deccanneewallahs bigger rascals than all. Give plenty galee' (abuse) to Master: suppose Master angry get, and strike 'em, then they quick take out tulwar or creese (sword and dagger) and kill 'em quick!”

*Meaning "Nazarenes," or Christians, who are likewise denominated "Ferringhees," or Franks.