L'&

Presented to the

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY

by the

ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY

1980

EDMUND LODER

AUi Rights Re8Ebved

Mil EDMUND LODKR, BT.
From a Porlrail by II. J. Hudson.

D D U I ^3

EDMUND LODER

NATURALIST, HORTICULTURIST,
TRAVELLER AND SPORTSMAN

A MEMOIR
BY SIR ALFRED E. PEASE, BT-

0556c

WITH CON'TRIBUTIONS BY

ST. GEORGE LITTLEDALE. CHARLES G. A. NIX,
LORD COTTESLOE, J. G. MILLAIS i- W. P. PYCRAFT

WITH A PORTRAIT

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.

1923

First published 1923

/^

LJ

Printed in Great Britain by
Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.

PREFACE

It is not easy, and generally it is not desirable, to write a
man's Life witliin a year or two of his death. Neither
persons nor events can be dealt with in the way which is
possible when Time has carried us to a point from which
an extended view may be had of the country which lies
behind us. Yet, in this case, to have waited in order to
compose a better picture was to risk the probability of
there being no surviving contemporary of Edmund Loder
able or willing to undertake the task. When a man dies
who has passed his seventieth year, the majority of his
companions have already gone ; those who remain are
no longer young and what they have to do must be done
quickly. Besides, it was a natural desire that his sur-
viving friends should read some history of that happy
past in which they had a share.

Only those who have ever attempted to write a Memoir
can appreciate all the difficulties which confront the author.
There are some which are common to all biographers, but
I have had special ones. Those chapters for which I
alone am responsible had to be written whilst I was residing
abroad, away from local colour and suggestion, removed
from all opportunity of conversation with any member of
Sir Edmund's family or with a single one of his friends ;
nor have I had access to my own journals and correspon-
dence nor to a library of any description. One troublesome
question aJways arises in work of this kind, namely, the
size and design of the instrument that is to bring a subject
into view which has passed beyond the range of unaided
sight and is henceforth intangible. If it is to imprint a

vi PREFACE

full record, only an instrument constructed with a great
expenditure of time and care by the most skilful is likely
to be anything but unwieldy. It is possible to devise
one which contracts into a small field a definite picture,
but in such a miniature it is only the most prominent
features in the panorama of a man's life and few of the
finer ones which can be discerned.

No biographer escapes criticism. A common remark
among critics is that the attention of the writer should
have been given to greater condensation and selection.
In the following pages some of the extracts may appear
superfluous to my readers, yet in every case I have had a
reason for the quotation. There is not one, I hope, which
will not interest someone, and not a few appear because of
a belief that if they may seem of little value now they are
more than likely to become interesting hereafter. In any
case the question of the form in which a Memoir should be
presented is one on which there are such vast differences
of opinion that an author cannot expect to please all,
whatever plan he may adopt.

Loder's early diaries, written when he was very young,
already indicate the wide range of his observations and
a certain facility in writing. This power of expressing
himself he subsequently made very little use of and is
one he never cultivated. The earliest journal, which I
have had in my hands, was written when he was 23
years old and deals with a transitional period in the
history of America, just after the Civil War and during
the opening up of the Wild West. I often quote very
fully from these and also from the journals of his later
travels, yet I have given but a fraction of what was inter-
esting to myself. Whatever others think, I hold that re-
cords in which you find the original words in their unstudied
simplicity are of more value as history and in revealing
character than is the narrative form with attention to
literary style. The latter is the easier road to popular

PREFACE vii

favour and makes a lighter book. Public taste is change-
able, and I have thought more of what might interest
kindred spirits. We all are aware of the kind of personal
histories and reminiscences which command the best
market at the present moment. Edmund Loder's life,
though crammed with interest, does not lend itself to such
treatment even if I could \\Tite in that way, and if I could
cater to that taste I trust I should not.

It is said that it would be good for us to see ourselves
as others see us, but is it certain that it would not be
equally good for us to be seen by others as we see our-
selves ? Most men's deficiencies are recognised by them-
selves as well as by others, but the majority of persons must
be conscious of qualities and of capacities which escape
the observation even of their friends. Many Englishmen,
and Edmund Loder was one of these, are masters of the
art of hiding some of the best and most endearing qualities
of the heart. I dare to hope that here and there I have
been able to show that deeper and more tender side of
Loder's character which he would only discover to those
with whom his relations were very close.

Mr. Charles G. A. Nix, Mr. J. G. Millais, Lord Cottesloe,
Mr. St. George Littledale, and Mr. W. P. Pycraft have
each contributed chapters on certain periods in Sir Ed-
mund's life, or on subjects which I did not feel competent
to deal with, and to them I express my gratitude for their
assistance. In perusing their contributions there has been
one satisfaction, personal to myself. Each of these
intimate friends of Sir Edmund's corroborates my apprecia-
tion of his character. So that however much my tribute
to his memory falls short of what it should have been, their
testimony supports mine that Edmund Loder was a remark-
able Englishman, and they severally demonstrate that
my affection and admiration have not been allowed to
exaggerate his virtues nor to magnify his powers.

Sir Edmund Loder's widow, Marion Lady Loder, died

viii PREFACE

after my manuscript was in the publisher's hands. With-
out her sympathy and assistance I could neither have
commenced nor finished my task. For the help received
from other members of the family I tender my warmest
thanks.

Alfred E. Pease.

PiNCHINTHORPE HoUSE,
GUISBROUGH,

YOBKSHLRE,

July 30, 1922.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. Edmund Loder

Being a general review of the subject of the memoir — hig
personality, pursuits and achievements . . pp. 1-33

II. The Family of Loder

Being an account of its origin, with some notice of Giles
Loder, of Sir Robert Loder, Bt., M.P., of the Busks and other
allied families ...... pp. 34-56

III. The Home Scenes of his Life

His preference for Sussex — The High Beeches, Whittlebury
and Leonardslee ...... pp. 57-70

IV. Childhood, Eton and Cambridge (1849-1872)

Licludes a record of his attainments and athletic per-
formances ....... pp. 71-88

V. America and the Wild West (1873)

Being an accoimt of his travels with the Hon. Arthur
Pelham in the Eastern and Western States — Extracts from
his diaries — Bufialo-hunting on the Prairies — Experiences
among the Mormons and in the Rocky Mountains

pp. 89-141

VI. The Great Pilgrimage (1874 and 1875)

Being his travels and sporting experiences in Sweden,
Finland, Russia, India, Cashmere, Burma, Simiatra, Java,
Malaya, China, Japan and America — with extracts from his
letters and diaries ..... pp. 142-203

VII. Loder and Littledale (1875)

A chapter of reminiscences contributed by Mr. St. George
Littledale pp. 204-208

VIII. Marriage and Wedding Tour (1876 and 1877)

Includes Sir Edmund and Lady Loder's experiences in
Spain, Algeria, Tunisia and Sardinia . . pp. 209-219

ix

X CONTENTS

CHAPTER

IX. Floore and Sundry Expeditions (1877-1889)

Life and pursuits in Northamptonshire — Expeditions for
Cacti to the Mexican Frontier, 1878 — to the Dolomites for
Alpine plants, 1883 — After Rocky Mountain WTiite Goats,
1887 pp. 220-232

X. After Arui, Admi and Reem (1891, 1893, 1894
and 1895)

Being an account of travel and sport in the Aures, the
Sahara and the Tunisian Djereed . . pp. 233-256

XI. Reminiscences (1892-1915)

With a Prefatory Note by A. E. P., chiefly concerned
with Schwarzensee in Styria . . . pp. 257-260

A chapter contributed by Mr. Charles G. A. Nix ; includes
recollections of Deerstalking, Chamois Hionting, Fishing and
Gardening ...... pp. 261-274

XII. SOMALILAND AND BRITISH EaST AfRICA (1896-

1897 and 1907-1 90S)

Being an account of big-game hunting beyond the Haud in
Somaliland and in Kenia Colony . . . pp. 275-296

XIII. LoDER AS A Marksman

Being a chapter contributed by I/ord Cottesloe

pp. 297-302

XIV. Rhododendrons

Being a chapter contributed by Mr. J. G. Millais, giving
an account of Sir Edmund's achievements in this branch of
horticulture pp. 303-310

XV. The Museum at Leonardslee, by Mr. W. P.

PycRAFT pp. 311-328

XVI. Robin Loder (1889-1917)

Being an accoimt of Sir Edmund Loder's only son

pp. 329-337

XVII. "He Passeth On Also" (1920)

Being a brief account of the last months of Sir Edmund
Loder's life and of his death . . . PP. 338-342

Index pp. 343-356

EDMUND LODER

A MEMOIR

CHAPTER I

EDMUND LODER

" Sir Edm\ind was always good to me, always inspiring and always
keenly interested in my work ... he was regarded among -as as a livino
and QincKKNTNG spieit, a wise coxnsrsELLOR and a stavtsck friend.
Tr\ily the world is the better for his having lived in it." — W. P. Pycratt.

These few and simple words express what every personal
friend of the late Sir Edmund Loder felt about him. It
is what many tried to say, or expressed in other language,
in the numerous letters ^\Titten to Lady Loder after his
death, not only by his famihars, but also by those who
represented scientific societies at home and abroad. It
would require more qualifications, especially scientific
ones, than are probably possessed by any living man to
write Loder's life with an adequate description of the
work he accomplished. I claim, however, one — that of
being of the number of his intimate friends. Death ends
no true friendship. " Love is not Time's fool." Loder
lives very happily in our memory, and remains such a
perennial source of pleasure and comfort to us that it is
a natural wish that some account of an inspiring life
should be made accessible to others. Besides, he passed
through Time a living proof " That goodness is no name
and happiness no dream" and ever using "words which
are things."

However inadequate the monument I attempt to raise,

1

2 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

its inscription represents at least my mite " of praise in
payment of a long delight."

Friendship is a very distinct human relationship. It
may not be the most sharply defined nor the closest of
all ; yet the closest of all shall scarce do without it. It
differs from others in this : that a man cannot choose
his friend. A friend you must know, you must love
and you must trust ; your friend must know, love and
trust you in similar degree. Time alone declares if
friendship exists, and death but gives some measure of
its strength.

When a man dies having completed the allotted span,
few are likely to remain who are able to relate the history
of his whole life from a personal and intimate acquain-
tance with it, from first to last.

The friendship between Loder and myself grew out of
a companionship which had its beginning in Algeria some
twenty-seven years ago. There are older friends of his
surviving : The Hon. Arthur Pelham,i who shared in his
earlier travels and adventures, can date a close friendship
with Loder from Eton days. The great explorer and
hunter Mr. St. George Littledale can date his from " the
seventies." In February 1875 Edmund Loder notes in
his diary, when hunting tiger, ibex, sambur and chital
in the Neilgherries, " to-day I met a man named Little-
dale." Among his most intimate and surviving friends
are some who were his near neighbours in Sussex : such
as Mr. Charles G. A. Nix of Tilgate Forest Lodge, who has
contributed a chapter to this biography, and Mr. John
G. Millais of Compton's Brow, Horsham, who has also
helped me in my work. Mr. Edmund Meade Waldo is
another friend of many years' standing ; Mr. C. F. Lucas
of Warnham Court, Horsham, and Mr. I. S. Oxley of
Monks Badcornbe were other kindred spirits who were
often associated with him in deer-stalking and other pur-
suits— the latter was a fellow-competitor at Bisley ; Sir
Robert Harvey, Bt., of Langley Park, Slough, and Sir

1 Fourth son of the third Earl of Chichester.

HIS NATURE 3

Edmund had much in common especially as regards
shooting and gardening.

Amongst those who have passed away there was Clinton
Dent, one of Loder's constant companions in his under-
graduate days at Cambridge. Clinton Dent became a
distinguished surgeon and rendered great, and I believe
gratuitous, services at St. George's Hospital. Dent was
also President of the Alpine Club. Sir Edmund used to
recount with glee how he went off to his friend to obtain
relief after a hunting accident by having some deeply em-
bedded broken thorns extracted, and was welcomed with
" Ah ! I have often wished to get my ' knife into you.' "
The late F. W. Maitland, another Eton and Cambridge
friend, took high honours in two triposes and was later
Professor of Law.

Those I have mentioned were some of his lifelong
friends, so that I cannot claim to be one of his oldest.

When Loder and I joined camps for the first time he
would be about 43 years of age and I about 36. Now,
friendship is " the dear peculiar bond of youth " ; it
requires some similarity in experience, some identity of
tastes and an instinctive sympathy to create between
two men in middle life that relationship which gives con-
stant mutual satisfaction and comfort. " For grafts of
old wood to take there must be wonderful congeniality
between the trees." It is very generally observed that
one practical test of friendship between two men is to
throw them together in travel, camp life, sport and adven-
ture and to see if it remains unimpaired amidst success
and misfortune, the vicissitudes and hardships of travel
and the competitions of the chase. Looking back to all
our wanderings together and to hundreds of camps I
cannot remember a word, a gesture, an action ever dis-
turbing for a single instant the perfect understanding
between us. There is nothing which either of us could
ever wish to forget. Moreover, it may be asserted with
confidence that all those who have been his companions
under this test could give similar testimony. Other

4 EDMUND LODER fen. i

travellers may decide whether this is a great deal to say
or not ; it is my witness to the sweetness of his nature.
Surely it is extremely rare for a man, especially for one
ever eager for success, to be without a grain of envy or
jealousy in his composition ; yet Loder was one of this
rare company.

The most equable tempers are soured at times by long
spells of what appears unmerited misfortune or hardship ;
I have seen Loder temporarily depressed by continued
failure in persistent effort, but I never remember to have
seen him out of temper in consequence. No man showed
greater satisfaction in his own success nor more anxiety
for the success of his companions. Many of the best
sportsmen are very competitive ; some of these regard
being " first there," obtaining the " best beat " and the
" best head " as part of the game ; if they fail, the failure
of a comrade is actually some consolation. The tendency
of some of these is to become jealous and secretive even
when they remain " good fellows " in every other respect,
and quite dehghtful when they have it all their own way.
Edmund Loder was not the least like this. He was
co-operative ; he placed every discovery, all information,
every device at the disposal of his friends. He might
grumble at or find fault -with a bad guide, interpreter or
shikari as he would show appreciation of any man pro-
ficient in his metier, but he never visited bad luck on his
servants. If incompetence reached the point of being
ridiculous it generally gave him infinite amusement.
Being genuine and just, he attached to himself all who
served him, white or black. In addition he had such a
full reservoir of interests that when foiled in a main
objective, his mind found refuge in the pursuit of other
subjects. At no time and in no place could you be dull
in his company. The very emptiest desert, with the
vault above it, held for him a hundred wonders to be
noted and to be discussed. His sense of humour, which
was always present, came to the rescue in unpleasant
situations.

TESTIMONY OF HIS ASSOCIATES 5

I have known many great men and can count some of
the greatest of the great of my time among my personal
friends, yet I have no hesitation in saying that, although
Loder passed his life out of the reach of the public eye,
he was one of the greatest Englishmen of his generation.
For the many and quite different ways in which he was
successful he was the most wonderful man I have known.

I quote a few sentences from the testimony of others,
some of which have appeared in print and some of which
are taken from private letters of men who have authority
to speak.

Mr. W. P. Pycraft in a pubhshed obituary notice uses
this language :

" With the death of Sir Edmund Loder there passed
from amongst us a great Englishman. He will be reckoned
among those who were honoured in their generations
and were the glory of their times."

Another writes :

" The whole world of Natural Science, as of other
spheres in which he was active, will mourn ... for he
was one who bettered every subject he touched."

Another :

" His knowledge of conifers and rhododendrons was
probably unrivalled in this country."

Another :

"He was indefatigable in entertaining his friends, and
no one could pay a visit to Leonardslee without coming
away feeling that they had acquired a vast amount of
knowledge from his inexhaustible store."

Another :

" It often puzzled me how Sir Edmund found time to
work out in such a minute and thorough manner the many
problems he set himself to solve."

Another remarks on his vast and varied knowledge and
says most truly " he carried his knowledge lightly."

6 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

I think the following is a remarkable testimony coming
from such a source. It is taken from The Times notice of
Sir Edmund's death and is from the pen of his neighbour
Mr. J. G. Millais :

" It has been my good fortune to know nearly all the
most brilliant students and writers who have specialised
both in outdoor and museum natural history during the
past forty years, and whilst many have done more in
writing standard works on various subjects than Sir
Edmund Loder, none of them brought to the task more
brilliant gifts or were more accurate either in the observa-
tions or the conclusions from the works of previous writers.
Though I have known Sir Edmund for nearly thirty years
and have constantly discussed with him questions relating
to zoology and botany I have never known him to make a
single err or. ^^

A reserved and somewhat abrupt manner, due to his
natural shyness, when among strangers has been noticed,
yet immediately he felt at home he becam.e delightful
company. This shyness covered great sensitiveness and
an understanding heart. I often observed in him a
gentleness reflected in his voice, when moved by what
was beautiful in nature or art and when quoting poetry.
With regard to poets he was especially fond of Byron,
and found himself expressed in his poems throughout his
life. He knew " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage " by heart,
and in these introductory pages I shall quote lines which
I have heard him repeat or which he has copied into his
diaries, for they reveal to us something of his mind and
of his heart. He carried with him his B3^ron and his
Shakespeare on every journey, and recited over camp
fires or on the march passages he felt beautiful and verses
which were quaint or amusing. A great deal of Byron
he admitted to be boring, but of Byron's best, " Thoughts
that breathe, and words that burn," he never tired. In
Loder 's own copy of Byron many passages are marked.
Often a single line such as " She walks the waters like a
thing of life," in the stanza beginning " A sail ! a sail ! "

HIS FAVOURITE POETS 7

or a verse for its power of language such as the one in
" Don Juan " commencing " Then rose from sea to sky
the wild farewell," or any lines which amused him such as
the description of the fourth day in the open boat when
Juan's spaniel " spite of his entreating " is killed and
portioned out " for present eating " and the sixth day
comes (Canto 2, stanza Ixxi) :

On the sixth day they fed upon his hide,

And Juan, who had still refused, because
The creature was his father's dog that died.

Now feeling all the vulture in his jaws,
With some remorse received (though first denied)

As a great favour one of the fore-paws.
Which he divided with Pedrillo, who

Devour' d it, longing for the other too.^

I have been warned that the prominence I have given
to Loder's fondness for Byron might raise suspicions
among those who were strangers to his character as to his
own standard of morality. However ridiculously false
any approach to such a deduction would be, the risk of it
may justify me in saying this much about Byron : Byron
was a sinner and openly confessed he was a most miserable
one ; he recognises the retribution of Heaven as just,
and because he believed in virtue and had a soul almost
his whole life was spent in the hell of remorse. Half-
maddened by the irreparable ruin that his alleged immoral
relationship with his half-sister had brought to this woman,
whom he loved the best and to the end, and writhing under
the savage treatment of a world he hated for its hypocrisy
and cruelty, he perversely took a delight in representing
himself as far worse than he was and in outraging society's
standard of decency. I presume he thought that the
hatred of his enemies became an even more hideous thing
when it grew out of falsehood and flourished in a malig-

1 There are not so many passages marked in " Don Juan " as I should
have expected. Most of Byron's ballads are marked, such as " The Isles
of Greece " and " Beware ! Beware ! of the Black Friar, who sitteth
by Norman stone." He marked some of Byron's marvellous " Notes,"
e.g. the one to " Don Juan," canto v, stanza cxlvii.
2

8 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

nance which he dehberately provoked. Let those who
judge him for his sins ask themselves if they have done
for humanity as much as the poet and soldier who fought
oppression and slavery, who gave his life for freedom at
Missolonghi, who has opened countless hearts to the
noblest aspirations and men's eyes to behold the beautiful
and the sublime.

Loder loved the mixture of art, beauty and quaintness
in Shakespeare's Sonnets, and quoted and discussed them.
He could repeat most of Calverley's verses, and one
or two of Calverley's pieces which I have never seen in
print, quite equal to those which have been published.
Calverley's peculiar turn of genius and humour appealed to
him with its touches of pathos and sentiment. Nothing
could be more suited to such verses than Loder 's voice
and cadences used with complete comprehension of the
art and quaintness of the poem when he recited such
bits as the one beginning

When the yoiing Augustus Edward
Has reluctantly gone bedward,

or Calverley's " Shelter." The last I often persuaded
him to repeat to me in arid places, for it is a delicious little
pond picture and Loder's voice soothing and refreshing to
a hot and thirsty wayfarer. I give it here because I think
others, like myself, cannot see it in print without hearing
his voice and seeing him by his ponds and water-lilies
where were the haunts of his Capybara, Coypus and
Beavers. I also see him on his little Barb with a string of
camels in the desert.

SHELTER

By the wide lake's margin I mark'd her lie —
Tiie wide, weird lake where the alders sigh —
A yoiuig fair thing, with a shy, soft eye ;

And I deemed that her thoughts had flown
To her home, and her brethren, and sisters dear,
As she lay there watching the dark, deep mere,

All motionless, all alone.

HIS FAVOURITE POETS 9

Then I heard a noise, as of men and boys.

And a boisterous troop drew nigh.
Whither now will retreat those fairy feet ?

Where hide till the storm pass by ?
One glance — the wild glance of a hunted thing —
She cast behind her ; she gave one spring ,
And there follow' d a splash and a broadening ring

On the lake where the alders sigh.

She had gone from the ken of ungentlemen !

Yet scarce did I mourn for that ;
For I knew she was safe in her own home then
And, the danger past, would appear again
For she was a water-rat.

Loder's knowledge, acquirements and performances were
in reality far greater than he displayed, but he never
hesitated to face all comers with the truth. He was in-
variably right when serious and in a scientific mood, always
truthful and had always observed and accomplished the
things he stated he had seen and done. There is no false
shame in such simple natures ; it is not vaunting when
a man asserts " no one has seen or done a thing," for
another who has seen or done it to say " I have " and to
relate facts without exaggeration.

When Loder did not know he said so at once ; he never
affected any knowledge ; indeed, he was almost impatient
to appear as if he knew nothing about any subject he
was not quite sure of. This does not mean that he was
a pedant nor that he was incapable of embellishing an
anecdote or an exploit, as we all may do in attempts to
amuse or in moments of enthusiasm. He had also a
remarkable power, as if emanating from a faculty of
arranging his memory, of giving or finding at a moment's
notice a correct reference. It was as if he had a vast
library in his brain and knew the name of every author
and volum.e and the place of each book or paper on its
shelves, and could with the velocity of thought take any
one down. But it was more than this, for it applied to
men and things, so that on the instant he would say
" So-and-so in Brazil is the only man who knows much

10 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

about this," or " The only specimens of that are in such
museums, or such Botanical Gardens."

He recognised the limits to human knowledge and
accomplishment ; he dismissed and swept aside all that
his intelligence proclaimed beyond his reach. He had a
curious way of casting out for ever any study he had
finished or any pursuit he had dropped.

It was thus with astronomy. For years he had studied
with his own very carefully equipped observatory until
he had become no mean astronomer. Having " done
with it," it was with difficulty you could get him to men-
tion the science ; he would scarcely answer a simple ques-
tion about the stars. If I pressed him for the name of
a star he w^ould come, gaze for a minute and blow out " I
suppose that is so-and-so," turn on his heel saying some-
thing about trillions of miles and a million times the
volume of the earth. Yet at the beginnings and endings
of African nights, it might be as the violet shadows
climbed to, or shrank from, the golden crests of the sand
dunes with transparent bushes of white-blossomed broom,
pale dhrin grass, green and yellow m.ethenon and the
sparkling metallic " had," touched by the first or last lights
of day, I have seen in him something of that which once
lured him to the stars as he repeated to me such stanzas
as that which begins " Ye stars ! which are the poetry
of heaven," or

The moon is up, and yet it is not night ;
Sunset divides the sky with her ; a sea
Of glory streams along the Alpine height i
Of blue Friuli's mountains ; Heaven is free
From clouds, but of all colours seems to be —
Melted in one vast Iris of the West, —
Where the Day joins the past Eternity,
While, on the other hand, meek Dian's crest
Floats through the azure air — an island of the blest !
A single star is at her side and reigns
With her o'er half the lovely heaven ;

^ There is in the great sand-dune region of the Sahara known as the
Erg a singular resemblance between the towering sand mountains, on
the horizons of that strange desert, and distant alps, for in certain lights
their crests glisten white like snow.

THE ABORTIVE SARDINIAN TRIP 11

and so he would quote stanza after stanza — not always
consecutively, but seizing out of his memory any which
fitted his humour or the occasion.

Fox-hunting, which he had once delighted in, he " put
down " when age and other pursuits decided its fate ;
just as we do with an old favourite horse or hound. He
announced this decision to me in a letter and that he
was sending to me his last hunter " Lady Bird," one of
the last two which he had brought to Leonardslee from
Northamptonshire. From that day forward I seldom
heard him mention the sport, unless it came up in general
conversation.

A few years later, in 1901, an accident to his camp
equipment caused him to abandon for ever every idea of
setting forth again to distant lands. There were several
animals he had not obtained and which he thought of
making the objects of future expeditions ; one of these
was the Sardinian mouflon.^

Previous hunters of the Sardinian mouflon among his
acquaintance had sometimes had trouble with the brigands ;
when not actually held up, as some had been, their sport
had been spoilt by these gentry. The expedition had to
be then or never, for the brigands which infested the
island were that year under lock and key for six weeks
or so, and such a chance might not occur again. The
information was received from an Italian gentleman, a con-
nection of Mr. Charles Nix, Loder's neighbour and friend
with whom the trip was to be undertaken. At the time
appointed for starting. Sir Edmund was staying with his
brother and sister-in-law Lord and Lady Rendel at Cannes
and was to join Mr. Nix at Nice. Loder had sent out
by sea in the Linnet his camp kit, favourite tent, rifles,
his Byron and his Shakespeare, also his beloved " boto "
(of which more anon — page 24) and other old com-
panions. The Linnet was burnt at sea in the Bay of

1 He had at one time and another both the Sardinian and Corsican
mouflon, and hybrids between these varieties, in his grounds at Leonarda-
lee, but had never seen either in their native habitat.

12 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

Biscay. His kit had been insured and some of it was
salved in a damaged condition. It remained a joke among
his friends that when offered a sum of money or his
damaged and till then inseparable companions, his best
deer-glass, Byron, Shakespeare and " my boto," etcetera,
he preferred the money. No doubt Lady Loder, who always
dreaded the long separations that these expeditions in-
volved, must have afterwards regarded this catastrophe
as a blessing in disguise. When subsequently I suggested
another trip he said quietly, " No ; all my things are lost
or damaged — I shall never go any more." I knew that
was final ; so he went no more a-roving. He always had
the strength of mind to come to a decision and to abide
by it. Some might call this trait in his character obstinacy.
Whatever it is called, this sharp, short way saved his
time and prevented further worry. These pursuits, how-
ever dear they had been, were buried without fuss and
he turned to other occupations. Some of these were
never put down. In early youth he had taken to garden-
ing. As the years passed he devoted himself more and
more to his flowers, his plants and his trees — " The tie
which bound the first, endures the last."

His daughter Patience (Mrs. W. Otter) in some notes
she sent me, to which I shall refer again, thus describes
how the garden that had been his delight in the sunsliine
of youth became his refuge in the last storm of life :

" The years slipped by and after a time Father came
to realise that he was not quite so strong as he had been.
He had a pony ' Toby ' to ride about the Garden, up and
down the hills. Toby had to wear a net muzzle — som^eone
asked the reason why — ' He eats the shrubs,' Father said.
' But does that matter much ? there seem to be a good
many,' asked his friend. ' No,' answered Father, laugh-
ing, ' it wouldn't, only Toby always chooses the rare ones.'

" The Garden was really his greatest interest, and during
those terrible years of war, when the blow fell which
broke his heart it was to his garden he went for comfort
and found it, I think, and strength as well to take up life

HIS RAPIDITY OF BRAIN 13

again and to face the world like so many fathers who
had given their best."

His daughter says something more about the garden,
but I shall leave it for the end of the book.

"All agree that Loder's brain was brilliant, but it was
the rapidity with which it, and its ministers his eyes and
hands, worked that was phenomenal. Within an hour he
seemed to fix in his memory all that was worth remember-
ing out of any volume. He got at the kernel of a question
or at the basis of a theory in a flash. When puzzled
with a problem he plunged into it and got to the bottom
of it, if it had any bottom, at one stretch, long or short,
of rapid effort. But he not only knew ; he did.'^

I had written this in my diary abroad months before
I read Millais' article in Country Life, in which he gives
a much fuller and more exact description of these powers.
He says :

" he studied astronomy. . . . When he took up zoology
and botany he did it first by acquiring a great library
and then reading every book on the subject before begin-
ning to propound his o^vn new theories. His memory and
analytical powers were extraordinary and he seemed
almost incapable of making mistakes. One wet day we
sat in the library at Leonardslee and I gave him a new
book on Africa I had brought with me. He kept turning
the pages at such a rate that he did not seem to be reading
it at all, and when he threw it down after an hour, I asked
him what he thought of it. Then he began : ' You will
see the author says on page 22 ' — then followed an
analysis of the writer's views, which he proved were
completely wrong, as was the case. ' On page 35 ' — a
further long quotation from the book, almost word for
word, and his own reason for disagreement. And so on
throughout the whole volume, examining every error and
praising every good point, as if he knew the whole of it
by heart. I confess it amazed me, and though I had read
the book twice very carefully, Edmund Loder had read
and digested the whole matter in one hour, and what is

14 EDIVIUND LODER [ch. i

more, could remember all about it afterwards." — J. G.
MiLLAis in Country Life, May 22nd, 1920.

I have known one or two men with phenomenal memories.
One was the late Sir Robert Fowler of Gastard, who
knew most of the Latin poets and Homer by heart. He
read chapter iii of Hallam's Middle Ages three times
through, and ever after could repeat it word for word ;
but he was not rapid in assimilating a book. There are
some weird kinds of powers ; some almost distressing. I
was at school with a boy who actually knew the whole
of Bradshaw's Railway Guide off by heart — at least I
never knew him at fault with the time-table of the re-
motest provincial station ; he was good at games, but
the exciting event of his school life was noting the changes
in the month's issues of that awful but indispensable
volume. But Loder's gift seemed an easy and natural
one.

We have already seen that Loder was an astronomer,
he understood optics and optical instruments, he was an
expert photographer, a great zoologist, a practical natura-
list, a botanist, a great horticulturist and arboriculturist,
he understood ballistics, was a skilled mechanic and
armourer. In addition he was a thoroughly equipped and
experienced sportsman, a hard rider to hounds, a good
shot with a gun and one of the best with a rifle, a good
fisherman ; he had been a fine athlete, and till quite late
in life was an energetic dancer. Edmund Loder could
draw well and knew more than most people guessed about
art, music, gems, jade, carving and curios. I have seen
it solemnly stated in print that he was " without literary
tastes " ; this is an error. He knew the insides of count-
less books and had great powers of discrimination as to
their intrinsic merits ; he was a good judge too of the
accessories to literature, illustrations, processes and the
like. I confess I am not quite clear as to what is meant
when I hear the remark " he had no literary tastes " ;
applied to Loder it is only possible to think of it in the

HIS ALOOFNESS FROM POLITICS 15

sense that he himself had no taste for writing books ; it
is the only sense in which the allegation is true. Millais
writes of him thus, though I do not think he kept up his
classics to this extent in the years in which I knew him :

" It was a com.mon thing to hear him quote long pas-
sages from Ovid and Horace, and his well-worn copies of
such ancient writers were full of comments in his own
handwriting on his favourite passages."

Millais ascribes his not having written much probably to
the fact of his being hypercritical of his own work, and
deplores the loss to science in consequence. I have always
felt that however imperfect a book may be, if it con-
tains something worth preserving for posterity or is of
some use to the living, it justifies its existence. But if,
as Millais points out, a man cannot tolerate any error
and will not take the risk of making mistakes, he is not
likely to write at all ; for no man can write a book with-
out small mistakes and few write one without an occa-
sional big one. No doubt tliis view of Loder is true to
a certain extent, but my own opinion is that he had not
time to give to so slow a process as writing. A pen was
too slow a tool for even his own notes and memoranda,
and as a rule he used a pencil. A pen was a drag on
quick brains, eyes and hands which his eager tempera-
ment could not endure for long.

Sir Edmund Loder could not have achieved so much
had he been a public man. To men like him, with definite
views of what is worth seeing, doing and living for, it must
seem that at least half of any public man's time is abso-
lutely wasted. With the exception of attending the local
Bench and having been once High Sheriff for Northamp-
tonshire, he took no part in public life. When, in 1888,
he succeeded his father, who had represented Shoreham
from 1880 till its disfranchisement in 1885, he was offered
immediate election to the Carlton Club. This was a
somewhat unusual proposal, but he declined it without
hesitation. The only occasion in his life, I believe, on

16 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

which he appeared on a poHtical platform was once during
his brother Mr. Gerald Loder's contest at Brighton in
1889.' This brother made me smile when he said " I
only once got him down to the House of Commons and
then only as far as the lobby." I remember also a single
occasion during the years I was in the House when he got
as far and no farther than the outer lobby, and had only
come to get me away from the place ! This did not arise
from any contemptuous indifference, too common nowa-
days, to public affairs, for he formed very shrewd opinions
of his own on questions of the day ; it was attributable
rather to an innate shrinking from publicity and from a
dislike of being at the beck and call of anybody. Like
others who stand aloof from politics he was able to enjoy
detached views on many questions, but he w^as a Con-
servative and a staunch Unionist. He insisted on having
his liberty, and had no taste for public contention and
for spending his years " in wTetched interchange of wrong
for wrong." His political opinions never interfered with
his personal relationships. I have heard him argue his
point of view, but never once have observed the slightest
bitterness, however strongly he felt he was right.

Sir Edmund Loder was essentially a man who is at his
best at home. He cared little for society, though he
enjoyed such things as a day at Lord's on the occasion
of the Eton and Harrow or Inter -University matches.
When in town and there was good cricket to be seen at
Lord's, he would sometimes persuade me to come with

1 Mr. Gerald W. Erskine Loder, the fourth of the Loder brothers,
born in 1861, represented Brighton for sixteen years. Possessing great
ability and a charming personality and being a clear thinker and speaker,
he early made his mark in the House of Commons. It is almost certain
that had he remained in Parliament he would have come into the front
rank. His disappearance from public life was due to reasons of health.
Having sat opposite him in the House for some years I can say that
his retirement was felt by all parties to be a great loss, for he had won
the respect and warm regard of all. He was good all roimd at sport and
games, especially with rifle and racquet, and has travelled too, but is
distinguished from his brothers chiefly by his association with public
affairs. (See also page 47 for reference to him as a tennis-player.)

TESTIMONY OF CHALMERS MITCHELL 17

him and would make straight for his brother Wilfrid.
Wilfrid Loder was sure to be there ; he was a great
enthusiast for the game, and Edmund Loder would say
" We must find Wilfrid, he -will know all about it," and
when he had found liim he was posted up in all the cricket
news of the day.'

Club-life had no attractions for him. He was for over
thirty years a member of the Athenaeum, but was quite
unknown there, and probably did not enter its doors half
a dozen times. Yet when something took him perforce
into an assembly of kindred spirits, such as the Council
Meetings of the Zoological or Horticultural Societies and
the Annual Rifle Association meetings, he entered into the
business with remarkable zest and effect. Mr. P. Chalmers
Mitchell, Secretary to the Zoological Society, writing to
me after Sir Edmund's death says :

" He hardly ever missed a meeting of the Garden
Committee or of the Council, coming to London specially
for them. I think all who served with him would agree
that he was one of the most valuable Members of the
Council. But it was more by constant advice on detail
than by any striking suggestion. His knowledge of
gardening and of outside construction was most useful
to us. I was especially struck by one quality : A Com-
mittee of persons who know a good deal about the subject

1 Wilfrid Hans Loder, bom 1851, was of bis brothers the nearest to
him in age. He had never been what may be called a " good " cricketer,
though he got his XXII at Eton ; he made, however, a study of cricket
and racing. Of racing he was very fond, not for society and amusement
so much as for the science of it, pure and simple. He studied form and
kept up the practice of making up his own weights for the principal
handicaps as soon as ever entries were published, and his judgment of
weights was extremely good. He himted regularly till within about
a year of his death, and was considered the best shot with a gun which
the family produced. There were few better shots than Wilfrid Loder
at driven grouse. For many years he was one of the lessees of the Hunt-
hill Moors in Forfarshire ; and for some of this time his brothers Alfred,
Gerald and Sydney were associated with the shooting syndicate. In
1889, with 8 guns, they shot 8,200 brace of grouse. Wilfrid Loder was
the one " business man " in the family, being a partner in the banking
firm of Prescott, Cave & Loder. His death in 1902 made the first gap
in the remka of the seven brothers.

18 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

under discussion very often has difficulty in coming to a
conclusion. Loder was never like that : he would listen
patiently to both sides, make his own suggestions and in
a very short time would make up his own mind — and in
consequence often that of the Committee."

In contemplating the vast improvements to the garden
and the great change for the better in the arrangements,
for the health and comfort of all the creatures in this great
collection as well as for the pleasure and instruction of
the public, it is pleasant to know that Loder's heart and
hand contributed to this work in no small measure. It
is true here as elsewhere that " he bettered everything
he touched."

Loder's friends have claimed that he was a great Eng-
lishman. What do they mean ? What is greatness ? In
the sense of being powerful or famous the word is not
applicable. Power and fame may be won or may be
fortuitous, may be achieved by merit or reached by trickery
or crime. Riding alone one afternoon with the late
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, I asked him how he had
become so famous and so powerful. He liked the ques-
tion, because he knew I was fond of him and interested
in everything which concerned him. In the course of an
hour or so he related to me in his own inimitable way the
history of his life from childhood, the environments and
experiences which had influenced his opinions and his
tastes, and of his ascent to the highest place. When he
had reached the end of his story he said, " You see I
became a big man only through the accident of circum-
stance." And so it appeared, if judged by his own
account of the events which turned public attention to
him. He added a moment after, " And I like power —
all men like power and enjoy influence." But Roosevelt
was a great man, had the world never heard of him or
had circumstances never brought him an opportunity to
seize. Circumstances may have brought him into public
view, but the public recognised he was a great man as

HIS MEMORY 19

soon as it observed him — his greatness preceded fame and
power. For a man to be great in mind and great in
performance, he must have more than ordinary physical
vitality as well as great activity of brain. Roosevelt's great
qualities, in addition to phenomenal vitality, were, I think,
a passion for truth and justice, and a detestation of cant,
pretence and humbug ; he possessed clean, clear common
sense combined with a prodigious memory. The intense
love of collecting information — or indeed of collecting
anything, from postage stamps and butterflies to pictures
and wild beasts — is but a manifestation of the inbred
passion for hunting, found in such men as Roosevelt. I
am endeavouring to measure Loder's greatness by the
standard of men who are generally recognised as great.
Loder had all the qualities just mentioned, and also, vnth
Roosevelt, " the genius of taking pains." Mention has
already been made of Loder's memory in relation to facts,
figures and books, but here is an illustration of how it
applied to other things. When he was in Colorado in
1878 he remembered shooting a Prong-horn Antelope in
1873, in strange country, and also the spot where he had
hung it in a tree and had had to leave it. Five years
after, he went straight to the tree and there was the skele-
ton of his buck. Some men I have known would not
have found the tree five hours after.

Whilst Roosevelt, whose eyesight was defective, did not
appear to me to be a quick observer, Loder was a very
rapid and accurate one ; on the other hand, Roosevelt,
who despised no source of information, had the gift of
collecting and remembering an enormous number of the
results obtained by the observations of others, often
confirming them by his own, and collating them. Thus
Roosevelt \N'ith his clear and equitable sense made better
use of his knowledge than most original and superior
observers, giving to the world at large the harvest of his
labour and thought. Loder was long-sighted, but in
practice one might say his sight was perfect, save in mist
or rain, for he had glasses to suit all distances and pur-

20 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

poses, e.g. for shooting he had a bifocal lens for his
right eye, enabling him to see a thread line on his back
or Lyman sight and also to see his target as well as his
foresight ; for his left eye he had a simple lens with
which to observe the whole field of vision. He was an
expert with the deer-glass, but he had what is of impor-
tance for success — trained sight. Quick and accurate
sight is, given good eyes, largely a matter of experience
and practice — knomng what to look for, where to look for
it and how to detect it. For instance, an experienced
shikari or traveller in the desert is instinctively and
half-consciously continually scanning the horizon, and
will immediately catch sight of a very tiny flash of light
there which an untrained eye would not be likely to notice
even if it was looking in that direction, and which if
detected would convey no meaning ; such an eye would
not be watching for a signal. The initiated know for
certain what the object is, though it is totally invisible to
the eye and may be invisible to binoculars — it is gazelle
or antelope. I have seen many men puzzled by being
told " there is a gazelle " near the horizon just as much
as if you told them you could see a rabbit three miles
away — certainly no eye could see the gazelle, yet one
movement in the sun has betrayed it and sent a heliograph
message with a flash of light off the white of its flank or
stern. In this sense Loder's sight was fully trained.
Possessing very similar qualifications of greatness, these
two men were very different in their outlook on life and
in many of their pursuits. One hardly ever heeded the
public, certainly not to the extent of caring what the
public thought about him ; the other thinking almost
always, even when out shooting, what the public would
think of his success or failure. Roosevelt amused me one
day when he knocked down a nasty lion, at some sixty
yards' range in the open, by turning round to me and
saying immediately, with a grin and showing his teeth,
" That's one for Wall Street." I gathered from Roosevelt
that nothing would have pleased his political opponents

HIS SELF-EFFACEMENT 21

more than the news that a lion had got him instead of
his getting a lion — I really believe he felt that with every
well-placed shot he laid low one of the corrupt crowd he
struggled against. Fancy thinking about Wall Street
at such times !

Loder was without even the usual moderate dose of
desire for importance and publicity common among
Enghsh people : he never allowed himself to be coaxed
or pushed into any position of power. J. G. JMillais says
of him that " he was too English " ; ^ and further, " in
public he preferred self-effacement. The only time I ever
heard him. make a speech he was simply a bundle of
nerves, and though he knew more than anyone present,
he had little to observe ; but," he adds, " this does not
detract from the charm or even the greatness of English
character." Perhaps Byron indicates his mental atti-
tude towards " Statesmen " and " Sophists " :

" Envied, yet how unenviable ! what stings

Are theirs ! One breast laid open were a school
Which would unteach mankind the lust to shine or rule."

And

" Away with these ! true Wisdom's world will be
Within its own creation, or in thine,
Maternal Nature ! for who teems like thee ? "

It has been said that Roosevelt was " too American "
in his love of fame ; yet the world requires great men
to serve it in the blaze of publicity, and a man will not
perform his ser\ice worse for enjopng the limelight in
which he works. But does not our faith in Britain rest
largely on the knowledge that three-fourths of her great-
ness and strength lies hidden in the homes and lives of her
people of every class, shrinks from public view and is
by its very privacy kept clean ? In the great trials of
nations, when peoples are put to the test, this latent
greatness breaks forth, always with surprise, and is ever

^ " Edmund Loder was too English in his natural reserve and so the
outside world did not know him," — J. G. Millais in Country Life.

22 EDIVIUND LODER [ch. i

invincible. The unknown warriors save us, unknown
teachers have taught us and unknown men have made
our country worth living in and dying for. We follow
unconsciously more great private examples than public
ones, we are infected with inspirations and turn to ideals
which emanate from the unprinted words and unadver-
tised lives of such men as the one I "\mte of.

Although well built, with a tall (6 ft. 1| in.), agile frame
and a youthful freshness which was maintained to the
end of his hfe, Edmund Loder cannot be said to have been
physically a strong man. In Cashmere in 1874, in following
a wounded bear, he strained his heart, which had been highly
tried before in athletic competitions, and from the effects
of this he never entirely recovered. In 1915 this heart-
strain again showed itself, being brought on by deer-
stalking, and he dropped one more delightful pursuit.
It seems probable that had he given up deer-stalking
sooner he might have lived many years longer than
he did.

No one acquainted with Sir Edmund would deny the
impressiveness of his personality, though probably no one
can define in what it consisted. My own opinion is that
it arose partly from an expression in his very light- blue
eyes, an expression hke no other I have seen, unless it
was transmitted to the eyes of his son Robin Loder. I
cannot describe it ; it was rather fixed, but not staring
— it was rather as if, when he looked at you, he was
looking inwardly as well as outwardly. But apart from
his eyes, the general impression was one of abounding
vitality. His vitality was so great that it is difficult to
conceive that he is dead. Comparing this feeling vdth
that of others, we find we cannot think of him without
seeing him with the inward eye and hearing him with the
inward ear, almost as distinctly as if he were actually
present. In many cases we strive in vain to conjure up
the precise image and the very voice which death has
placed beyond our sight and hearing. In Loder's case
no effort whatever is needed. My daughter a year after

HIS PERSONALITY 23

his death and several years after having seen him wrote
to me :

" I still cannot realise he too has gone, he always seems
to me such a tremendously living personality, so full of
vitality. I can always hear his voice and see his eyes
twinkle, whenever I think of him. There are not many
like him in life."

His own daughter wrote :

" From my earliest childhood's days my Father stood
out as a personality, a little awe-inspiring perhaps, but a
personality, and it is as such that I remember him best."

Edmund Loder was a man of simple tastes. As taste
differs according to locality and seasons, and quot homines,
tot sententice is true of it, I can only venture my opinion
that his taste was good in every direction.

In small things, as in great, it was discriminating and
practical. For instance, if an acknowledged independent
authority existed to determine such matters, it might
declare all Western male attire to be appallingly hideous ;
but if it "has to be," then Loder's dress, especially for
country wear and travel, were as pleasing as could be in
colour and material and certainly right for his purposes,
though few men ever gave less time to such things, or
put them off and on with greater expedition. He carried
time-saving methods into trifles. He held to the Vic-
torian creed in such matters, such as a " uniform " for
Church and Town. Whatever moderns may think about
it, it saved worry as well as time. On mornings when he
had to betake himself by train to the Metropolis, he
would present himself before you in his top hat, black
coat, dark trousers, overcoat, with an umbrella and a
pair of gloves in his hand — strike an attitude which
announced " London to-day and properly turned out,
don't you think ? " It had all gone on in about five
minutes and hjs worry about clothes was over for the
day. His evening dress went on as fast, but there was
one point about that where I discovered some vanity —
3

24 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

it was as regards his white tie. I do not naturally notice
such things, though I once did remark on a man
who had one of satin with pink spots on it, and I am no
judge, yet when Loder sometimes called my attention to
the beauty of his bow, assuring me every time that it was
not " made up," I used to gaze at it without discovering
anything about it which made it remarkably superior to
others, but he several times said to me, " You see it is
one tiling you learn to do really well at Eton."

However engrossed in work, he stopped at once for
meals or morning prayers and went straight to his place.
Visitors have remarked to me that he read prayers and
said grace at meals very fast. I suppose he did, but the
reply to this was " Sir Eddie does everytliing fast but
well " ; his voice was always in the right key for prayers,
his bearing and expression reverent. For him to have
adopted an adagio, or a clerical drawl, or to have done
anything for calculated elfect would have been an affec-
tation quite foreign to his nature. He had few idiosyn-
crasies, beyond preferring his soup, liis tea and his coffee
nearly cold, and the peculiarity of the mixture he put
into his water-bottle in hot countries. For many years
he rejoiced in the possession of a cat-skin " boto " (" my
boto ") which he had acquired in the Pyrenees, together
with skill in the Pyrenean art of allowing the jet of liquid
to go straight down his gullet. This bottle throughout
its long and ubiquitous career imparted the most atrocious
feline flavour to the strongest mixtures he put into it.
He would pour into it tea, sour wine, lime-juice and
coffee and shake them together, partly in an annuall}''
dwindling hope of drowning the cat, but mainly from the
conviction that the only way of dealing with a desert
or tropical thirst was to make drinking as objectionable
as possible. When suffering from thirst on a hot march
to distant wells, we would screw up our courage for facing
the " boto " by suggesting to each other more pleasing
drinks. " What will you take ? " — " Iced laager or
shandy-gaff, please ; and you ? " — " Thank you, I'll have

HUNTING CRAFT 25

a cold whisky-and-soda with a slice of lemon in it, or
a lemon squash." Or we would discuss whether grapes
and melons or peaches and green figs made the best base
for iced sherbet. Gradually we worked ourselves up to
the necessary pitch for contemplating the boto— then he
would hand it to me and say " Have a smell at that " ;
he would laugh mth delight to see how a little went a
long way and how few ever wanted a second squirt of
the nectar loderi.

Without being Spartan he was in all his habits very
temperate— he smoked very little, but was the last of
my acquaintances who preferred Manilla cheroots to all
other forms of tobacco. At meals he was often so absorbed
m conversation— and he was a great and interesting
talker when in congenial company, and a good listener—
that he would sign away with bis hand one dish after
another.

So far as Edmund Loder acquired fame, it was chiefly
amongst the highest class of horticulturists, zoologists
and scientists, or among travellers, big-game hunters and
riflemen. It is always difficult to place a man in any
class, and I am not qualified to ascribe to Loder his in
any of these. Even if you have had a long and varied
experience of naturalists and big-game hunters it is im-
possible to be famihar enough with all the best to make
fair comparisons. Yet unless we aUude to our observa-
tion of others in similar spheres of activity whose names
and performances are kno^vn, how can any idea be given
of a man's merits ? Probably there are and have been
many m.en who as sportsmen-naturalists had some superior
points of excellence and who have scored greater success
in the field, but it is difficult to imagine a better combina-
tion than Loder was of science with practice— knowledge
of natural history and of the game, practical skill, resource,
energy, perseverance, experience and good marksmanship ;'
and he had a fine record of success. Possibly his friend
Lord Cottesloe, who has as complete a knowledge of the
rifle and of ballistics as any living sportsman, may be a

26 ED5IITND LODER [ch. i

better marksman at game than Loder was. Loder had
a fine record of deer-stalking in Scotland and was a deadly
shot on a forest, but his brother Mr. Sydney Loder has
killed up to now, to his own rifle and all hy stalking, 1,173
stags in 32 seasons : has any other man done that ? It
is an average of over 36 stags a season. I have known
men more rapid and deadly with their fire at moving and
galloping game than Sir Edmund ; I never once saw him
attempt shooting from horseback at the gallop or other-
wise, but for a quiet shot, even if it had to be quick, at
any sportsman's range, as a judge of range and target
in the field, he was as near perfection as a man m.ay be.
His stalking craft, resourcefulness and rapid decision
made him a deadly antagonist matched against almost any
beast. I say " almost " any beast because there are some
animals so clever and with senses so acute that no man
is a deadly match for them ; such is the old ram of the
Barbary breed. By this is meant that an old male Bar-
bary sheep carrying a good head in the Atlas range, being
as a rule the sentinel for his flock, will in the majority of
eases elude the hunter's eye or glass, and if detected or
spied wall oftener than not escape being stalked, by his
situation or by stratagem, and that when shot at will
generally present such a poor, and often moving, target
that he will more frequently get away than fall to the
rifle ; yet Loder was successful with this noble game.
There are the professional hunters, men of vast experience
and skill, some of whom arc also excellent naturalists.
You meet such men in East and South Africa and else-
where ; but their experience and scientific knowledge are
more or less local and confined as a rule to one continent.
Their fame, unless they are writers or collectors for
museums in Europe and America, hardly reaches the out-
side world. Wide and varied experience is more likely
to be found among amateurs. Even amateurs who had
very busy lives, with httle time comparatively in which
to indulge their passion for travel and sport, have accom-
plished extraordinary things. A very notable example of

HUNTING CRAFT 27

these is Mr. Ed^vaid North Buxton, who has, moreover,
pubhshed dehghtful descriptions of his many experiences,
some of which are quite unique in this department of sport.

But even among amateurs there cannot be very many
who, Hke Loder, in addition to having been a hard rider
to hounds, a good fisherman, with a fine deer- stalking
record in Scotland, with a capital one of chamois in
Europe, ha\ing had success with izard and ibex in the
Pyrenees and on the Spanish side, had hunted big game
all round the world, so to speak, from the days when he
stalked American bison on the prairies in the old buffalo
days, and to those when he hunted big game of Africa
as late as 1908, or who could show a finer and larger
number of typical heads and specimens.

'■ The man in the street," if asked who was the greatest
naturalist-hunter of our time, would probably say " Fred
Selous," who had been both a professional and an amateur.
The fame of Selous arises partly from his gift of de-
scribing what he had seen and done and from the romance
which attaches to ha\dng done his early hunting in dis-
tant, and at that time little-knowTi, regions of South
Africa. He had been a professional ivory-hunter when
there were many others, some of whom I have known
as old men, who probably had records quite as good,
but had no chroniclers. Selous brought all the lessons
of his African experiences to the pursuits which he con-
tinued as an amateur. But Selous was not only a hunter,
an observer, a collector and a wTiter, for he attracted
attention by his honesty and independence of judgment
as a pioneer in Rhodesia, and in the part he took in South
African pohtics, and last but not least by, when old,
returning to Africa and laying down his life for his country
as a gallant soldier. Selous was not a remarkable shot
compared with many Afrikanders ; if more reliable, he
was slower than most big-game hunters I have known,
but he was a hard, persevering, observant and brave
sportsman. It is often said that his bag of lions was
the biggest that any sportsman had made. I have known

28 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

a good many whose bags of lions are larger, and some
who were as good field naturalists.

Major J. Stevenson Hamilton, a mutual friend of Loder's
and my own, for instance, has killed by himself between
50 and 60 lions, 47 of which he has walked up alone on
foot in South Africa. In the three months of Augnist,
September and October 1920 he walked up and shot
16 lions in the Transvaal. Major Hamilton has had
many experiences in the Sudan and elsewhere, and there
are few better authorities on African zoology. Yet
Hamilton would say that there is another man living
named Fraser, whom I knew in my Transvaal days,
whose knowledge is probably superior to that of any man
past or present. Fraser is now growing old, but is a
man of remarkable physique and with abnormal powers
of observation ; he has spent twenty years in South Africa
and twenty-five previously in India ; he can write excel-
lent descriptive letters, sketches and paints beautifully,
and has a most intimate acquaintance with the life-
histories and habits of South African fauna, yet he never
has and never will make use of his knowledge and talents
for the benefit of the outside world. The secrets he has
discovered and the knowledge acquired in his long life
of diligent and intelligent observation in the wilds will
die with him. This all goes to show the difficulty of
making comparisons.

Where we place men whom we know in any list depends
on the qualities to which we attach the higher values. Keen-
ness, skill, courage, endurance, perseverance, powers of
observation, scientific knowledge, physical activity, length
and variety of experience all go to the making of the
accomplished hunter-naturalist. Loder had an outfit of
all these qualifications. In regard to one of them he was
singular ; for whilst he thoroughly enjoyed facing an
elephant or a rhinoceros, he avoided lions. In my trips
with him he only killed one, very neatly, with his -256
Mannlicher. I sometimes begged him to track up with
me fresh lion spoor when the tracks indicated a large

HUNTING CRAFT 29

troop ; he invariably said " No." Once when I said
" Why ? " he rephed, " I don't want to get bitten ;
besides, I want to go home after this trip." He was
persuaded that anyone who persisted in walking up Hons
on foot, whatever his skill, would be caught sooner or
later, and more likely than not the first time ; for, said he,
" No man except by a fluke can put a bullet into a charg-
ing lion's brain, and that's what you have got to do."
Loder was made for killing lions, for he had presence of
mind and was a sure shot, and the trick is done by
getting dose up for the first shot. Yet he would not
try.

All travellers and sportsmen experience occasional
defeat and bitter disappointments. Edmund Loder took
his with a sporting and philosophic cheerfulness. As I
write an occasion comes to my mind when on an April
day, under a roasting sun and on burning rocks, he and
I met at ijoonday. We had hunted for a month or more
through perhaps a hundred miles of mountain ranges,
often seeing vrild sheep, ^ but without either of us getting
a shot at an old ram. We had worn out all our clothes
and boots, we were very red and very thin. That
morning we had started before davm at opposite ends of
a long ridge of cliffs and terraces where in former expedi-
tions we both had been successful. But apparently the
mountains held not a sheep that day. We sat down in
silence and looked over the barren foothills below us to
the quivering desert beyond. After awhile I asked, with
a groan, the question in Arabic we had so often put to

1 In the Aures and other Atlas Mountain groups, the Barbary Wild
Sheep {Ovis lervii, known to the Arabs of North Africa as the Larrowi,
El Arroui, or Fechstal, to the Chouias and Berbers as Outhathou or
Aoudad and to the French as mouflon a manchettes) is extraordinarily
nomadic. Shepherds are ubiquitous and nomadic too. Some of them
carry gvms. Arab himters lie vip or pursue the wild sheep with flint-
locks and dogs, so that the sheep are ever on the qui vive and migrate
from one mountain to another on the slightest disturbance. This sheep
is found in certain moxmtain ranges from Morocco to Tripoli, in certain
regions of the central Sahara, also in ranges to the east and the west of
the Nile in Egypt and well into the Sudan.

30 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

our shikaris when one Djebel after another had failed us :
" To which mountain now ? Where shall we go ? " He
rephed with a loud, cheerful laugh, "Djebel Biskra."
This, then, was the climax to our tremendous labours —
so we both laughed, went down the mountains, struck
camp and made our first march for the shade of the palms
and the flesh-pots of Biskra.

Loder made one remark about the failure of this trip :

" We know the game and have done all that can be
done and worked ourselves silly — and look here ! Some
damned fool will come out from England who knows
nothing, and rmi into a great ram the first day and kill
him by a fluke."

He judged right as regards Dame Fortune, for the very
thing happened. The " damned fool " was a friend of
mine who had never fired a rifle at anything more lively
than an iron target as a volunteer in his undergraduate
days at Cambridge. He came out to Algeria, and passing
through Algiers he bought the only rifle he could find — it
was of a very antique military pattern with an enormously
long barrel (he said it was a Wetterh) — and with it some
equally antique very short cartridges loaded with a solid
ball with a pinch of black powder behind. He told me he
was anxious to shoot mouflon ; he said this as you might
say " I want to get a few couple of rabbits." I explained
to him that it required great skill and perseverance to get
a shot at aU, and that " that thing " was no use. I offered
him my mules, shikari and men as well as camp outfit, also
a good rifle ; the last he haughtily declined, the rest he
accepted, and off he set with a mutual friend of ours to a
mountain which I indicated as offering as good a chance
as any. Within three or four days, instead of weeks, he
was back again at Biskra with a splendid head. He and
his companion had quarrelled after two nights in camp
over a pat of butter, hence their precipitous return. He
was much more intent on describing the pat-of-butter

HUNTING CRAFT 31

battle than on satisfying my curiosity as to how he had got
his mouflon. I had to hsten to his history of adventures
in the order of his estimate of their interest ; the first
story was to this effect :

because he was in camp had left all his manners

behind — that on the breakfast table, before sunrise, had been
placed a beautiful and only pat of butter purchased at the

last moment when leaving Biskra, and that instead

of cutting a piece off one end of it, as a gentleman would,
had jobbed his knife into the middle of it, and when told
not to forget himself nor to behave as a cad just because he
was in camjJ, he had turned nasty in a most unaccountable
way."

I had the other man's version later — equally amusing,
but I got the facts about the mouflon at last. My friend
with his Wetterli had reached the top of the first ridge of
the mountain at sunrise, and, standing up his full six feet
two of height on the skyline with the first rays of the sun
blazing in his face and on the two yards or so of Wetterli,
surveyed the scene. He at once saw five sheep (four ewes
with a ram) bundling and bounding off over rocks and ter-
races as hard as they could go one after another ; they were
on a ridge across a deep valley and must have been nearly
opposite him when he first came on to the skyline. My
friend, still standing up of course, let drive at them, or at
what he could see of them against the sun, having just time
to get a pull on the trigger (and it required a long and strong
pull) ere they disappeared, and he dropped one Sit four to
five hundred yards' range — at which distance the great blob
on his rifle, that did duty for a foresight, must have blocked
out an acre or so of the mountain. Crossing the valley
and climbing to the place, he found he had killed the
old ram — and with a bullet in the eye ! When I related
to Loder the literal fulfilment of his prophecy and
within a mile of the place where he made it, he remarked,
" Well, a bullet must go somewhere. ''^

Sir Edmund Loder's life was a very full and a very inter-

32 EDMUND LODER [ch. i

esting one. A happy life too till the war ended its bright-
ness as it did that of hundreds of thousands of other lives.
No doubt as it is with others he came into old age uncon-
sciously with a surprise to find himself already there.
Fortune smiled on his birth ; he was blest in his wife and
in his children, who loved what he loved. Lady Loder
added unusual charm and sweetness to a beautiful home,
and moreover, being not only fond of but clever with rifle,
gun and rod, shared for many years his sport and was ever
a most delightful hostess to his friends. To his two chil-
dren he was devoted. I can almost hear now the daughter
and father talking and laughing together, and without an
effort the picture comes of a summer evening, his daughter ^
playing the piano to him, he standing by her in the
window, with a lovely background of the hills and woods
of Leonardslee. He took the greatest pride in his son's
success at Eton and Cambridge, and it was a source of the
utmost satisfaction to him that similar tastes to his own
for natural science developed in his only boy. For some
years before Robin Loder died he had reached an age when
he became " at once a brother and a son." It is not too
much to say that Robin's death, fighting in Palestine, was
a blow from which his father never recovered.

I hope in the following pages to give more than an out-
line of Sir Edmund's life, but the intimate things of a man's
home and family, like his inmost thoughts, are his private
possessions. Enough will appear to reveal what manner
of man he was. He lived and died a member of the Church
of England, accepting his religion and duty very simply.
He avoided religious controversy as an unprofitable pur-
suit as well as speculating on " what none yet ever knew or
can be known." In 1919 he remarked to one of his friends
that useless speculation as to the future life had helped
more than anything else to fill the lunatic asylums. He
once said to me, " Religion in practice here is included in
one word— conduct. ^^

1 His daughter Patience married Mr. WaJter Otter, son of the late
Mr. Francis Otter of Horsham.

HIS FAITH 38

I have heard him repeat :

' ' When elements to elements conform
And dust is as it shoxild be, shall I not
Feel all I see, less dazzling but more warm ?
The bodiless thought ? The spirit of each spot ?

Of which, even now, I share at times the immortal lot."

And it is for such as I am among his friends to say :

" And can I deem thee dead
When busy Memory flashes in my brain ?
Well — I will dream that we may meet again."

CHAPTER II

THE FAMILY OF LODER

" Mui'us aeneus conscientia sana " (the motto of the Loders).

It was Giles Loder, the grandfather of Sir Edmund, born
in 1786, who built up from its foundations the family for-
tune. The stock from which he descended was an old
Dorsetshire family and perhaps originally came from the
parish of Loder. During many generations the Loders
were settled at Hazelbury Bryan, near Sturminster Newton
in North Dorsetshire, and the Registers there carry the
records of the family back to the sixteenth century. The
family later spread into the adjoining county of Wiltshire,
and when Giles Loder finally returned after his career in
Russia, it was at Wilsford near Salisbury that he settled
down. Judging from his life's work and from the general
character of his descendants, I cannot picture him as being
anything else but an extremely energetic and enterprising
man, endowed with great mental and physical activity.
Moreover, a determined man, putting his heart into his work
and bent on success. He began his Russian experiences
as what in old days was called a " Merchant Adventurer " —
Guilds of Merchant Adventurers still exist in England, at
least in name. In Russia he had a most successful business
career, and on leaving that country continued his activities
in London. He married twice. His first wife (the grand-
mother of Sir Edmund Loder) was Elizabeth, a daughter
of John Higginbotham of St. Petersburg. John Higgin-
botham settled in Russia, having married a daughter of
a W. Mashmeyer. A portrait of W. Mashmeyer in the
possession of the Higginbotham family exhibits a strong
resemblance in face and build between him and his great-

34

GILES LODER IN RUSSIA 35

great-grandson Sir Edmund Loder — he is very tall and slim
with a somewhat narrow face, and the likeness is there in
spite of powdered hair and a light-blue coat with lace frills.
John Higginbotham had several children, of whom one,
John, married Amelia Schleich, the daughter of the Burgo-
meister of Ulm in Wiirtemberg. This John Higginbotham
(Sir E. Loder's great-grandfather) was born in St. Peters-
burg and lived in his house on the Vassili Ostrov (William's
Island) opposite the Palace of Menshikoff . The next house,
which is the corner house towards the River Neva, was
bought by Giles Loder, and he married his neighbour's
eldest daughter Elizabeth Higginbotham, who was born in
1796 (?). Elizabeth Loder had several brothers and sisters.
Her youngest brother William Higginbotham, born in 1813
on the day of the Battle of Leipzig, lived to the age of 94
and saw four generations of Elizabeth Loder's descendants.
Mr. and Mrs. Giles Loder had three sons, Edmund, Alfred
and Robert, Robert being much the youngest. William
Higginbotham, their uncle, was but four years older than
the eldest of the Loder children, and was much with the two
elder boys while they lived next door to each other. After-
wards he went to Dorpat to study German and medicine,
and then to pursue his medical studies at the Universities
of Berlin, Vienna, Paris and London. From London it
was his intention to go to Australia, but his mother set her
face against this plan, and through the mediation of his
sister Sophie, who held the appointment of English
governess to the Grand Duchess Alexandra, the Emperor
Nicholas I called him back from London to St. Petersburg
and appointed him Court Physician, and special medical
attendant to his daughters, the three Grand Duchesses,
Marie, Olga and Alexandra. The three sisters were all very
beautiful, and Alexandra had in addition a most " lovely
and queenly figure." Their mother, the Empress, was a
very vain woman and frequently had her portrait painted.
But she never stood herself for the figure ; the beautiful
Alexandra had to pose for her mother, and only the face
in the portraits is that of the Empress. At the Empress's

36 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

small and select receptions in her salon every evening, if
one of the ladies wore a dress a second time, she never let
the event pass without some such cutting observation as,
" I have seen this frock before."

Sophie Higginbotham had many worries over this frock
business, and her wardrobe M^as so enormous that in these
days it would be unthinkable to possess so many dresses.

The Czar Nicholas was verv English in his tastes and
preferences. William and Sophie Higginbotham were
great favourites with him and were the recipients of many
favours and presents from him and the Imperial family. In
1844 William Higginbotham co-operated with the Grand
Duchess Marie Nicolayerna of Leuchtenberg in instituting
the first trained nurses, Sisters of Mercy, in Russia ; and
fifty years later, at the Jubilee of this Institution, the
Emperor Alexander III honoured him with the Star of the
Holy Order of Vladimir. This was the last decoration which
William Higginbotham received, for he had long before
retired from his professional work. In 1881 he was present
in London at the Medical Congress as the delegate of Russia
and after thirt}'^ years again met his nephew Robert Loder.
The last occasion had been in 1851, when he and his sister
Sophie had come over for the Great Exliibition and when
Sir Edmund Loder was quite a baby. At that time there
were no, or very few, railways in Russia and William and
Sophie Higginbotham travelled with the Emperor Nicholas
and the Empress Alexandra in a coach from St. Petersburg
to Cologne (? or to whatever the nearest point to the railway
may have been), the Imperial family remaining in Germa-ny.
Giles Loder's first wife died in 1848, when he was 62 years
of age. Of the children she bore him, only one, Robert,
survived Giles Loder. In 1849 Mr. Giles Loder married
again, Elizabeth, the widow of Captain John Bott, and she
survived her husband. Giles Loder's death took place on
August 19th, 1871, and his widow died in 1877. During
the latter part of his life, his town house was 1 Clarendon
Place, Hyde Park, and liis country home at Wilsford.

The only surviving son of the first marriage was Robert

ROBERT LODER— THE BUSKS 37

LoDER, born in 1823, who inherited the bulk of the large
fortune accumulated by his father. A son named Edmund
had died when young, and it was after this favourite
brother that Robert Loder named his eldest son, the
subject of this memoir.

When once labour and self-denial have laid a good
foundation of capital, little more effort and sacrifice are
required for the construction of a fortune, and its enlarge-
ment, than what is represented by such expressions as
avoidance of extravagance, and careful attention to its
management and growth. Thus it came about that Giles
Loder was able to leave a fortune to his son Robert, who
was 48 years of age at the time of his father's death.

In 1847, at the age of 24 years, Robert Loder had
married Maria Georgiana, the fourth daughter of Mr.
Hans Busk,' and on August 7th, 1849, Edmund Giles
Loder was born at 16 Montagu Street, Portman Square,
the home of his aunt, Julia Clara, Mrs. William Pitt
Byrne, his mother's sister.

It is evident, when we look at the record of Sir Ednmnd
Loder's maternal descent, that he owed at least some of
his special gifts and characteristics to his mother's family
as well as certain tendencies or preferences in his tastes
and pursuits. When his grandfather Hans Busk died on
February 8th, 1862, in his ninetieth year, it was said of
him m The Court Journal :

"He has indeed left few survivors possessing higher
classical attamments, a truer love for literature or endowed
with sounder general erudition. As a linguist he had
not many equals; having travelled much, he conversed
fluently in most of the languages of Europe. In eariy
lite he resided for some years in Russia and was at one
time a member of the Empress Catherine's celebrated
Uievalier Guard— an honour few Englishmen have shared.
It was at that time accorded only to those who could
trace their pedigree in an unbroken line through ten

1 The father of Mr. Hans Busk was Sir Wadsworth Busk, sometime
Attorney-General of the Isle of Man.

38 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

descents. He had been on terms of intimacy with most
of the hterary and political celebrities who flourished in
the earlier part of the present century, and he had shared
the friendship of Edmund Burke, Sir Philip Francis,
Charles James Fox, Sheridan, Canning, Perceval, Wilber-
force and Wyndham as well as that of Byron, Moore,
Scott and of many others whose minds were similarly
attuned to his own. . . . His son Captain Hans Busk is
the well-known originator of England's Volunteer Army."

The last named. Captain Hans Busk,^ was Edmund
Loder's uncle and probably gave his nephew some new
ideas and interests. Captain Busk was a prominent man
in his day, having original ideas and getting them materia-
lised ; he lived till February 1882. He was the author
of The Rifle, The Organisation of Rifle Corps, and of other
writings in aid of the chief work of his life. It is inter-
esting to find " Uncle Hans Busk," when his nephew
Edmund was nearly 10 years old, bringing down the
Victoria Rifle Corps^ to "The High Beeches," Robert
Loder's country place in Sussex, on May 26th, 1859, to
celebrate their 24th anniversary. ^ I read that Mr. Robert
Loder entertained the Corps and that in return " they
gave an exhibition of their target shooting and went
through some infantry evolutions in the forest on the
estate." Also that " Captain Norton, the well-known
Peninsula veteran, observed that the corps reminded him
of the old 95th (the present Rifle Brigade) in their palmiest
days." After this highest of all praise Edmund Loder's
little sister Ethel (afterwards Lady Burrell '), aged 6, out
of compliment to her father's guests, arrayed in the
uniform of the corps, appeared as a vivandiere and marched
" at the head of the corps with the most perfect self-
possession. . . . Deputations from Brighton and various
places, where volunteer corps are forming, were present

1 He was always Captain Hans Busk.

* 1859 is the date generally given as the year when Volunteer Rifle
Corps were first formed. In 1860 the first National Rifle Shooting Match
for Volunteers took place at Wimbledon.

» Died September 25th, 1921.

ROBERT LODER— THE BUSKS 39

and received from Captain Busk information as to the
best mode of forming Rifle Corps and Rifle Clubs. He
stated that in 1804, when the population of England was
only nine millions, we had 341,580 trained volunteers."

Amongst " Uncle Hans' " other services to his country
was his work for Life-boats, and not content with Life-
boats he set to work to raise a flotilla of Life-ships. The
first of these ships, the Peronelle, he designed liimself.
With the Peronelle he personally demonstrated her life-
saving capabilities under circumstances where no ordinary
life-boat could be available or of use. He rescued the
crew of a French vessel, twenty miles west of the Caskets ;
and in very heavy weather saved the ship itself, which
otherwise would have foundered, by " frapping " her with
haw^sers round and round her huU and by carrying out
repairs to her rudder and other vital parts.

Edmund Loder's " Aunt Juha " is also an interesting
personality, and as she was one of his godmothers is
entitled to a place in his biography. Julia Clara Busk
was born in May 1819 and married in 1842 Mr. William
Pitt Byrne, son of the founder of the Morning Post and
an intimate friend of William Pitt, after w^hom he named
his son. Mr. Wilham Pitt Byrne died in 1861. " Aunt
Julia " before her husband's death had become a Roman
Catholic and was a personal friend of Cardinal Wiseman.
She wrote many books ; her first was published in 1855,
A Glimpse behind the Grilles of Religious Houses in France.
In the following year she published her Flemish Interiors,
which attained great popularity and would have secured
her- fame had not she guarded the anonymous character
of all her works. Among many of her subsequent books
the one which attracted most notice was Gheel the City
of the Simple. Her last book, published about 1892,
obtained much notice from the Press ; this was Gossip of
the Centw^y. She must have published a dozen books or
more, and some, such as Pictures of Hungarian Life, were
also illustrated by herself.

In passing it is curious to note that Edmund Loder's
4

40 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

wife's father, his father's wife's father, and his grandfather's
wife's father were all associated with Russian affairs.

When old Mr. Giles Loder died in 1871 his son Robert
was aged 48, with a large family of seven sons and two
daughters. The eldest son Edmund was 22 years of age
at this time. I gather that whilst Mr. Giles Loder lived
he kept a careful eye on his descendants and their future,
and that he neither " lived up " to his fortune nor pro-
vided the means for any extravagance to his son. Robert
Loder appears never to have had a big allowance, for an
only son and the heir to such wealth ; yet the father
provided funds for a style of living suitable to his son's
situation and responsibilities and for the education of his
numerous grandchildren. I have also the impression that
Robert Loder had been brought up under a fairly strict
and very methodical regime and that even after his
marriage a fatherly hand held the purse-strings. Robert
Loder, when he inherited the bulk of his father's estate,
while spending freely and benevolently, observed those
regular habits and kept to rules without which order
and peace are impossible in large establishments, on big
estates and with a numerous family. Without method,
punctuality and discipline in great households, life be-
comes too difficult and too complicated to be worth living,
and the fortunes of careless men have a mysterious way
of disappearing.

Sir Robert Loder was a man of many interests and
pursuits. He was an enthusiastic politician ; as a Loder
would, he threw Iiimself heart and soul into the struggle
at election times. On such occasions his energy knew no
bounds ; he spoke at many meetings and was indefatig-
able as a canvasser. He stood only once for Parliament
and was elected as one of the Conservative Members for
Shoreham (the Rape of Bramber) in 1880 and sat until
the borough was disfranchised in 1885.^

1 It is somewhat interesting to note the course of the political contests
during the last years of Shoreham's existence as a parliamentary borough.
In 1876 Sir Percy Burrell, Bt., M,P. for Shoreham, died, and was sue-

SHOREHAM 41

Shoreliam has often been cited as a sample of a " pocket
borough " returning two Members to Parliament. Mr.
E. V. Lucas in his charming book Highways and Byways in
Sussex alludes to one candidate, a Mr. Gould, who about
the year 1701, having never been to Shoreham before,
" directed the crier to give notice with his bell that every
voter who came to the Kjng's Arms would receive a
guinea in wliich to drink Mr. Gould's good health. The
fact being made public, the elected candidate, Mr. Gould,
was unseated. At the following election, such was the
enduring power of the original guinea, he was elected
again." ^ I suppose that there is something curious in
this story to a younger generation than mine, but to
Victorians there is nothing extraordinary at all in it. In
my time tens of thousands of pounds, not a few hundred
guineas, were spent in the purchase of votes in some
constituencies. Up to about 1885, at Northallerton,
where elections often depended on a single vote, a railway
porter had through long custom obtained the prescriptive

ceeded by his brother Sir Walter Biirrell, who defeated the Liberal
candidate, Mr. Egerton Hubbard, at this bj^-election. Shortly after-
wards Mr. Stephen Cave, M.P., the other Member for Shoreham, announced
his intention of not standing again. Mr. Robert Loder was a great friend
and had long been a neighbour of Sir Walter Burrell, and was adopted
as the second Conservative candidate at the general election of 1880.
The result of this election was :

Sir Walter Burrell, Bt. (C.) . . . . 2,445

Mr. Robert Loder (C.) 2,195

Mr. Egerton Hubbard (L.) . . . . 2,095

After Shoreham was disfranchised in 1885, most of the old constituency
was merged in the new division of " Mid-Sussex." Sir Walter Burrell
had the first claim to stand for the new constituency, but he decided
to retire from Parliament. Mr. Robert Loder therefore had the chance
of the seat if he liked to stand ; bvit after hesitating he made way for
Sir Henry Fletcher, who had originally been selected to stand for another
constituency. The Bm-rells, the Loders and the Hubbards were not only
neighbours, but closely connected by family alliances ; for in 1872
Edmvmd Loder's sister Ethel had married Mr. Charles Raymond Burrell
(who afterwards succeeded to the Baronetcy) and Edmund Loder him-
self married in 1876 Mr. Egerton Hubbard's (the Liberal candidate's)
sister. Miss Marion Hubbard.

^ See E. V. Lucas's Highways and Byways in Sussex.

42 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

right to poll last, a right that had sometimes a pecuniary
value of over thirty pounds. There is nothing more
remarkable in these methods than those by which, in
later reigns than Queen Victoria's, individuals have
entered the Upper House of Parliament. And as regards
the Lower House, votes are now bought wholesale at the
public expense instead of in detail by private expendi-
ture. The only practical question is under which system
you get the best Parliament or Government. Future
historians, if there are any, may answer this question.
A vote used to be " yours " to give, to sell or to keep in
your pocket, and was valued and prized ; to-day it has
become of so Jittle account that in the more advanced
democracies of Europe (e.g. certain cantons in Switzer-
land) the indifference of voters and the disinclination to
use their votes have led to the voter being compelled by
law to go to the poll— yet under this liberty-respecting
provision the authorities have not yet discovered how
to force the voter to mark his ballot paper or how to
prevent him from spoiling it. Obstinacy remains a
powerful defence to the weak, as it is to the horse with-
out a thirst, brought to the water.

Shoreham, though shorn of its ancient privileges, re-
mains an interesting town. Mr. Lucas says its church is
" the noblest in the country," and it is alluded to in Swin-
burne's " noble poem " which begins :

" Strong as time and as faith sublime — clothed round with shadows of
hopes and fears,
Nights and morrows and joys and sorrows, alive with passions of prayers

and tears —
Stands the shrine that has seen decline eight hundred waxing and
waning years."

A poem slightly different to one said to be engraved on a
tombstone in the adjoining churchyard, which gives verba-
tim a dialogue between an infant deceased, aged 8 months,
and its parents, from which the following quotation suffices :

" ' I trust in Christ,' the blessed babe replied.
Then smiled, then sigh'd, then clos'd its eyes and died."

ROBERT LODER'S PURSUITS 43

Robert Loder attended the House very regularly, but
rarely spoke. His interests were chiefly agricultural ; he
was himself a keen farmer, and as a breeder of shorthorns he
achieved success. He was fond of hunting, and for two or
three seasons was Master of the Crawley and Horsham
Foxhounds, but he had at the same time a fondness for
greyhounds and a love of coursing which would have
shocked John Jorrocks. As a coursing man he probably
made his greatest mark in the world of sport.

Below ^ I give a few of the performances of his greyhounds

1 Coursing by Mr. Loder

" Cactus" (whelped 1846; height 23 in., weight about 451b.).

Nov. 1847 : Was drawn in her second covirse for the Oaks at Everleigh.
In the same month was drawn in the deciding course for the Champion
Puppy Stakes at Newmarket.

Jan. 1848 : Won three courses for the Fisherton Delamere Cup at
Deptford Tun.

Oct. : Ran third for the Druid Cup at Amesbury.

Dec. : Won the Netheravon Cup,

" Czar" (running weight 61^ lb., height 20J in.).

Nov. 1847 : Won the Derby, 8 dogs, at Everleigh.

Feb. 1848 : V/on the Cup, 16 dogs, at Everleigh.

Oct. : Ran up with Royalist for the Druid Cup at Amesbury.

Dec. : Won the Bottisham Stakes, 8 dogs.

Feb. 1849 : Ran up with " Crenoline " for the Altcar Stakes.

Oct. : Ran foiu-th for Druid Cup at Amesbury, winning 20 courses
and losing 5.

At the meeting of the South Lincolnshire Club held on Jan. 30th
Feb. 1st and 2nd, 1867, Mr, Loder's white-and-black bitch " Likely Spot "
(by " High Pressure " — " Fly ") won the South Lincolnshire Cup, beating
" Bobby " (late "Simon Pure "), " Beetroot," '• Judice " and " Chemine."

At the same meeting Mr. Loder's blue bitch " Lavender " (by '' Rock "
— "Gipsy") ran second for the Holbeach Town Cup, beatmc 'Sally
Sikes," " Mischief " and " Minnie."

In the Crown Lodge Cup at the same meeting, Mr. Loder's " Lobelia "
won two courses.

At the Ashdo%vn meetmg on March 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th, 1867, " Likely
Spot " divided the Swinley Stakes and " Lavender " ran second for the
Rubbing House Stakes.

At the Wiltshire Champion (Amesbury) meeting in October 1868
Mr. Loder's "Light Blue" (by "Don Felix" — "Gipsy") divided the
Bulford Stakes.

Among other dogs owned by Mr, Loder were " Landlord," " Landlady,"
"Linguist," "Lady's Carriage," "Lobelia" (late "Petunia"), "Lady
B.," etc, ^

44 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

at two periods. Already when he was very young
(1847-9) he had evidently two very good dogs in
" Cactus " and " Czar," and some twenty years later in
1867 a number of useful greyhounds which made their
mark. This will be sufficient to indicate Sir Robert's
activities in this direction.

He enjoyed shooting too and was a good shot ; whether
he was as good with a rifle I have not heard, but he probably
did little Avith the rifle until his boys in 1872 persuaded him
to take the deer-forest of Amat in Ross-shire, which
Edmund and his brother Wilfrid " found " for him. For
fourteen years Amat was a delight to all the family and
ever remained a place of happy memories. Robert Loder,
as one would expect of a Loder, was fond of his gardens, and
these were especially famous for their fruit. He had a head-
gardener called King, whom I picture, perhaps mistakenly,
as of that class who are by a polite fiction the proprietors,
and the " families " who employ them merely their visitors
—of course always known as " Mr."— Mr. King's hothouses,
Mr. King's gardens and Mr. King's grapes. Mr. King was
a successful gardener and a constant exhibitor and prize-
winner at the Crystal Palace, which was the great Show in
those days. Edmund Loder used to tell a story, of which
I have been reminded by one of his brothers, which brings
back the infectious laugh which followed its recitation — it
is not a long one. One day Mr. Loder received this laconic
telegram from his gardener : " King first, Queen second."

In 1873 Mr. Robert Loder bought the splendid estate of
Whittlebury in Northamptonshire from Lord Southampton.
It was a v/onderful property in the middle of the Grafton
country, and as Whittlebury eventually was inherited by
Sir Edmund Loder (and became his " white elephant ")
I shall give a few particulars about it which may help to
explain some later allusions. The park was some 660 acres
in extent with the high road running through it. The red
deer in the Park were very fine indeed. The stags did not
run into twenty points, but the heads were wide and regular,
with good beam points, and they carried heads of up to

PURCHASE OF WHITTLEBURY 45

sixteen points. There were also fallow and Japanese deer,
and at one time roe. Later Edmund Loder sent mule
deer to his father from America, which quickly died out
and also wapiti, which lasted some time. The wapiti
mthstood cold, but suffered from the damp. It was hoped
that they would interbreed with the red deer, but though
a wapiti bull ran with the red hinds the experiment failed.
The story of the end of the roe deer is as follows, and I have
to leave the reader to discover its moral — but the injustice
to all concerned, excepting the villain of the piece, is
apparent.

One of the roe bucks had become rather tame ; people
passing through the Park used to feed it, and eventually
it expected to be given something when it came up and
' asked " for it. One day a tramp walking through the
Park, instead of giving the beautiful little supphant the
usual titbit, gave him a cut with his stick ; the indignant
little buck went back a few steps and charged, not very
viciously, but sufficiently hard to get his horns into the
tramp's trousers with the result that he tore off a consider-
able and important area of the commercial traveller's
indispensables. Weary Willie's chance had come ; he
went straight off to a lawyer, and it cost Sir Robert a pretty
penny before the matter was settled ; and the roes were
banished for ever from the Park. Besides the fine oaks
there, there were very high old elms, and the jackdaws out
of these provided a special kind of sport and required skill
in shooting. Whittlebury had peculiar attractions, and
while Sir Robert had his attack of " bricks-and-mortar "
fever, he added not a few others. Among these additions
were a tennis court (real tennis, not lawn tennis) and a bowl-
ing alley. The bowling alley was outside and alongside
the tennis court, and was made after the plan of one Sir
Robert had seen at Lord Lathom's. The tennis court
fitted into the house ; and in this respect was probably
unique, for you could sit in the smoking-room and watch
the game through a large glass window, v/hich looked into
the Dedans and the court. I have heard one or two

46 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

different accounts of the origin of this once famous court,
but each claims the birth of the idea in accidental games —
just as tradition asserts was the case in the origin of the
real Tennis itself. When Edmund Loder's young bro-
ther Gerald was at Cambridge (1881 to 1884) his brother
Alfred used to come up and stay with him, and the two
brothers often went together to the Cambridge tennis courts
to see their friends play. One Easter vacation, the lawn
tennis court at Whittlebury not being ready, they rigged up
a sort of net in a back-yard surrounded with buildings and
played a rough sort of improvised tennis, cracking their
jokes about " pent-house " and " dedans," the latter title
being bestowed on a small shed. Another story, which
may be pieced into the evolution of the idea, I had from
Mr. Reginald Loder, who told me that one day he and a
brother were " playing a kind of squash racquets in an
unfurnished bedroom in a wing of the house " (recently
constructed, I imagine), when their father came along and
caught them. At first he was inclined to be cross, then he
watched them play. That evening he asked his son Reg-
inald if he would like a racquets court built. He im-
mediately took the matter up, and at the end of a fortnight
this idea was changed to one of a real tennis court. As
everyone knows, tennis courts are not to be found in many
places, but there was one already in this neighbourhood at
Easton Neston, Sir Thomas Hesketh's, some four or five
miles away. In any case the court was decided on and
the best advice sought for. " Bill " Marshall was ^ an
authority on the subject — and I think the Queen's Club
Courts were the first he built — and he was consulted. He
was a cousin of Julian Marshall, the author of a standard
work, The Annals of Tennis, a frequenter of the tennis
court at Lord's and who reported tennis matches for the
Field. Oddly enough Sir Robert's foreman builder's name
was also Marshall, and this Isaac Marshall was sent to
Cambridge to take the measurements of the courts there

1 I write " was," for he died whilst this volume was in preparation
(1921).

AMATEUR TENNIS CHAMPIONS 47

and to other places as well. Alfred and Gerald Loder
attended to all details, the latter already being a player,
having taken up the game at Cambridge. The result was
one of the very best tennis courts in the kingdom. It is
mentioned in the Badminton Library volume of Tennis
(1890 ?) as one of the five courts which " most nearly ap-
proached perfection ^vith regard to dimensions, light and
relative pace of walls and floors." ^

In 1883 the brothers got up a tennis week at Easter,
which became an annual meeting, and was attended always
by some of the best players and exponents of the game.
Amongst such visitors were the champions, Alfred Lyttel-
ton, J. M. Heathcote, Tom Pettit, the great American
player. The players during these Tennis Weeks included
both Arthur and Gerald Balfour and " Johnny " Cobbold
(J. D. Cobbold of Holy Wells). When the Whittlebury
Court was opened in 1881, with the first game played by
Alfred and Gerald Loder, their brother Edmund would be
about 32 years old. Few men would dream at that age of
learning this great game, with its demand on every muscle,
on quick eyes, enduring skill, resourceful intelligence and
continual practice, but he made a start and played.
After a few years he gave it up, recognising that he was too
old to become a good player. He had, however, acquired
a knowledge of the technique of tennis which enabled him
to watch matches with interest and pleasure. He never
missed the Tennis Weeks and thus saw the game played at
its best. Viscount Grey of Fallodon, himself a great tennis-
player, having won the Amateur Championship five times,
the Gold Racquet at Lord's once and the Silver Racquet at
least fourteen times, has told me that the great players from
1878 to 1888 were George Lambert, who was champion till
Tom Pettit beat him in 1885, while J. M. Heathcote held the
Amateur Championship ^ for many years. By 1885

1 The other foiir were : Mr. Gundry's, Bridport, the Manchester Court,
Mr. Cazalet's at Fairlawn, and the newly erected tennis court at Prince's
Club.

^ At this time synonymous with winning the M.C.C. Gold Racquet at
Lord's.

48 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

Alfred Lyttelton had beaten Heathcote and he held the
Amateur Championship till 1896/ " and," says Lord Grey,
" would have held it much longer if he would have kept in
practice. His style was magnificent and he was, I consider,
the greatest amateur player there has been." He also adds,
" G. Lambert till Pettit beat him was, I should say, 15 better
than any other professional contemporary with him ; and
Alfred Lyttelton 15 better than any amateur, just as Heath-
cote had been before him."

It is sad to think that this splendid court, planned
and built with so much labour and skill, exists no more.
After Sir Edmund Loder sold Whittleburv, the new
owner ruthlessly destroyed it to make more bedrooms \
Can the reader imagine a man with the heart to pull down
such an accession to a country house ? One interesting
item of history is worth recording in connection with
Whittlebury Tennis Court. Few persons associate Ed-
ward VII ^\dth tennis, yet when I was an undergraduate at
Cambridge in the years 1876 to 1879 and occasionally played
in the Old Tennis Court, the marker there used to tell me
stories about the then Prince of Wales when he was an
undergraduate and a frequent player in that court. The
last game probably ever played by King Edward VII (then
Prince of Wales) would be in 1887, when he came over on
October 21st of that year and played a game at Whittle-
bury, and is said to have enjoyed his game in that beautiful
court. The last Tennis Week was held in 1888, some six
weeks before Sir Robert Loder's death. Of the brothers
Gerald Loder kept the game up till recently, playing at
Queen's Club, Prince's, Brighton and Lord's. Besides hav-
ing played in other English courts and many courts abroad
he has seen almost every match for the Championship
played in England since the celebrated contest at Hampton
Court in 1885 when T. Pettit beat George Lambert and
carried the honours to America.

What with the hunting, the shooting, the Park and many

1 When Sir Edward Grey (now Viscount Grey of Fallodon) beat him
and won the Gold Prize M.C.C. Championship.

1

EDMUND LODER'S PREFERENCE FOR SUSSEX 49

other attractions, to anyone not acquainted with Sir
Edmund's character, Whittlebury would have appeared
just the place to appeal to him. But from the first his
heart was in Sussex. In the year when his father bought
Whittlebury, the news reached him at San Francisco, and
in a letter to his father, dated June 24th of that year, he
congratulates his father on his purchase and " hopes it
will be all he is looking for," and proceeds, " from what I
heard of it, it must be a very nice place, but I sincerely
hope that in consequence of this purchase you will not find
it necessary to get rid of our old home The Beeches." As
the years passed, Edmund Loder's aversion to Whittlebury
grew. There is little doubt that years before his father's
death he had made up his mind, if he survived him, that he
would not live there. It was too big for his ideas of a home ;
he had better things to do with his money and his time,
even had he been able without worry to maintain a great
establishment. As things turned out, whilst he was heir
to Whittlebury, an estate which his father, in spite of the
general shrinkage of agricultural and land values during
the eighties, may have estimated was worth something like
what it had cost him, he was left with a very different
income with which to keep it up from that which Sir Robert
had had at his disposal. It took him till almost the end of
his life to sell the entire property, and this was of course
done at a great sacrifice. ^ It is one thing to possess such
a place with a large fortune and another to own it after a
widow and eight other children have been provided for out
of the said fortune.

It is evident that Sir Robert took great pains to make a
fair will. From the expression of his last \^ashes and hopes
it is clear that he imagined he had placed his heir in a
position to keep up Whittlebury and to make it a centre
where the family traditions could be maintained, and he
certainly inserted provisions in his will which he considered

1 For some years the Comte de Paris, the Duke of Buckingham's
tenant at Stowe, rented some of the Whittlebury shootings from Sir
Edmund.

50 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

would secure a considerable proportion of his fortune going
with the title.

It has been said that Sir Robert over-estimated certain
foreign interests which his eldest son was to succeed to.
However this may be, the intentions of testators have a
nasty way of miscarrying, and this has been the fate
of some of Sir Robert Loder's in regard to his successors.

Sir Robert did not leave Sussex to go and reside at
Whittlebury till 1877. On July 27th, 1887, he was
created a baronet ; the same year saw the birth of Edmund
Loder's son, named Robert after him, and the following
year, 1888, on May 27th, he died suddenly at his seaside
place. Beach House, Worthing.^

I seldom met Sir Edmund's mother ; the only times I
remember seeing her were when accompanying Sir Edmund
on his visits to her at her house in Grosvenor Square, on
which occasions she and her son were mostly engrossed in
conversation. Lady Loder was then advanced in years
and I cannot of my own knowledge say much about her,
beyond that she struck me as a tall, rather thin lady, very
active in body and mind for her age, and with a shrewd
understanding of affairs, but evidently proud of her son and
glad to have his opinion. In any case I am more concerned
with what she was like in the years when she was at the
head of a great house caring for a large family and training
her children. She appears to have been an excellent
manager and housekeeper, and though there was never
anything very frugal about it, she certainly ran the establish-
ment in a way that saved her husband a great deal of worry
and expense. Mr. Loder left the bringing up of the boys
and girls entirely to their mother, and never interfered
unless she called him in as a " specialist " to give one of the
boys a wigging. I gather too, that, occupied as he was, he
did not give a great deal of attention to his children unless
they were ill, when he was most sympathetic and concerned,
until one after another they earned his notice by some

1 Beach House, Worthing, was purchased by Sir Robert in 1878, and
after his death was the residence of his widow. Lady Loder.

SIR ROBERT AND HIS FAMILY 51

achievement or exploit. One of the younger sons, Reginald
Loder, told me that he did not remember attracting much
attention from his father until he started to ride, but that
when once he could ride a pony well Sir Robert became
very proud of him and took him out hunting as a " sort of
show piece." At some stage of his childhood Edmund
got at his father's heart-strings in some similar way, for
he was taken about, and the proud parent, much to the
amusement of the rest of the family, could not resist telling
even comparative strangers about " my son Edmund " and
what the prodigy had said or done. Sometimes in recent
years when Sir Edmund had said something clever or
achieved a success I have heard his relations and even his
children cry out with glee, " My son Edmund " ! When
thus acclaimed he bowed and siniled in a most amusingly
satisfied way. Each of the seven sons in turn must have
secured a place in their father's pride as well as in his affec-
tion, for each distinguished himself in some way.

Sir Robert Loder always read family prayers himself
every morning. Grace was said before and after meals by
one of the children, in French, if they were present, and all
had to go regularly to church on Sunday mornings. Sir
Edmund too, through all his active life and with all his
varied experience, held to these habits, and this in spite of
a growing, if not a general negligence of these religious cus -
toms in the world around him — a change perhaps not so
much due to indifference as to a general revolt against
formalities with their tendencies to become little else. It is
not for one generation to judge another in such matters,
but those who have seen the old time and the new, and
were thus brought up, will be the last to doubt the value,
rehgious, moral and disciplinary, of these habits. The late
Sir Frank Lockwood, an intimate friend of my own and one
of the most charming of men, once said something to me on
this subject which I have always remembered. Sir Frank
made no profession of religion whatever, but when shooting
with my father in Scotland or staying with me in Yorkshire
I noticed he never missed family prayers, whoever else did.

52 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

A few months before he died I was staying with him near
his grouse moor and sitting alone with him in the dining-
room after dinner, when he startled me by saying : " Do
you know, there is one thing I envy you — I have never been
religious. I reverence religion, but it is beyond me — I
don't understand it, but I would like to have family
prayers every day, if I could, but how could I ? People
would set me down as a hypocrite or as mad. But I see
it is good for a family and a household." Perhaps to be
quite accurate I should add that during the last year or two
of Sir Edmund's life he ceased going regularly to church.
But this was not like many of us who have lived in out~of-
the-world places a good deal, and much with nature far
from the temples made with hands, and who do not feel at
home in a church. These are easy to understand, for after
all the Founder of Christianity preached his best sermons
out of doors and not in the Temple. To many men comes
a time when tranquillity, even solitude or silence, appeals to
them. Edmund Loder knew these lines by heart :

" All heaven and earth are still — though not in sleep,
But breathless, as we grow when feeling most ;
And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep : — -
All heaven and earth are still : from the high host
Of stars, to the lull'd lake and mountain coast.
All is concenter'd in a life intense,
Wliere not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost.
But hath a part of being, and a sense

Of that which is of all Creator and defence.

" Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt

In solitude, where we are least alone ;

A truth which through oui- being then doth melt,

And purifies from self : it is a tone,

The soul and source of music, which makes known

Eternal Harmony and sheds a charm

Like to the fabled Cytherea's zone.

Binding all things with beauty — 'twould disarm
The spectre Death, had ho substantial power to harm.

" Not vainly did the early Persian make
His altar the high places, and the peak
Of earth-o'ergazing mountains, and thus take
A fit and unwall'd temple, there to seek
The Spirit, in whose honour shrines are weak.

MOTHER AND SON 53

Uprear'd of human hands. Come and compare
Colixmns and idol-dwelKngs, Goth or Greek,
With Nature's realms of worship, earth and air.
Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy pray'r ! "

But I do not think it was so much this in Edmund
Loder's case, for when abroad with him I observed that he
took every opportunity on ship-board or in hotels for at-
tending divine service. His heart was affected by an old
injury in a way that brings on discomfort and breathless-
ness, which makes any constraint often intolerable. Again,
many sensitive men cannot bear certain hymns and prayers
which call up such pain as he suffered in the death of his
only son Robin — " it may be a sound — a tone of music —
summer's eve — or spring, a flower — the wind — the ocean
which shall wound or call up to view the mourn'd, the loved,
the lost — too many ! yet how few ! "

As for Edmund Loder's mother, she was always very
fond of him, and to her love was added, as he grew up, a
great respect for his steadiness and cleverness. It may be
that in after years the close relationship of mother and son
suffered to some extent from circumstances, some of which
were unavoidable. Though he was a man as liberally
tolerant as is possible in regard to the religious opinions of
others, his mother's fondness for ritualistic practice and her
eventual going over to Rome were a little disturbing. I
think, even when young, she had been rather a rigid re-
ligious disciplinarian. Her children were allowed no games
on Sundays ; they learnt the collect for the day and listened
to a dissertation on it. Her husband was very " English "
in everything, and preferred the straightforward English
Church services, and his son Edmund was like him in this
respect. Lady Loder's two sisters, Mrs. William Pitt Byrne
and Miss Rachel Busk, had long before Sir Robert's death
become Roman Catholics. She spent the winter of 1893-4
in Rome with these two sisters, and whilst there had a very
nasty accident, falling and breaking her arm, coming down
the steps of St. Peter's. Her son Reginald went out from
England and brought her home. Her children often ex-

54 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

pected she would go over to the Roman Church, and there
can be no doubt that she long delayed this step out of
respect for her husband's memory and convictions. This
long delay may be accounted for partly by the circumstances
attending Sir Robert's death. But some fifteen years after
this event the step was taken, and it made her very happy
and comforted her in her old age.

I go back to the day of Sir Robert's death. Lady Loder
had persuaded her husband to give some thousands of
pounds towards the building of a new church at Worthing,
where they had their seaside place. Beach House. When
the church was completed, there was some trouble over
getting the Privy Council to allot it a parish, but on Trinity
Sunday, 1888, about a year after completion, the diffi-
culties having been surmounted it was opened. In the
early hours of that morning Lady Loder went to Com-
munion, some of the family later and Sir Robert at 9 o'clock.
He returned to Beach House much agitated, but took a
stroll in the garden with one of his sons, to whom he expressed
his indignation at the vestments and incense, and said the
service was like a Roman Catholic one and that he would
never go there again. What had upset him most was the
tinkling of a bell at the consecration. Apparently he felt
he had done wrong as a loyal English Churchman in pro-
viding funds for a church where illegal practices and
disloyal services were carried on. He lunched quietly at
home and then went out to the club to write some letters,
asking one of his sons to call for him at 3.30 to go for a walk.
When the son arrived, as he passed the window vv'here Sir
Robert had been writing, he saw that all was not well with
his father. He went to his aid, to find that he had had
a stroke. Sir Robert died the same night at 10,30.

The story of this day affects me and arouses a sympathy
for all who were concerned, but one reason for relating it
is that it reveals the depth of feeling and the strength
of convictions that Sir Robert Loder had ; a sensibility
and conscience that would otherwise hardly be realised
bv those who know members of this familv as men averse

THE BROTHERS 55

to emotional demonstration and as a rule wearing the
Englishman's protection of reserve.

I think Sir Robert maybe set down as belonging to a class
of English country gentlemen, not of rare type in the reign
of Victoria, but as a particularly good example of it. A
good husband, a good father, a good administrator, exacting
good conduct and regular habits from those over whom he
was placed, a good and improving landlord and serving his
country where opportunity was given, by personal service
and a liberal benevolence. His life would seem to have
been fully occupied with public and private duties, hospi-
tality and engagements, but so organised as to include many
opportunities for agricultural pursuits, for sport and social
enjoymento He was nearly 65 years of age when he died
at Beach House on May 27th, 1888. He was buried at
Whittlebury. At the time of his father's death Edmund
Loder was nearly 39.

I must not omit all reference to Sir Edmund's brothers,
of whom he was very proud. It cannot be often that seven
brothers, whilst varying in their performance, exhibit such
a family likeness as regards ardour, vitality and attain-
ment. Reference has already been made to several of them,
and each in turn no doubt will be mentioned in later chap-
ters where they touch this history of their brother, more
especially in those places in which outdoor pursuits are dealt
with. The Loder vitality is sufficiently demonstrated by
the brothers' achievements in " the field." All the seven
brothers have been adepts with rifle and gun, and all have
records as athletes or as excelling in some pursuit. It is an
error to imagine that success in sport is the result of mere
physical gifts or can be reached without high moral qualities
and a large dose of intelligence.

Of Sir Edmund's two sisters only one survives, Etheldreda
Mary, Lady Burrell,' the widow of Sir Charles Raymond
Burrell of Knep, who died in 1899; she is the mother of
the present Baronet, Sir Merrick Burrell. The Burrells

^ Etheldreda, Lady Burrell died soon after I had written this in Sep-
tember 1921.
5

56 THE FAMILY OF LODER [ch. ii

and the Loders have been neighbours and friends through
several generations. The other sister, Adela Maria, died
March 22nd, 1915; she married in 1883 Major-General
the Hon. A. Stewart, who died in 1896. Three years after,
in 1899, she married Colonel Basil Lloyd Anstruther. Of
this large family of brothers and sisters there are still
living Gerald, Reginald and Sydney Loder.

CHAPTER III

SUSSEX — THE HIGH BEECHES, WHITTLEBURY AND
LEONARDSLEE — BIRTH OF EDMUND LODER

" God gave all men all earth to love.
But since man's heart is small.
Ordains for each one spot shall prove

Beloved over all.
Each to his choice, and I rejoice

The lot has fallen to me
In a fair ground — in a fair ground —
Yea, Sussex by the sea."

RuDYAED Kipling.

In the two previous chapters I have attempted to give
some idea of Loder's personality and some account of his
family ; in the present one I intend to allude to the home
scenes in which he passed the greater part of his life. We
have just seen that Sir Robert Loder left his old home The
High Beeches, near to Crawley in Sussex, in 1878 and
afterwards resided at Whittlebury until his death in 1888.
Up to the time of Edmund Loder's marriage, in 1876, The
High Beeches had always been his home. His father
having bought Whittlebury in 1873, it was natural that
when his son, Edmund Loder, married, he should wish to
provide him with a home in the same county of North-
amptonshire. Sir Robert purchased a property of about
300 acres near Weedon called Floore, and there his son
P-^dmund settled down with his wife in a not very large
house. Floore was their home for twelve years— that is,
till Sir Robert's death in 1888. ^ Very soon after his father's
death Sir Edmund acquired from his wife's family her old

^ Sir Robert left Floore to his son Sydney Loder, who let it for some
years and then sold it. The High Beeches he left to his son Wilfrid
Loder. The present owner is Wilfrid Loder's son. Major Giles Loder.

67

58 THE HOME SCENES OF HIS LIFE [ch. iii

home, Leonardslee, near Horsham, situated some five
miles only from his old home, The High Beeches, and there
he lived out his days.

If the following facts are borne in mind it will prevent
any confusion in following the course of Loder's life in Eng-
land ; his three homes were :

For 26 years, 1849-76 — The High Beeches, Crawley, Sussex.
For 12 years, 1876-88 — Floore, Weedon, Northants,
For 32 years, 1888-1920 — Leonardslee, Horsham, Sussex.

70 years.

Thus, for 58 of his 70 years his home was, where his heart
always was, in Sussex.

All persons susceptible of sentiment know how the heart
clings to the haunts of childhood ; more especially does a
child's affection hold close a country home, for nature's
beauty appeals in a thousand ways to the fresh innocence
and natural instincts of early youth. The High Beeches
and the country around, where Loder's childhood was
passed, became for him the " one spot " of earth " beloved
over all." Here passed the days of youth and of romance,
here he found and won the partner of his life, making her
home at Leonardslee his own ; to be hers again when he
should be there no more. It was most beautiful, he left
it yet more so after more than thirty years of loving care,
and in return it gave him continual joy of the purest kind.
Heaven smiled upon him at his birth in placing him " in
a fair ground — in a fair ground."

The High Beeches, with the adjoining property of Den-
combe,^ is a very charming place ; the house stands high
and overlooks some eighteen miles of beautiful country
with the Brighton Downs and the Devil's Dyke in the
distance. Were I writing only for the survivors of Loder's

1 The High Beeches was bought by Sir Robert Loder soon after his
marriage in 1847; the property of Dencombe, adjoining, he purchased
much later.

SUSSEX 59

own generation my task would be simpler, but it seems
almost necessary to say something of " the time and place "
in which he lived. At least it generally requires some effort
for one generation in thinking of an older one to realise
the changes in scene as well as of habits that mark the
passage of even fifty years. Many of the things which men
of Loder's generation accomplished with great effort are
now done with ease, comfort and expedition, but much that
was familiar to our eyes in our youth and much that we did
can never be seen or done again. What men do now
in superterrestrial, subterranean and submarine adven-
ture and exploration were things only in our dreams or
creatures of our imagination — the wild and almost ridiculous
subjects of our " books for boys." We lived in the days of
terrestrial discoveries, and that age with its fascination is
practically over. It is not easy for men whose youth was
spent in the thrilling years of African, Asiatic, Australasian,
Arctic and American explorations to believe that any
similar period of adventure and romance can recur. During
the seventy years of Loder's life, the whole world, from
being comparatively little known and holding innumerable
secrets, became well known.

Inland from the sea, Sussex has escaped the ravages of
our time better than most English counties. It is hard
to believe that it ever was more beautiful than during the
first half of Loder's life. There must have been a period,
previous to the last century, when the district around
Leonardslee suffered severely through the felling of its oaks
for the Navy, and of its timber generally to provide charcoal
for Sussex furnaces and foundries. But a hundred and
fifty years had given time for the recovery from any
desolation wrought by the iron industries. Such traces as
survive of ironworking in the county add rather than
detract from its valley scenery. The uninform.ed would
never guess, for instance, that the chain of ponds and lakes
in the main valley at Leonardslee, studded with gem-like
nymphaea, reflecting gigantic-leaved gunhera and aquatic
wonders of plant life along their borders, had been evolved

60 THE HOME SCENES OF HIS LIFE [ch. iii

out of the old " Hammer Ponds " — the ancient reservoirs
which ensured the continual running of the water-wheels
which drove the batteries of stamps which crushed the ore. ^
As for the country south and south-east of Horsham and
the Forest Ridge, it would be difficult to match it with any
other sample of English scenery ; and within it there is
nothing better than the property of Leonardslee, where
Loder made his home, beautifying it with his consummate
knowledge, skill and understanding.

Among our counties, some seem separated from others
as entities, and Sussex is one of these. It is in situation,
character and history intensely English. Physically too
it is distinct, with its long seaboard of chalk and sandstone
cliffs, its Downs, its Weald, its inland forests of beech and
birch, of pine and fir. Sussex still abounds with pictur-
esque villages and commons, it is rich in old castles, old
abbeys, old churches and old parks, in Saxon camps and
older forts and " rings " and the vestiges of the Roman and
British past. Traversed by the great highways of the world
which lead to the heart of our Empire, it yet remains a
bit of the Old England, holding here and there some perfect
relic, typical of her rural past. It may be that up to the
very end of Loder' s life, in quiet places, the Sussex oxen
were ploughing and some of those ancient troglodytes, the
South Down shepherds, were tending their sheep, Pyecombe
crook in hand. Some lanes there are still in these days of
tarmacadam, into which no noise and stench of motors
can enter, lanes of the good old sort which inspired the
libel " Soseks full of dirt and myre." Whether a man

1 I have within the present century seen at the mines in Transylvania
and Hungary wooden stamps worked in this primitive way ; in principle
the process differs little from that in operation in the mighty stamping
batteries of the Transvaal Goldfields. In Transylvania all the processes
were very primitive — dogs drew little barrow-loads of ore out of little
hill-side drifts ; the ore was then carted by bullocks to where a water-
wheel worked iron-shod wooden stamps ; there the ore was crushed and
loaded into little einspanner ox-wagons and taken, often many miles,
to the Government Concentration works — the miners being paid accord-
ing to the yield of gold, of silver and of lead obtained from the concen-
trates.

SUSSEX CLIMATE 61

come from Yorkshire, the Highlands, the Alps or the Andes
he may not smile in the presence of a man of Sussex at
Gilbert White, not even when he describes the South
Downs as a " chain of majestic mountains." The Downs
have a beauty of their own. Looking southwards from the
wooded highland round Leonardslee, or from the house
itself, they form a distant but charming background ; there
is distinction in their swelling, rising and falling lines as in
the colours they put on ; " peculiarly sweet and amusing,"
Gilbert White says.

At Leonardslee, Nature lent herself in every direction to
Loder's taste, his humour and his art. A Sussex sky is as
sunny as any, if not the sunniest in England.^ For our
latitudes, the air is warm, the mean temperature being but
a degree or two below that of the Scilly Isles.^ The rainfall
is a mean between that of the wetter climates of western
and the dryer climates of eastern England. The wild plant
life declares it a gardener's soil, for some 1,159 species of
wild flowering plants are found within its borders. In spite
of deforestation, enough magnificent timber remains to
proclaim that it can produce the best.

To men of Loder's nature, mountains and hills, forests
and prairies are emptied of more than half their delight if
deprived of animal and bird life ; even the river and the
lake lose their interest without the living creatures in them
and about them which belong to them or for which they
are a suitable home. To such men even the beautiful
Alpine scenery of Switzerland is depressing. To me the
great grey snow-topped mountains are a melancholy
spectacle associated ever in my mind with the massacre
and extermination of all that life which when we were young
gave enchantment to them — often to our view, always to
the imagination. The lammergeyer and the eagle soar no

^ Certain stations, such as those at Falmouth, Newquay and Wey-
mouth, boast the highest records of sunshine, but Brighton is not far
behind these, with its score of some 1,800 hours of sunshine in the year ;
and the Sussex average is no less than 1,600 hours.

^ The mean annual temperatiure of the Scilly Isles is 52^° Fahr., that
of Susses is somewhere about 50° to 51° Fahr.

62 THE HOME SCENES OF HIS LIFE [ch. iii

more into the blue above them, the steinbok stands no
more a sentinel on the heights, no bears haunt the fast-
nesses of the rocks, nor wild boars the forests on their slopes.
You know that on most of them you might spy all day and
never see one chamois nor even a marmot.^ For the
sportsman-naturalist there is little inducement to climb
where nature is thus despoiled. Even in the short season
of Alpine flowers, these can hardly chase melancholy from
places thus emptied of their life. Yet the Alpine Club
man and many a tourist find full satisfaction and delight
in them, such as the born naturalist and hunter does in
other ranges, as grand and beautiful as these. Byron
understood the nature of a man like Loder, and I find these
lines copied into one of Edmund Loder' s journals :

" To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell.
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene.
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been :
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold,
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean :
This is not solitude : 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms and view her stores unrolled."

* In Switzerland there still are chamois and they may often be seen,
but the system (supposed to be democratic, but which is the very
bolshevism of sport) by which they are still kept in existence is horrible
in the extreme. A canton is closed against chamois-hunting till sTirviving
stocks or migrants have multiplied sufficiently — usually a period of some
seven years or so — it is then declared open for about fourteen days.
During these two awful weeks the mountains are covered with men,
with rifles and guns, who massacre everything, sparing neither age nor
sex. Every visible creature, after being chevied from pillar to post and
blazed at from every side, having been butchered, the canton is bottled
up for another seven years. Foreigners are not allowed to participate
in these slaughters and so far have never clamoured to be admitted to
the shambles. During the War, 1914-18, quite a number of steinbok,
distiu-bed by the Italian and Austrian mountain fighting, sought refuge
on the Swiss side, but the Swiss frontier posts shot them down and thus
probably the last chance of the steinbok being re-established in Swit-
zerland was lost.

Since writing this note I have heard that the steinbok is being re-
introduced into what is to be a national natural preserve.

NATURE AND SUSSEX 63

So he peopled his park, his hills, his open plateaux, his
valleys, his woods, his lakes and his streams with such a
variety of creatures as could never have lived in such
health and happiness and mixed beauty elsewhere in Eng-
land. Sussex is fitted for wild life. Red and fallow deer,
from old time, have thrived particularly well in Sussex
parks. Mr. C. F. Lucas of Warnham Court, Horsham, has
some of the finest red deer in England. Lord Leconfield's
Petworth fallow deer are said to be the best in England, and
roe are there too. At Parham, which belonged to the late
Lord Zouche, one of Loder's friends as well as his neighbour,
besides the deer there is a heronry ^ with a curious history,
an enchanted forest and other wonders. All this was in
favour of Loder's schemes, but where else has man ever, in
so limited an area, created such a wonderful combination
of gardens with natural loveliness and made it the home
of such a great number of beautiful, curious and rare
creatures ?

The Leonardslee estate lies a little south of St. Leonard's
Forest, which is well worth seeing. I have ridden through
it in various directions with Sir Edmund in order to see
his favourite " natural wild stretches," apparently in
primeval state, of birches and pines in heather and bracken
or where old and seedling trees (usually birches) grew in
sweet confusion. A good idea of the Forest can be obtained
by taking the road from Horsham to Pease Pottage. As
to who St. Leonard was, who gave his name to the Forest
and to Sir Edmund and Lady Loder's property hard by,
I am not quite clear ; perhaps he is the same good gentle-

1 Lord Zouche was a descendant of Robert Curzon, the traveller and
author of The Monaste'ries of the Levant. The heronry at Parham dates
from about 1841 — the herons coming from Michelgrove, deserting their
heronry owing to some of the nest-bearing trees having been felled ; the
heronry at Michelgrove had only been in existence some twenty years,
having been established by the migration of all the Penshurst (Lord de
Lisle and Dudley's place in Kent) herons. The original heronry at
Penshurst had lasted 200 years, having been started with herons imported
in the reign of James I from Corby Castle in Wales.

Lord Zouche died some eight years ago ; the present owner, Lady
Zouche, is a distant cousin of the last Lord.

64 THE HOME SCENES OF HIS LIFE [ch. iii

man who has attached his name to some of our Yorkshire
monastic buildings and chapels. Whoever he was, the
Forest is named after him because he killed the Dragon
which haunted it ; he was wounded in the combat, and
wherever his blood fell, there lilies of the valley sprang up.
Judging from the lilies he must have been a full-blooded
saint and his wounds severe and numerous. It is said too
of the Forest that nightingales never sing within it, owing
to the curse of a hermit whose nocturnal devotions they
disturbed — without vouching for the cause, I am told the
fact is there. In E. V. Lucas's book, already referred to,
I read his history of a seventeenth century " Serpent "
(or " Dragon ") that lived in the Forest about 1604, with
his transcription of a certificate given by those who " have
scene this serpent." The description is very detailed,
and a careful consideration of it convinces me that " this
serpent " was an escaped cobra. It " is reputed to be nine
feete, or rather more in length." " The scales along his
backe seem to be blackish, and so much as is discovered
under his bellie, appeareth to be red." " He is of counten-
ance very proud and at the sight or hearing of man or
cattel will raise his necke upright ; and seem to listen and
looke about with great arroganey." " There are likewise
on either side of him discovered, two great bunches so big
as a large foote-ball " (query, what was the regulation size
of foote-balls circa 1604 ?) " and (as some thinke) will in
time grow to wings ; but God, I hope, will . . . that he shall
be destroyed before he grow so fledge." This story reminds
me that some years ago a terrified countryman came to see
me, asserting that he had just seen at the bottom of a hedge
about a mile from my house a frightful serpent about 20
feet long and as thick as his leg ; he had fled, and told me
he had no idea that there were such awful creatures in
Cleveland. I went off to see if I could account for his tale,
and discovered that it was a dead python about 14 feet
long and that it had been thrown out dead or dying from a
touring menagerie. I have seen and killed much bigger
pythons than this, and saw one, killed by Captain Elphick

LEONARDSLEE AND ST. LEONARD'S FOREST 65

near Kaap Muiden in the Transvaal, which was the longest
I have known — about 27 feet long.

The following I take from Sir Edmund Loder's own notes
made in 1913, as giving the conditions under which he
pursued his hobby of acclimatising rare and beautiful
plants and trees.

" Leonardslee is 270 feet above sea-level : 9 miles from
the northern slopes of the South Downs and 13 miles in a
direct line to the sea near Shoreham. The ground planted
occupies both sides of a valley running nearly north and
south. It is partially sheltered from south-west gales by
trees and by the configuration of the ground. The soil
varies considerably in different parts, generally, however,
containing sand, mixed more or less with clay. Geologic-
ally it is ' Upper Tunbridge Sand ' and ' Cuckfield Clay.'
The natural growth is heather, bracken and birch-trees."

The following particulars are taken from the same notes :

" Average Rainfall at Leonardslee

1882 to 1912 inclusive . . . 29-65 in.

The greatest Rainfalls in this period were :

in 1903 38-42 in.

in 1912 37-87 in.

The smallest Rainfalls were :

in 1893 23-42 in.

in 1905 ..... 24-74 in."

It is said that on Christmas Eve, 1860, the thermometer
fell to zero, when bay and laurel trees were killed or much
injured and Phoiinia serrulata was killed to the ground.
Similar damage was done to bays and laurels in 1894, but
not to Photinia. In this year, on January 5th, 1894, 28°
of frost were registered, and again on February 7th, 1895,
without injuring the camellias.

" Much damage is done to young growths of flower-buds
and flowers by spring frosts :

17 degrees of frost were registered March 21st, 1899
15 „ „ „ March 29th, 1901

12 „ „ „ March 15th, 1908'
11 ., „ „ March 18th, 1910^

13 „ „ „ April 13th, 1913

1 Technically winter and not spring dates.

66 THE HOME SCENES OF HIS LIFE [ch. iii

" Bracken has been killed at the bottom of the valley by
the frosts on June 22nd (the longest day), 1908, and on
June 14th, 1911.

" The greatest frosts recorded up to 1913 in recent years
have been :

1912 February 3rd

1911 February 1st

1910 November 21st

1909 January 28th

1908 January 11th

Degrees

. 21

. 11

. 12

. 18

. 18

1907 January 24th and 25th . . 16
1906 December 28th . . . .18

The highest temperatures have been :

August 14th, 1911 . . . .94

September 3rd, 1906 . . . .93

The lowest maximum temperature for a year

was June 11th, 1903 . . . .82.

5>

It is not easy to describe Leonardslee, and my account
is of a clear picture in my memory, as it was before the
war. The main feature is a very long deep valley, narrow
and wild at the high end, running down from north to
south, deepening, widening and opening itself more and
more to the sun. In the bottom a stream flows down
through a chain of pools, ponds and lakes, the waters
becoming larger and wider as the valley broadens out.
In one section of the upper stream and pools the beavers
have their home and holts, and there they have built
their dams, and here you may see neatly cut stumps of
larch and of birch trees which have been gnawed down.
Above stream there is a colony of Coypus, giant water-
rats, and below the beavers dwell a numerous tribe of
the more gigantic Capybara,^ the aquatic guinea-pig of
South America and the largest of all existing rodents,
sometimes 4 feet long. This valley is the divide
between the highlands to the west and east. On the

^ Capybara, 4 ft. long and weighing about 10 stone ; as Loder used to
say, " the same as his own weight," for it was curious his weight kept
under 11 stone from the time of his running races at Eton till he died.

LEONARDSLEE 67

edge of the western plateau stands the house, commanding
an extensive view of the valley, of the lake with its
various waterfowl below, of the hills, of woods, and to
the right, away over miles of Sussex, to the Downs. On
the east side of the valley, where it is widest, the slopes
rise from the water with open stretches of grass, heath
and bracken among birches, tall old beeches,^ ancient
hollies and pines, till the timber closes thick round the
crown of the hill. Here you may watch a herd of Japanese
deer or of Indian blackbuck or of spotted axis (cheetal)
in repose, or feeding and moving from shadow into sun-
light and into shade again ; or as you climb the bank
you will put up numbers of wallaby, hidden in the bracken,
some with baby kangaroo heads peeping out of their
pouches — they sit up and watch you with round black
eyes before bounding off in great leaps. Beyond the
woods on this side is a plateau, a miniature prairie ; here
I have often seen many animals grazing, various deer,
with mouflon, ibex, wild sheep and kangaroos. Beyond
the tableland, the grass slopes down to other smaller and
shallower valleys and beyond again are the wooded hills.
It is from the front of the house, which faces the valley,
and from the large windows of the dining- and drawing-
rooms, that you can see most of this (not the plateau),
or looking left-handed, across to woodlands, spaced and
striped with sunlit glades where onwards from late spring
are great masses of azaleas and rhododendrons of all
colours, shining with white and gold and flecking with
flames the dark heather which carpets the hill. In summer
other colour is there, for ramblers, climbing briars with

1 In 1912 one of the beech-trees was 110 ft. in height, girthing
10 ft. 4 in. at 5 ft. from the ground. There were at the same date also
the following measiorements recorded :

Pinus pinaster, 77 ft. high ; Deodara, 77 ft. high ; Cryptotneria japonica,
69 ft. high ; Abies nordmanniana, 82 ft. high ; Sequoia sempervirens,
80 ft. high ; Thuya, 73 ft. 10. in, high ; Larix europcea, 98 ft. high ;
and many other very high trees in the grounds. One tulip-tree in 1912
was 97 ft. high and 11 ft. in girth at 5 ft. from the ground. Even some
of the rhododendrons have stems girthing over 2 ft.

68 THE HOME SCENES OF HIS LIFE [ch. iii

Viturnum plicatum climb high up into the trees. On the
north side of the house is the main entrance ; from this
side, the first object which catches the eye is an enormous
thermometer fixed on one of the great beeches on a lawn
opposite the front door. Though a considerable way off,
it can be read from the windows more easily than one
held in the hand. This was one of Loder's practical
devices for obtaining information as to how the temperature
was likely to affect his plants and trees. It was of many
other uses — no need here to go out and poke the ground
in your pyjamas to see if it was a hunting morning.
Beyond the thermometer are borders of flowering shrubs,
Japanese maples, bamboos and flowers, and behind these
rise the rocks of the Alpine Garden, and beyond is the
Park. To the right of this lies the valley, and here is
the sea of rhododendrons and much else among the high
trees. You can leave the house, too, on the east side by
a side door, passing tall camellia-trees covered with flowers,
and go under the rose-covered pergolas to the homes of
the rarer rhododendrons.

It was not long after his marriage that he first met
Mr. Mangles, " the Father of the Auclandi cult," and other
amateurs of the rhododendrons. He became first a
collector of rhododendrons and azaleas, and then as time
went on he became more and more interested in the
results of hybridisation. After years of experiment he
obtained the reward of his labours in producing the most
surpassingly beautiful rhododendron of our time, the one
which bears his name, as well as many other lovely hybrids.
Gardening fascinated him, and is a pure and beautiful
joy in many hves. To him it opened his mind to a charm-
ing avenue of perpetual interest in his travels abroad
and in each garden he visited. He increased his know-
ledge not only by the study of the best books of which
he was a collector, but was in constant touch with the
English, Japanese, Dutch and other foreign nurserymen
and corresponded with the curators of Botanical Gardens
at home and on the Continent. He would spend days

LEONARDSLEE 69

at Kew, Edinburgh and Cambridge or travel to Geneva
and even to JMexico to get something new in the way of
information or of plants. I remember his making a very
complete tour of the beautiful gardens in Cornwall between
Falmouth and Penzance, where he was a delighted wit-
ness of what could be achieved in that wild and sunny
climate with sub-tropical plants and trees. He would
go to see what his friend Mr. J. C. Williams at Caerhays
was doing, for he had similar hobbies, and like Sir Edmund
had made a special study of rhododendrons and narcissi.
I have known it said that whilst Sir Edmund Loder would
take a great deal of trouble to see something at a dis-
tance, he could not be induced to visit some very beautiful
gardens and collections near at hand. This I am inclined
to believe, though it sounds curious, but he was like that :
he knew what he wanted to do, and nothing would per-
suade him to do a thing till it suited him or the inclina-
tion came to do it.

The library windows look out to the west ; under them
is a small colony of the queer little jerky prairie dogs
(there is a larger one elsewhere) ; beyond them an avenue
of botanical wonders, sub-tropical shrubs and trees in
great variety, leads to the mouflon rocks, and farther
west again is more open grass and bracken fringed with
high trees — a favourite spot for the great kangaroos,
Peruvian cavies, springbok and wild turkeys. I have
put up hog deer here too and seen the bush turkey's tall
heat-generating nests on the slopes hard by ; where are
also the emu paddocks and enclosures for ravine deer
and other species of the hardier gazelles. This somewhat
long description of the grounds in which Loder spent so
much of his home life does not give even a list of half
the gardens and subjects of interest, and says nothing of
the side shows, such as the most complete collection of
coniferae in England. But as most of the animals were
sold after Loder's death and no man can tell what changes
may come, I wished, if it were possible, to give some slight
idea of what the place was like when he was the spirit

70 THE HOME SCENES OF HIS LIFE [ch. iii

of it. I myself feel as if his spirit still was there, for I
can think of no corner of Leonardslee without seeing
him in it.

I now must turn back to the year 1849, the year of his
birth, and follow him where possible through the seventy
years of his life. In 1849 Queen Victoria was 30 years
of age and had reigned 12 years ; Loder lived through
52 years of her reign.

CHAPTER IV

CHILDHOOD— ETON AND CAMBRIDGE — 1849-1872

" Our first gay stage of life is when

Youth, in its dawn, salutes the eye —
Season of bliss ! Oh who wouldn't then
Wis?i to cry, ' Stop ! ' to earth and sky ? "

Moore : Round the World Goes.

The London season was over, and the West End quiet and
no doubt sultry, when on August 7th, 1849, the hero of
this history made his appearance in this very mysterious
world. The precise spot on which he should arrive had been
carefully fixed by his parents and relations, namely,
16 Montagu Street, Portm.an Square, the home of Mr. and
Mrs. William Pitt Byrne, the last-named becoming at once
and for the rest of her days the new arrival's " Aunt Julia."
There had been a Giles in every generation of the Loders, so
that this name fell to him as of right, being the first-born
of the new generation. The name of Edmund was chosen
for him by his father, after a favourite brother of his, who
had died young. St. Giles's Day, September 1st, was
selected for the christening at St. Andrew's Church, and
on that day the child, being thus named Edmund Giles, was
baptised by the Rev. James Murray with water out of a shell
brought for the occasion " from the banks of the Jordan
and which had been blessed by the Latin Patriarch of the
Holy Sepulchre." His sponsors were his great-uncle, Mr.
Philip Loder, his Aunt Julia and a Miss Randall. These
important preliminaries to the journey of life are usually
carefully recorded, but in this case, as in many others,
there is very little, if anything, related in writing about
Edmund Loder' s childhood. There being now no surviving
6 71

72 CHILDHOOD [ch. iv

members of the family very near to him in age, there
remains Httle but the oral traditions which have come down
to the present time. These are scanty, but support the
dictum that the child is father of the man. His sister
Ethel, Lady Burrell, though considerably younger, is to-
day the only living witness of his later nursery days . The
maximum strength of the nursery party in his time was four.
Besides his little sister Ethel and himself, there were his
brother WiKrid, two years younger than himself, and his
brother Alfred, six years younger. His sister remembers
that there were the usual little disagreements and " scraps "
common to all nurseries, but cannot recollect "a cross word
from Eddie." Eddie, though high-spirited and vivacious,
seems to have been born a philosopher. It is remarked of
him at a very tender age, that when he was aware that his
conduct merited correction, which it is alleged was not
often, he reduced the consequent trouble to a minimum by
quietly climbing down from his high chair, saying, " Corner,
s'pose." This is characteristic of his attitude towards the
disagreeable throughout his life. I have often seen him
meet his troubles half-way, or indeed the whole way, when
they were the consequence of some misfortune or mistake.
He would put his head on one side, with his hand on his
hip, and reflecting a moment accept the inevitable and make
the best of it. I have frequently heard him make such
admissions as " If I had that to do over again I should do
it differently," as if he liked everyone concerned to know
it. It remained an attractive trait in his character and an
attitude too where there was risk of friction that was very
disarming and very conciliating.

Sliding down banisters is one of the forbidden delights
of very small boys. The steep staircase outside the nursery
door at The High Beeches was, however, temptation in an
entirely irresistible form for a child so full of Ufe and so
fearless as Eddie Loder. Unfortunately the run was too
precipitous to do the course with full abandon without
the danger, after passing the post, of bumping into the door
of his father's sanctum. When the bump did occur, the

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S FUNERAL 73

father promptly emerged with a sHpper and appHed it to
what had bumped his door and sent Eddie upstairs. But
the boy, like the one who suffered pain more amidships
after too much plum pudding, considered the game was
" worth it."

There are events which happen to us at three years old,
and even earlier, which we recollect more or less distinctly.
Sir Edmund Loder always asserted he remembered being
present at the Duke of Wellington's funeral, but without
any exact recollection of what happened. The funeral of
the Iron Duke was on November 18th, 1852, when Eddie
Loder was between three and four years old. The Duke had
died at Walmer Castle on September 14th ; the body had
lain in state at Chelsea Hospital from November 10th to the
17th. The Public Funeral Procession began at 7 in the
morning and the body was not laid in the vault at St. Paul's
till 3 p.m. : after having been taken on its last long journey
through the streets on a great car drawn by twelve horses.
The fact of the little boy having been there is recorded in
his mother's diary. From this it appears that he was taken
up to London for the occasion. A room had been engaged
on the second floor of 126 Piccadilly, from which three
generations of Loders viewed the procession. A very early
start had to be made, as the cortege was timed to pass
this point at 9 a.m. The passing lasted one hour and a half
and bands played continuously.

The next event in his life which is mentioned is more than
two years later, when in May 1855 his parents took him to
the great Paris Exhibition. It appears his father accom-
panied some of the live stock from his farm on this journey,
so that Eddie Loder had the honour and excitement of
making his first trip overseas with a prize pig and other
exhibits. The pig won a prize at Paris, which was a 100
franc gold piece. The party stayed a fortnight in Paris and
one day Eddie got lost, but at five years old knew enough
French to inquire his way to their hotel and to reach it
safely. It was more than twenty years before he found
himself in Paris again and he was then on his honeymoon,

74 CHILDHOOD [ch. iv

in 1876. Lady Loder has told me that he remembered a
good many places, but most particularly a shop in the rue
St. Honore where he had seen in the window a revolving
roller which pressed out liquid chocolate — this wonder
having left a more lasting impression on the mind of the
little boy than anything else and throwing the Great
Exhibition into the shadier part of his memory.

Beyond the fact that he, with the rest of the family,
went every autumn to stay with his grandfather Mr. Giles
Loder, at Wilsford House, near Salisbury, I have no record
of his movements and experiences, until the Paris Prize Pig
and Chocolate expedition just mentioned. But in 1856
he began to see more and more of the big world, for his
father, having set about rebuilding the High Beeches,
moved all his family to Hampton Lodge, Western Road,
Brighton, where no doubt he found delight in the goat
carriages, piers, shells and other novelties of the seaside.

On February 20th of the next year (1857) a third httle

brother arrived ; he w^as christened Robert Clare, but did

not long remain with them. This spring all the children

were taken ill with whooping-cough, and the baby died

of this distressing malady. I mention this as the family,

eventually of seven brothers and two sisters, maintained

their ranks intact until the first years of the next century.

Long before this Indian Mutiny year of 1857 Eddie had

learnt to ride. For some years he was not allowed stirrups,

with the consequence that his pony soon discovered he

could unseat him and did so many times a day. To ride

bare-back to begin with, after the panier or Spanish

child's saddle stage is past, and then without stirrups, is

the best way for a boy to learn to ride, and, what is almost

as useful in after life, how to fall off. This education for

a boy is not always so good a one for a pony ; yet as most

small ponies are (or were in our day) so imperfectly

broken and "made," a few more tricks hardly count

against the feats of agility they inspire in the rider. The

great thing for a child is to be familiar and fond of his

pony and to have a small and narrow one with a good

LEARNING TO RIDE 75

temper. Most small ponies are (or were) too wade and
fat, with bad mouths and rough paces ; I think the best
are to be found among the small Welsh or Exmoor ponies.
Riding without stirrups is supposed to spoil a boy's hands
and a horse's mouth, but hands are born and not made.
Good hands go with sensitive natures and sympathetic
temperament. You cannot spoil good hands and you
cannot make bad ones good. Thus very early Eddie
Loder learned to ride well and to ride alone. Almost
every day, when he was 7 and 8 years old, he went by
himself the two and a half miles from the High Beeches
for his lesson of an hour at the Rectory at Staple-
field, tumbling off and tumbling on as often as his pony
elected to impose these exercises. He would take his
pony and ride round by the lanes where the stonebreakers
were — and there were many in those days on the roadsides
— and persuaded them to keep any curious flints they
found in the great heaps they worked at.

Unlike most little boys of later generations he was
kept at home till he was nearly 13 years old ; having,
during the last two years before going to Eton, a tutor,
Mr. Crofts, to prepare him for his school career. His
remaining thus at home in the country until he went to
Eton, instead of going to a preparatory school, almost
certainly accounts for the extraordinary development of
his faculties and of those interests which later filled his
life with delightful occupations and with such varied
studies. It probably accounts too for a certain marked
independence of character. These are the receptive years
in which a mind is stored, or not, with general knowledge
of the kind without which lives are the poorer. The
reader must forgive me if I obtrude my own opinion on
this subject and for claiming Loder as an illustration in
support of it. I am open to the charge of partiality, for
I bring to the consideration of it a similar experience to
Loder's, having been kept at home under a tutor till I
was more than 12 years old. I owe at least half the
pleasure and interests of my life and by far the happiest

76 CHILDHOOD [ch. iv

memories of my boyhood to the three last years at home.
There are certainly two sides to the question ; and what
is best for one boy is not always best for another. It
may be that the average boy " gets on better at school "
and is " turned out better," in the opinion of masters, if
he is caught and broken young. It may be that school-
masters have agreed on the treatment which gives the
best average results, as doctors do. Opinions are never
likely to agree as to the exact age at which it is best to
catch, break and train any animal. Much depends on
nature and disposition, and upon what you want it to do
and to be. It must be remembered that in the fifties and
sixties preparatory schools were few and inferior to what
they have been since. Yet I still hold the view that the
years from 9 to 12 are the most impressionable and
critical in a boy's life, and that for boys with happy
homes, and especially with country homes and brothers
and sisters, they are the ones above all others best spent
at home. It is because these years are so important to
the evolution of character and the moulding of habits,
mental and social, that all schoolmasters and most so-
called " educationalists " insist on boys being sent to
school at 9 or 10 years of age or even earlier. I fully
admit that under this system the public schools turn out
a splendid set of well-instructed, disciplined, manly
Englishmen, with a high code of honour, morality and
conduct. But I maintain that in the seven years, 12 to
19, a not inferior result in these respects could be obtained,
without the loss of all that is entailed in the absence
from family life and a country home during the most
receptive period. In these precious years a keen boy at
home becomes familiar, with unconscious ease, with his
country, his own people, the humbler classes around him,
with animal and bird life ; he is a collector of everything
from eggs and butterflies to ferrets and terriers ; he
knows the haunts and habits of most living creatures,
watches and takes a part in all that interests him in the
stable, the farm, the joiner's or blacksmith's shop. He

HE GOES TO ETON 77

goes to school with his mind stored with general and
famihar knowledge and experience to an extent which
can never be reached by any effort in after life — a wealth
of education that whatever else schoolmasters possess,
most of them cannot appreciate. He will as a rule be
even better instructed in most school subjects if he has
been well taught at home. Much more could be said in
regard to the family aspect and the relationship between
parents and sons. It is true that a boy is more easily
and thoroughly weaned (if more cruelly) from home and
country affections at 8 or 9 years old, and that he falls
into line with less effort at the earlier age ; but it is
equally true that the highest education (I do not mean
instruction) suffers irremediably under the system. How
many boys nowadays leave school without knowing the
very simplest things — not even the names of birds, trees,
flowers, hardly those of their neighbours and the village
people ! People are people — birds are birds — and hounds
are spotted dogs ; they have no fluency in foreign lan-
guages, and no desire, generally speaking, to get out of
the mould into which they were squeezed when small and
tender. A man like Loder when asked, as I have heard
him asked, " But how do you know that ? I wish I knew
these things," replies truly, " But I don't remember when
I did not know them." We know enough about little
Eddie Loder to ascribe to these years much of his
enthusiasm for natural beauty, natural science, an inde-
pendence of judgment and an individuality of character,
due to his liberty from school life.

On May 7th, 1862, he went to Eton and to the Rev.
John Hawtrey's, into whose house were taken some forty
of the younger boys. There being in those days a first
and second form, Hawtrey's House took the place of a
preparatory school. Later he went to the Rev. E. D.
Stone.

Loder made no great mark in school work at Eton.
Though he had brains much above the average and was
industrious, his mind was bent on subjects which inter-

78 ETON AND CAMBRIDGE [ch. iv

ested him rather than on any great effort to distinguish
himself. He pursued studies which do not carry you up
the school ladder, such as drawing, for which he took
many prizes, including the School Drawing Prize. Al-
though he made time for cricket he often spent his half
holidays, in summer, sketching. He was, before he left
Eton, a budding astronomer and had saved up his money
and had become the proud possessor of a telescope. The
growth of his love for natural history continued, and
some of the obstacles placed in his path by the authorities
are " peculiar and amusing." He collected, among other
things, butterflies and caterpillars : I can imagine his
contempt for the ignorance of the highly placed, who
confiscated his caterpillars as being " poisonous." Yet
such notions persisted in our day and perhaps do still
in those high spheres. Caterpillars provide varied enter-
tainment to schoolboys ; we raced them and had large
studs. I won many stakes with one which was a stayer,
with a magnificent stride, till I painted liim with my
colours, and used too much Chinese white, which shor-
tened his stride and ended his turf career — he was never
the same animal after.

Though Loder made time for both cricket and football,
he does not appear to have excelled in either. He was,
however, among the best athletes in the school. In 1867
when 17 he entered for fourteen events in March and
April, and won ten of them, was second in another and
third in another. The following year, 1868, he competed
not only at Eton, but elsewhere, at Richmond and East-
bourne and other Athletic Meetings, and he won fouileen
out of nineteen competitions for which he entered. At
these athletic sports, in the long jump he did 19 feet
more than once, and in the high jump 5 ft. 1 in. The
following were amongst his best performances at school
when 18 or 19 years old :

1st in the 100 yards in lOf sec. (on grass in South
Meadow).

1st in the 484 yards in 58 sec.

ETON DAYS 79

In this last race, which was intended to be a quarter-
mile race, the course was found when remeasured to be
484 instead of 440 yards, and Loder has put down his
time of 58 seconds as equivalent to a quarter in 52§ sec.
In the hundred yards race, above, he beat Philpot, who
afterwards at Cambridge was the best man at both the
100 yards and the quarter-mile. It was towards the end
of his Eton days his association with Arthur Pelham,
who was also an athlete and a competitor with him,
ripened into a friendship which lasted his lifetime. There
exists in an old Eton Chronicle a long set of verses on
the consulting of the Pythian god, who gives his " tips "
for the races. I transcribe three of the verses, in which
the names of the two friends appear :

" Up came a youth of lofty grace
WTio said, ' As nothing shorter
Is half as suited to my place,

Please may I win the Quarter ? '

" To whom the prophet, — ' Yes, you may ;
It needs no shrewd foreboder
To guess upon that trying day
A victory for Loder,'

" The dreaded answer soon he saw
Engrav'd on broad-ruled vellum ;
' Though he has striven well before
The race is not for Pelham.' "

At Eton Loder won the long jump in 1868 with 18 ft.
8 in,, and he was third in the high jump, after terrific
competition, with 5 ft. 1 in. These are all excellent per-
formances for a boy, and in the autumn of 1868 Edward
Hawtrey (son of the Master, the Rev. John Hawtrey),
who was later a celebrated long-distance runner, took
pains to train Loder and Pelham in quarter-mile running
and induced them both to compete in London for the
Public Schools Quarter-mile, a race arranged by the
London Athletic Club, to promote inter-school sports. If
this was, as I think it was, the first attempt of the L.A.C.
towards this end, the first race was not very encouraging,

80 ETON AND CAMBRIDGE fcH. iv

for Loder and Pelham were the only runners to come to
the post, and the race was won by Loder, in the worst
time I can find among his records, viz. 57 seconds. In
April 1869 Loder ran at the Amateur Champion Meeting.
In the hundred yards he ran a dead heat with J. H.
Hague for second place, being only 1 yard behind J. G.
Wilson, who was the best man at either of the Universities
at that distance. On running off the dead heat Loder
won by a yard and made the same time as the winner,
J. G. Wilson, viz. 10| sec.

Thus before he went to Cambridge there was evidence
that Edmund Loder, when at his best, was in the first
class of athletes for his age. He had with 9| yards start at
Richmond in April 1868 beaten a really first-class runner,
J. K. Barnes (he had 1| yards start), in a 120 yards race,
after a dead-heat time 11 1 sec. It remains somewhat a
mystery why he was not more successful at Cambridge
and how he failed to get his Blue.

At Cambridge he won a great many races and jumping
competitions. He started off by winning the quarter-
mile, the hundred yards and the long jump at the
Trinity and King's College Sports. He won many Stran-
gers' Races and other competitions. Both he and Pelham
spent a good deal of time at Tenner's in winter \\ith their
mutual friends Clinton Dent and F. W. Maitland, and kept
themselves in exercise by throwing the hammer. Mr. Pel-
ham ascribes Loder's failure to get liis Blue to probably
two things : that Loder had done his best time on grass
and that his style was better suited to a grass than to a
cinder course, and that in not a few cases men reach the full
development of their running powers very young and some
do not improve after 19. Loder's father put down a cinder
path at home for his son to practise on, so that it was
not the want of training on cinders that accounts for this
curious difference. Having been a quarter-mile and
hundred yards runner myself, I could always do a better
hundred and quarter on cinders in shoes, but best on
grass if the turf was dry and good without shoes. How-

ATHLETICS AT CAMBRIDGE

81

ever, after tabulating the Oxford and Cambridge Inter-
University records in the years 1868-70 it seems to me
that in that particular period Loder was outclassed.

0. and 0. 1868-1870.

Event.

Loder's best record.

51 to 53 sec.

Quarter-mile

His best time was 484
yards in 58 sec. = ?
52f sec.

10 sec. ....

100 yards

10 sec.

20 ft. 8 in. to 21 ft. 3 in.

Long Jump

19 ft. 2 in.

5 ft. U in. to 5 ft. 7 in.

High Jump

5 ffc. 1 in.

A man, however, who can run the quarter under 54
seconds and the hundred yards under 10^ seconds, and
who can jump over 5 feet in height and over 19 feet in
length, is active enough when it comes to the chase to " take
the shine out of " most professional hunters and to beget a
wholesome respect in natives on those occasions when
great activity is required or called into play. Loder
kept up his interest in athletics and to the end of his life
could as a rule give you the names of the best performers
with the best-known records of performances.

Of the brothers Alfred Loder attained to the highest
distinction as an athlete. He was at Jesus College, Cam-
bridge, and one of the heroes of the University in my
Cambridge days. He was two years my senior, having
been born in 1855, was a man of splendid physique and
the champion hurdle racer of his day. At the Inter-
University Sports he won the hurdles two years in suc-
cession ; in 1876 he broke all records by winning the
race in 16 seconds, a time never beaten until the next
century and I believe only recorded twice between 1864
and 1900.^ He was a good tennis (real tennis) player,
and with a rifle on a deer forest was almost or perhaps
equal to his brother Edmund as well as being a good shot
with a gun. He died in 1905.

1 Another man I knew well won the Inter-University Hurdles in the
worst time recorded, Tom Milvain, a very good man with the gloves, or
without them, and at one time M.P. for Durham City.

82 ETON AND CAMBRIDGE [ch. iv

Reginald Loder, the fifth of the brothers, was also an
athlete and as a boy good at the hurdles, like his brother
Alfred ; and good at the high jump, the long jump and
the hundred yards like Edmund was before him. He won
all these events at Cheam or at Eton.*

There is little to say of Edmund's Eton days, but I might
relate one amusing story he used to tell better than I
can, of how he and his friends when in Lower School had
been forbidden to bring in their white mice and turn
them loose, and brought in something else as a substitute.
They got hold of the watercress -man and, partly with
bribes and partly by hustling him into Lower School
amongst themselves, induced him at a given signal to call
out his " Any watercreee-a-ses." It is also said that he
used to shoot sparrows with an air-gun across the street
and always succeeded in avoiding detection. Whether
Edmund Loder got the right amount of birching for which
he rendered himself liable, history does not relate, but
the story is told that his brother Alfred, having cleverly
stolen the birch rod with which he had been castigated,
most unfortunately for himself was so intoxicated with his
success that he waved it in triumph in the street and was
promptly swished again.

After leaving Eton, Loder had a short course with a tutor
at Littlehampton, probably to prepare him for his Trinity
Entrance examination or his Matriculation. He went up
to Trinity, Cambridge, in October 1869 with Pelham. He
had rooms, which subsequently I believe I knew well, in
the Great Court ; a very long, low sitting-room close to
the Chapel with a very small bedroom. His friends do not

^ Reginald Loder, born 1864, played in the winning House team at
football when at Eton and was also in Lower Boys' winning football
and cricket teams, yet was a " wet bob " (nine of the Monarch) and held
a commission in the Eton Vokinteers — the last being a great honour,
as one commission only is given each year. He won, in 1893, the Running
Deer and the Running Man competitions at Bisley, and both with record
scores. He lives at Maidwell Hall in the Pjrtchley coimtry, hunts regu-
larly and has done some big-game shooting. He has inherited to the
full the Loder love of horticulture, has a beautiful collection of siirubs
and a wonderful Alpine Garden ; he also takes a part in county work.

CAMBRIDGE DAYS 83

remember that he had very many books, but recollect well
enough such things as his microscope and an astronomical
telescope, four or five feet long, with a four-inch reflector.
The Irish Question was as lively in those days as before
and since. I remember distinctly the Fenian rising of
1868 and the excitement of the following years. On one
occasion, Pelham relates, it being a fine starry night, Loder,
as he often did, at least subsequently, carried out his
telescope and mounted it on a stand in the Great Court on
one of those sacred grass plots on which the undergraduate
never places his foot but at the risk of 6s. 8d. a time. To the
College Porter's horror (Hoppett would be his name if I
remember right, for he still dwelt in the guardroom in the
Gate in my time), his mind being affected by the Fenian
scare, he saw something like a small cannon on that sacred
ground and pointed in the direction of Trinity Chapel ;
muttering probably a short prayer, he screwed up his
courage and crept stealtliily towards the dreaded object.
Loder was aware of being stalked, but continued his
observations — and awaited results. The Porter drew
near and at last stretched out his hand to seize the Fenian,
when he realised who it was — " Mr. Loder lying on a rug
and looking at stars and such like " — and drew back
his hand with " Beg pardon, sir."

Loder at Cambridge continued to indulge in such studies
and pursuits as appealed to him, and here his taste for
natural science began to develop. He gave much of his
time to astronomy, with how much aid from those
attached to the Cambridge Observatory I do not know.

Besides his work at astronomy and with the microscope,
he continued drawing and painting wliilst at Trinity, and
I think had taken up photography seriously before going
down. He showed no great keenness for the orthodox
classical and mathematical studies, and feeling no necessity
or inclination to take up a profession went through his
examinations in a more or less perfunctory way and was
quite satisfied with an ordinary B.A. degree at the end of
his time. Yet he was always generally busy reading up

84 ETON AND CAMBRIDGE [ch. iv

some subject or doing something in his own way. He
practised more than he played cricket, when at Cambridge,
and used often to be seen at Fenner's, where he had a pro-
fessional bowler to bowl to him at the nets. It was mostly
in the Long Vacations that he played in matches ; and it is
still remembered that he made some good scores for the
Brighton Etonians — a somewhat ephemeral club of which
it was cruelly said " that it was neither Brighton nor Eton-
ian," though it promoted some very good matches in and
near Brighton while it existed.

The four close friends, Loder, Pelham, Clinton Dent and
Maitland, were fond of sculling and canoeing on the Cam,
but I think none of them took up rowing seriously ; they
went for long walks together, and a walk to Ely was their
substitute for penance each time Ash Wednesday came
round. The four sometimes forgathered in Loder's rooms,
but more often met in Sidney Street, where Dent and Mait-
land lodged. Maitland took high honours in two Triposes,
worked hard and could not give up much time from read-
ing to join fully in the activities of his friends, though he
had similar tastes and had been a good runner.

One story survives of Loder's undergraduate days which
is worth preserving. He was invited by a friend (who
remains nameless) to shoot near Cambridge — we v/ill say
at Six-Mile Bottom (I have shot there myself and in those
days there was no better partridge shoot in England). The
invitation was accepted, but it was somewhat astonishing
in the afternoon of a perfect day to be suddenly urged by
his host to " run as hard as he could " — but he did as his
host bade him, for his friend had at once set him the
example. It was only in the excitement of being chased he
discovered that his host had no shooting rights there at all,
and had given him an excellent day's poaching and plenty
of exercise. The host happened to be one of the best mile
runners of his day, and though Loder's best distance was
the quarter, he also escaped the pursuers. It is sometimes
very useful to be fleet of foot.

During the Long Vacation of 1870, on August 7th,

LODER'S COMING OF AGE 85

Edmund Loder's coming of age was celebrated by a great
fete at the High Beeches ; "it was a pouring wet day,
which spoilt everything," appears to be the only record of
this important family event. Wet or fine I undertake to
say that the hero of the day was better pleased to see the
end of it than the beginning, but " good days and bad days
all ahke get over." This was an exciting time in the out-
side world, for the Franco-German war broke out, with
British sympathies mostly on the German side ; though
by the time Paris had capitulated on January 28th, 1871,
an event simultaneous with Bourbaki's terrible retreat into
Switzerland, public opinion had commenced to change, and
after May 10th, when Alsace and Lorraine had been torn out
of the side of France by the Treaty of Frankfort, it may be
said to have veered round.

In 1871, on August 19th, Edmund Loder's grandfather,
Mr. Giles Loder, died and Mr. Robert Loder inherited a
large fortune. In the following year Edmund Loder had
left Cambridge and settled down at home and continued to
study astronomy, which had become his chief hobby. He
erected an observatory in the garden and he was supplied
with a large telescope, and many a night he spent there
when everyone else was asleep. This was soon followed
by a larger observatory and a still more elaborate tele-
scope, and eventually his first visit to America, to be dealt
with in the next chapter, was partly prompted by his
desire to see the works of the celebrated lens manufacturer,
Alvan Clark. He had also become an expert with the
microscope and made his own slides, and he worked hard
at photography and became very proficient.

Meanwhile a rival pursuit had sprung up which was
destined to play a far larger part in his life than astronomy
(a science he continued to be interested in for many years,
but which he gradually dropped). This was deer-stalking
and what may be called its attendant science, rifle shooting.
It was in this year 1872, when he was 23 years of age,
that he induced his father to take a deer forest in Ross-
shire, and from that time onwards stalking was the form

86 ETON AND CAMBRIDGE [ch. iv

of sport which delighted him most. Until the very last
years of his life he never missed a season's deer-stalking,
except when he was abroad ; and on every occasion which
I can remember his being abroad in the deer-stalking season,
he was stalking chamois or other game. The Forest of Amat
and Corriemulzie was the selection of Edmund and his
brother Wilfrid, who went off to find one to their taste and
made a selection that the family never regretted. Amat
and Corriemulzie were rented from Mr. George Ross of
Pitcalnie from 1872 to 1885 (inclusive of both seasons) ; and
in 1876 Mr. Loder took in addition Glen Diebidale from Sir
Alexander Matheson and remained the tenant till 1885.
In 1885, when these tenancies ran out, Mr. Loder rented the
Forest of Glenavon in Forfarshire from the Duke of Rich-
mond (I think), and continued the tenancy till his death in
1888. After Sir Robert's death Sir Edmund took places
for himself; Kintail Forest was taken by him and his
brother Reginald.

Among Sir Edmund Loder's brothers, Mr. Sydney Loder
heads the record as a deer-stalker. He was at Magdalene
College, Cambridge, when his father died in 1888. Since
that year he has had a deer forest every season — thirty-two
seasons to date (1921) — and probably holds the record for
Scotch stags, namely, 1,173 stags killed by himself and
all killed by stalking. I asked him to give me the
measurements of some of his heads which he considered
the best. I give two :

(1)

A 14-pointer killed in 1912.

Length of right horn

. 37| in

Length of left horn

38 „

Beam above brow . .

. 51 „

Inside width between horns

. 32 „

(2)

A 9-pointer killed in 1914.

Length of right horn

. 39f „

Length of left horn

. 39| „

Beam above brow .

^2 5J

Inside width between horns

002 )»

MAJOR EUSTACE LODER 87

Here are two of his performances with salmon — in
Norway : (1) In 1883, July 4th, he killed with rod and line
on the River Nansen a fish 4 ft. 5 in. in length and

29 in. in girth, weighing 54 fb.

(2) In 1898 (also on July 4th) one evening he saw only
three fish, and he hooked and landed them all in this order :

30 lb. 40 ft. 35 lb. Total : 105 ft.

In one place or another reference has been made already
to all the brothers except to Major Eustace Loder, whose
name is probably the one with which the public is most
familiar on account of his success as an owner and breeder
of race-horses. This chapter will finish with a brief
reference to him. He was a twin with Sydney Loder,^
born in 1867, and was the only regular soldier of the seven
brothers and served for eighteen years in the 12th Lancers.
Like the rest of his family he was very fond of deer-stalking
and of his gun. He rode and won in regimental races, and
was a familiar figure with the Kildare, Meath and Pytchley
hounds. It was, however, on the turf that he won his title
to lasting fame. In 1906 he won the Derby and the Grand
Prix with " Spearmint," but it was with " Pretty Polly "
he made one of the greatest sensations of recent times by
winning with her, a mare of his own breeding, the Thousand
Guineas, the Oaks, the Leger, the Coronation Stakes at
Ascot, the Coronation Cup at Epsom and the Champion
Stakes at Newmarket. This wonderful mare won for him in
stakes £37,295. She has had nine foals, the best of which, so
far, have been " Molly Desmond " and " Polly Flinders."
As I write a two-year-old colt of hers by " Lomond " is in
training and may be worth watching. But " Pretty Polly "
was not a mere fluke of judgment in breeding, for Major
Loder owned many good horses bred by himself and in his

1 Sydney Loder is well known in the hunting world and hunts regularly
from his place at Market Harborough. In another sphere he has made
his mark, for he has been a successfiil philatelist. He specialised in
British stamps and at the age of 16 years had the best collection in the
world. In its own class his collection won three Gold Medals — in London,
Vienna and Turin, and the Championship of the World in London and
New York.

7

88 ETON AND CAMBRIDGE [ch. iv

time won most of the important stakes. She was not the
only famous mare he bred ; there is " Hammerkop," who
produced, after Major Loder's death, for his nephew Major
Giles Loder, the winner of last year's (1920) Derby, " Spion
Kop." To breed race-horses with continual success requires
not only a great knowledge of the animal but also of men.
A man without judgment, or the man who is without the
resolution to follow his own judgment, succeeds, if he
succeeds at all, by good luck alone. And it is not only
Judgment as to horses and their mating which is required,
but of the men to whom a stud is confided, the trainers
who are to prepare horses for their career and the jockeys
to ride them. Nothing must be left to chance which
intelligence can direct or control. Major Eustace Loder
died on July 27th, 1914.

We may now pass on to the next year, 1873, and to
Edmund Loder's first visit to America.

CHAPTER V

AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST— 1873, AGE 23

" Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows ; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars."

Tennyson: Ulysses.

In what way to present Loder's experiences and adven-
tures abroad has been no easy question to decide. I have
access to most of his diaries and to certain letters he
wrote home. His eariier journals are very fuJl, but as
the years pass the entries become fewer '^ and ' shorter,
until his diaries contain little more than brief notes and
memoranda. From these, the first journals of his travels
I have decided to quote very freely for several reasons!
Events have moved so fast in the States that Loder's
observations and experiences relate to a past that is
quite dead, and throw light on the everyday conditions
of that period in a way which is at least different to
ordinary history. For instance, I intend to quote him
almost in full when he relates his adventures on the
prairies and his buffalo-hunting, as the time he was
there may be described as the last moments before the old
and oft-described life on the prairies disappeared for ever
and when the new order had not yet sprung into existence
I have found the whole of the journal interesting. I shall
^ve a sufficient variety of extracts, I hope, to entertain
the reader 1 and to exhibit the versatihty of Loder's
mmd. He shows an interest in everything, from Univer-
sities and sermons to the construction of railway cars

nrlfp^'n""' °^ *T'^ f """^ ^PP'^' *° ^^ '^^^^'^' ^"* °^^^y' «ke myself,
prefer the ongmal and unstudied relation of experiences.

89

90 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

and the analyses of mineral springs. Most of such matters
I shall pass over, but I have reproduced such descriptions
as those he gives of the sermons at Salt Lake City in
order to show what he could put down from memory, as
well as his impressions of a most singular religion and people.
The value of his observations depends partly upon the time
at which they were made, partly upon their accuracy, and
partly on the fact that they record a great advance in
American manners and civilisation when his account is
compared with the accounts given by Charles Dickens and
by other writers of an earlier period. A great deal of the
ugly side of American life had disappeared. The hideous
system of slavery had brought its Nemesis in the long and
terrible Civil War. The blot was removed from the
American flag and the fratricidal strife had other purifying
results. I quote some of his references to the Indians,
which sometimes show in eloquent words where his sym-
pathies lay. The treatmxcnt of the red man by the white
will always be sorry reading, and we Englishmen who
were the Red Indians' friends, as long as they were useful
to us, have no cause to boast over the Americans. Men
of our blood made treaties with them, and the Indians set
their hands to these engagements in simple trust and only
learned from the white man how to break faith and how
to wriggle out of solemn promises. Where I have quoted
Loder's own words in the following pages I do not confine
myself to his diaries, but have used on occasion sentences
from his letters and notes, when they give more information
or a clearer account of what he did and saw. I have in
certain passages inserted sentences from a letter or other
source, but have always used his own words.

On April 19th, 1873, Edmund Loder and his friend the
Hon. Arthur Pelham embarked at Liverpool on board the
Cunarder the s.s. Scotia for America. " For years," says
Loder, " we had been reading and hearing of its wonders,
and at last we were to see them with our own eyes." He
has noted how little he could see too, and the immensity
of the United States ; " they would make 52 kingdoms

THE SCOTIA 91

as large as England and 14 States as large as France."
He estimates that if a train could go at the rate of a good
English train it " would take six days and nights to cross
the United States from New York to San Francisco," and
" a steamboat can go 90 miles up the Thames, but steamers
trade up the Mississippi for 2,130 miles." They were
within sight of Sandy Hook at 11 p.m. on April 29th, and
landed the next day, " without much trouble at the
Customs — a tip of $5 saved my large deal case from being
interfered mth " — the case contained their camp equip-
ment and saddlery.

" The Scotia is the only paddle-steamer now crossing
the Atlantic. She is a very strong and steady ship, but
a very expensive one. She was burning during this voy-
age 160 tons of coal per diem (1,700 tons in 11 days), while
many screws burn less than 70 tons. Her engines are
very fine (the largest of any paddle-steamer except the
Great Eastern), although old-fashioned ; they have a
12-foot stroke and are said to have cost £80,000. The
Scotia is 292 feet long and 2,100 tons (crew 60 and 800
passengers). Captain Lott commanding. She ran 15
knots per hour with a fair wind on April 23rd, and also
on April 29th with a very light wind. The runs on these
days were respectively 340 and 345 knots — her worst run
was on April 25th, 190 knots.

" There was no one of any note on board, if we except
George Routledge, the publisher."

They had a taste of very heavy weather, such as that
which makes passengers begin to ask the officers " whether
there is any fear," to which says Loder the " stern reply
is " " plenty oi fear but no danger." He and his friend
are good sailors and he notes many details about " this
magnificent ship — an enormous steam whistle like those
on our locomotives, only ten times as large " ; in fog " it
is blo"\\qi for about fifteen seconds in every minute night
and day — most people find it impossible to sleep while the
fog-whistle is going," but it did not interfere with his
rest, and " I vnW answer for my friend Arthur Pelham,
who is the best sleeper I know."

92 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

He gives a very fiill account of New York and describes
the hotels and much else.^ He is taken aback at the
prices. " Eatables seem to be about double London
prices — two chops for $1, wine (of which we have had none)
about three times our prices. Books, which I thought
would be cheap here, are also dear." A fellow-passenger
had paid $30 for a pair of boots : "I suppose they were
not ordinary walking boots." This is rather a nice re-
mark : " The people are much more civil and obliging than
I expected ; they will always direct one at once to any
place one wants to find." Such terms as " Segar Stores,"
" Book-Bindery " and " Foreign and Domestic Fruit "
amuse him.

" The horses on an average seem far superior to London
horses. They all look very well bred ; I have not seen
anything like an English cart-horse even in the heaviest
drays. The horses they use are light, but are said to be
very wiry and strong. They are nearly all in first-rate con-
dition. Very few of the carriage horses have collars, and
their tails are allowed to grow right down to the ground."

After descriptions of all they saw and did and of those
people to whom they had introductions and from whom
they received much kindness and counsel, he ends his
entries at New York with :

" We had lunch at Brooklyn — steak for two, fried
potatoes and four glasses of lager beer for 75 cents.

" We went to the Chestnut Street Theatre this evening
and saw Robert McWade in Rip Van Winkle. His acting
was fair, that of the others moderate. We were amused
at seeing the sign of the Inn before his sleep was a por-
trait of George III, afterwards of George Washington." ^

1 " You pay by the day, 12s. to £1 a day. Almost all American hotels
have a fine hall, often with marble pillars and floors, and fitted with seats
all round the walls. In these halls large numbers of townspeople con-
gregate about 7 or 8 o'clock at night to smoke and talk over the news of
the day, and I am sorry to say to chew tobacco and spit."

2 Some things he admires seem strange ones now. " Some of the stores
here (Philadelphia) are splendid. We went into one like Verity's in
Regent Street, where we saw the most splendid gas chandeliers I ever
looked at — hundreds of them."

AMERICAN TRAITS 93

" I am very much astonished by the Americans them-
selves ; in the tramway and railway cars very few are
what we should call gentlemen in England, but the people
met are universally quiet and well behaved. Smoking is
not allowed in any of the cars and no spitting by the com-
monest . . . they make no noise and are seldom talking."

Subsequently, after further experience, he writes :

" Of the regular Yankees with the well-known nasal
twang I met very few. In the saloon or on the deck of
a Cunard steamship, one sees perhaps more of America's
lounging class than can be met on any other spot of the
world. An American in America is generally a very
pleasant fellow. It is true that in many points his habits
and views may differ from ours in a manner very shocking
to our insular prejudice, but meet him wdth fair allow-
ance for the fact that there may be two sides to a question
and that a man may not take a bath every morning and
yet be a very good fellow — and in nine cases out of ten
you will find him most agreeable : a little inquisitive
perhaps to know your peculiar belongings, but equally
ready to impart to you the details of every item connected
with his business. He will very likely call you ' Captain '
or ' Colonel ' and expect you to do the same to him. iVt
present and for many years to come it is and will be a
safe method of beginning any observation to a Western
American with ' I say. General,' and on no account ever
get below the rank of field officer when addressing any-
body holding a socially smaller position than that of a
bar-keeper. . . . There are not many commandments
strictly adhered to in the United States, but had there
ever existed a ' Thou shalt not tub ' the obedience ren-
dered to it would have been delightful. ... 'I would
like,' said an American gentleman to an English traveller,
' I would like to show you round our city and will call
for you at the hotel.' ' Thank you,' said the English-
man ; ' I have only to take a bath, and will be ready in
half an hour.' ' Take a bath ! ' answered the American.
' Why, you ain't sick, air you ?

5 5>

Loder quotes in full the description of Washington in

94 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

Dickens's American Notes as at least partially applicable
when he was there, some thirty years later.^

At Washington they had letters of introduction to Fish,
Secretary of State, Bancroft Davis, Under-Secretary of
State, and to Delano, Secretary of the Interior, and Loder
describes ail they saw with this official help. They are at
the Ebbett Hotel, where he remarks : " We are waited on
at meals entirely by coloured gentlemen ; they do their work
exceedingly well and quietly." A jjropos of the Capitol,
after noting how dazzlingly bright it is in the sunshine, he
says, " whilst the 400 feet dome is made of stone, that of
St. Paul's Cathedral is of wood covered with lead."

" We went into a railway office to inquire about a train
and had a long conversation with the man there, who had
been all through the wars serving in the Southern army.
He seemed to think that if they could have got a few more
gunboats besides the Alabama the result of the war would
have been different. He did not think much of a Yankee or
of Yankee fighting, and said that if the Americans were to
go to Avar with a foreign power the Southerners would have
to do all the fighting. Talking about the small progress the
Yankees are making against the Modcc Indians, he said the
troops were very demoralised and ' Show a Yankee a dollar
and he will go up to his neck in filth to get it.' "

" In the evening (being a Sunday) we went to the Church
of the Epiphany in G. Street, which is called an Episcopalian
church. The service was almost the same as in the author-

1 "Take the worst parts of the City Road and Pentonville, preserving
all their oddities, but especially the small shops and dwellings, occupied
there (but not in Washington) by fiu-niture-brokers, keepers of poor
eating-houses and fanciers of birds. Burn the whole down ; build it
up again in wood and plaster ; widen it a little ; throw in part of
St. John's Wood ; put green blinds outside all the private houses, with a
red curtain and a white one in every window ; plough up all the roads ;
plant a great deal of coarse turf in every place where it ought not to be ;
erect three handsome buildings in stone and marble, anywhere, but the
more entirely out of everybody's way the better ; call one the Post
Office, one the Patent Office, and one the Treasury ; make it scorching
hot in the morning, and freezing cold in the afternoon, with an occasional
tornado of wind and dust ; leave a brick-field without the bricks, in all
central places where a street may naturally be expected ; and that's
Washington."

GENERAL SHERMAN 95

ised English Prayer Book ; a few prayers were different
and they sang part of the ciii Psalm after the second lesson.
We had a charity sermon preached by a clergyman not
belonging to this church. . . . The clergyman of the
church added a few words afterwards. Both sermons
were extempore. The collection was entirely made in paper
money."

" Davis gave us a letter to General Sherman, Com-
mander-in-Chief of the United States Army. Besides
being a splendid soldier and a perfect gentleman he is a
most agreeable man. He behaved in the kindest possible
way to us. We had a most interesting conversation with
him about the late war. . . . He showed us maps of the
campaign drawn by his o^vn hand and gave us advice as
to our tour in Virginia. He kindly told us that if we were
going to hunt buffalo on the plains and wanted any horses
or assistance from any of the military posts, he Avould be
happy to write a letter to the commanding officer of any
of the posts. Our names must, however, come to him
through our minister, so he advised us to call on Sir
Edward Thornton." (They obtained all they wanted in
this direction, as will appear.)

" Washington seems to be a deadly lively kind of a
place. . . ."

" This evening we went to see a piece performed at the
Opera House called The Prairie Scouts in which Buffalo
Bill and Texas Jack appear in their own characters. Some
of it was exceedingly amusing. Three times in the course
of the evening Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack turn up just at
the right time and kill the same 16 Indians between them."

One day when Loder had been out hunting in England
his neighbour Mr. Hubbard had enticed him into a promise
to visit his nephew, whom he said was farming with a
Mr. Arthur Moorsom near Gaines\ille. At no time was it
easy to extract a promise out of Loder, but once made, or
indeed when less than half a promise, he left no stone
unturned to fulfil it. With a great deal of trouble they got
to Gaines\ille and then had to walk miles on a shocking road,
which they could not leave on account of the density of
the woods on either side. On arriving Hubbard was not
there, but had gone to England !

96 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

" Moorsom (with whom Hubbard had been) gave us some
lunch and talked about his farm. He says the ground is
a good deal washed out ; they used to grow tobacco here,
but not since slaves have been done away with. They have
also taken crop after crop of wheat and of maize out of the
land, without putting anything into it — it still, however,
grows very good crops. He is trying to get his farm all
down to grass as he is so near to Washington and Balti-
more, where there is a great demand for dairy produce. He
kindly drove us over to Gainesville in his buggy. This
did not help us in point of time, as we could walk faster
than he could drive."

And to Loder's " horror " they missed their train, and
attempted to walk on to Manassas Junction to catch
another one, 9 miles to go in If hours on the railway track.

" It is onl}^ a single track, they do not cover the sleepers
and the space between is half filled with large and sharp
stones . . . the ground on either side was quite im-
practicable. We tried our best all the way and it was the
hardest walk I ever took."

They lost the race by a few minutes, and were held up at
Manassas for 30 hours. Here are their experiences there :

" Manassas is a wretched place with 500 inhabitants,
many of them blacks, 70 houses and CO dogs. The station
consists of a wretched inn, two bar rooms and a store room.
At 6 p.m. we had something to eat which they called
' supper,^ We were disturbed by a row in the passage above
and went up and saw a man called W^ill Rowdy, all over
blood, struggling with a man, whom we found out was his
father. It appears that W^ill Rowdy had been drinking
and had quarrelled with a man named Peat and had begun
to fight, when the father interfered. . . . Rowdy, after a
violent struggle, got free and rushed wildly about looking
for Peat, who had msely retired. He rushed up some stairs
and then turned back and hit the barman, who was standing
by, a terrific blow on the eye, cutting it severely. Rowdy
then turned down the stairs towards the supper room and
looked in there to see if he could find Peat, and then came

WILL ROWDY 97

right at me, as I was standing on one of the lower stairs.
I thought he intended to pay me the same comphment as
he had the barman, so I stood quite still and looked at him
and said ' You had better not hit me ' — he looked at me
and rushed on. "We went back to ' supper,'' but were
again disturbed by his rushing into the room. . . . All
the men there seemed to be afraid of him, he seems to be a
desperate character ; he killed a man with a pistol only last
autumn, and yet he is out of prison now. I was told it
cost his father a power of money to get him out ! ! . . .
The conversation about him at supper was instructive
enough ; all seemed to agree that he ought to be shot as he
was a disgrace to the place, and several said they would kill
him if he interfered \vith them."

The next day he notes :

" We heard this morning that Rowdy had finished up
last night by quarrelling with two more men and that in
the last fight he got a real good licking."

In my experience of such society, the Will Rowdys are
almost always " put down " as nuisances ; it is the common
fate of rowdy dogs too. Some years ago I was looking at a
very good foxhound in the kennels and said to the huntsman,
" Does Crowner often behave like that ? " as the hound
marched backwards and forwards through the pack with
his heckles up growling and spoiling for a fight. " Yes, he's
always like that, and it is a certainty they'll kill him,"
replied the huntsman. A few weeks after they not only
killed him, but ate him !

Loder notices a war cemetery close to Manassas :
" Several battles were fought near Gainesville and Manassas
Junction."

" There is a very large and beautiful cemetery here where
56,000 [he queries the correctness of the figure given to him]
Confederate soldiers were buried." He describes all the
pretty views and what he saw at Richmond, he notes
that a good many of the shopkeepers are Englishmen

98 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

and, as he often does, gives his hotel bill ; here is one as
a sample :

Board one day and two meals

. 5.00

Ale (2 glasses) ....

50

Expenses .....

75

Hack (2 persons, 2 hours)

. 3.50

Omnibus, 2 persons and baggage

50

10.25

They visit the battle-fields :

" The country all around is like a vast deserted camp,
being covered with long lines of earthworks and crumbling
forts. Driving do\vn the Jerusalem plank road we reached
the two forts which we so often saw mentioned in the papers
at the time of the war. Fort Hell and Fort Damnation.
The former, properly called Fort Sledwick, was one of the
most advanced points of the United States lines. The two
armies were here so near together that the men could talk
to one another from behind their covers and, a mutual
agreement not to fire having occasionally been made,
tobacco, sugar and coffee would be exchanged — after
which the men would retire to their picket lines and active
hostilities would be resumed."

Does not this call up memories of certain incidents in
the late war and even more those of the last war with the
Boers in South Africa — those Sundays when the British
poured down from their positions and spent the day with
their then " enemies " and making their exchanges, to
resume the fight at midnight ?

" We next visited the Crater, a huge hole in the ground.
It was a Confederate battery, which a Federal regiment
undertook to blow up. W^ith great difficulty, an under-
ground passage nearly 800 feet long was constructed so as
to get under the fort, and this was charged with 320 kegs
of powder, each containing 25 ft. — 8,000 Ife. in all. The
mine was exploded in the early morning of July 30th, 1864.
The explosion Avas tremendous ; the pit formed by it is still
about 200 feet long, 50 feet wide and 25 feet deep. This

I

LEXINGTON 99

mine was no use to the Federals, but a very large number
of men on both sides lost their lives. There are still lots of
holes to be seen where shells have exploded."

" It is a small town, built on a very hilly piece of ground,
some parts of the town being divided from the rest by very
deep gullies — with muddy streets and a good many nasty
smells ... an immense quantity of tobacco is manufac-
tured . . , there are more black people than whites."

" Walked to Montecello, about 2| miles, the residence of
the late Mr. Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of
Independence and the founder of the University of Virginia.
From the top of the hill on which the house is built we got
a very fine view. The house is in a dilapidated condition.
In the evening (Sunday) we attended a service in a large
room in the University building, and on walking back saw a
congregation of blacks. We went in and heard a sermon
preached by a black. He ranted a good deal and I could
not follow him in his arguments at all."

" Called on Dr. Cabell (at the University) and he offered
to show us over the University buildings. . . . From
the top of the Dome of the Library there is a fine view of
the Blue Ridge. At 12 o'clock we had lunch with Dr.
Cabell and met a Dr. Parry of Philadelphia there. It
was not easy to get a full account of the University out
of Dr. Cabell, although I asked him a good many ques-
tions. There are now about 350 students, before the war
there were upwards of 600. We heard that the men
who have graduated in Medicine here are a good deal
thought of in all parts of the State. Dr. Parry did not
quite understand how they could teach medicine here
properly as Charlottesville is a very small place and has
no hospital."

" Saw a man brought into gaol with his arms tied ; he
I had been caught horse stealing and had been locked up,
f! but had broken out, and now has been caught again
horse stealing."

" We started (from Goschen) at 5.30 for Lexington by
stage coach. The road is very bad and the stage has
no springs, but is suspended by strong leather straps.
This kind of travelling is well described by Dickens in his
American Notes ; the bumping and pitching is sometimes
tremendous. At 8 o'clock we arrived at Rockbridge Baths
(11 miles). We stopped here a few minutes and were

100 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

treated to- some whisky and water by two young fellows
who were travelling by the stage. The scenery up to
this point is very fine ; the road passes through the
Goschen Pass, which is very much like Killiecrankie.
There were lots of rhododendrons, but they were not in
bloom yet. ... At 11.30 we got to Lexington," and
there they went supperless to bed.

" Lexington, May 14th. — This morning we went to call
on General Lee, to whom we had letters. . . . He came
into the town with us and to the Livery stables. W^e then
hired two horses and after lunch rode to the Natural
Bridge 15 miles . . . the Bridge is very fine. At first one
does not realise its grand height. It is 180 feet from the
water to the inside of the arch, 227 feet to the road, 80
feet span and 80 feet wide. The river runs along between
very steep rocks. . . . The Bridge is on private pro-
perty and we paid 50 cents each. There are some very
fine Lignum and Arbor Vitse trees near the Natural Bridge.
In riding we saw a great many birds with beautiful colours,
and in coming back I shot a rabbit in the leg with my
little Deringer. . . . We enjoyed our ride very much, but
do not like the saddles and the stirrups of the country."

" Lexington, May 15th* — Went to call on General Lee,
who is President of the Washington and Lee Institute
and son of the old General Lee, who is buried here. We
met General Lee as he was coming to call upon us. He
took us over part of the Military Institute of Virginia,
which was burnt down during the war. The students
were playing baseball, which is the great game here.
General Lee offered us some lunch, but seemed doubtful
whether he could give us much as his sister was away
and he a lonely bachelor. He, however, produced two very
good pint bottles of champagne and one of sherry, some
tinned lobster and sardines and bread and butter."

They take the stage back through the Goschen Pass,
but the stage breaks down and they pass the night at
Milboro. The next day they go to Warm Springs by
stage ; they try their luck there shooting, but with little
result : " the ground is covered with dry crisp leaves
and small dead twigs so that I had no chance of coming
upon a deer. I walked away for hours, but the weather

THE HOT SPRINGS lOi

was pleasant and I got some very pretty views." One
of these he thinks is Hke the " view from the top of Sgaith
Crome, Perthshire, only there are no lakes here. I prefer
the Scotch view. ... I saw scarcely any small birds at
all of any kind." He gives a full account of the springs,
the Warm Springs, the Hot Springs, the Healing Springs ;
he samples them, takes their temperatures carefully w-ith
his own thermometer and gives the analysis in some cases.
These springs are separated by distances of from three
to five miles ; the trouble he took to inform himself about
them is so characteristic that I have thought it worth
noting. He came across a puzzle which he did not solve
till he reached San Francisco when he had his own ther-
mometer tested by the American standard, e.g. :

" While at the Hot Springs to-day I tried the tempera-
ture of some of the springs— the thermometer was in what
they call the warmest about 15 minutes, and rose to 103°
F. ; they caU this one 108° F. When I arrived at the
Healmg Sprmgs I tried the temperature of one of the
Sprmgs and found it 83° F. ; the thermometer was left
m f of an hour."

I was amused at the following entry, for I never knew
Loder take a hot drink at any time ; he is sampling the
water of a warm (not a hot) spring :

" I let the water cool down before I drank it— it has
not much taste."

He stayed at Healing Springs and was the first visitor
of the season, found the landlord very obliging and civil
and pays $4 for two dinners, one supper, one breakfast
and Ins room ; and as he did not feel well after his labours
and samplings had a wood fire lighted in his room. He
had left Pelham behind, at Warm Springs. He reads
over his fire.

"I asked the landlord to lend me a book— he kindlv
borrowed one from one of his friends. It is the Life of

102 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

General R. E. Lee by John Esten Cooke. I have been
much interested with it ; it is worth anyone's while to
read it [no doubt he read it through that evening and
remembered, too, all that interested him in it]. The land-
lord here had five brothers in the Southern army ; one
died, one was wounded, none were killed in battle ; he
himself having a mail contract was exempted from
service."

Loder whilst waiting for Pelham visits " The Cascades."

" They are very pretty indeed, the rocks on each side
are very fine, cedars and rhododendrons grow out from
between the rocks. The body of water is not large, not
so large as in the West Burn at Auchlyne after a spate.
Wliile sitting quite still on a rock watching the falls I saw
a humming-bird hover over a flower just exactly as a
humming-bird moth does. In fact I thought it was a
large moth at first until it settled on a branch of a tree
within 20 feet of me. It seemed a little smaller in the
body than the smallest gold-crested wren and was of a
light slate colour. I could see no bright colours on it.
About a quarter of an hour afterwards a second humming-
bird made its appearance and hovered over the same
flower that the first had sucked out of. It then darted
to a flower growing out of the rock, less than a yard
from my side ; it only remained an instant and then
flashed out of sight. I had time, however, to see that
this was a very beautiful bird — all its feathers seemed to
be like the wings of the diamond beetle and I think its
head was marked with red. It seemed a trifle larger
than the first."

Pelham joins him and they drive on to Corington and
then to Staunton. He describes the journey and scenery;
of Corington he remarks that it is a " very small " city
" with streets very much ploughed up " where he saw
" some boys tilting at a ring."

" There is a nice park with Virginian deer in it. The
new City Hall which is now nearly finished will be a very
fine building indeed. ... In the evening we went to a

NIAGARA 103

theatre, just opposite the City Hall, and saw a piece called
The Angels of the Prairie. The plot is founded on fact ;
the lawless deeds of a family of the name of Lowery.
There was a great deal of pistol shooting, as in the Scouts
of the Prairies, at Washington."

" Made a mess in hiring a hack and had to pay $4-|
for carrying us from the Ferry to the Post Office and
round to the Westminster Hotel."

" In the evening we went to a theatre in Broadway
called ' Wallacks ' to see Southern act as Lord Dundreary.
I had seen him act before, but not in this character. I
did not believe it was the same man. The play was very
successful."

At New York they finish their preparations for the
West ; having tried all over the town for cartridges for
their English revolvers in vain, they have to buy new
ones, " about $35 each — we think they are first-rate," and
then they took their tickets ($79.90 each) to Denver via
Albany, Niagara, Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City.

Loder describes all he did and saw at Niagara in detail.
His great surprise with the falls and rapids was to find them
pretty. He expected them to be grand and imposing,
but not pretty. He gives the story of the Irishman :
" Pat," said an American to a staring Irishman, lately
landed, " did you ever see such a fall as that in the old
country ? " " Begorra ! I niver did ; but look here now ?
why shouldn't it fall ? What's to hinder it from falling ? "

On May 27th he notes that

" Terrapin Tower was removed a few days ago as it
was not safe. The brother of the proprietor of the Hotel
(International) took me to see a very fine pair of elk
horns [I think at this time Loder always uses the Ameri-
can name "elk" for " wapiti "J.^ They are the finest
horns I have yet seen; $75 were given for them."

^ Wapiti (Cervus canadensis typicus). Sir Edmund Loder afterwards
possessed some magnificent wapiti heads ; one of these was a 1 7-pointer
with an extreme width from horn to horn of 61 inches and from tip to
tip of 53 inches. Another 13-pointer measured 64i inches in length of
outside curve of horn. The latter heads the list of Rowland Ward's
Records (1914).

8

104 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

At Chicago : " Yesterday it was 87° F. in the shade at
noon, and at 3 p.m. it was 35° F. Last year on one day
it was 102° F. in the morning and 45° F. at 4 p.m. We
bought 6 ft), of Oriental gunpowder, and some revolver
cartridges. Pelham also bought a Winchester repeating
rifle for $44. . . . They are building very fast, but many
buildings are standing just as the fire left them and in
these streets there are very large gaps."

He was at Chicago about twenty months after the fire
and gives many particulars of it. It broke out, he says,
on October 8th, 1871 ; 10,000 houses were destroyed, in-
cluding houses built as fire -proof, but " even they could
not resist the heat five minutes," and nearly 1,000 people
lost their lives ; " nearly 200 miles of new streets have
been rebuilt and these in the most solid and substantial
manner ; and the hotels are the largest and the finest in
the world." He thinks Chicago must be the first busi-
ness to^^^\ in the world, and he puts down the annual
export of grain at 70 millions of bushels and of cattle at
three million head.

" Some of the streets are untidy and dirty. We went
by car to the Botanical Gardens, a little way out of the
town. There is a fine Arboretum, but there are not
enough labels on the trees." They cross the river by the
ferry ; " the Bridge is a long way from finished."

For the days following their arrival at Kansas City,
which they left on June 1st, I shall give a much fuller quota-
tion of Loder's account of his experiences whilst buffalo-
hunting, for he and Arthur Pelham must have been among
the last Englishmen to hunt the American bison on these
prairies.^

1 The American " buffalo " is of course not a biiffalo, but a bison
{Bos bison). There are two forms of the bison in America, the Prairie
Bison [Bos bison) and the Wood Bison {Bos bison athabascce). The latter
variety is found in the forest mountain regions of the North-West and
is a larger animal than the one of the plains. The American bison is a
not very distant relation of the European bison or " Aurochs " ; in
general character the two races resemble each other, but the European
bison {Bos bonasus) stands higher, does not fall away so much behind

KANSAS AND THE PRAIRIES 105

The prairies, the Red Indians and the buffaloes were
soon to vanish for ever from these plains, and they were
witnesses of one of the last scenes in this tragedy of
*' civilisation."

" The Kansas Pacific Railroad runs from Kansas City
to Denver, which is at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, a
distance of 650 miles, and for the whole of this distance it
has prairie on all sides of it — one vast grass field. The
grassy plains or prairies extend some 700 miles from east to
west and some 1,000 miles from south to north, far into the
British Possessions. ^

" Only those who have been alone on the prairie can
realise that never-ending vision of sky and grass with a dim

and has a less full and shaggy neck and shoulder " mane " than the
American bison. The American bison has peculiar eye-sockets like trun-
cated cylinders. The only remaining region where the " Aurochs " is
found in its primitive state is in the Caucasus. Previous to the war
(1914) the "Aurochs" was protected in Lithuania, and this form was
slightly different to the Caucasian one ; it is extremely doubtful if any
of the Lithvianian herds remain. I read in European newspapers in 1920
that the Bolshevists had them shot down for food and exterminated
them. The Caucasian herds may have suffered during and since the war
in a similar way. Previous to 1914 the "Aurochs" was "Imperial"
game throughout the Russian Empire. There are specimens of the
" Aurochs " at Woburn in the Park, and I have also seen specimens
at the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens and believe there are one or two
still there. It may be observed that " Aurochs " as a name is no more
applicable, scientifically, to the European bison than " buffalo " is to the
American bison. The Indian bison is not scientifically a bison but an
ox, but will always be called a bison, just as the Americans will continue
always to caU their bison a buffalo and as we shall persist in calling the
European bison an " Aurochs."

1 " At this time (1873)," writes the Hon. Arthur Pelham, " there was
a tract of land apparently nearly dead level, but gradually rising from
the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains and occasionally crossed by shallow
streams running from west to east. Roughly speaking this tract was
800 miles N. to S. and 600 from E. to W., and it was chiefly inhabited
by large herds of buffalo (bison) with a few hiondred Indians. The smaller
aniirials comprised wolves, coyotes, prairie dogs, also there were rattle-
snakes. The wapiti (called elk by the Americans) were only to be found
in the north-western part of the prairie. The buffalo wintered as far
south as Texas and in the spring travelled slowly north, retiring in the
autvunn to their southern winter quarters." (Mr. Pelham has omitted
the Prong-horn Antelope in his list of prairie animals, probably taking
the fact as common knowledge.)

106 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

and ever-shifting horizon — it is a vast sea of grass, now
level and low, now undulating and ocean-like in everything
except motion — sometimes sandy and barren and at others
putting forth tall grass with almost tropical luxuriance.

" Two wild creatures have made this grassy ocean
their home, the Indian and the buffalo. The history of
both is sad. Back into ages at whose birth we can only
guess, back into that dim night which hangs for ever over
all we know or shall know of early America — ' the time
before the white man came ' — this prairie was here when
the stones of the Pyramids were yet unhewn, here as it is
to-day, treeless, storm-swept and desolate. Over the
grassy ocean of the West there has moved from time
immemorial a restless tide. Backwards and forwards,
now north now south, wandered millions on millions of
dusky buffalo.'

" At last the white man came and the scene w^as changed ;
human life scattered over a vast area, animal life counted
by tens of millions take a long time to destroy, and it is only
now that the long struggle of the wild dwellers of the
"v\'ilderness may be said to have reached its closing hour.
It is no mere fancy to class together the Red man and the
buffalo. The buffalo was the Indian's only friend. Its
skin made him a tent, its robe a blanket and a bed, its
undressed hide a boat, its short curved horn a powder
flask, its meat his daily food, its sinew a string for his bow,
its leather a lariat for his horse, a saddle, bridle, rein and
bit. Its tail formed an ornament for his tent, its inner
skin a book in which to sketch the brave deeds of his life,
the ' medicine robe ' of his history. House, boat, food,
bed and covering — every want from infancy to age and
after life had passed ; wrapt in his buffalo-robe the red
man slept the sleep of death.

" Early in the morning of the second day in the train
(from Kansas City) we were in sight of the Rocky Mountains;

1 Loder told me that even up to about 1872, during the migrations
north in the spring, and south in the autumn, of the '" great herd," it
was calculated that in the dense masses that blackened the whole of a
horizon there would be from half a million to a million buffalo in sight at
one time. I once saw a mass of what I calculated to be about 17,000
hartebeeste, wildebeeste and zebra together on the Kapiti Plains in
British East Africa, and this wonderful sight is but one-fiftieth, or less,
of what the prairie gave on occasion. — A. E. P.

BUFFALO CITY IN 1873 107

straight ahead was Gray's Peak— away to the right Long's
Peak, and ninety miles away, but looldng quite close, rises
Pike's Peak glittering splendidly in the morning sun. We
had come into prairie country soon after leaving Kansas
City and into buffalo grass after leaving Ellis. About
half-way between Kansas City and Denver, looking out of
the window of the car, I saw my first buffalo, a single old
bull. We were quite close to Buffalo Station, so we decided
to get out there. Before stopping I asked the conductor
how large a place Buffalo was ; he said I should find
a family there. I asked 'only one?' and he said,
' Only one ; you mil find some hunters there.' ' This
station, hke many of the prairie stations, was nothing more
than a pumping station with a well 120 feet deep, with a
water tank for the engines. A man of the name of Jem
Thompson lived here with his wife, baby and sister, who
sleep in a small plank shed — they live, cook and eat meals
in a railway car, which has been drawn off the track—
everybody (i.e. at Buffalo City) has meals in this car. This
man has charge of the pump, which was worked by an old
blind mare. There is also a telegraph signal office and
clerk, and a small store. In a small hut close by were
quartered a sergeant and five soldiers to protect the station
from Indians. There are also three men who hunt for a
man named Kay Hall, who live in dug-outs. Thompson
employs three men to hunt for him ; they go out for three
or four days at a time ; he provides them with a waggon,
provisions and ammunition, and they hunt buffalo and bring
in the skins to him. When we arrived these hunters had
been away only three hours. As they were away we slept
in their tent. A man who works for Thompson slept in
this tent with us ; Pelham and I sleep in one wide bed on
one side and he sleeps on the other. The bed consists of
several blankets laid on the ground and one to cover over.
Close by the station there are large stacks of dried hides ;
these had all been brought in quite recently. An old man,
a tanner, lives in a tent in the middle of the hide stacks!
The three hunters had killed between 2,000 and 3,000
buffalo during the last two months. They only take the
skins and leave the carcasses to rot on the plains. The
hunters when they see a herd stalk it, and as they are gener-
ally good shots usually manage to kill one dead. When a
buffalo falls to a stalk the rest of the herd as a rule stand

108 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

round smelling at the body ; the hunters then kill as many
as they can. A single man sometimes kills a great many at
one stand. Kay Hall told me that a short time ago he
killed 40 buffalo in 8 or 10 minutes — he fired about 60 shots ;
they were about 200 yards off. Some men have killed 70
at a stand. One man killed 1,500 in six weeks. ^

" The Americans here use Sharp's rifles (an American
make) almost entirely.

"It is this slaughter of buffalo which makes the Indian
so angry and creates such a bad feeling between the red
and the white man.

" Tuesday, June 3rd. — Hired a team of two mules and a
waggon from one of Kay Hall's hunters. Pelham and I,
accompanied by Thompson, who rode a pony, set off to
see if we could find them [i.e. Jem Thompson's hunters, who
had started the day before]. Not far from the station we
came to a prairie-dog village; the first animals we saw
after this were antelopes ^ ; they have hollow horns like
oxen ; they are very difficult to get at in the open plains,
but are very inquisitive and many a one has been allured
within distance by a very simple dodge. The hunter lies
down as flat as possible and waves a flag, made by tying a
piece of red cloth to his ramrod. An antelope wondering
what the new object is comes nearer and nearer till at last
the hunter jumps up and gets a fair shot before the animal
has recovered from his surprise. ' Flagging antelopes '
has been done so often here that it very seldom succeeds
now. The next animal was a skunk, which came skuttling
across in front of us. I fired at it with my revolver at about

1 When T had a place in B.E.A. (Kitanga, Mua Hills) I had a neigh-
boiir named Werner, who with his son were always shooting the zebra
which invaded his farm. I used to watch them from my place amd hardly
ever saw them shoot except near their crops within a few hundred yards
of their house. He told me that he had killed 800 in eight months and
could make no impression on them — he sold me his place in consequence
and went back to South Africa. But this gives me some idea of what
the figure 1,500 buffalo in six weeks means — it is at the rate of a thousand
a month and over 33 a day. — A. E. P.

2 Antelope — the Prong-horn or Prongbuck {Antilocapra americana)
represents a separate family ; unlike true antelopes they shed their horns
(every year), and unlike the Bovidse their horns are forked. The females
as a rule are hornless or carry very rudimentary horns. A good head
will carry horns from 14 to 15 inches long on the outside curves but over
20 inches has been recorded, — A. E. P.

BUFFALO-HUNTING 109

30 yards' distance and killed it, but not instantly, so I could
not take the beautiful skin — one whiff at a distance of
20 yards gave me a sufficient warning.

" It is not at all safe to go about the plains in small parties ;
Indians may turn up at any moment.^ The red man has
been very badly treated and is always ready for revenge.
Only a month or two before our arrival a band of Indians
fell on a hunter and his wife and another hunter ; the two
men were found scalped, but the woman is supposed to have
been carried off alive. I heard about it from the brother of
one of the murdered men, who came to the station, and from
his own lips.

" In the afternoon we came across a single old bull
buffalo, and not at all unlikely to have been the very one
I saw from the train — the first I ever saw. We crawled up
to him, as he was feeding in a little hollow. Pelham won
the toss and fired at him at about 180 yards. He mis-
judged the distance a little and the ball struck the ground
below. As he turned to gallop off I gave him a ball in the
hind leg at about 200 yards. Pelham fired again and I think
hit him, but I do not think that at that distance his Win-
chester rifle would do much harm. I also fired again and
missed [Loder was shooting with a Westley Richards Ex-
press rifle]. 2 This made him very lame, but still he could
go faster than we could on foot, so Thompson rode after
him on his pony and galloped alongside of him, firing into
his shoulder all the bullets he had for his rifle and then all
but six he had for his revolver — these he kept in case
Indians came along. The bull had now been hit by some 25
bullets large and small, but showed no intention of dying, but

1 Mr. Pelham was on foot one day, some miles from the station, and
suddenly saw a band of Indians on horseback on the horizon with their
rifles glittering in the sun ; he lay down flat on the ground and they did
not see him, and soon after disappeared out of sight, much to his relief.

^ " At Chicago," says Loder elsewhere, " Pelham bought one of the
Winchester repeating rifles." I have seen one of them in Reilly's shop
in Oxford Street (not the Reilly at 502). These rifles look very nice, but
they are heavy and weigh about 11 lb. — the magazine holds 16 shots;
the bore is 44 and they take a rim cartridge, a little larger than my re-
volver cartridges, but not nearly so large as the cartridge for Colt's pistols.
They do well enough for emything but buffalo ; the hide on a bufialo
bull's neck is f of an inch thick. Of his own rifle, the Westley Richards
Express, Loder says after he had had experience of it, "I like my rifle
Tery much."

110 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

stood still, snorted and looked very savage indeed. I went
to Thompson's assistance as fast as possible and at about
100 yards took a steady shot and he fell dead. He was
a very fine bull, about 8 or 9 years old. We skinned him,
took his tenderloin, tongue and hum.p, and cut off his head
and tail. The head I sent to Denver to be stuffed.

" Wednesday, June 4th. — I got up early and saw 31
buffalo feeding towards the station ; they were then about
2 J miles off, E., and about 300 yards from the track. I
got on to Thompson's pony and rode down [the line] 1-J
miles, tied her to a telegraph pole, crawled out on to the
prairie and waited till they fed up to me. Distances here
are most deceiving — when a buffalo is 100 yards off he
looks as if he was treading on you. It is rather startling
when a herd comes on towards you. I waited till they
seemed to be almost upon me, but I believe they were a
hundred yards off. I whistled low to make them stop
and then picked out a big one which gave me a good
broadside. I fired and struck the shoulder rather too
high, but the Express bullet did its work well, for he
separated from the herd at once . . . and fell dead in 200
yards. The rest of the herd ran N., then turned W. and
then S.W. and came within a few hundred yards of the
Station. Everyone turned out and I heard dozens of
shots fired, but only one buffalo was killed. . . . Later
on in the day four bulls made their appearance to the
west, feeding towards the Station. Pelham went along
the track and lay down, I went to the north and did
ditto. Kay Hall went in the centre with his 16 lb. Sharp
rifle. Instead of letting them feed up to wdthin 100
yards, as they certainly would have, he fired at 250 yards,
struck a bull rather too high and broke his shoulder. I
fired at the largest bull of the four and wounded him
severely. The first wounded bull ran about a quarter of
a mile and then lay down and died. Pelham went after
the bull I had wounded, but could not get up with him.
There is a young buffalo calf here which was caught
about a month ago. It is quite tame and runs about
with two ordinary calves, but is much tamer than they
are." In a letter home lioder says, " Ask Papa if he
would like a buffalo calf; they get very gentle and tame
and yet they look such ferocious animals."

" Thursday, June 5th. — I got up early again and spied

BUFFALO-HUNTING 111

a herd of 17 bulls about three miles off, E., not far from
the track, also 150 far off, S.E. ... I had to walk 4|
miles before I got up to them. I shot one and wounded
another, which I did not get. ... At dinner-time we
saw 5 bulls, S., feeding towards the Station. Pelham
went out ... he hit one pretty hard, but it did not stop.
" Friday, June 6th. — Got up early again and spied a
herd about I5 miles off feeding away from the Station,
E., and a short distance from the track. ... I got up
with them at 2^ miles. I shot from the track and killed
one and Avounded another. ... If I could have followed it
for an hour or two I think I would have got it, but as it
was going away from the Station and I had not had any
breakfast I let it go. After breakfast I had a sail in the
sail-car ; we did not go very fast as the wind was light,
but they have run from the next station — 15 miles — in
26 minutes and also up to 45 miles an hour."

Loder had now had about enough of this moderate sort
of sport, though later, buffalo were to afford them more
excitement when hunted from horseback. In one place
he says :

" It is not bad fun, but one soon gets tired of it as the
ground is not suited for stalking, and it is only because
the brutes are half blind that one can get up to them.
Antelopes are very hard to stalk."

I have quoted very fully as I do not know where else
is a correct and unvarnished story of this kind of hunt-
ing. Loder's account of this will check any exaggerated
ideas of the sport. He continues :

" I determined I would go on to Denver by the 5.20
p.m. train, as I have killed enough buffalo, leaving Pelham
behind to follow me when he has killed a bull."

In a subsequent entry he records :

" On the 19th June Pelham shot a very fine bull — the
head he sent to Denver to be stuffed, and it is said to
be a better one than mine."

112 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

Pelham did not rejoin Loder till June 25th at San
Francisco. Loder's best Prairie Bison head gives a horn
measurement of 16| inches in length, 15 1 inches in cir-
cumference and 25 1 inches from tip to tip between the
horns — as to strength of horn this must be near the
record.

" While I was at Buffalo City a great many Emigrant
trains passed by, quite half a dozen, on their way west.
Some were going to settle in Colorado. I was told a
great many came back again. The mosquitoes have
bitten me terribly. We did not see any Indians, but
heard of them at 35 miles distance both S.E. and N.W.
There are a great many antelope on the plains, but I
never got near one."

He arrived at Denver the next morning (June 7th) at
7.30.

" When I got up this morning we were still on level
prairie, but more sandy and not so green as that round
Buffalo. Last evening we saw several antelope, and
people shot at them with revolvers from the train. We
saw no buffalo. About 30 miles from Denver we came in
sight of the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains,
Pike's Peak and I beheve Gray's Peak looking quite close
although the former is some 80 miles off. The scenery
this morning with the sun in the east was something
splendid. .

55

He goes to the gunmaker to whom he had sent his
buffalo head.

" In his shop I saw two Ute Indians — they were dressed
in true Indian costume ; one of them had vermilion painted
on his cheeks ; both were short men with wide noses,
not at all handsome. Gore [the gunmaker] said that he
had twice sent word to the stuffer, who lived 3 miles away,
to come for the head. ... He then had the cheek to
tell me that it was a fine head and would be worth $40
when stuffed, and that if I had not come to-day he would
have had it thrown into the river, as it stunk ! But he
bent my Express bullet mould into shape and charged

SIEGE OF DENVER BY INDIANS 113

nothing — a man at Buffalo who cast 150 bullets for me
had bent it.

" I have made friends with a gunmaker of the name
of M. L. Rood in F Street. ... I met a hunter in his
shop who knew the country about Hall's Gulch. ... He
thought that game was scarce round Hall's Gulch as there
are many mining camps up there. He said that there
were bear to be found in Red Mountain to the N.W. of
the t^vin lakes.

" In Denver there seem to be a good many Chinese —
most of those I noticed take in washing and ironing. It
was at Denver that I first saw any quantity of Indians.
There were great numbers of them in the town wliile I
was there; they were mostly Utes. No Indians hke
white men, who have taken away their hunting grounds
and ploughed them up and who are fast destroying the
buffalo, . . . Every time a red man sees a rotting car-
cass on the plains he mutters a curse on the white man
m his heart, for he well knows when the buffalo is gone
his o^m end is not very far off. ' What shall we do ? '
said a young Sioux warrior to an American officer on the
Upper Missouri, some years ago, ' what shall we do, the
buffalo is our only friend ? When he goes all is over
^yith the Dacotahs. I speak thus to you because you,
like me, are a Brave.' The Utes gave a good deal of
trouble while the Pacific Railway was being built and
actually besieged tliis town of Denver, so that the people
were nearly starved. They are very quiet now and have
not fought with white men for some time, but often have
a battle with their old foes the Arrapahoes. While I was
at Denver there was a fight only 12 miles off between
two bands of Utes and Arrapahoes. The Utes lost 16
warriors, but managed not to let the Arrapahoes get any
scalps. I do not know how many Arrapahoes were killed,
but the Utes took a scalp and carried off 30 to 40 horses."

In a later account he says :

" A few days after leaving Denver I went by stage into
the mountains ; just in front of us was marching the
victorious band of Utes, 300 warriors in war-paint carry-
ing off the scalps and horses they had taken into their
own country."

114 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

At Denver : "I bought from a Ute who was in this
fight a bow and arrow and the scalp of an Arrapahoe
Indian taken by a son of the Chief of the Utes in a fight
with the Arrapahoes in Whiskey Gap in Wyoming Terri-
tory.

" Sunday, June 8th — Trinity Sunday. — Found a church
and went there. The singing was very good. The choir
consisted of ladies and gentlemen of the city. They did
not use Hymns Ancient and Modern, but both the hymns
which were sung are in Ancient and Modern. I put my
boots outside my door last night hoping that I should
find them cleaned this morning, but nothing happened
to them — they were not even stolen." (He managed to
get them cleaned in time for church by applying at the
hotel office.) " On going to my room soon after church
I found it just as I left it after getting up ; I therefore sent
for the chambermaid. In most American hotels there is
the same difficulty about boots, and one's wash-basin is
seldom emptied more than once a day.

" About I of an hour after leaving Denver we reached
Golden City, which is just inside a low range of hills, the
first beginning of the Rocky Mountains ; here we changed
cars and got on to the narrow-gauge track. A short time
after leaving Golden City the train enters a splendid
rocky canon which it follows right up to Black Hawk.
... In the plain before reaching Golden City I saw a
tortoise swimming in a pool, and in the canon I saw two
different kinds of Swallo^^i:ail butterflies. All along the
first part of the cafion large trees, either Arbor Vitae or
trees very like them, grow out from between the rocks,
which are often beautifully coloured with moss and
lichens, while some are finely coloured naturally. One
sees traces of gold mining all up the cafion, and in a great
many spots it is still going on. At Black Hawk the
track ends."

He describes Central City and Black Hawk (practically
one town) and gives some particulars about the gold-
mines.

" It seems a flourishing place, rather untidy of course,

as it only dates from 1860." He then returns to Denver.

" Went to Rood's and found some Indians in his shop

DENVER AGAIN 115

buying a rifle. There were a great many Utes in the
town this morning. I believe they have just been paid
their annuities by the Government and so are flush of
cash. I saw one who had a breech-loading rifle in his
hand (of the same sort which Jem Thompson had at Buffalo,
which takes a similar cartridge to the Winchester) buy
another rifle, a muzzle-loader, the price of which was
$12, for which he paid in greenbacks. Another Indian
came in soon after and bought a similar rifle for 5 buck-
skins. He was anxious to exchange an old horse-pistol
for different things of a value of about $2. He was
offered a knife worth $1, but wanted two, and would not
swop. Another Indian took a great fancy to a rifle of
a rather better kind with a set trigger ; the price of it
was $15, but he was only prepared to give $12. They
were all verj^ well dressed ; perhaps they had their best
clothes on. Most of the men and some of the squaws
were painted, some with vermilion, others with ochre and
vermilion. The rifles they were buying were of an in-
ferior quality and had only one backsight. The squaws
were riding about in great force ; they ride just like the
men and are very difficult to distinguish from them.
The men all carried a bow in a case and arrows in a quiver
slung over the left shoulder."

There is another entry after this which rather puzzles
me, for I never saw a telescope sight on a rifle till some
twenty years later ; it is as follows :

" I walked to Borecherdt's, the taxidermist, who lives
where the Colorado Central R. crosses the Platte River,
about two miles from here. He had returned yesterday
from a hunting trip. He had taken seven or eight gentle-
men from Denver to hunt buffalo near Fort Wallace.
Although they saw lots of buffalo they did not kill any, as
a lot of Indians kept riding round them in such a way that
they thought it prudent to retire. He has a Remington
rifle of 16 Ife. weight, with a telescope sight and set trigger ;
it cost $130. He says it is a very good one. The telescope
sight seems very good indeed. Borechert seems able to
stuff well, but charges high. He charges 20 to 25 dols. for
setting up a buffalo head and $10 for an antelope head — he

116 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

makes a plaster cast and stretches the skin over it. He has
sold this year over 150 heads of buffalo at from $35 to $50
each. They charge as high as $70 at the gunmaker's for a
head. Borchert [Loder spells this name in three ways]
says that a good elk (wapiti) head sells for as much as $80
here. If an elk is shot in July with the velvet fresh on the
horn he can skin the velvet off, preserve it and the soft horn
and put the velvet on again."

" After dinner I walked up to the races and saw a half-
mile flat race. The horses were ridden by boys, some
white and some black. The start was very bad and the
horse that got the best start won. Time for the half-
mile, 53 sec. The race was run round two bad corners on
a clay track. After this was a trotting race with four-
wheeled waggons, for horses who had never beaten 2.40.
It was won by a horse, who had the inside place, in 2.46|.
The next was a trotting race in two-wheeled waggons for
horses who had never beaten three minutes. Two horses
out of the three broke several times, the one who trotted
fairly all the time won in 2.51."

He revisits Rood's and relates more about the Indians'
purchases.

" One of them bought a rifle, price $15, for 15 fb. of
buckskin — buckskin is selling at $1^ per lb."

" At the races ^^esterday I met a young man who is going
with the Scientific Exploring Expedition which is being sent
into the Rocky Mountains by the Government. There are
about 50 in the party, all well armed."

He secures at Cheyenne a berth in one of two Pullman's
cars : " In these were a party of five musicians, an old man,
a Russian, a very first-rate violin player, a Madame de
Renter, two Frenchmen and another. . . . They were
very pleasant." The next morning, after crossing the
Laramie Plains the evening before, he woke up very cold
at three, dressed partly, and slept again till six, and on wak-
ing found they were " on the barren sage plains, mere dust
with patches of strong-smelling sage. I saw no animal
except a rabbit." He describes the mountain scenery after
Green- River Station and says, " All along tliis part of the

SALT LAKE CITY 117

track, on either side, are to be seen ruined adobe houses.
A great many of the places which now are only small
stations . . . have been good-sized and flourishing
' cities.' ... All about Evanston coal is found."

Later he describes the very fine rock scenery of Echo
Caiion, Weber Cailon, Devil's Gate, etc. He mentions a
tax of 50 cents charged against his gun-case on all his rail-
way journeys since leaving Buffalo.

'^ It is a tax the baggage master is allowed to take. The
conductor we had on the train at Ogden had been scalped
by Indians. A few years ago he was fishing with two other
men within sight of a railway station, when suddenly they
were attacked by a band of Indians and all three were shot
through the body with arrows. The Indians scalped them
all and left them for dead — this man, however, recovered
and seems to be in very good health. He brushes his hair
over the place where he was scalped and one can see noth-
ing of it."

" The line runs along the Great Salt Lake nearly the whole
way from Ogden to Salt Lake City ; the Wahsatch Moun-
tams rise up nobly in the east. There are several mountain-
ous islands in the Lake, which make it look very fine. The
shores are flat and low, and the plain all round is covered
with sage. I put up at the Walker house in East Temple
Street." ^

He goes round the town —

" and up the hill at the end of East Temple Street . . .
the town when looked down on in this way looks very
pretty . . . like a lot of houses planted in the middle of
gardens, and indeed it is so. . . . Most of the streets " (which
he describes as very wide and very dusty) " have rapid
streams of water running down the sides. In the middle
of one street there is a stream about 12 feet wide running
at least 14 miles an hour. ... I also went to the Museum,
a small affair, but it contains a good many curiosities. It
IS kept by a Mr. and Mrs. Young— Mrs. Young was a nurse
to a family who lived in London, near Kensington Gardens ;
she left England in June 1862 and arrived here in October.
They crossed the continent in two months, which was con-
sidered very good work. At the Museum they have a live

118 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

Cinnamon Bear and a Black-tailed Deer mth very long
ears.^

" Coming back to the hotel I nearly got into a scrape.
About 70 yards from the hotel a man came up to me and
shook hands with me. I said I did not recognise him.
He said he was sure he had met me quite lately, he
thought at the Occidental Hotel at San Francisco. I
told him he must be mistaken, as I had never been
there. He then begged to be allowed to introduce me
to a Californian gentleman who was standing by. They
asked me if I had visited the Cotton-wood mine and the
Muna mine in the neighbourhood. I said I had not.
They advised me to go and see one of them, as they were
very rich mines. They then asked me to step upstairs to
the assay office ; they would show me some ore they had
brought in yesterday. I did not like to be uncivil, and
as the stairs were just opposite I made no objection.
They led me into an ordinary dwelling-room with decanters
of sherry on the sideboard. One of them pretended to look
for the ore in the sideboard drawer, but could not find it and
supposed someone had taken it a,way. They then asked me
to drink, but I only poured out a little iced water and drank
that. At the table in the same room were some men playing
rouge et noire. They went on playing and said nothing
all the time I was in the room. One of my two friends
asked me if I knew that game. I said that I knew all about
such games, but that they were not in my line. Presently
one of them tried to put some counters into my hand, and
when I declined said ' Be sociable now.' I saw it was time
to be going, but soon after I had come into the room one of
them had gone to the door and pushed a bolt across, so
that no one could come in and I was not quite certain that I
could get ow/." (The men went on pressing him.) . . .
" Soon after I got up pretty quickly, said I must wish them
good morning." (Loder made for the door, unbolted it and
got away.) " I thought I was pretty well out of that
business.

1 The Black-tailed Deer {Mazama columbiana) has much smaller ears
than the Mule Deer {Mazama hemionus) ; it is just possible that Loder
at that time had only seen the White-tailed Virginian Deer (Mazama
virginiana) with much shorter ears, and as the Mule Deer has a black
tip to its tail mistook a Mule Deer for a Black-tailed one. The tail of a
Black- tailed Deer is a bigger tail with the upper side black. — A. E. P.

THE OLD TABERNACLE 119

" The night I arrived there was a dance in one of the
rooms of the hotel ; I watched it for some time. The}- all
seemed to dance very well, but in a peculiar manner • I
suppose It was 'German.' The musicians sometinies
played valse music, sometimes polka. The dancers did not
keep round the room, but went a little way in one direction
then came back again, very often turning in the reverse way'
Collisions were rather scarce. Every now and then they
seemed to dance some land of figure and seemed to change
partners. Altogether the dancing was very dijfferent to
ours, and I do not think I could manage it without a little
practice.

''Sunday, June 15th.— After breakfast I walked to the
labernacle and found that the ' Meeting ' was held at
10 a.m. m the old Tabernacle ; this is a much smaller build-
ing than the new one. It has an oval ceiling inside and is
very good for sound. It has a nice little organ, and the choir
(men and women) sang very weU. The service, or meetintr
began vnth a hymn, then a man came forward to the readiirg
desk or pulpit and said a prayer— he then called upon
another to address the meeting, which he did for about
an hour. He gave us an account of how he first heard the
preaching of a Latter-day Saint when he was a boy of about
16 It was m a public square and the mob were unruly
and would not hear what the Saint had to say. He was at
that time a Baptist, at least his father and mother were •
he had not been baptised because his father did not believe
m infant baptism. He was in the habit of reading books on
and against all the various creeds, written by infidels and
all sorts of people. People told him that it would end in his
grmvmg up an infidel, but he said this could not be as he
believed m God, but he would not embrace any creed until
he had examined them all. About this time the Chartists
came under his notice and he attended their services, and
their minister seeing his regular attendance asked him to
jom the Chartists, but he refused, telling him that his in-
tention was not to join any sect or creed as yet. He now
made the acquaintance of a Latter-day Saint and argued
with him, but soon found when he referred to the Bible
that whereas the Saint used the exact words of the Bible he
himself was often using inexact quotations, which he had
been taught. He now began to see the light dawn upon him
and betook himself to prayer, and every time he prayed
9

120 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

more light seemed to shine upon him. He reminded his
audience that he rose to speak (after being called upon to
do so) without any preparation, ' taking no thought of what
he should say,' feeUng sure that God would inspire him and
put into his mouth words which it would be profitable for
them to hear. He was with the Saints when they Avere
expelled at the point of the bayonet from Navoo, Illinois. ^
He was lyirig sick in a loft when a cannon shot landed in it.
Some of the brethren wished to fight, but Squire W>lls,
who was then not a member of the church, counselled them
not to do so, saying that it was the Lord's doing. The
preacher then argued that the mob thought that they were
doing just as those did who crucified Christ. He had no
hard feelings against them— why should he ? Was it not
written, ' If ye suffer punishment having done wrong and
bear it patiently ' it is quits, you are even now ? ' But if ye
suffer punishment and have done no wrong and bear it
patiently ve shall have your reward in heaven.'

" No other church except this had the privilege of being
taught by inspired teachers, no one had been inspired in
any other church for many hundred years. The Mormons
having all these great advantages, being God's chosen
people, ought to be more careful than the gentiles how they
lived ; they had not the same excuses as the gentiles, they
had more enlightenment and therefore they ought to take
advantage of it. Amen.

"Another gentleman was then called to preach; he
rose and said : ' I also rejoice that I have been called to

1 The f otinder of the sect of Mormons was Joseph Smith, who pretended
to supernatm-al ],owers if I remember right. About the year 1828 he dug
a hole in a forest and discovered gold tablets covered with undecipherable
writing, and his discovery aroused excitement and interest. Retirmg
to the forest again, he returned next with the revelation of the writings,
revealed to him by an angel, and this became the Book of Mormon, Joe
Smith had got hold of an old impublished Biblical novel and concocted
the Book of Mormon therefrom. The sect settled at Navoo in Illinois
and was persecuted ; but raised a fighting force which was long a match
for the local Government forces. They trekked west to Salt Lake into
the unknown to escape persecution and made a treaty with the Utes
(hence the name Utah), and there w-ith the aid of polygamy they multi-
plied and prospered exceedingly. As a counter to the American legal
ban on polygamy they devised a system of (1) legal marriages, (2) eternal
marriages, (3) levitical marriages. Joe Smith was murdered in 1844.
This note is written from memory, but I tliink is substantiaUy in accord
with facts.

THE MORMONS 121

belong to the chosen people, and I rejoice that thus far we
have defeated the evil designs of our enemies. We have
been called a bold people. I should rather say afree people
We are hampered by no priestcraft or kingcraft- here
everyone is for himself. I should say we are a thrifty and
mdustrious people. I think we have just as much right to
revelation as the ancient Jews had : God is the same now
as he was m the days of Abraham. If angels ever did appear,
what is to lunder them from appearing now ^ I was
reading about Joseph Smith only last week ; " Old Joe "
they call him. Where do you think I read about him ? In
the Btble. There's a funny place to read about " Old
Joe Smith." I'll tell you how it was : I went into the
store and found a book like this, with *' Bible " in gold
letters outside— got up in the first style. Inside I found the
story of " Old Joe " and B S

" ' Now a man who calls himself a historian ought to
stick to the truth ; if a man has prejudices he ought not
to write history. Now this book was full of libels " Our
enemies revile us in every possible way. But never mind
them, be industrious and prosper, stick to the Mormon
creed : '' Mind your own business. " Amen.'

'' During the sermon the gentleman cleared his throat
and spat on the floor and rubbed it in with his foot before
he contmued. After this sermon a hymn was sung and
then another man said a prayer, and the meeting closed
At 2 p.m. another meeting was held in the new Taber-
nacle, which will hold 18,000 people."

Loder attends this one too and notes that there were
about 8,000 people present. He also gives a rough sketch
plan.

'' The organ is a very fine one and the choir is large
and very good. Brigham Young was not at the meeting
—he had just returned from the funeral of one of his
17 wives. The service began with a hymn, and then
Austen [should be Orson] Pratt stepped into the pulpit
and began to preach. On the table in front of the Bishop's
seat were a great many metal mugs and two large dishes
ot breaa covered with a cloth. As soon as the sermon
Degan, ail the Bishops stood up and broke the bread into
small pieces and put them into a number of bread-baskets

122 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

When they had done the sermon was stopped and one of
them said a prayer over the bread and water, after which
the sermon continued. The bread and water was handed
round by many men and every one of the Mormons took
it. They seemed to take a good drink at the water as
it was a warm day, and I saw two men pass a tankard
backwards and forwards till they had emptied it. The
man who showed strangers to their seats and who hap-
pened to sit himself by me was one of the Paynes from
East Grinstead [in Sussex, near Loder's home]. He had
been living for 25 years at Woolwich ; he left England
7 years ago. He is a shoemaker and tells me he has done
splendidly here and has made thousands of dollars. I
asked him who were the men breaking up the bread in
the Tabernacle : he told me they were Bishops, ' rather
different from the Bishops in the old country ; all those
men are working-men with from 6 to 12 wives apiece and
from 20 to 60 children each.'

" Austen [Orson] Pratt preached a rather long sermon ;
he seemed very much in earnest, but I did not think
very clever. He has been all over the world and 14
times to England. He has the gift of the gab ' con-
siderable,' but I did not think he proved anything in his
arguments. He reasoned on the Mormon belief, taking
the prophecies of Isaiah and showing how they were
being fulfilled by the Mormon people. He said : ' We
are here assembled in the only House of God in the world.
I know there are many so-called Houses of God in all
the towns of this continent, you will find it written in
letters on many of them, some of them are very fine and
costly buildings, but this is the only House of God which
is or has been on earth for many hundreds of years. Did
God command anyone to build any of the so-called God's
Houses in the various towns ? No. Did he ever give
anyone instructions how to build it ? No. What does
the prophet say, 4th chapter, 5th and 6th verses ? " And
the Lord shall create upon every dwelling place of Mount
Zion and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day
and a shining of a flaming fire by night, for upon all the
glory there shall be a defence. And there shall be a taber-
nacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat and
for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and
rain ! " Well, this is a tolerable place, I guess I never

ORSON PRATT'S SERMON 123

heard of anyone coming to any harm here in a storm —
and mark you, not only in the Tabernacle, but in your
own dwelling-houses. Now, where else will you find a
town like this ? No need of candles or gas — the town
and country around illuminated with a flood of holy light !
See what it says in chapter 60 : " Arise, shine, for thy
light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross
darkness the people ; but the Lord shall arise upon thee
and his Glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles
shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of
thy rising." But you will ask where is the cloud, where
is the pillar of fire ? I do not see any cloud, all is clear
between me and my audience. The time is not yet
come, that is the reason. But it will come, and even
kings will come to see it. And what says the prophet
in chapter ii, 2nd verse : " And it shall come to pass
in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house
shall be established in the top of the mountains and
shall be exalted among the hills ; and all nations shall
flow unto it." Again, 49th chapter and 19th verse :
" For thy waste and desolate places, and the land of thy
destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of
thy inhabitants and they that swallowed thee up shall
be far away." Then again : " I will lift up my ensign to
the nations and set up my standard to the people ; I will
reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth, and
I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and
there will I plead with you face to face." You see it was
to a high place, a very elevated region, a desolate country
that the Lord was going to bring his people quickly,^
— which he translated to mean by means of railroad- cars.
Also a prophecy, ' Go through the land, through the gate
of the mountains,' which he said meant the Pacific Rail-
road. He said the electric telegraph was not given to
men for commercial use, but the day would come when
the people all over the world would ask, ' What news
from Zion this morning ? What are the Lord's people
doing ? What is the last new wonder ? ' He also quoted
another passage about going to a distant land lying
beyond the rivers of etc. He said if he looked at the
map in that position, what land did he see in that direc-
tion ? Why, none other than the land of North America

124 AIMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

— the form of the continent of North and South America
always reminded him of some great bird, an eagle with
its wings stretched out. Orson Pratt is one of the original
12 Apostles in 1849 with Brigham Young as president —
he is now a man with a white moustache and whiskers
and long white beard. He looks something like Phelps,
Master of Sidney (Cambridge). He spoke earnestly
enough and was ready in his quotations, still it did not
seem to me that any of his argument was sound. . . .

" I met Payne in the street and walked with him for
about an hour. He was going to England very soon,
but has been unwell and therefore put off his visit till
next year, when he probably will go as a missionary.
He said they go forth in the same way as Christ and his
Apostles, without purse or scrip. . . . He pointed out
to me some of the different houses, one very nice one,
which belonged to an Englishman, Hussey, the banker
here — he had made all his money here. There are, he
thought, as many single women here as in any other town
of the same size. The number of men who had one wife
was about equal to the number of those who had several.
He knew of instances of seven wives living in one house
as comfortably as possible, but generally if a man wished
to keep more than one wife he nmst have different houses
for them. Brigham Young had 17 wives, one of which
he buried to-day ; he has about 60 children ; several
men have between 50 and 60 children. Many of Brigham
Young's sons are ' very fine boys,' some of them 40 years
old.

" The men sit altogether in the front part of the Taber-
nacle, the women sit behind ; the colour in the hats and
bonnets of the women both in the choir and in the con-
gregation was astonishing — every colour, the brightest
red, green, yellow, blue, was there with flowers of every
hue as well.

" Monday, June 16th. — After breakfast I went over the
way and found Payne's boot store and talked with him
while he cut out leather. He told me that there were
many gambling-houses in the town and that they often
made raids upon them. The gambling-house men as
well as those who are caught gambling are fined $100
every time they are caught. He himself is a regular
sworn-in policeman. I told him how I was got up into

GAMBLING DENS 125

a gambling room on Saturday and how I got out of it ;
he thought I got out of it very well — he said he would
not have liked to be in my place at all. [Payne relates
an experience of his own.] . . . Payne also told me that
the Mormons were going to hold a meeting to consider
the best means of doing away with every drinking bar
and gambling table. There is a Welshman here who left
Wales as an ordinary miner ; he now owns a mine and
is rolling in wealth, is a Bishop of the Mormon church,
and has a great many wives and children.

" After dinner this afternoon a very inoffensive-looking
man addressed me as I was strolling along and said it
was very hot, and other small talk, and strolled by the
side of me. [Loder recounts how this individual got
on to the subject of nriines and then of a ' special friend '
and the special friend's club and so forth, and proceeds,
quoting his companion :]

" Now there it was all gentlemanly, nothing but gentle-
men there ; as nice a club-room as he ever saw ; if I
would only step up here, he would just show it to me.
I turned round and looked, and behold ! it was the same
staircase I had been taken up on Saturday. I said, ' Oh,
I have been up there, I have seen the room ' ; he saw
it was no go. . . . This afternoon a man came out of
a shop and handed to me his card and asked me to step
in and examine his chromos, prints and jewellery (exactly
as Payne had described the thing in his adventure). I
declined to go in, saying that I was travelling and did
not want to purchase jewellery or pictures. . . .

" This morning I bought the Book of Mormon and the
pamphlets of Orson Pratt — they were $1*50 each. This
evening I walked down to the Depot to see if Pelham
would come by the train ; he did not arrive and I walked
back. It was very warm, and when I returned I went
down to the bar and paid the largest price I ever paid
for a glass of beer. The glass was a thin one holding
about f of half a pint. The beer, which they called
draught Bass, was not good, and they charged 25 cents
( = 1*. 5d.), that is, 3 shillings a pint or 6 shillings a quart
and £l 4*. a gallon ! " ^

1 During the years 1903-5, when I was in the Eastern Transvaal,
the price of beer (per bottle — exclusive of the bottle) was never less than
4s. a pint, but it was Bass. — A. E. P.

126 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

When Edmund Loder wanted to leave Ogden, where he
only spent one night, he found he was short of cash for his
journey to San Francisco, but he discovered that the
"■ Ticket Agent " was in the same hotel with him and he got
him to advance him the price of his ticket — " $55 in
greenbacks " — and left his gun and rifle with him ; security
Loder was likely to redeem pretty quickly ! He left Ogden
on the 18th, and travelling straight through arrived at the
Ferry at Oakland Point on the evening of June 20th. He
describes the journey through the great American desert
and " dreary sage bush plains " and gets up in the mornings
at 4 a.m. not to miss any scenery — he notes the apparent
richness of the grazing grounds of the Humboldt Valley and
complains of the interference of the snow sheds with the
views when they get high up. After Truckle he says :

" In the next 60 miles there are over 40 miles of snow
sheds — they continue for 12 miles or so without a gap, then
after one has had a glimpse at the scenery through a gap
of 200 yards or so, it is snow sheds again for another hour
or so. . . . At Summit (over 7,000 feet) we had breakfast.
They keep a tame deer and bear here."

In the afternoon thev reach Sacramento :

" It is almost one continuous grain field from Sacramento
to San Francisco. Oats, barley, bearded wheat, are all
the crops I saw, except near San Francisco a little Indian
corn and potatoes . . . the straw is short and everything
looks dried up."

He makes friends on this journey with a Mr. Miles, a
man in the " iron business in Chicago," and finds him
very agreeable company. There were also with them four
Canadians who had come " from the Red River country
and had been travelling 14 days and nights — a surveying
party who are going to survey for the Canadian Pacific
Railway."

" A Japanese has also been travelling with us. . . . The
Japanese is dressed in European dress, with frock coat and
tall hat — he has been three years away from Japan and was

SAN FRANCISCO 127

sent by his Government to study farming, as practised in
Europe and America. He was Ih years in various parts of
England and Scotland— was at Windsor and saw the model
farm and has talked to the Queen and to the Prince of
Wales. He speaks very highly of Scotch Lowland farming,
and he is sending over specimens of English and American
farming implements to Japan."

Later the Japanese gentleman, who was in the same
hotel, gave Loder his card, " Naoki Ewayama— Tokei—
Japan," and said he would be very glad to receive him in
Japan and he could always be found through the Custom
House officers at Yokohama or at Yeddo. Loder in return
gives him his town address, 42, Grosvenor Square, as Naoki
Ewayama " knows Grosvenor Square."

" I found Mr. Walker, Harrison's friend, ... he had
seen my name in the paper among the arrivals. He asked
me to come with him to his house at San Rafael and spend
Sunday ; I accepted his kind offer. I then had my hair
cut and shampooed for $1 and went off."

He describes the Bay and the garden " and a patch of
real green turf, but all has to be well watered " ; he also
writes of four friends of Mr. Walker's staying or calling-
one is a Mr. MciKinley, one named Guthrie (son of Dr.
Guthrie), and another named Brown (son of Dr. Brown of
Edinburgh). " We had a pleasant evening with whist and
music. " After going to a " small but neat wooden church "
on Sunday he finds some copies of The Times, and in one :

"On the 24th May at the French Chapel by M. le
Chanoine Toursel ; Marius Garcin de Clamensanc, Ancn.
Membre du Conseil-General des Basses-Alpes, Chevalr. de
la Legion d'Honneur ; to Merielle, only daughter of the late
William Pitt Byrne, Esq., M.A., of Montagu St., Portman
Square, and widow of the late Valere Hayman, Esq."

This wedding had taken place from the Loders' house in
Grosvenor Square. Mr. Walker appears to have made
Loder's time in San Francisco a great success ; among other
things he enjoyed was watching the sea-Hons on the rocks.

128 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

He takes his thermometers to an optician's and tests them
against a " standard thermometer there — in reading mine
subtract ^° F. from the Maxm. and add 2° and ^° F. to the
Minm. Thermometer."

" This afternoon I walked as far as Woodward's Gardens.
They have a fair collection of animals, but the great object
of interest is a large tank containing several sea lions : some
of them are very large. Pelham arrived to-night (June
25th) ; he had got off the train when it was stopping while
the engine was taking in water a short distance beyond a
small station and had got left behind ; he had to walk on
to Rocklin, and slept there."

Pelham had not great luck on the plains. Buffalo were
not so often seen as when Loder was there, and " the hunters
did not treat him very well — if they saw any they went
after them themselves." He, however, shot one very fine
bull. They go together to Callistoga, and from there by
stage to see the Geysers.

" We had six horses and were driven by the celebrated
' whip ' Foss. He took us along at a capital pace along a
narrow and difficult road 6 miles in 30 minutes to Foss-ville,
where we changed horses. The hotel here belongs to Foss.
. . . There is a tame deer here and some small white pigs
in a kind of cage."

The next stage is 12 miles uphill to Summit (2,000 feet
above Callistoga).

" About a mile before reaching Summit we come to
' Whisky Spring,' a fine spring of clear water bubbling up
close to the road. Here Foss stops, waters the horses,
produces a whisky bottle and invites each passenger to
drink a glass."

Loder describes the scenery and the road, but prefers the
last 8 miles for both scenery and timber.

After visiting Geyser Canon and going up a mountain he
says : " About half-way up we came to some fine pine trees,
like stone pines ; they grew large cones, as large as a man's

THE GEYSERS 129

head. We looked for some seed and I collected about 30."
He is at the Geysers at 5.30 a.m. the next morning : " The
temperature (of the air) was on 45° F. in the shade
at 5.30, so the steam from the Geysers made a great deal
more show than they did two hours later in the sunshine."
On the return journey, driven by Foss again, he remarks :
" We came down the mountain at a rattling pace. At the
Castoga Hot Springs Hotel, Foss gave each of his passengers
one of his photos." They go back to San Rafael and San
Francisco. He revisits the sea-lions at Cliff House ; they
go to the Alhambra " theater," where the " pieces and per-
formances were both very moderate " ; reads books in the
Mercantile Library, sends the %oo which he had borrowed
to Ogden, gets a Times from home with the announcement
of his sister's (Lady Burrell's) baby (Sybil) being born on
June 7th, and borrows all the money he requires from
Walker, and then they go with a Mr. Chapman, to whom
Walker has introduced them, to see something of ranch life,
Chapman being the manager of the Chowchilla Ranch in
which Harrison has an interest. They stay at Merced, 12
miles from the ranch. At the ranch they drive round it
one day " about 40 miles " ; he looks at a fine shorthorn
bull and some Leicester sheep which a man named Cameron
had brought from New Zealand — Chapman gave $150 apiece
for them. I gather from Mr. Pelham and Loder's letters
home that this ranch was one of 100,000 acres, with 45
miles of fence on the San Joaquin (Sanwankeen) River, and
that the valley of this name was the ranch- — that it had
been bought in 1867, that the head of cattle on it already
numbered 6,000 with 2,000 calves born that year, and that
they intended to run a breeding stock of 10,000 head of
cattle and 25,000 head of sheep. From here he visits
Cameron's and inspects artesian wells ; he notes the bore
of the pipes (9 inches) and the wells as being from 200 to
250 feet deep.

" Sunday. July 6th. — Rode out on an English saddle to
a Rodao. The Vaccaros lassoed some bull calves and cut
and branded them."

130 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

He was very much smitten with the beauty of the lasso-
throwing, and spent the afternoon of that day practising
himself ; the next afternoon, after a morning looking at
ducks and curlew and shooting, he practises again.

From Merced they go by stage to Whitens and Hatchers
and on to Clarke's, starting at 6 a.m. and arriving at
8 p.m. (about 60 miles in 14 hours). Among those on the
list of passengers on the stage, Germans, an Italian, and
English, is Lieut. -Colonel Deveish Meares, 20th Regiment,
stationed at Bermuda, and Loder finds they have several
mutual acquaintances. Colonel Meares remains in their
company for the next two or three weeks. The Mariposa
and the Aleveras Groves of Big Trees as well as the Yo
Semite have been so often and so much described that I
shall quote little from this part of Loder's diary. Most of
the sight-seeing is done on horseback. The big trees are
apparently very much what he expected, but he is much
struck with the splendour generally of the timber apart
from the noted groves. On his way to Clarke's he notes
that a great many of the trees are 25 feet in circumference
and from 200 to 250 feet high, also that the largest
of the Aleveras Grove (he refers to the exhibit at the
Crystal Palace) " is only 61 feet in circumference, while
several of those we saw (at Mariposa) were 90 and 109 —
one of the Aleveras is 327 feet high, the tallest of the Mari-
posa 275 feet high." He sends some seeds to King, the
gardener at home. After " doing " the Yo Semite ^ the
following days were spent in inspecting gold-mines.

" Sunday, July 13th. — Rode to Hites Cove, 22 miles,
Pelham, Colonel Meares and myself. Saw the quartz mill
there. The mine is said to be very profitable, but I could

1 In a letter home referring to the view from Glacier Point he says :
" I suppose this is unique, 4,000 feet perpendicular. . . . The Nevada
and Vernal Falls would be beautiful on any scale, even if they were re-
duced to 7 feet and 3 feet instead of being as they are 700 and 300 feet.
The Yo Semite Fall here, has less water but falls 1,600 feet at once, then a
cascade 400 feet and a final leap of 400 feet." He regrets not having seen
another fall, because it was dry and only falls for a short time annually,
3,800 feet, " only 200 feet short of three-quarters of a mile perpendicular."

HALL'S GULCH 131

not get any exact information. They crush 18 to 20 tons
a day. There is a good profit on it if it yields 10 to 12 dols.
to the ton — perhaps this mine may average 15 or 16 dols.
a ton."

The men's wages run to about " 90 dols. a month." At
Mariposa he looks at " hydraulic mining " and also did a
little panning himself, and they got enough " colour " to
take away three little packets. Then they visit Chinamen
" sluicing " — one Chinaman was making 5 to 6 dols. a day.^

He now makes his way back to Denver ; on reaching
Ogden recovers his guns and separates from Pelham (who
goes to Salt Lake City), and at Laramie he leaves Colonel
Meares. At Denver he is unwell, but after a few days,
when Pelham rejoined him, starts " at 6 a.m. in the Fair-
play Stage for Godfrey's Ranch. The stage was a sorry
affair with two horses. The scenery in Bear Creek is very
fine." He arrives at Godfrey's Ranch about 10 p.m. " We
got nothing but wretched accommodation there " in a little
shanty.

They now walked to Hall's Gulch and were in the very
heart of the Rocky Mountains, and went to stay with a Mr.
Jebb and a General Hail. General Hall was an American
and a General of some distinction in the U.S. Army, and
Jebb an English connection of Mr. Pelham ; an interesting
man, a memoir of whom was published by his widow. ^

Hall, when hunting bear in the mountains here, dis-
covered gold, and with his friends formed a company.
Hall and Jebb started the mine under great difficulties,
camping in the snow in March of this year, and getting
up a steam saw-mill had got to work in April. By July
of the same year (1873) when Loder and Pelham arrived,
Loder says " there was quite a town, 250 men at work,
with lodgings for them all and a store where one could

^ " Being in California we wished to see the whole business of gold-
mining and to learn the difference between panning out, placier-mining,
sluicing, hydraulic-mining and quartz-mining."

* John Gladwyn Jebb, a relation of the Tutor at Trinity College, Cam-
bridge.

132 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

buy nearly everything. In the beginning of July a large
house was begun for General Hall and was finished,
furnished and fit to live in in a fortnight," and they had
on July 23rd, when Loder and Pelham arrived, just
completed four miles of tramway and bridges.^ Hall's
and Jebb's house was 9,500 feet above the sea, and as
soon as Loder arrived the first thing he did was to walk up
the hill, as he calls it, 11,500 feet high, behind and to the
south of the house ; on the edge of the snow and timber
line he found a mountain bison's skull. Wapiti came some-
times within a mile of the house, and no doubt Loder
and Pelham thought they were on the edge of good
hunting country. Hall took them a six hours' ride over
the mountains to Georgetown and procured for them
three ponies and two pack mules and a man to go v/ith
them. Two days later Loder and Pelham camp on the
Snake River (9,000 feet up) and Loder caught seven trout
for supper. This hunting and exploring trip seems to
have been rather a failure. Their first day on the moun-
tains they saw nothing and their man " George " lost his
horse, which broke away from a tree to which he had
been tied and escaped into the timber with George's
saddle and blankets. George seems to have been an
obstacle to their success. The following days, having
gone off with one of their ponies, he spent in a vain
search for his horse, and when he did turn up he did not
know how to reach a newly discovered lake for which
they were making. I will give one illustration out of a
series of misfortunes.

" For reasons best known to himself, George, instead
of following up Lake Creek as soon as it began to get dark,
tried a short cut of his own. Before long it became
quite dark and we went stumbling helplessly along over
huge rocks and thick grooves of quaking asp. Our mules
became unruly and Pelham had a hard Job to drive one

^ The company here was called the Hall Valley Silver-Lead Mining
and Smelting Co. The Valley is some 65 miles west of Denver, in Fark
Co., Colorado.

HUNTING IN THE ROCKIES 133

back which made a dart down a steep hill. Not long
after, the other mule rushed madly down a very steep
and rough hill, thickly covered with both fallen and
growing quaking asps. It was now pitch dark ; I was
afraid of losing the pack off the mule, if not mule and
all, so I stuck the spurs into my horse and followed the
mule in its wild career through the bush. After a fearful
ride I came up with it. . . . I made an effort to get
up the hill, having found out where the others were. I
thought I should have to stop down at the bottom all
night, but at last found myself nearly at the edge of
the timber. Even out of the timber, climbing a rocky
hill proved no easy task in the dark. However, I struggled
to the top at last, and after a council of war we decided
to camp just where we were on the top of the hill with-
out water. I would have given a good deal for a cup
of tea after my exertions. ..."

The next morning one of the mules got into a bog and
turned over on its back, wetting and spoiling " all our
sugar, salt, flour, etc. etc." Then Loder rides on alone
to find the lake and at last they reach i^. On getting
there they found one Hall there, the discoverer of the
lake : " he is considered one of the best hunters in
Colorado." The following days they all " hunt " in dif-
ferent directions without success ; " George " alone gets
a shot, and misses it. Hall then undertakes to take them
to the next gulch, where he was sure of finding wapiti
and game. Their experience on the new ground was not
very encouraging. " We all came back after dark in
pouring rain, no one had seen anything." Loder goes to
bed " while Pelham stood by the fire till his clothes were
dry." After another try they moved on to Salt Lick Gulch
— they had now finished their bacon and wanted meat
badly. George went off from this camp to have another
try to find his horse, and eventually returned with it at
sunset one evening. " It was very wild and would not
let him catch it, but it followed his pony — the saddle
cloth and one of the stirrup irons was gone and the saddle
was under his belly." The next thing to be lost was

134 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

Pelham's revolver and then Pelham got lost himself, but
turns up at Hall's Gulch soon after Loder's return there. ^
Loder hunts from Hall's Gulch, finds some mountain
bison skulls, a very beautiful elk horn, and loses his
" deer- stalking knife which I got from McLeay's, Inver-
ness," sees antelope (kills one galloping) and a certain
number of elk and buck, but without being able to get
a sporting chance of a shot until on August 9th, when
out with Jebb he spied with a glass five or six mountain
sheep (generally known as Bighorn, Ovis canadensis)
feeding.

" I left Jebb there with the telescope to watch them
and ran back a mile or so to fetch the horses. When I
came back to Jebb he told me that there were 23 sheep,
now in sight, all ' bucks.' We made all haste to get to
them, but had two very deep valleys to cross. We tied
up our horses at the edge of some dead timber about f
of a mile from the sheep, and then stalked them on foot
— the sun had already set when we got within shot of
them. We noticed one buck much larger than the rest,
and him we tried to get. Wliilst waiting for a favour-
able target, some of the sheep fed on to our left, got
our wind, and started the lot and they ran together."

Jebb pointing out the big one to Loder, the latter fired
and got the big one and Jebb another. It came on dark
and they were long before finding their horses, and did
not make their quarters till 11 p.m. Loder estimated
the weight of his sheep at 240 lb. clean, the other weighed
clean 207 lb. After a day on the hills on August 12th
he records :

^ The Lost Park. Loder mentions this valley in a letter, in the region
they were hunting in. "It is surroxinded with such steep mountains
that one cannot take mules in and out. A party of hunters are said to
have got in with their mules by juimping down ledges, etc.," but they
never got their mioles out. Game in this Lost Park is plentiful. A herd
of mountain bison has been seen in it ; " they are like the buffalo, but
more active and are fast dying out. Very few people have ever seen
them. Jebb killed one some time ago. I foxind a very old skull of one
11,000 feet up above the timber line."

FORT MACPHERSON 135

" Came back to the Gulch at sunset and found that

there had been a row. Some roughs had come in a few

days before with the intention of starting a whisky store

and gambhng shop, and they brought in with them a

lot of bullies to back them up, in case of need, who were

working on the tramway. Three of the leaders had been

turned off for bad behaviour and the cook had been given

orders not to give them any more food. This afternoon

they threatened the cook with loaded revolvers and

began talking loud about ' firing the Gulch, starting

burial grounds, running the Gulch, etc' They also fired

off their revolvers, but not at any one. Jebb, leading

a few men he got together, rushed upon them and took

their arms away and kept them in close custody. Jebb

then went to the store, and the whisky barrels were rolled

into the road and fired into, Jebb leading off with his

Express rifle. The three captives. Hall, Boys and another,

instead of keeping quiet continued talking loud, swearing

that the men who had interfered with them were as good

as dead men and that when they got away Hall and Jebb

had better look out. Colonel Hall intended to send them

with a strong guard to Fairplay. In the night, however,

the Vigilance Committee had a meeting and decided that

the lives of several men in the Gulch would be in great

danger if they were allowed to go, and so they hanged

Hall and Boys and let the third go.

" Wednesday, August l3th.~When we got up this
morning we found that the Vigilance Committee had
hanged Hall and Boys. I went down and found no one
about except Mrs. O'Donnell, who asked me to come
down and see the men hanging before the rest were
about. We went down through the timber, and in the
road met Mr. Wood coming up. . . . We heard that the
men had been cut down and buried, but we found they
had only been cut down and were lying there."

After a very rough journey Loder and Pelham reach
Denver again; there he adds an Arrapahoe scalp, an
Indian bow and arrows, and a buffalo robe to his collec-
tion.

After a rough journey from Denver, Loder and Pelham
reached Fort Macpherson in Nebraska and presented
10

136 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

General Sherman's letter of introduction to General
Reynolds, who was in command here with a cavalry
regiment as the garrison. They were now in true Indian
country, the principal tribes being the Sioux and the
Pawnees. It was a dangerous country at this time for
small parties of white men to move about in without
a military escort. Loder and Pelham were most hos-
pitably entertained and every effort was made to give them
a good time in this the last sporting venture of their trip.
I shall give most of their experiences in Loder' s own
words :

" August 18th.^ — I saw General Reynolds and gave him
General Sherman's letter. General Reynolds sent Adju-
tant (Lieut.) Johnstone to us, who at once made all
necessary arrangements to start at 6 a.m. the next morn-
ing. We found a great many agreeable men among
the officers — General Dudly, Colonel King, Major Moore
and others. General Dudly took us to his house in the
evening, gave us two Apache arrows each and lent me
his carbine.

" There has just been a great massacre of Pawnees near
here by the Sioux. The Pawnee warriors were most of
them out on a hunt when the Sioux fell on their camp
and killed and scalped 60 people, most of them squaws
and papooses — Pallardy, our guide, was there shortly
after and picked up one of the Sioux knives, which I
now have."

The next day they started for the Medicine stream in
charge of the Adjutant (Lieut. Johnstone), with an escort
of a sergeant and sixteen troopers, two waggons, each
drawn by six splendid mules, a cook, teamsters and men
to go with the led horses. Three troop horses each were
allotted to Loder and Pelham for buffalo-hunting. The
Medicine is a tributary of the Platte River, It is one of
a number of streams which are very innocent-looking and
shallow, but which after a storm are liable to become
raging torrents.

SHOOTING BUFFALO FROM HORSEBACK 137

" A few weeks before I arrived," says Loder, " a most
extraordinary catastrophe occurred. Major Moore (who
told me about it) was camping with his command on the
banks of the Black Willow Creek, a small stream, very
like the Medicine and only a few miles away. About
midnight, just after a change of guard had been made,
an alarm was given and those who were awake rushed
to the doors of their tents and saw a great wave of water
rushing and foaming down upon them ... in two hours
the whole valley (here nearly two miles wide) was filled
with water and in the bed of the stream was 20 feet deep.
Six men and 28 horses were drowned. Everything but
one waggon was swept away. j\Iajor Moore and most of
the men saved themselves by climbing into some trees
which were growing out of the river bank. Pallardy,
afterwards our guide, was sitting on the top of the only
waggon which was not washed away, but he expected to
feel it go over every moment.

" Tuesday. August 19th.~ ... At 2.30 p.m. we
reached our camping ground on the Medicine, and lay
down in the shade and I read a book. . . . Thermometer
85° at 3 p.m., 75° at 8 p.m., 66° in tents at 4 a.m."

Buffalo were seen in the distance this day, but they
struck camp and marched for Red Willow Creek the next
morning.

" After we had marched for four hours we came in sight
of several herds of buffalo. The prairie here is very
different from the Kansas prairie. It is more broken
with hills and the grass is far longer in some of the narrow
valleys and canons ; I have seen grass as much as 8 feet
high. It will average about 18 inches on the prairie
about here, but is a great deal trodden down by buffalo.
. . . Pelham and I, Pallardy and three soldiers rode off
to chase a herd of about 60 buffalo which were feeding
in a low bit of ground where we could approach pretty
near to them without being seen. The men were armed
\Adth their cavalry carbines, but Pelham and I carried our
revolvers as they are easier to manage on horseback. ^

1 It must be remembered that at this time there were no handy,
powerful, small-bore rifles and carbines ; but stiU I think Loder made
a mistake in preferring a revolver to a carbine. Shooting from horse-

138 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

A buffalo looks a great clumsy animal, but in reality he is
very active. Even on flat ground he is astonishingly
fast, but down a slope on rough ground it takes a very
good horse to overtake him and on very broken ground
no horse has a chance. Buffalo-shooting from horseback
is not difficult if you have a really good buffalo horse.
After you have once put one of these horses in chase of
a buffalo he does not require any more guiding ; he will
gallop up close alongside, giving you an easy shot with a
rifle at the beast's shoulder, and as soon as you have
fired these horses swerve away from the buffalo so quickly
that they would throw the rider unles she was expecting
it. They are taught to spring aside in this way in order to
avoid the charge which buffalo will sometimes make as
quick as lightning as soon as he feels himself hit. If the
buffalo is not killed by the first shot, the horse comes up
again at once on the other side, and so on till the buffalo
falls. We had no trained horses with us, all ours were
cavalry chargers. The one I rode was very fast, but
could not stay long ; he got very excited at the sight of
a buffalo, but I never could get him to go very near them,
and one ought to be rather close to do any damage with
a revolver. In fact I found, what with managing one's
horse and the loading and firing of the revolver and
guarding against prairie-dog holes and taking care not

back at the gallop is a very easily acquired accomplishment, even with a
full-length sporting rifle, if you have a good horse. It is surprising how
seldom one misses even small animals, such as gazelle, cheetah, jackals
and hysenas, if you get dead behind them and shoot over your horse's
head ; with big game and dangerous game, much depends on your horse's
knowledge of the sport and of your ways, but if you have a beast twenty
yards off on the near side of your horse and are going the same pace you
will kill him as often as you will a rabbit at this distance with a scatter
gun ; and to my mind the sport is quite as exciting as pig-sticking.

The best weapon I have found to be a '256 Mannlicher rifle with the
barrel cut four inches shorter than the regular rifle. Loder put me up
to this in 1893 — and rightly told me that I should find my rifle equally
effective for all sporting purposes and its balance and handiness im-
proved by the alteration. When thus shortened under Loder's super-
vision, the rifle weighed 6i lb. — a weight that allows of using it, if neces-
sary, with one hand. A short '350 Mannlicher may be better for dangerous
game such as lion or leopard. You should never ride behind dangerous
game — always on the flank, and whenever possible have it on your left
hand.— A. E. P.

CHARGE BY A BUFFALO BULL 139

to be in the way when a buffalo charged, one had as
many things to do at one time as one could conveniently
manage.

" Pallardy, who is a practised buffalo hunter, led us
in the most skilful manner, winding along, keeping to the
lowest ground, taking care that there was always some
rise between us and the herd. At last we were within
100 yards of where they were feeding, quite unconscious
of danger, on the other side of a large knoll, which hid
us from their sight. Here we stopped for a moment to
tighten our girths and look to our revolvers and car-
bines, and then with a whoop and a cheer rode at the
herd. After a very fast scamper of about half a mile
I came up with a young one and fired my revolver into
his shoulder ; he went head over heels like a ninepin.
A few seconds after I fired a second shot and dowTi went
a two-year-old heifer — she had been hit by one of the
soldiers' carbines at the same time that I fired. Pallardy
also had to shoot the first one [which had not been killed
by Loder's first shot]. I then made for a tremendous
bull, the largest buffalo I ever saw. After a long chase I
got alongside of him, but my horse would not go close,
so that I could not hit him where I wanted. But at last
after firing a great many rounds out of my revolver he
stood still and charged at me. I was looking out and got
my horse out of the way. . . . Every time I came near
he charged. Several times he broke away and galloped
in the direction the herd had gone. After one of these
spurts, when the horse was rather blown, just after I
had headed him, he made a tremendous charge down a
hill at me. The horse, who was panting a good deal,
did not see him coming and answered very slowly to my
spur, and when I did get him to start the bull gained so
quickly on him that it was touch and go — but a tremendous
dig with the spurs, both at once, saved us. I leaned back
as I made the last despairing dig with the spurs and
fired my revolver into the bull's face, which then was
not more than a foot from my horse's tail. As a
soldier now came up with his carbine, we soon after-
wards killed him. He was a splendid animal. I would
have given anything for the skin off his head and
shoulders, but the weather was so hot it would have
been useless."

140 AMERICA AND THE WILD WEST [ch. v

The diary recounts similar hunts on the following days
from other camps, alludes to falls and lost horses, hats,
and other incidents of the chase. Loder tries stalking
both antelope and buffalo once or twice with little success,
but I think if I give two more extracts it will give the
reader a good idea of the sport which Loder and Pelham
had and what a hunter's life was like in the old days.

A few days after the buffalo hunt just recorded, Loder
had rather an amusing experience which might have
turned out otherwise than funny :

" We had started in chase of a herd of buffalo ; Pallardy
taking the lead on a rather nice-looking young horse,
and I was riding close behind him. All of a sudden the
herd disappeared down a bank, 20 feet deep and nearly
as steep as a wall. I kept an eye on Pallardy, expecting
he would turn off to the right or left, as it seemed an
impossible place for a horse to go down without breaking
his neck. But on went Pallardy as straight as a line.
There was no time for thinking, as we were going a racing
pace, so down I rode too — it would never have done for
an English foxhunter to have been cut out by an Ameri-
can ! Luckily both of us got down safely and were soon
galloping alongside of the buffalo. After the chase was
over and we were cutting up one of the beasts which v/e
had shot, I found that Pallardy had had no choice about
riding down the bank — his horse was running away Avith
him, and down he had to go whether he liked it or not ! ! "

On Saturday, August 23rd, they started back for their
old camp down the Red Willow, and on the way he and
Pelham had a good hunt after a herd of bulls. Loder
had to give up following a bull, " as he took to the very
rough country full of deep cafions near the creek."

" Pelham got one bull. I rode to the left after this
with Pallardy and two soldiers, and after a time we saw
a herd of about 100 buffalo coming full tilt towards us

with Sergeant following them — so we moved on into

their line and went for them. I killed a very fast young
cow after an exciting chase. At the beginning of my

LODER RETURNS TO AMAT 141

chase I fired my revolver at an old bull who was in my
way and he swung round and knocked a yearling two or
three times head over heels and stunned it for a moment.
This herd was feeding very nearly in our camping ground.
" In the afternoon I went up a hill at the back of our
camp and saw in the distance with my telescope 2,000 or
3,000 buffalo feeding our way. Some soldiers who had
been out on foot now came back and reported elk down
the creek ; so I took one of them and went off. I saw
elk tracks but no elk. The big herd of buffalo was now
within two miles of the camp." ^

There seem to have been some White-tailed Deer about,
but apparently none were got, though Loder mentions
Pallardy having wounded a splendid 12-pointer.

There is little more I need quote from the diary. They
make their way back to civilisation, visit the stockyards
at Chicago, arrive at New York on August 30th, enjoy a
trip up the Hudson. Of the scenery there Loder says
" nothing can be finer." They watch cadets drill at West
Point : " the views from here as well as the grounds were
charming." There is a long account of a seance with
" Dr. Slade the well-known medium," which did not
impress Loder very much. They drive about with " Joe
Busk," whom I take to be a relation, and then they sail
for Liverpool, on the Cunarder the Russia, on Septem-
ber 3rd. Edmund Loder arrived at Liverpool on Sep-
tember 13th, and was out deer-stalking on his father's
Forest of Amat with " Mr. Harrison " on Glencalvre, and
on September 17th I find he enters " Shot a fine 6-pointer
at 178 yards on Glencalvie " 24 days after he had killed
his last buffalo in Nebraska. Will anyone do that again ?

1 Loder and Pelham with their party killed a nmnber of buffalo in
Nebraska, but felt justified as the meat was wanted at Fort Macpherson.
Loder's own bag was, I think, five, and Pelham's about the same as far as
I can make out. The latter killed one old bull about 200 yards from camp.

CHAPTER VI

A PILGRIMAGE

" Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends ;

"Where roll'd the ocean, thereon was his home ;

Where a blue sky, and glowing clime, extends,

He had the passion and the power to roam ;

The desert, forest, cavern, breaker's foam.

Were unto him companionship ; they spake

A mutual language, clearer than the tome

Of his land's tongue, which he would oft forsake
For Nature's pages glass'd by sunbeams on the lake."

In June 1874, when 24 years of age, Loder left England
to see the world and returned home for Cliristmas in
December 1875. Four closely written quarto journals
and a number of long letters to his parents and brothers
are the chief sources from which the account given of his
travels in this chapter is taken. The mass of information
given in his diaries is so great, his experiences are so
varied and the countries visited so numerous, that even
in a long chapter and with comparatively few extracts,
chiefly from his letters home, only a bare idea of what he
accomplished can be given. Though we find liim in
Finland and among the Lapps in the summer of 1874, he
is hunting in Sumatra witliin that year and in the autumn
of 1875 he is in the Rocky Mountains ; in the intervals
he had crossed Europe, had seen a great deal of India
and of Indian Society, had hunted in Cashmere, in the
Neilgherries and elsewhere, had been with an Eclipse
exDedition to the Nicobar Islands, he had travelled in
Burma and in China, explored the volcanoes of Java,
visited Japan and the Malay Peninsula. All this was at
a time when travelling, especially in the East, was a very

142

LODER'S TRAVELS 143

much slower and more arduous undertaking than it has
been since. It must be remembered that the information
which is easy of access now in thousands of books was
then either impossible or difficult to obtain. To take
one small illustration : the knowledge which we now
possess as regards the various species of wild animals, on
wliich subject Loder became later a great authority, has
only been acquired slowly and painfully, through the hard
work, observation and collecting done by naturalists,
scientific travellers and hunters. Most of this knowledge
has been garnered, thrashed and sorted during the last
thirty years, in which task Loder played a great part.
This is particularly true with regard to such families as
those of the deer, sheep, goats and related families of
ruminants such as the antelopes, but the remark applies
also to the best-known species of mammalia and even to
the elephant, the rhinoceros and hippopotamus. A
simple way of testing the truth of this statement is to
compare Rowland Ward's first edition of Records of Big
Game, published in 1896, and the last, published in 1914.
Edmund Loder' s travels in 1874 and 1875 fall into three
divisions :

(1) Those with his brother Wilfrid in Sweden, Finland,
and Russia in the summer of 1874, and those which he
made subsequently alone.

(2) In India, Cashmere, the Andamans and Nicobars,
and in Burma, Sumatra, Java, China and Japan.

(3) In the U.S.A. and Canada.

I intend to concentrate attention on (2), viz. on his jour-
neys and experiences in Asia ; but shall make allusion to
the earlier and later travels as well.

Though many of Loder' s journeys were made on wheels,
on horseback and on foot, I calculate that he travelled at
an average rate of between 60 and 70 miles a day during a
little more than a year and a half in days when railways in
the East were few and trains and steamers slow. Some of
his sea voyages as well as his river journeys were made in
open boats, such as the native sampans in the Javanese

144 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

Archipelago. Those famihar with Loder's ceaseless energy
of mind and body would expect him to do all that any
human being could accomplish against time ; but a study
of these diaries reveals this instructive fact, that the
vast general knowledge which he carried so lightly in after
years, as well as his practical skill in almost every activity
of life, were gained by a constant application of his brain to
study and reflection and by persevering effort and experi-
ment. He is always on the hunt for books, he seeks
information from anyone he meets, and at this time takes
pains to note down all that interests him. In little things
the labour he gives himself is extraordinary, taking
barometer readings for altitudes throughout railway
journeys or noting the readings for the various crater edges
and crater bottoms of the Javan volcanoes, or registering
day and night readings of his thermometers. As has been
pointed out, he was an extremely rapid reader and absorbed
all worth remembering in any book into his memory. For
the edification of those who may have remarked in a notice
of him after his death certain remarks as to his want of
taste for literature, I give one illustration. He was at
Shanghai in 1875 from the 1st to the 5th of September, did
a great deal there and met many people, yet he finds time
to go to the Club to read, and " among " the books he reads
there, those he " likes very much " are :

" Travels in the Regions of Timoor, by Atkinson ; Travels
in Siberia, by the same author ; The Marvellous Country^
by Cozzens ; Six Months in the Sandwich Islands, by Bird ;
Prairie and Forest, by Gillmore ; The Straits of Malacca,
Indo-Chinu and China, by Thompson ; Japan and the
Japanese, by Aime Humbert."

On shipboard he writes in his diary that he " began " at
2 a.m. on August 23rd Moore's Life of Byron, and the same
day enters : " Finished this afternoon Moore's Life of
Byron " — and it is to be presumed that he slept part of
the night and went to meals.

To those who know the East, there will be little new in
Loder's descriptions of places, and few will be quoted at

EXPERIENCE GAINED IN TRAVELS 145

length. To modern big-game hunters Loder's first youth-
ful efforts all alone to obtain sport may appear to yield poor
results. Pioneers generally do have a poor and unprofitable
time. In no other direction is it truer than in regard to
exploration and big-game hunting that others reap the fruits
of the great labours of the forerunners. Loder was alone,
but never appears to have felt lonely, for he made acquaint-
ances and some lasting friendships. I can only remember
one instance where he was not welcomed or received with
kindness and hospitality. I found the following note at
the end of his journals, made after his return home :

" The question which, I think, has been asked me the
oftenest since I have been back is ' Didn't you feel lonely
in those out-of-the-way places ? ' I can't say I did in
Cashmere. Amidst such scenery as that I do not think any
true traveller ever does. The enthusiasm or rather the
excitement which I feel when amongst big mountains must,
I think, be experienced by nearly everyone who visits such
scenes, or the great labour required to reach them would not
be so cheerfully undergone."

And then he quotes Byron's " Where rose the mountains "
and the lines which are placed at the head of this chapter.

It will be seen that he had many disappointments. He
failed to get either markhor or ibex in Cashmere, he failed
to get his bison in India, he failed to obtain his elephant
in Sumatra, he failed in securing a really good wapiti in
America (and had to return another year there to shoot one
such as he wanted) ; he gave up the chances of much sport
to join the Eclipse Expedition to the Nicobar Islands, and
black clouds obscured the eclipse. But in spite of these
and other failures he purchased experience and laid up a
large store of pleasures of memory, which enriched his whole
after life.

In reading and re-reading these diaries I have found the
enormous amount of matter and the number of subjects
a great difficulty from the point of view of selection for this
memoir. I will indicate a very few of the subjects which

146 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

he writes of in great detail and which I do not deal with in
these pages. During his travels in Northern Europe, at
Trollhatten he discusses canals and the wonderful locks on
the Gotha River ; at Lulea timber, railway and mining
propositions ; estimates working costs and freights, de-
scribes saw mills, Swedish machinery, conditions of labour,
furnaces, smelting processes, the respective values of various
forms of transport fitted for such wild countries, and the
respective chances of strong tugs on rivers or the practica-
bility of employing donkeys. He visits iron mines, and at
Hendersoma he finds a " Professor " whose relationship to
the mine is not stated, but who is " quite a character, some-
thing between St. John the Baptist and Robinson Crusoe."
Out of Crusoe the Baptist he obtains all he requires for
his calculations of costs and profits. On his voyages he
describes the machinery and construction of the vessels he
sails in and compiles a list of all the largest liners of the day.
In Asia he studies and describes the cultivation of tea and
tobacco, and the trade in such articles ; he explores
volcanoes, and gives accounts of eclipses, occupations,
astronomical instruments, the arts and manufactures of the
countries he visits, and there are always descriptions of the
objects of interest and of the people wherever he may find
himself. He collects for himself and for friends at home,
horns, Lapp boots, stamps, beetles, skins, shawls, photo-
graphs, curios of all sorts, and keeps a careful account of
his expenditure. There is one curious omission when one
thinks of his subsequent interest in botany and flowers, for
he hardly ever notes anything in regard to the flora and
vegetation of the East. He notices of course, as other
travellers would, rhododendrons in India, edible rhubarb
growing wild in Cashmere and such things, but evidently
at this time he had no great knowledge of trees and plants.
In July Loder and his brother sailed from Stockholm to
Abo, where they had been in the company of Count Sparre
and a young Englishman, G. Turner of the Indian Civil
Service, " who is going to Russia to find out if he can get
across Asia to Yarkand and India " ; from Abo they go to

AT ST. PETERSBURG 147

St. Petersburg. There they are met by his uncle and aunt
Dr. and Mrs. Higginbotham. At this time Loder had in-
tended to go down the Volga to Nijni Novgorod, then to
Astrakhan, and across the Caspian Sea to Resht, thence across
Persia to Bushire, and so into India, but a letter from his
father persuades him to make straight for India. If he
wants to be in time for shooting in Cashmere his father con-
siders he should lose no time. The two brothers whilst at
St. Petersburg enjoyed themselves ; their two cousins, the
Misses Higginbotham, acting as their guides to all the sights
of the then wonderful city. Edmund Loder was very much
struck with the beauty of St. Isaac's Church, and each time
he returns to examine it admires it more and more ; he says,
" I admire the proportions even more than the magnificence
of the materials. The monolith granite columns of the
portico and the pillars of lapis lazuli, of malachite, etc., are
fine to the extreme."

Then he parts from his brother and sets out alone for the
East, visiting Berlin, Munich, Innsbruck, Verona, Padua
and Bologna on his way to Brindisi, and has a great deal
to say about these places and more about the scenery he
passes through. He complains of the journey through
Italy being very hot and tiring, and adds " the refresh-
ments are the worst I have seen." On his way to Brindisi
he met a Captain Macaulay, also bound for Bombay, and
long before they landed in India this acquaintance had
ripened into friendship. From Brindisi they sail on the
Simla for Alexandria.

" The Simla is an old and very well known ship (about
1,100 tons) ; for many years she was one of the P. & O. crack
boats. Her engines are very old-fashioned and do not work
directly on the screw shaft, but are connnected with cog-
wheels ! — things never seen now in marine machinery. The
captain told me these wheels were the plague of his life ;
from the time they came into port to the time they came
out of it, it was hammer, hammer away all day mending
and replacing cogs. Still the old ship went along at the
regular 10-knot pace of the P. & O."

148 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

On July 23rd he lands at Alexandria, describes the sights
and smells and says " a little of Alexandria goes a long way."
The rail journey to Suez took ten hours, and there he goes
on board the Bokhara.

" The cabins are arranged for four people each. . . .
Our numbers are so few that everyone has a cabin to him-
self. There may be forty passengers, not more — three
ladies and four children. We have our dog, which barked
over my head all night, a lot of sheep, which got loose and
were running all over the deck yesterday, a fine herd of
pigs, which get washed every day, and a lot of rabbits. . . .
Captain Macaulay is quite a friend of mine now. I shall
very likely after coming out of Cashmere go to his station,
Dera Ismail Khan, for markoor shooting. He has been 17
years in India and has never been ill there ; in one place
he and one other, out of 120 Englishmen, alone escaped
cholera, . . . There is also on board Colonel Thuillier,
Surveyor -General of India ... he was with Lord Mayo at
the time of his murder. He remembers Sir Percy and Lady
Burrell out there."

Like many other travellers he puzzles over the question
why the very blue Red Sea is called Red ; the only thing
red about it is that it is red-hot. Various are the origins
ascribed to the name, one being the occasional film, of
reddish dust that is seen on its surface after sand-storms,
but a more probable suggestion for the name is the redness
of the mountains on both litorals.

Loder's description of v/hat he did and saw in India
would alone fill a volume and undoubtedly interest those
who enjoy " travels " and like diaries. The extracts I
make here are selected mainly for the purposes of revealing
his character and youthful powers of observation and for
recording experiences and incidents of travel peculiar to
that time. Many things which he dwells on and which I
have to pass over recall a day that is dead. At Aden the
" hab-a-dibe " Somali boys are no longer allowed to swarm
round the liners braving the sharks, nor to clamber up the
masts and dive from dizzy heights for silver coins. The
mystery of the Aden Tanks and the interest in their dis-

INDIA 149

covery by our friend the late Sir Lambert Playfair has
passed, and it is many years since it could be stated,
as it is by Loder, " all the water for drinking purposes is
brought by ships from Bombay, 1,400 miles."

After exploring Bombay, he leaves for Jubbulpoor (615
miles), 1 and there he rides " the worst horse you ever saw "
to the Marble Rocks : " you will find," he says, " a picture
and description of them in Forsyth's Central India, a book

I left in London." In remarks on Indian Rainfalls he notes :
"At Cherapoonjee in Assam the average rainfall is 527
inches. In 1861, 805 inches fell, that is 67 feet ; in the
month of July alone, there were 366 inches, or more than

II inches a day."

He makes another stay at Meerut and thence proceeds
to the then terminus of the railway at Lahore. From
Lahore he journeys on in a one-horse dak-gharry 170
miles to Rawul Pindee * and then on another 40 miles by
hill-cart to Muree, where he has to wait for the arrival
of his rifles from England. These had been shipped from
Southampton when he left St. Petersburg, and his diaries
are full of his anxiety about them. One other trouble
weighs on his mind throughout the two years of his
absence, and is so characteristic of him that it is worth
mentioning — his diaries teem with the subject. An
optician near London named Wray had undertaken to
make him a large " object glass " for his observatory
telescope. For eighteen months Loder fidgets about this
object glass — whether Wray is really making it, whether
he can make it, and how he is getting on with it. He is
distressed that letters from home report nothing, or no-
thing definite, on this important matter, and in his letters
he is always imploring one or other member of the family
" to find out." It is not till he finds himself at Boston
at the end of the next year that he gets any peace of

^ At Jubbulpur Loder had letters to Colonel and Mrs. Coote and was
entertained by them. Of Mrs. Coote he says : " A charming person,
quite young. Colonel Coote has been 32 years in India and Burma."

2 I retain Loder's old-fashioned spelling of names and animals.

150 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

mind on this subject ; there is then this entry in his
journal, after going to the great optician Alvan Clark :

" Alvan Clark has an 8-inch O.G, about 9 feet 6 inches
focus, all but finished, which I can get for £150. If Wray
has done nothing yet I shall telegraph for it."

This persistence of mind will probably bring him back
to many of his friends as it does to me.

During his weeks of waiting for his rifles at Muree he
is entertained by Mr. Lesley Probyn, Colonel Johnstone
and " the Maclagans," and receives hospitality from Sir
Henry and Lady Davies at Government House, and
others. On one occasion we find him dining with Colonel
Younghusband (Captain Cautley, A.D.C., a Colonel and
Mrs. Miller being also there). With the Davies he plays
whist and he likes them : " Lady Davies is very pleasant
— he is generally voted a stick," but Loder does not
agree, and found him pleasant enough and enjoyed being
with him. He remarks that " Badminton is a great
game here." Loder's generation will remember this game
as the short-lived precursor to lawn-tennis. Loder has
now an Indian servant called Antony, who gives him some
trouble and inspires the following a propos Indian ser-
vants and some others :

" If they are steady and honest they are stupid and
useless, because one can do everything quicker and better
than they can ; if they do their work well and smartly
they are sure to have some bad quality hidden for a time
— they are either thieves or drunkards. My man Antony
is as smart a servant as I ever saw, but I know he drinks
and would not trust him further than I can see him.
He has great temptations to drink here, for I am waiting
to hear of the arrival of my rifles at Bombay . . . still,
when he is three-parts tipsy and looks as bad as possible
he has all his wits about him and puts my studs into my
shirt all right and does not hand me a boot when I want
to brush my hair."

After many recorded warnings he at last cures Antony
for a time of his nasty habit by treatment so drastic and

A DRUNKEN SERVANT 151

so unusual in Loder's ways with subordinates that I
record it with its beneficial results. When at Amritsar
in the following November there is this entry :

" Here my servant got beastly drunk. ... I almost
made up my mind to send him about his business. He
IS an uncommonly useful man when sober, so I deter-
mmed to try the effect of a good licking. So when I
found h)m lying in this state I kicked him till he got up,
and then nearly knocked him down with a sounding box
on the ear, but just picked him up again with a corre-
spondmg slap on the other side ; in this way I played
upon him as long as I conveniently could and finished
up by knocking him down and leaving him on the ground."

Subsequently at Delhi after no signs of relapse Antony
admitted to Loder : "Master gave me good sense the
other night. I'll not drink any more hquor." But alas !
before the winter was over he fell again and was dis-'
missed.

He does not get much encouragement as to the pros-
pects of sport from his friends at Muree :

"Everybody here with one accord repeats the same
tale— I suppose you know you have not come out here
m the right season for big game.' They say the grass is
so high that one can only shoot in the hot weather when
It has either died down or has been burnt for miles."

On the other hand, the following bag got by a man
named Wilson, whom he meets at Muree, must have
whetted his appetite for Cashmere. In the previous
" April Wilson got 8 ibex and 13 bears and a total bag
of 31 head." He hunts all over Muree in vain for a
Shakespeare, but picks up Kinloch's book on Big Game
and reads it.

On September 4th his rifles arrive and he sets out with
Antony another khitmagar, a bheestie and twelve coolies
carrying his tent and bedding with his stores packed in

152 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

kiltas.^ The track was along the River Jhelum and he
does the thirteen marches to Baramoola in six and a
half days.

Loder's main hope was to obtain the Cashmere stag
{Cervus cashmirianus), commonly known as barasingh.*
It must be remembered he was a hunter of red deer ; each
man who loves a rifle has a favourite use for it. He had
made up his mind that the rutting season would give him
the best chance of obtaining barasingh, as the stags are
" roaring " during the mating season and betray their
whereabouts. The barasingh's call and challenge is not
a roar like a Scottish stag's or the Maral's, but a sort of
squeal. Judging from my own experience in strange
country, it is rather doubtful if the roaring season is the
best, for stags are then restless and on the move day and
night in great Asiatic mountains and forests ; the stalker
too often after great labour to reach the place where a stag
has been roaring, gets there only to find that the beast
is roaring on another mountain. However, a sportsman
has the encouragement of locating stags and the excite-
ments of stalking against time in constant uncertainty.
Loder was too early for the roaring of the Cashmere stags,
so he " put away " time after the bears. The chances
he got by day at bears were few and far between. The
most favourable time for killing bears in Cashmere is on
bright moonlight nights when they are up the walnut trees
or going to and returning from the native cornfields.

Loder was unlucky with the moon, but succeeded in
getting both the black and the brown bears, though only
after many disappointments, some due to the mistakes
of his shikaries and some to his own lack of experience
at this game. Few men in their sport have been less
helped by luck than he was, and he bought his wonderful

^ Kiltas : wicker-work baskets covered with leather and fitted with
a lid ; the kiltas are carried on the back, the rest of the bunderbus on
the men's heads.

2 The barasingh of Cashmere must not be confused with the barasingh
of India (the Swamp Deer, C. duvauceli). The Cashmere stag is also
called Hangul.

BEARS IN THE LOLAB VALLEY 153

experience and reached success by indomitable persever-
ance and skill. Many pages of his diary are devoted to
the bears, but one or two extracts from his letters will
suffice.

*' LoiiAB Valley, September 22nd.

" I date this letter as above, but I am not at all sure
of the date, as it is about eighteen days since I left Muree
and civilisation. I am not writing in very good spirits,
as I have had the very worst possible luck in shooting ;
but that I -will come to presently.

" From Muree to Baramoola is 125 miles (about) and
is divided into thirteen marches. I made six double
marches and one single march and so got to Baramoola
on September 10th, The scenery all along the route is
fairly pretty but nothing wonderful. . . . Some of the
marches are very stiff ones on account of the badness of
the track and the number of steep descents and ascents
across ravines, besides which the sun is tremendously
hot. . . . One day we had very hard work : I got the
mules, etc. (four to assist the heavily charged fourteen
coolies), off at 6 a.m. from Ghurree and made a rapid
march of eight miles to Huttian at 9.30 a.m. At 2 p.m.
I got the mules off, but before they had gone a couple of
miles, when they were going along a narrow path on the
side of a very steep slope, two of them jostled each other
and one went over the edge of the path and rolled head
over heels, head over heels, for three or four hundred feet.
The mule of course was smashed up and killed, but some-
how or other his load was very little damaged. Beside
other things, he was carrying a soft carpet-bag in which
were two deer-stalking telescopes, and on the top of the
load was the heavy 12-bore rifle. (By the time they got
going again it was nearly dark.) . . . We were still a
long way from Chikotee, the next rest-house. I hurried
on and got in about 8 p.m. Here I found Capt, Cautley,
who was coming the other way, and he gave me some
supper and after that I went to sleep. The next morning
I found my servants and mules had come up. . . . How
they got there in the dark I do not know ; the road at
last is frightful, steep descents full of big stones and
rocks.

" At Baramoola one gets into a boat and is towed,

154 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

punted or rowed along. The boats are long flat-bottomed
things. The boatman and family live on the stern and
one has the bows to oneself. ... I had one for myself
and one for the servants. The dinner is cooked in their
boat, and when ready the boats are brought alongside
one another and it is served on one's tent table — altogether
it was a pleasant mode of travelling after the long hot
marches. . . . The next morning we got to Sopoor, a
scattered town just where the river (Jhelum) runs out of
the Walur Lake. Instead of going direct to Srinagur I
decided to go to Alsoo on the north of the Lake and from
there march ten miles over the hills to a small village,
Derdapoora, in the Lolab Valley and see if I could not get a
few bears, as it is hardly yet the right time for barasingh,
ibex, or markhor. . . . [He reaches and leaves Alsoo.] I
had a couple of native shikaries (Cashmeeries), Lolab men,
who are supposed to be good for bears. We had a stiff
climb for two or three hours and then had a fine view of
the pretty valley of Lolab, a fine, flat, cultivated plain ;
with many tillages, surrounded by mountains none of
them very high, but many of them covered with high
timber. The villages are all hidden in large groves of
fine walnut-trees and at this time of year the walnuts
are just ripe, and the bears come from the hills at night
to the outskirts of the villages and eat the corn, walnuts
and fruit. I stayed five days at Derdapoora and got
nothing, although every night except one I heard two or
three bears and was within ten yards of one at least each
night, but as there was no moon I could never see to shoot.
" Two or three nights I slept by the side of a field of
Indian corn rolled up in my blanket, and twice a bear
came and I could hear him tearing down the corn with
his teeth and crushing the corn with his teeth with a
ghastly kind of noise in the dead of night, like the crunch-
ing of bones. The bear always gets the wind sooner or
later and goes off."

He describes missing one near at hand at dusk, and how
one close above him in a walnut-tree got his wind and in
" less than two seconds he was down the height of 20 feet
and gone. They are as quick and active as cats."

He tries various camps near villages and returns to one

BEARS 155

at a village called Siver ; by this time there was a fair
moon, and he gets one small black bear and wounds a
big one.

" Altogether after hard work almost all night and day
for eight or nine days I have got one tiny black bear's
skin. ... I cannot say much for the skill of my shi-
karies ; they are pleasant, willing men, very keen after
sport and with capital ears for hearing bears at night,
but I think they are a little clumsy and not careful enough
about wind. . . . There are two sorts of bears here, the
black and the red (or brown) bear. I have seen several
of each. . . . The men seem a good deal afraid of them,
but I am nearly sure they are almost always harmless
when left alone and very seldom charge when wounded.
. . . Sometimes they do some damage ; an officer was
killed here one night last year, and on the day I left
Muree a native was killed or badly mauled. . . . To
complete my bad luck in the shooting line, a cat scratched
in under my tent last night and stole away my parcel
containing the skins of the various birds I have shot
and has torn them up, scattering the feathers about all
round the camp."

Later he writes, after wounding a very large brown
bear (which he lost) :

" About an hour after this we heard a bear up in a
tree, and this time I had no difficulty in getting close
under the tree and could see the bear moving about. . . .
I fired a shell at him, hit him rather far back and he
began to come down the tree slowly. I came up close,
and seeing him quite plainly in the moonlight I gave
him the other shell in the ribs at a distance of about four
yards and he fell at my feet quite dead. The shikari
behind me thinking I was going to be clawed lost his head
and let off my second rifle uncommonly close to my head,
in fact I was in much greater danger from him than from
the bear. He was a full- sized black bear, which are never
very big in Cashmere ; this one weighed 220 ft. [His
bag of bears was eventually four brown and two black
ones.]

166 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

" A great many things are wonderfully cheap in Cash-
mere. Coolies for beaters, all day for 2 annas (Sd.).
My two boats each 60 feet long and 7 feet wide with a
couple of families on board Is. a day each. Chickens
from l|d. to 3d. each. Sheep 1*. to 25."

Loder reaches Srinagur on September 25th, and goes off
with two shikaries, Summat Khan and Sultana, recom-
mended to him " by Captn. Groeme (? Graeme), who gets
long leave every year and spends it in Cashmere," to
Keoge Nag — and camps at 8,000 feet — to try for markhor.
The markhor of the Kajnag is the variety known as the
Pir Panjal Markhor (Capra falconeri cashmiriensis) with
more or less kudu-like horns.

" In the early morning of October 1st I and the shi-
karies started up the mountain from this camp, in search
of markhor (which Keoge Nag is famous for), and in the
course of the day we reached a height of 12,200 feet above
the sea. The slopes on this mountain are very steep and
bad, loose stones, and long slippery grass and, high up,
large rocks. There are also a lot of dry weeds with large
leaves (wild rhubarb) which make a great rustling when
trod upon and make stalking difficult. I wore grass
shoes (sandals made of plaited rice straw). . . . All this
day we climbed, walked and spied, but saw no markhor ;
the last hour we came down in the dark, which was really
dangerous. The next morning I went up again a different
ravine to about the same height as the day before, and
this day we saw in the distance seven markhor moving
off westward. We could not get at them. About an hour
afterwards we saw seventeen more also making the same
way and watched them all over a skyline (except one
inferior one who laid down). This one I stalked and
was just getting to a place — it was not so very steep —
where I should have had a fair chance, when he heard
us rustle some dry leaves and I had to shoot at once at
him lying at 150 yards. I hit him and we found several
pieces of flesh in the bush behind where he was and a
large piece in a bush 40 yards away, but we never saw
him again after a second after I fired. I sent one of the
men down to camp for blankets and food and we camped

MARKHOR 157

out, about 10,500 feet above the sea. It snowed and
hailed a little in the night, but not enough to do any
harm. The next morning we went up again bearing in
the direction we had seen the markhor go. This day we
went up to 13,200 feet ; about midday it came on to
snow and blow and hail and it became even colder than
usual."

In fog and snow he gets momentary glimpses of three
markhor; he then camps high in another ravine, and
calls his camp " a precious cold one " :

" Besides, the tent was sopping wet and I felt the cold
a good deal. ... I get up every morning at 4. . . . I
have some trouble with the servants, as they feel the
cold a good deal. This ravine is full of ice or frozen snow
— a small glacier about 3 or 4 miles long and from a 100
to 40 yards wide. This of course tends to make the air
cold."

He has several blank days seeing cheetah tracks in the
fresh snow : " this the shikaries thought might partly
account for our not seeing markhor, as they are much
afraid of cheetahs." After persistent bad luck and hard-
ships he writes :

" I gave the order to strike camp the next morning and
march straight away eastwards over Keoge Nag towards
barasingh-ground 70 miles away. . . . After we got up
about 12,000 feet we saw two fine markhor, but they
went over the top — I think they heard the coolies, although
they were about three miles off. About an hour after-
wards we came in sight of two markhor — a small one
lying down and one really magnificent ^ one feeding. They
were about 400 yards off and in a place where one might
get within 100 yards if only the wind were steady, which
it certainly was not and I think now I ought to have
tried the shot even at that distance. But the shikaries
persuaded me to try the stalk, and before we had got

^ He estimates the horns to have been 50 inches long, " and instead of
being close together as most markhors' are they had a fine spread of full
3^ feet at the tips — I expect he would have weighed about 17 stone
clean ! ! Alas ! "

158 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

half-way I felt sure we were done, and when at last we
looked over the rock about 100 yards from where we had
seen them they were gone, and gone fast too, for we saw
them again 2,000 feet above us going over the top. We
went up to over 14,000 feet and saw their tracks in the
snow and saw that they were jumping and going at a
tremendous rate."

Snowstorms and bitter wind prevented his camping
and altered his plans, and he hunts a huge brown bear
on his way down to the timber line and lost his coolies,
made a big fire and " lay down for the night blanketless
and supperless 11,000 feet up on a snowy night." In the
night two of the servants turned up with food and blan-
kets and lanterns. He marches several days via Lolab
Valley, and on October 11th he camps at 10,000 feet
about ten miles beyond Walur Lake, making his way to
the Machil Hills for barasingh.

" I found a Major McKinnon and his wife camped here ;
he has been here three days, but has only seen two small
stags and has not heard them roar yet. ... As he is
looking about for game here I shall go on some miles to
another camp to-morrow."

He had an exciting time with two bears the next day
and got a good one, putting four bullets into the shoulder
within a few inches of each other.

" This is curious, as I fired at her once standing, t^vice
coming straight at me and twice slanting away, the four
last when she was going at a great lumbering gallop. As
soon as we had skinned the bear twenty-five to thirty
vultures came down and in less than ten minutes had eaten
up every bit of flesh. . . . Barasingh do not appear to
be at all numerous, and in fact all game seems to require
either a lot of work or a lot of luck to get."

The next day he bags three brown (or red) bears with
thirteen shots, all in a very few seconds, the greater part
of them when the bears were on the move — " eleven bullets

BARASINGH 159

hit, the first and one other missed ; the men loaded and
handed me the rifles well." He is disappointed at the
size of Cashmere bears ; his bears run to about 250 lb.,
and grizzly bears he has been told run from 1,200 to
1,600 ft)., and even to 2,000 Yh^

In this letter to his brother Wilfrid he turns to many
subjects :

" I do not hear anything about my 8-inch object glass.

" Please see that my name has been put down by
Uncle Hans for the Universities Club in Suffolk Street.

" I hope to get a good letter from you telling me all
about the stalking at Amat.

" You remember the silver-plated biscuit tin I had once.
I got it for the Varsity J-mile Handicap. It was put
away somewhere at 42 Grosvenor Square. Please stir up
a hunt for it. For a shooting trip out here a companion
would be rather in the way than otherwise, but I cer-
tainly should Uke one in America. I must not hurry
over such countries as China and Japan, where there is
so much to see and where I am not likely to be again.
The elder Lydekker is out here geologising, your friend
Barclay has been laid up at Srinagur with rheumatic
fever — I have not seen either of them.

" How did the stags in the Park [Whittlebury] do this
year ? did the draining improve their heads ? "

The next letter is posted at Lahore a month later,
November 9th, 1874. He discusses the news from Scotch
forests :

" I do not expect 22 stags will be killed on Coriemulzie
this year as I did to my own rifle last year between
Sept. 20th and Oct. loth. . . . Certainly deer-stalking is
a splendid sport, and for a continuance year after year I
do not think there can be any equal to it. Now the
markhor is a splendid animal and a rare one also, but it
requires all that to induce one even for a few days to go

^ He had been misinformed : 1,200 lb. would be a great weight for
a grizzly. Kodiak bears (C7. arctus middendorfi) may run over 1,6001b.
and up to 2,000 lb. Few bears except Alaskan and Polar bears weigh
over 1,000 lb.

160 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

through that tremendous exertion which climbing in such
mountains entails. Walking on Benaig and Ben More
is hard enough, but it is nothing at all to slipping on
grass slopes and climbing on steep banks of loose stones,
never getting a really firm foothold all day."

He describes his attempts to find barasingh from different
camps and " never seeing one.'''' " At last one day we
heard a roar (as we were sitting on the top of a hill) in
the valley below us. We had a dreadful climb down
some 2,000 feet." He found the stag always on the
move, and eventually had to stand on a steep slope with
slippery footing and shaking from his rapid descent and
to shoot through a birch-tree at a good stag about 150
yards off. " I had to fire as quickly as possible, and
missed him." However, his luck changed, and the next
day he gets his first stag, a moving one, with three bullets
behind the shoulder, the last two shots at the gallop.
This stag of 10 points, a beautifully shaped head and
like most at this season much out of condition, was a
large beast ; and weighed in three portions he scaled
27 stone " clean." Subsequently he sees a good many
fine stags, but has few shots and then difficult ones in
bush when he was " blown." He loses the chance of a
shot at a very fine stag through his shikari knocking his
rifle against a stick in handing ' it to him too quickly.
During these days he has some sport with bears and one
evening kills a musk deer " with very fair tusks." *

Even this little fellow gave him some trouble.

" Coming downhill . . . we came suddenly on a musk
deer among some fir trees. I fired two barrels at it as
it darted away and hit it both times but did not stop it.
Taking my single rifle I had a run after it, falling of
course ever so many times ; one of the falls was a bad

^ In after years when I was his companion he never climbed or worked
without his rifle in his own hand, and when after sheep generally at full
cock.

2 Musk deer {Moschus moschiferus) is a small deer without horns but
with long upper tusks 3 to 4 inches long.

CASHMERE 161

one and I cracked the woodwork of the stock right across.
. . . The shikaries get an equal weight in silver for the
musk in Cashmere. I do not know what it is worth in
London. I stayed in this neighbourhood several days
more, saw and heard one or two more stags but got no
more shots. On October 27th I determined to give it up
and go south again,"

He marches on foot double marches (one day three
marches) and reaches Muree on November 3rd.

" Before I went into Cashmere everybody said ' Now is
the time, you will get splendid shooting,' but I don't think
it is the best time at all. Five or six hundred Englishmen
now go into Cashmere and shoot, make a noise and disturb
the game ; this makes the game stick to the jungle, and if
they feed at all in the open it is at night. ... If I was
going into Cashmere again I should try and get in by the
Muree route by the first week in March. ^ At that time all
the hills are covered with snow. The game is crowded into
much smaller space. There are only certain places where
they can get food. . . . The tracks in fresh snow will show
in what places game is plentiful, and a wounded beast can
be tracked for any distance. I got several flying squirrels
with very nice fur, and shot several woodcocks and wild
duck when on the march ; of the latter there are any quan-
tities. . . . Moonal pheasants I saw a good many of, when
I was on the hills looking for barasingh, but I never shot at
one. There is a very fine bird, something like a capercailzie,
only grey and white ; it lives very high up, about 13,000
feet. Of monkeys I saw two kinds, one small and one large.

" Srinagur seemed to be a horribly dirty place ; the
people all dirty. The river is clean, and all the chief shops
have a river frontage, so all necessary shopping can be done
by boat. Cashmere sha%vls are made in Cashmere, but the
goats which furnish the material are beyond Ladak and will
not live in Cashmere.

" The beauty of a Cashmere woman is world-renowned
and I suppose it must be a fact. ... I went into a great
many villages in various parts of Cashmere and a plainer
lot of females I never saw. Among the men, on the other

1 By April 15th most stags have shed their horns. Besides, at thia
time of year the game is not half so wide awake.

162 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

hand, I saw several very handsome. I did not see any high-
caste natives, all that 1 had anything to do with were dirty
and told lies habitually. Beyond Cashmere northwards
I expect there must be some extraordinarily fine mountain
scenery. Where I shot my barasingh, Nanga Purbal Moun-
tain seemed to be close by. It is a splendid peak (I beheve
26,500 feet). Cashmere is undoubtedly a beautiful place,
with a pleasant climate to spend the summer in . . . but
the country has been overrated in many points in books."

Many years after I asked Loder if in all his travels he
had ever seen such beautiful and magnificent scenery as
that of the valleys on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees south
of Mt. Perdu in the months of May and June. He con-
sidered this question some time and then said, " The most
magnificent mountain scenery I have ever seen is, I thmk,
that of Cashmere. Though the other is very, very
beaidifuV^

On his return to Muree he sold his surplus stores ; he
probably took a dozen of whisky into Cashmere — he sells
the remaining eight bottles for Rs. 12. How does this
sound in these days ? He next writes on November 19th
from Lucknow :

" At Lahore I found the Probyns, who had been very kind
to me at Muree— Probyn lent me a horse and we rode about
the place together. The buildings are some of them rather
interesting but nothing very grand. Lahore was the Sikh
capital of Runjeet Singh, the great Maharajah of Cashmere
from 1780 to 1839. He was nearly a match for Lord Gough
in the Punjab Wars. Runjeet Singh was very fond of
horses, and when he died he left 1,300 bridles, besides eight
millions of money and the famous Koh-i-noor Diamond."

Elsewhere Loder refers to the Sikh War and the battles
of the final campaign ending with the victory of Goojerat
in February 1848 ; of Lord Gough he remarks that he " was
a rash Irishman, a brave man but not a good General.
Whenever he got into difficulty he used to order a charge —
' Give 'em the could stale, boys ! ' "

Later when in Burma he records that

AN OLD SIKH CHIEF 163

" At Moulmein I met a fine old Sikh who had commanded,
at the battle of Chillianwallah, the cavalry of his uncle or
cousin ' Gholab Singh,' the successor of the famous Run-
jeet Singh. This fine old chief is now at Moulmein exiled
from his country by the Indian Government. I must say
I think his case a hard one. The Sikhs never rebelled
against us, they only defended their country. After being
defeated they surrendered with all the honours of war.
Duleep Singh, the heir to the throne of the Punjab, is
living in England on a pension of £25,000 a year, while my
old friend at Moulmein has to live on a pension of 90*. a
month. It was a fine sight to see the grand old fellow
describing the Battle of Chillianwallah, where he was nearly
victorious. His flashing eyes and clenched hands showed
that even now he was ready to be fighting again ; in fact,
he told me that he should like nothing better than to be
allowed to lead a regiment against the King of Burma, with
whom at this time (April 1875) there seemed to be every
chance of our having a war."

From Lahore he visited Amritsar, the sacred city of the
Sikhs, when it was crowded with gaily dressed natives
on the last day of the Hindu holiday, and describes the
Golden Temple and Causeway " standing in the beautiful
Lake of Immortality."

Then he describes all he saw at Delhi, and writes :

" There is but one city in the world which can dispute
the palm of so much glory with Delhi, and that is Rome . . .
but while Rome gradually grew from a small beginning to
be mistress of the world, Delhi was founded by invaders and
was disputed and taken possession of alternatively by the
different conquerors who were attracted by the splendours
of India, and at last became the subject of a curious super-
stition, which is still accepted, that the destinies of the whole
Peninsula were allied with hers, so it was that the English
were never considered legally masters of India until Delhi
came into our possession. The history of Delhi is therefore
the history of India — the history of between thirty and forty
hundred years. ... In no other place in the world, not
even in Rome itself, does there exist so enormous an
assemblage of ancient monuments. . . . This plain may be
regarded as the National Archaeological Museum of India."

164 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

And he proceeds to describe all he saw. He seems to
have been more interested in the Kutub Minar than in any
other building he saw in India ; he relates the legends of the
origin of the Tower (227 feet high, 46 feet through at the
bottom and 10 feet at the top).

" Close by the Kutub is a tank- well into which men and
boys jump foot foremost 80 feet down for coppers — I saw a
boy not more than six years old do it, and also a shrivelled
up old man of between 60 and 70."

In this letter he refers to the deerstalking news he had
from home and says :

" I shall be much interested to see Button's and the
Corbui stags' heads. I know both well ; I had a misfire
at Button's when I had him broadside at 150 yards, and on
another occasion shot at him at 400 yards and killed a small
stag on the other side of him. After the shot he made for
the Tullochen march and I ran to cut him off, and presently
he almost ran against me and I dropped on one knee and
had a quiet aim at him at about 60 yards ; but alas ! my
rifle was locked, as I had been running over rocks, and he
came in sight so suddenly I forgot to unlock. The Corbui
stag had a very even head last year. I stalked him for many
hours on one very cold day last year and did not get a shot,
and on another day after crawling over 1,000 yards I got
an easy shot at 90 yards, but my fingers were so numbed
that I touched the trigger without feehng it and fired before
I had put the sights on him and the bullet went I don't
know where."

These confessions of a great stalker show him to have been
in early life a mere mortal like ourselves.

" After leaving Delhi I came to Agra. Here there is not
quite so much to see as at Delhi, but what there is, is truly
splendid." He describes and gives the history of the Taj
Mahal, and two quotations he gives are worth referring
to : " The Pathans designed like Titans and finished like
jewellers " (Bishop Heber) ; another much longer one he
quotes from an " old writer," ends thus : " Suffice it, Love
was its author. Beauty its inspiration, a poem in marble,
an anthem in stone."

BENARES 165

" In Srinagur and again at Amritsar I ran up against a
very pleasant and exceedingly interesting man of the name
of Jager, a German Professor. He has been everywhere
and knows everything. He published a book in Germany
a short time ago about the Philippine Islands, which he
describes as being the most favoured spot on the globe."

His next letter is from Benares, November 24th.

" I got a letter from Gen. Ramsay saying that it was no
use my coming into his district for shooting just now, as
the jungles are one sea of grass, but giving me a letter to a
gentleman at Allyghur, where there is some of the best black-
buck shooting in India. He also says, ' You will have such
shooting in Assam as we never knew up here, though I re-
member the time when fifty tigers were killed here in a
season.'

" When I found that my 12-bore rifle did not kill bear
and barasingh dead on the spot, big as it is, I began to feel
that I should be nervous if I had to face a large beast like
rhinoceros. ... I WTote to Reilly telling him that if he
had a second-hand double-barrelled central-fire, 8-bore
rifle at about £35 he was to send it out at once." [Reilly
sends him at his father's request a new one for £40.]

He meets a man of the name of Haden, stationed at
Nagpore in Berar, who promises him if he comes there he
shall see bison, and this excites him and he writes a great
deal on the subject.

" These bison measure 17 hands on the true shoulder, but
if the highest part of the hump, or rise on the withers, is
taken 20 hands has been measured on a big bull. They are
said to charge in the most determined way ; one Haden shot
at and wounded at 250 yards charged him at once, but he
luckily killed it at 80 yards. They charge so furiously that
they say one is quite safe if one gets to a tree to dodge
round." ^

Loder is not much impressed with Benares as a town, but
more with its history, also with the smells of the sacred wells :

^ Bos gaurus — the Indian wild ox, always called a " bison " — 20 hands
3 inches has been recorded as height at hiimp (18 hands 3^ inches at
shoulder).

166 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

" into these the people are unceasingly throwing flowers and
other offerings, and the stink which comes out of the wells
is something beyond description." He, however, enjoys
the " splendid pictures " of the ghaut or landing stairs of
the Ganges, with the people in so many bright colours
flocking to the river and behind them the " mass of various-
shaped carved roofs, walls of temples, palaces and mosques."
On December 3rd he is at Shahabad, and the next day
he writes home from Secunderabad, having travelled there
on " the Nyzam's new railway " :

" This railway has only been open a few weeks. ... I
came with a man, R. E. Wright ; he has been engaged in
superintending the construction of the line as one of the
engineers. He put me up at his house."

At Hyderabad he stays with an interesting gentleman,
Captain Palmer, " a white-haired man about 68," and is
most hospitably entertained by him and his family, who
make his stay a particularly pleasant one ; he is, however,
sorely puzzled as to the relationships in the Palmer house-
hold and for weeks reverts to the subject. " Some of the
family are Eurasian, but are received in all society here."
Of three young ladies, two of whom are " very black and
one white," he says he thinks they are sisters but not the
daughters of his host ; there are besides two Miss Palmers
who call Captain Palmer " Uncle John " — ■" but I think he
must be their great-uncle." Then the puzzle gets worse as
" a baby made its appearance before dinner and must be-
long to a " married sister." He is floored again when Mrs.
Palmer tells him this baby is her great-great-granddaughter,
and " she calls Captain Palmer her son, though she appears
to be younger than he is by ten years and I would not take
her to be as old as even that would make her."

Loder was always worried if he could not make out who
the people were he happened to be with. Ten days later
in the jungle he has another go at the problem and inci-
dentally makes several interesting observations :

HYDERABAD 167

" Captain Palmer was in the Nizam's service until some
years ago, when the English [authorities] no longer allowed
the Hyderabad contingent to be officered even by resident
Englishmen, but only by men appointed by the Govern-
ment. Captain Palmer's grandfather was a great man
about the Nizam's court years ago, before they were in any
way ' protected ' by the British ; he married a high- caste
native lady. Captain Palmer's father was a great merchant
at Hyderabad and a man of influence about the Court . . .
they say that till he married the present Mrs. Palmer he
lived and entertained like a native noble. The three
young ladies I found here are all unmarried. There is
another lady who I think must have been a Miss Palmer,
who is married to H. A. Krohn, who used to be at Magdalene,
Cambridge, and who used to run at Tenner's. He is assist-
ant tutor to Sir Sala Jung's sons. Pen well, who was at
Cambridge with us [he is writing to his brother Wilfrid
Loder], is the other tutor."

A month later when he is at Calcutta writing to his father
he again tackles the Palmer problem, and mentions that
he has met a " Hastings Palmer " who is about to go to
England, and he begs his father " to show him some kind-
ness," " as he and his family were very kind to me."

" He is not particularly good-looking, but is one of the
best-natured men alive and has plenty of brains. I think
he is a fair billiard player — Wilfrid might try his hand
with him. He is brother to one of the girls at Hyderabad
and cousin to the other two, so you see I made another
mistake in calling them three sisters."

Captain Palmer introduces Loder to a notable sportsman,
Colonel Eraser, Assistant Resident at Hyderabad,^ who
invites him to a tiger hunt and procures for him an invita-
tion from a native chief, Vikar Ooloomira, to a dinner
given to Lord Camperdown.

" 1 went to the dinner on Monday evening with Mrs.
Palmer and one of the Miss Palmers, driving as far as the

^ Colonel Fraser had been more than seventeen years Assistant Resi-
dent, and his father was the Resident.
12

168 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

Minister's house. ... As soon as all the guests had
assembled in the garden, we all got on to elephants and rode
through the town about a mile to the Nawab Vikar Ooloo-
mira' s house. The approach was lined with a private guard
of honour, one detachment of which were Amazons. . . .
At the bottom of the large flight of steps we were each
received by a near relation of our host, and at the top of the
steps by the gentleman himself, dressed in a kind of dressing-
gown of lilac silk with a pattern on it. When the elephant
arrived with the Resident and Lord Camperdown, the Vikar
Ooloomira went down the steps to meet them, and taking
one on each arm marched them up. . . . There were
only about 100 people [at dinner], but one did not get over-
much to eat, although there was plenty there."

He proceeds with a description of the illuminations,
entertainments of dancing girls, the distribution of attar
of roses to the guests ^ and so on ; remarking, "Both
dancing and singing were of the mildest description."

" Wednesday the 9th of December just after sunrise the
transit of Venus began, which I watched through my deer-
stalking telescope mounted on a stand ... I dare say you
will see plenty about it. I threw the image of the sun on a
sheet of paper and the round black spot could be seen by
everyone distinctly."

The next day the tiger-shooting party started at 5 a.m. ;
it consisted of Colonel Fraser and Loder, Lord Camperdown,
Colonel Wilkinson and a Captain and Mrs. Pearce. Loder
describes with enthusiasm the splendid camp arrangements,
the tents, measurements and furniture and so on. They
have several blank days from different camps, three spotted

^ A propos the attar of roses he says : " The Resident and Lord Cam-
perdown probably got eight bottles each, Colonel Fraser five, I got
two and ordinary people one each." This remark amused me and re-
minded me of a story the late Earl Grey told me, then Albert Grey and
anything but an ordinary or common kind of man. He was walking
with his son the present Earl Grey and asked the boy, " What are you
going to be, a soldier ? " " No," said the little boy, " / don't want to
be killed." " A sailor, then ? " suggested his father. " No, / don't
want to be drowned." " Then what are you going to be ? " asked his
father. " Oh, just a common sort of man like you."

TIGER-SHOOTING 169

deer [Cerviis axis) being the only big game seen. He de-
scribes at length the one successful day and how at last the
three howdah elephants carrying Lord Camperdown, the
Pearces, and himself took their places with seven pad
elephants round the place where the tiger was.

" For a long time nothing was heard of the tiger, till at
last with a roar he made a rush through the bushes along the
whole line, but never showed himself. Two of the pad
elephants trumpeted and bolted, but were soon brought
back again. Again there was a long pause . . . but
presently I caught sight of four black stripes beyond some
thick grass and bushes about 20 yards from my elephant. . . .
As soon as I had fired the tiger sprang forward with a
tremendous roar. ... I have no doubt that my bullet hit
him from the way he roared and jumped. The next
person who saw him was Lord Camperdown on the other
side of the thicket. He got four shots at him quickly
one after the other; several of them hit him." [After a
good deal more excitement the tiger is killed.] " Colonel
Fraser divided the spoils in this way. The lady to have
the skin, he keeps the skull himself and the claws are to
be divided among the three guns."

He writes on Christmas Eve, 1874, from Hyderabad to
his father — very pleased with his brother Alfred's perform-
ances in the Freshman's Sports at Cambridge : High Jump,
Long Jump, 100 Yards, and winning the Hurdles :

" I suppose if he had not had so many other things he
could have shown them the way over the Quarter."

" Everybody says that just the time I talk about leaving
India is the beginning of the big-game shooting season.
This is very disappointing."

He began to fear that his Assam trip is doomed too.

" Friday last I had breakfast with Sir Sala Jung. Some
of the Palmers, Krohn and Penwell and one of his sons
breakfasted with us. . . . He is very proud of some horses
he bought at Lord Mayo's sale and of his Arabs. I thought
Sir Sala Jung a nice man when I first met him, but he im-

170 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

proves on acquaintance and is probably one of the best
natives in India. He speaks English very well and,
although he has not been out of India, is quite up in all
English ways. On the following day I drove with the
Palmers' party to a very pretty piece of water called Meer
Allum's Tank. Sir Sala Jung has a small steamer and a
steam launch, and these he had kindly ordered to be got
ready for us. He had also sent lunch and lots of servants
and a tent for the ladies. . . . We came back by another
way through the town. The streets are not fit for carriages,
so Sir Sala Jung sent us elephants, so we had everything we
could wish for."

The sights of Hyderabad are mentioned. At the tombs
of Golconda he says :

" Here and at Meer Allum's Tank I did what I have not
done since I left Eton, and that was made a small sketch.
Neither were very successful, for want of time and practice."

" The Lord Camperdown who was out tiger shooting
was at Eton just before I went ; he is about eight years older
than I am. . . . He was Captain of the Oppidans for some
time. His name was Duncan then."

" Christmas Day. You will see by this that I have spent
Christmas Day in a civilised place ; we had quite a fine
choral service this morning. . . . What I wrote about the
Palmers' family is not all correct and I have not made them
all out even now — Mrs. Krohn was not a Miss Palmer, but
a Miss Meadows Taylor, a cousin of the Palmers."

From Hyderabad Loder travels en route for Calcutta with
Hastings Palmer, who has " tents, servants, etc., at
Goolburgo, where a great fair was being held and he
persuaded me to stop a couple of days with him to see it.
He was there as a guest of a nephew of Sir Sala Jung's
(Mukri Magdoulah or some such name)." At the fair Loder
estimates there are 30,000 people, though the attendance is
put down at 100,000.

" I did not see anything worth buying at the fair, but
there were some splendid gold-thread carpets of all sizes
costing up to £200 each. The crowd was the sight, so gay

CALCUTTA 171

in colour, the dresses of the natives being chiefly white with
coloured bells, turbans and umbrellas."

He stays again at Jiibbulpore with Colonel and Mrs. Coote.
He is impatient for the 8-bore rifle to arrive so that he can
go to Java for rhinoceros and elephant.

" There is a new edition just published of Sir Samuel
Baker's book written in 1854, Hound and Gun in Ceylon.
He seems to have been in the habit of killing at least two or
three brace of elephants every morning before breakfast.
He shot usually with a 4-bore rifle ' and sometimes with a
3-bore, carrying 3-ounce and 4-ounce spherical bullets
respectively."

After a week in Calcutta he makes up his mind to go to
Darjeeling to see the finest views of mountain scenery in
the world.

" The country I go through is one of the best for shooting
(Parnea, Gulpjori and Kooch Behar, etc.), but it is too early
and a month is required to organise a shoot, as a line of at
least twenty elephants is required to be at such jungles."

Writing from Calcutta he gives an account of the spec-
tacle of a great evening party he attended with the Bayleys
at Government House given by Lord Northbrook and Miss
Baring.

" January 7th. I was introduced to the Bishop of Cal-
cutta ; he seemed a capital sort of fellow and looks a
sporting character all over and not like a High Church
Bishop. He is said to have trained ' Wild Darrell ' for
the Derby. I have played Badminton a good many times
altogether now since I have been in India, and play as well
as the average of people. Lawn tennis I have not seen out

^ Some of the old elephant hunters' rifles were extraordinary weapons.
It fell to me, after the Boer War, to disarm the natives in the Eastern
Transvaal, formerly a great elephant country, and I did it thoroughly.
I should think that in one railway truck load I sent to Pretoria there
was such a collection of ancient firearms as had never been brought
together, and included many enormous muzzle-loading and flint-lock
elephant guns. I had to send in all to be destroyed and did so, but was
sorely tempted to keep a few as curiosities.

172 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

here, but should imagine it was a better and more scientific
game. Why do you not persuade Papa now he has all those
builders at Whittlebury to make a good big cemented or
asphalted floor — the bigger the better — but say 60 ft. by
40 ft. If it was a little off the level it would be dry a few
minutes after rain and would be a lasting source of amuse-
ment. It could be used as a skating rink (only of course
it ought to be longer than 60 by 40 for that). ... It
would also be always possible to play either lawn tennis or
Badminton on it, but turf in England is only fit to play on
a small portion of the year. ..."

He had wanted to go 1,000 miles for black-buck shooting
at Allyghur, but those to whom he has introductions dis-
courage him, have no tent to lend him and say " black
buck have been very much shot lately," so he gives it up and
decides to go to the Neilgherries after visiting Madras.

At the end of January we find him at Madras, having
sailed from Calcutta on the Minian on the 18th, and got
the 8-bore rifle before leaving. Writing to his mother
he says :

" I do not think that I have told you that I have bagged
every head of game (it is true that these are not many)
that I have hit with the 12-bore rifle, which I consider was
a present from you as it was bought with the cheque you
gave me just before starting. ... I lost several bears which
I hit with the 1 2-bore gun, one with three bullets in him . . .
and I lost a markhor which was hit with the -450 Express."

He is pleased with the 8-bore (14 IB.) and finds it handy
and not clumsy, but condemns the ammunition sent out
with it :

" The cartridges are loaded with 5 drams of rather fine
powder and with shells weighing ^ ft». and solid conical
bullets of 4| oz. each. Now, there ought always to be
a greater proportion of powder to lead than that ; to
shoot a I Ife. shell one ought to have from 10 to 12 drams
of powder."

He writes pages on the subject, and on examining the
grooving he considers it is not constructed to take such

MADRAS 173

long conical bullets as have been sent. Finally he decides
to try seven or eight drams of powder and a 2-oz. spherical
bullet wrapt in a greased patch and to make his bullet
ten parts lead to one of quicksilver.

" Of course this would only be fit for such animals as
elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus and bison, and I
should think with such a weapon in one's hands the
grizzly bear would lose its terrors, but for him I should
load with pure lead bullet."

I think the following extract shows that he had for his
age and time a more than ordinary conception of sporting
ballistics and of the work of bullets :

" My idea is that if one got a fair shot at a rhinoceros
at 50 yards with the 8 -bore rifle loaded with 8 drams of
powder and a 2-oz. hardened bullet, if it hit him even
in the bone of the shoulder, it would go right through
and drive a plug of hone and skin out with it, leaving a hole
on the opposite side from which it went in as large as
one's fist. I long to have a shot to see if I am right. . . ."

Referring to Madras :

" I remembered that Dr. Oppert talked of an appoint-
ment at the Madras University, but never heard that he
was actually there. . . . When I arrived yesterday I
made inquiries and found out where he lived. He was
very much astonished and glad to see me and very pleased
to hear anything about Alfred."

Dr. Oppert becomes his guide. On a Sunday he goes
to the service at the Cathedral :

" The singing and the organ are the best I have heard
in India. The sermon was about an hour and ten minutes
long, by a ranter, Rev. S. Douglas. I sat out the hour
and then walked out."

Later in his travels he runs up against this parson once
more and remembers with horror the sermon he inflicted
on him at Madras.

174 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

Illustrating what scamps India produces, he writes :

" A great many natives (not many Europeans) are killed
every year by cobras. The Government offer a reward for
every snake killed. Well, what do the natives do but
quickly establish snakeries and rear snakes to kill for the
Government reward."

By January 27th he has reached Ootacamund (alt. 7,300
feet), travelling by rail to Metapollion and then with car-
riages and coolies via Conoor.

" The scenery up the Ghaut is quite different from any
of the hill scenery I have yet seen. One sees here a real
tropical jungle bamboo, tree ferns, rhododendrons and
orchids, and immense creepers in every tree.

" There is a young fellow staying at the hotel who
seems to be making much the same trip as mine. His
name is Littledale. He has come round by America and
Japan and has only just arrived in India. He proposes
going into Cashmere in April — I expect he will get good
shooting there at that season. He shot last winter on
the Rocky Mountains in Esle's Park. He got no less than
thirteen mountain sheep and several wapiti in two months'
shooting. He had the use of a dog, a cross between a
greyhound and mastiff ; the dog if put on the track of
sheep in the snow would run them by scent, and the
sheep when followed by a fast dog would run round and
round the hill for a short time and then come to bay on
some precipitous piece of rock. Here the dog keeps barking
at them and takes up their attention, and it is not hard
for a man to get within sixty or seventy yards and shoot
one or two. I think that he [Littledale] and I will prob-
ably go out shooting here — I hope to get sambur deer
at all events."

A few weeks later (February 16th) he writes to his
brother Wilfrid from " a hut in the west of the Neilgherry
Hills " :

" The Neilgherry Hills are very curious, they rise quite
abruptly from the surrounding country on the western

NEILGHERRY HILLS 175

side ; there is nothing but immense rocky precipices, re-
minding one more of those of the Yosemite Valley than
anything else I have seen. . . . The plateau is not by
any means level ; sometimes on the bottoms of the valleys
it cannot be more than 4,500 ft. above the sea, while some
of the highest hills are 8,500 ft. The western Neilgherries
are much like the South Downs about doubled in scale,
green grassy hills ; but the peculiarity is that the bottoms
of a great many of the valleys and a large number of the
slacks and small corries running up the hillsides are
filled wi+h shrubberies or Sholahs as they are called here.
These are of all sizes from hundreds of acres to only ^
acre. These shrubberies are composed of shrubs the names
of which I do not know, but they look much like box,
bay, laurestinus, etc., but the principal tree is the rhodo-
dendron, which grows here to a very large size — I have
measured some whose trunks were 11 ft. in circumference.
. . . They are now all in bloom and look very fine. The
game which inhabits these Sholahs is sambur deer,
woodcock, jungle fowl, more rarely jungle sheep (a kind
of small deer) and occasionally a tiger. Ibex are found
on or about the precipices on the western side. This ibex
is quite a different animal from what is called ibex in
Cashmere. It is very much smaller in the body and its
horns are much smaller still — I have heard of Cashmere
ibex horns reaching the length of 48 in. and 54 in., but
the longest horns of the Neilgherry ibex never exceed
171 in."

Loder kills his first sambur (as dead as a door-nail),
a pretty good stag — horns 33 inches long, 26 stone when
weighed in pieces next day — his first day out at 300 yards
" trotting along a hill on the opposite side of a valley
from me," creating a favourable impression on his shi-
karies. The next day he gets another sambur stag, four
" moving " shots, putting in three bullets.

With the "ibex" he has bad luck. His first falls
over a precipice " some couple of thousand feet," and he
did not get it ; another was " a good-sized doe with small
horns." Later he kills two more, " one a very fair buck
ibex." Meanwhile he gives a very long account of his
glorious day with a tiger whilst after ibex.

176 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

" After walking for some hours without seeing any-
thing at about 11 a.m. (when the sun was intensely hot)
I saw close to us a magnificent tiger prowling along by
some bushes close to a stream. I ran a little to the left
to get a better side shot and sat down ; just at that
moment the tiger came to a small stream and put down
his head either to smell if animals had crossed or else to
drink. Part of his body was covered by a rock so that I
could only see his head, neck and shoulders. Thinking
this a good opportunity to fire, as I must miss or hit a
vital part, I gave a shot just behind the shoulder with
my -500 rifle. The tiger was knocked clean over at about
90 yards, remained for a second on his back with all his
legs in the air. I had given my shikari the two spare
cartridges which I usually carry in my pocket to hold
in his hand, so that he might give them, to me quickly
in case the tiger charged. So certain was he that the
beast was done for that he ran forward shouting ' mergia !
mergia ! ' (he is dead, he is dead), but almost immediately
the tiger got up and returned nearly on his old tracks to
a Sholah at a great pace. I ought to have been able
to have given him a shot from my left barrel, but I had
opened the rifle to put in a new cartridge, and when find-
ing that the shikari had gone off with them I tried to
shut it up quickly, but the left-hand barrel cartridge was
a little way out and so got bent and became useless. So
had the tiger charged at this moment we should have
been helpless. . . . Tiger-shooting on foot is evidently
not a very safe pursuit."

This was the beginning of a long and exciting battle,
fully described — which through perseverance, courage and
skill ends in the tiger's death.

"As he lay with his body evidently humped together
on the rocks he measured 9 ft. 9 in. from the tip of his
nose to the tip of his tail. I have no doubt at all that
he would have measured 10 ft. on a piece of level ground.
Col. Fraser has killed more than 60 tigers and the largest
measured 9 ft. 10 in. Colonel Baigre has killed 195 tigers
and the largest measured 10 ft. 3 in. I have, however,
heard of one 10 ft. 6 in. It was a great pity I was unable
to weigh this tiger, for he was so big every way — I should

SPORT IN THE NEILGHERRY HILLS 177

not have been surprised if he had turned 500 ft>. judging
from the 8 ft. 10 in. tiger we killed at Hyderabad, which
weighed 320 Ib.^ The vitality of the beast was extra-
ordinary, for when he was skinned I found that seven
bullets had hit him either in or just behind the shoulders
besides one which hit him on the top of the spine."

After 11 days here he puts down their bags :

Littledale — 7 ibex, 1 sambur stag and 1 hind.

Loder — 3 ibex, 2 sambur stags and 1 tiger.

To this Littledale adds a fair sambur stag and Loder
two buck ibex.

" Littledale has killed three better ibex than mine.
Total bag 12 ibex, 5 sambur and 1 tiger — about 15 days'
shooting."

" The Neilgherry ibex would be good sport if they were
bigger, but they are not big enough to make it worth
while to take the trouble they require, and their horns
are ridiculous." *

1 In Rowland Ward's 7th edition (1914) of Big Game Records a tiger is
recorded 1 1 ft. in length before being skinned, killed at Sconda (owner
the Maharaja of Datia) ; 500 tb. is a big weight, but a tiger killed in the
Central Provinces by Major M. D. Goring Jones, 9 ft. 11^ in. long, is
credited with the enormous weight of 700 tt). The weight and the exact
round figure may excite a doubt, but I think it is a doubt that may not
be justified. Very few lions have been weighed, but lions of over
600 ft. weight were killed in Algeria and approaching this weight south
of the Vaal ; and this 700 ft. tiger's forearm measured 22 in. in circum-
ference, indicating a most exceptional beast.

* The so-called Neilgherry " ibex " (Hemitragiis hylocrius) is really
one of the family of the tahr. Mr. Littledale has a fine head with a horn
length on curve of 16i in. and Loder's best was 15| in. The gradations
between the sheep and goat species are very difiicult to follow. Taking
the bharal [Pseudois nahura) as intermediate sheep and goat, the Cau-
casian bharal {Capra caucasia) becomes a goat with ibex-like horns,
and a table of steps to true ibex and wild goats is possible. The tahr
takes ofE in another direction and is also a link between the goats on one
side and with serows and gorals on the other. The takin is allied to the
serow and the serow to the musk ox and the Rocky Mountain goats.
At least it seems to me that almost consecutive chains can be made
from tahr or the bharal through all the wild goats and all the wild sheep
till the bighorns of America and Asia and the argali sheep are linked
up with the arui of Africa and the mouflon of Etirope and all the wild
goats and ibex (Asiatic, European and African) in a similar way. So
that if the Neilgherry tahr is not a big animal, he is scientifically a very
interesting intermediate beast.

178 A PILGRIMAGE [en. vi

After this hunting trip Loder returned to Ootacamund
and then went down to Trichinopoly, and gives full
descriptions of the wonders of the Island of Serringhorn
and the Pagoda of Tangore. He returned to Calcutta
from Madras eventually by steamer in the company of
Sir Frederick Haines, C.-in-C. of the Madras Army, and
Col. Gough. " I liked Sir F. very much."

On March 19th he writes home and devotes a good deal
of space to subjects dealt with in a particularly interest-
ing letter from his father with which he has been very
pleased. He gives his father advice with a plan as to
how he should build the stable clock tower at Whittle-
bury. In this letter he says :

" I have just read the Travels and Adventures of the
Revd. Joseph Wolff, D.D. I think I had seen the book
before, but I have read it with great interest.

" There was a very interesting exhibition here (Calcutta)
of curiosities brought back by the Yarkand expedition
— costumes, minerals, skulls, horns and heads of Ovis
amnion, Ovis poli and maral" (which is a large deer almost
identical with the wapiti of America ; it is found in the
forests near Kashgar).^ '' I wanted to measure the Ovis
poli heads, but when I inquired after them I found they
had all been packed up and are going over to England,
. . . The first pair of Ovis poli horns (far bigger than
any Ovis atnnion) belong to a Colonel or Captain Gordon.
They have already started for England and will be at
Edwin Ward's in Wigmore Street." (He sends directions
for his brother Wilfrid to measure these and any Cashmere
stags or wapiti, etc., he may find there.)

1 Maral is not the Yarkand stag. The maral (C. elaphus moral) is
found in Persia, in the Caucasus, Asia Minor and the Crimea. It is certain
that Loder is referring, not to a Yarkand stag (Cervus yarcandensis), nor
the true maral, but to the Tien-Shan wapiti, wrongly described at first
by Dr. Severtzow as C. maral var. songarica, and now known as C. cana-
densis songaricus, and Loder was right in his remark of this splendid
deer being almost identical with the American wapiti and may have been
the first to note the fact — which was not " common knowledge " till
some years later. Another Asiatic variety is the Siberian or Baikal wapiti
(C. canadensis sibiricus).

THE BHOTEAHS 179

From Calcutta he goes by train, boats and gharries, and
riding with pack ponies via Carigola and Sellegory to
DarjeeHng to see the Himalayas ; he finds it a trouble-
some journey to a cold climate, and on arrival there the
atmosphere so thick that for some days he thinks he has
had all his pains for nothing except to note the river
scenery and the natives. He describes the Bhoteahs
with their " broad faces and noses which do not rise up
between the eyes at all," and at daybreak one morning
he jumps out of bed and gets a view of the topmost peak
just as " the great Kinchinjunga (28,170) caught the first
rosy ray of the sun," and he rides off at once and gets
up on foot the last four miles to Sinchal and obtains the
view of Mt. Everest — " precious little " of it, just the
very top of its highest peak seventy miles away. He is
more interested in a large praying machine he comes
across in a temple of the Bhoteahs — " it consists of a
huge drum 8 ft. high and 3 ft. in diameter, covered with
paper on which is printed in large characters a short
prayer consisting of only four words." In detail he de-
scribes the mechanism and how when the Lonna works
the machine a piece of wood catches the clapper of a
little bell and then of a big bell with each revolution,
" so that everyone far and near can tell when prayers are
being ' ground.' The Bhoteahs have also little hand
praying machines — I have seen them walking along and
talking to one another and praying all the time by twiddling
the little business round and round."

He alludes only occasionally to Indian political ques-
tions, but when he does he states even a complicated one
very concisely and clearly, e.g. :

" There has been an unpleasantness for a long time
betv/een the Nizam's Government and the Government
of India on the ' Berar question.' The Indian Govern-
ment held the Berars years ago as surety for the payment
of some money, but now the money has been paid and of
course Sir Sala Jung claims the Berars back again ; but
in the intervening years a very large cotton interest has

180 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

grown up in those parts and I believe the Indian
Government has not the slightest intention of giving the
country up."

He then on March 24th sails for Calcutta on the B.I,
s.s, Scotia with 108 convicts in chains and some for
Camorta, and pleasant passengers to be present with the
Eclipse Expedition to observe the Eclipse on April 6th.

" On Monday morning early (March 29th) we went into
the harbour at Port Blair. The Andaman Islands are
densely covered with jungle, except the land which has
been cleared by convict labour — some of the trees are
very large and make clearing very difficult. They make
fine timber, but none of it is exported — most of it is burnt.
There are two kinds like mahogany and one something
like ebony."

He dines with General Stewart (the Governor of Port
Blair) on Ross Island :

"... Almost everybody's servants are convicts. How
would you like a convicted burglar for your footman and
a poisoner for your cook ? A lady here says she prefers
a murderer to look after her children to a thieving fellow
who is always robbing one. . . . The Andamanese are a
very peculiar race, like very diminutive negroes, and when
they are young they are not bad-looking."

From the Andamans he sails (twenty-four hours) to
the Nicobars and on entering Camorta, March 31st, the
first news is that of an epidemic of smallpox. He finds
the astronomers had already done a great deal of pre-
paratory work, but had still much to do in the remaining
five days.

" The party from England consisted of Meldola, Rey-
nolds and Dr. Vogel. Meldola is an assistant and pupil
of Lockyer's and Reynolds is a photographer and was
assistant to Mr. Warren de la Rue when he took those
stereoscopic photos of the moon of which I have some
copies on glass. . . . The Indian party consisted of

ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 181

Captain Waterhouse (Indian Survey Dept.), Mr. A. Pedlar,
Professor Tacchini, and I suppose I may add myself.
Pedlar is a Lecturer on Chemistry and Spectrum Analysis
at the University of Calcutta ; Professor Tacchini is the
Astronomer of the Royal Observatory at Palermo."

There is a detailed account of the work allotted to each
member of the party and of the instruments used :

" We all worked very hard so as to have everything
ready by the day, and you can imagine what hard work
is in a temperature pretty nearly 88° to 93^

>0 55

All ships' officers are pressed into service, and regular
practice persevered in :

" The morning of the Eclipse was the clearest we had
had, and the moment of first contact (about noon) was
taken by myself and by Tacchini in splendid weather,
the sun being only 1| degrees from the zenith. Totality
would begin about 20 minutes past 1 and last about 4
minutes and 20 seconds — but alas ! about 20 minutes to
1 huge black clouds came up and covered the whole of
our sky down to a few degrees from the horizon without
a break. It continued like this for about 2| hours, so
that we saw absolutely nothing of the Totality and the
accompanying phenomena we had come so far for. Of
course we were all dreadfully disappointed, but Dr. Vogel
made us laugh by the way he showed his distress. He
said, ' I come seven thousand miles, I get spotted like a
leopard (prickly heat), I sweat myself to death, and all
for noting— G—d d— n, G— d d— n, G— d d— n ! "

Loder's intention had been to concentrate his work on
the observation of the corona — its extent, shape, colour
and structure, and to detect the extension, if any, in the
direction of Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

March 7th. — Elsewhere when at Calcutta he makes
interesting notes about astronomical telescopes. One at
Paris of immense proportions

182 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

" is being made, commenced in 1865 by M. Leon Foucault,
but the latter' s death and the Franco- German War 1870-
71 interrupted the work, which was subsequently resumed
under the direction of M. Wolf. ... Its aperture will
be 6 ft. 6 in. and its length 49 ft. The mirror will be of
glass faced with gold on silver. The telescope will be
provided with a movable staircase. Lord Rosse's tele-
scope has an aperture of 6 ft., but the mirror is of specu-
lum metal. He calculates that a ' silver on glass ' mirror
of a diameter of 6 ft. 6 in. should exceed a 6 ft. metal one
in hght-grasping power in the proportion of 3 to 2. The
largest refractor in the world is at Washington, U.S., and
has an aperture of 26 in, A silvered mirror of 6 ft. 6 in.
should exceed this in light-grasping power about 6| times."

The end of April finds Loder at Rangoon and on
May 10th he WTites from Moulmein a guest of Col. Hamil-
ton, the Inspector-General of Police ; a Major Twynham
lives with him. Space does not allow me to quote much
from him with regard to his experience in Burmah. He
again is disappointed about getting shooting ; he is told
he can get bison in the Toungou district by going twelve
to seventeen days up a river fearful for mosquitoes, and
that he will have to shoot from and with elephants.
" Now this is not the shooting I wanted," he writes, and
all keen sportsmen and stalkers will sympathise with him.
The subjects he deals with are extraordinarily numerous :
the ingenuity of bamboo scaffolding for building the
pagodas ; the construction of pagodas ; elephants in the
timber yards ; beetles ; the best arrangements in case
of fire at Whittlebury ; fire engines versus hydrauis ;
mining in America ; astronomical object glasses ; allu-
sions to Pelham's behef in spirituahsm, with an exposure
of manifestations and a detailed explanation of the tricks
of " spirit-photos " ; EcHpse expeditions ; a detailed ac-
count of such tropical fruits as mangoes, mangosteen,
dorian, etc., of which he has no very high opinion ; ^ caves
near Moulmein, and much else.

1 " A fine pear, muscat grapes, peaches, nectarines, apricots are all
far finer in flavour than anything I have come across out here."

BURMA 183

At Moulmein he stayed with a Colonel Brown (the
Commissioner). When in the Nicobars Loder had made
friends with the Rev. I. Mackay, a missionary and an
experienced traveller.

" The Rev. I. Mackay, who went down with me to
Carmorta, had stayed with Colonel Brown here and had
told him about me, . . . Mr. Mackay and Colonel Brown
were at school together in Scotland, and, although Mackay
was eight years at Penang and twenty- eight years alto-
gether out here and Colonel Brown thirty-five years,
they never met since their schooldays till the other day.
General Stewart at Port Blair was also in their class at
school, and Colonel Brown has never seen him out here
either. Colonel Brown I like very much ; he is in ' a
capital state of preservation ' considering that he has been
knocking about in the tropics for thirty-five years."

On his way to Rangoon he makes some observations
on the political situation in Burma. One of his fellow-
passengers was

" Captain Cooke, the English Political Agent up at Bhamo
(beyond Mandalay), near where Margery was murdered the
other day. ... I shall not be surprised if there is a
war with the King of Burmah, as he seems to have been
at the bottom of the murder. If it had not been for this
disturbance I might have taken a run up the Irawadi
as far as Mandalay. . . . Except that the trip is so very
easily made it would hardly be worth doing, as Mandalay
is one of the hottest places on the earth. It will very
likely be hotter there before long [and it was]. . . .
Colonel Brown tells me that the King of Siam is a very
intelligent young fellow and speaks English — he was
stajdng in this very house not very long ago.

" I expect the Eclipse party that went to Bankok must
have had a very good time of it (if they saw the Eclipse),
as the King of Siam had especially invited scientific men
to come there for it."

There is much in these letters about his brothers',
Alfred and Reginald, athletic successes. He alludes to
13

184 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

Alfred's " splendid triumph" in the Inter- Varsity Hurdles,
and proceeds :

"It is curious that Alfred got second for the Long Jump
at Cambridge with 19 ft. 4 in. when he did not want his blue
for this as he had already got it for two other events, and
/ who would have given anything for even a second place
could never get it although I covered the same distance. . . .
I beat (at the Champion Meeting) Bergman, who had done
22 ft. 4 in. at Oxford, also Ferguson, who had done 22 ft. 1 in.
at Woolwich. Although Alfred was not successful in the
High Jump, everyone must think his 5 ft. 5| in. in London
a first-class performance. I cannot think what makes them
put up obstacles instead of hurdles in the Champion Meet-
ing. Of course it was dead against Alfred's chance, as he
has the trick of rapping hurdles with his knee, which,
although it does no harm (with ordinary hurdles) in the race
itself, of course leads to a stiff knee for a week or so after-
wards."

These extracts show his keenness in his brother's suc-
cesses and many passages in these letters home display a
constant turning of his thoughts to every member of his
family. Affectionate messages, the remembrance of birth-
days— love to all, " not forgetting the little ones " — keep
one reminded of his affectionate nature. He is always on
the look-out for presents suited to the many relations and
friends whom he never seems to forget.

At the beginning of June Loder is at Labuan — '' this
beastly place (beastly in every sense, with its stinks and
swamps)."

" I do not think any of you will be able to make out what
part of the world I am in now. Even if I had put Deli
instead of Labuan I do not think you would have been much
the wiser. Take a map showing Penang and Summatra.
On the east coast of Summatra about 150 miles S.W. of
Penang you mil find Deli marked as a tovm — but Deli is
really the name of the district and Labuan the name of the
town. ... I have to find out everything myself. First
I have to learn the Malay language, which I thinlc I shall

SUMATRA 185

easily do. . . . Very little is known of Summatra except
perhaps to the Dutch officials." *

Loder had gone to Sumatra in the hope of getting
elephants and rhinoceros. The Sumatran rhinoceros {R.
[ceratorhinus] sumatrensis) is the only Asiatic rhinoceros
with two horns, and, though differing from the African, is
probably one of the intermediate forms between African and
Asian species. With local variations it is found in the
Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Burma, and into Assam. A
distinct one-horned variety is found in Java {R. sondaicus)
and also I believe in Eastern Bengal, Assam, and the Malay
Peninsula. I possess a description with plates of the Suma-
tran rhinoceros by a Mr. William Bell (read before the Royal
Society ?), January 10th, 1793, " which was shot with a
leaden ball from a musket about 10 miles from Fort
Marlborough." There is also a Sumatran tapir found in
Wellington Province. In this letter from Labuan Loder
gives a description of his Penang experiences when he
stayed with Mr. Mackay.

The view from Penang Hill

" is certainly one of the most varied and beautiful I have
ever seen. The foliage in the foreground is splendid ; then
below the town and shipping, steamers, barks, Malay and

^ I am under the impression that the British and subsequent Dutch
campaigns in Sumatra lasted continuously for some fifty years, and that
up to the end of the last century the interior was largely unconquered and
unknown. I travelled in the late nineties with Greneral Sir Power Palmer,
then Conunander-in-Chief in India ; and telling him that one or two of
my Dutch friends had been killed in these wars and that I could not under-
stand why the Dutch did not finish it off, he gave me a most extraordinary
account of the fighting there hitherto and of the insuperable difficulties of
jungle and climate. As a young soldier he had fought in Svunatra ; the
British forces then were a most curious and mixed crowd, armed with all
sorts of weapons and muzzle-loaders. The fighting took place in dense
jungle and forest, and was always hand-to-hand or close-range fighting of
the most appallingly sanguinary description. I think he said in all the
manyfighta he took part in 100 yards was the outside distance separating
the comlDatants. This went on continually from year to year during the
months when campaigning was possible, and between each campaign the
paths cleared and jungle broken through the year before were rechoked
with jungle and the foe only reached by doing the work over again.

186 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

Chinese junks, a finely coloured sea (at night more brilliantly
phosphorescent than any other), and only a mile or so across
is the land of the Malay Peninsula, on which not far away
is a sharp peaked hill, 5,500 feet high, and then again
beyond one or two high ranges of mountains (unmeasured,
but from 9,000 to 11,000 ft.) — then scattered about in the
straits are several lovely coloured, small, irregular-shaped
islands, so that, though there is nothing grand about it, it
is as charming a bit of scenery as one can imagine."

He gives also an account of an extraordinary rainbow
and sunset he saw from the garden of Government House
when with the Colonel and Mrs. Anson. " We saw on this
evening some of the most vivid greens I ever remember to
have seen in a sky."

He got to Labuan in a very dirty tug-boat crowded with
coolies and natives. He is not at all welcomed by the Chief
Resident Official at that time, the Comptroller, and does
not know where on earth to put up, but gets into a Chinese
shop with a fellow-passenger.

" I had my own bedding and mosquito curtains with
me, so could manage almost anywhere ; my boy (Chinese)
cooked us a dinner and at night we slept over the shop m a
storeroom amid all sorts of curious smells, still I slept very
well ... I have slept in many curious places, but none
more so than this. On a bunk close to my side slept one
Chinaman, in another were two Chinamen smokmg opmm,
further away slept two more dittos, and my boy and one or
two more slept on the floor mixed up with all kinds of curious
stores. I don't much care about this sort of thmg, and
want to get out of the place for many reasons. I want to
see the country and get some shooting ... the water here
is very bad and cholera has been common enough."

He makes a sound remark about cholera : " The Sultan
has forbidden fruit to be sold, but I think he would have
done better to have enforced the use of filters," for when
water is well boiled and filtered and all food thoroughly
cooked cholera disappears at once. For days he makes
efforts. He gets no further forward with the Dutch
Comptroller :

RHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANTS 187

t«

I tried him all ways, but he beat me. He does not
look as if he ever had been or could be in a hurry or under-
stand how anybody else can — he sees people on business
from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and then I think sleeps the rest of
the day."

The days pass and the delay " is against the grain alto-
gether," yet he finds plenty to admire in foliage and
scenery and mountains in his daily walks along the only
road — he remarks on sky-blue and scarlet mud crabs.

" I have always thought that there were two species of
rhinoceros here, one with a single horn and the other with
two." He questions the natives — " they do not seem to
know anything about a double-horned one, but speak of
black and white ones, both single horned. The white they
call the ' tiger rhinoceros ' because he is so savage, and they
say he will charge as soon as he smells a man. There are
also said to be lots of bears, also quantities of ' wild pigs '
and deer. It is astonishing how much game there is said
to be in a country just before one gets there."

After a week's fretting the Asst. Resident, Mr. Halewijn,
and the Sultan of Deli turn up, and the former invites him
to stay with him, and his immediate troubles are at an end ;
and hope rises, for the Sultan has ordered a Chief Deli
Toewa with ten of his men to take him and his baggage
into an elephant country. The Chief is half Malay and
half Batack. The Hill Batacks are still cannibal and he
fears he will not be allowed into their country. But the
Chief sends a message back that " he wants four days and
that his mother has died of cholera," so Mr. Halewijn gives
him a pony and seven convicts to get him to Godong
Djohore, where he sees the Chief, who says he never re-
ceived or sent any message and made out that he had only
two men ! Loder armed with authority told him to send
his men into the jungle to look for signs of elephant.
He thinks nothing was done, but two or three days
after the Chief sends a message that they had been a long
way and had found no traces of elephants. Loder at last

188 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

makes up his mind that the Batacks are very much afraid
of big game and abominably lazy and liars. " I am a sort
of prisoner and can neither get back or forw^ards without
coolies. With people like these lazy, lying scoundrels it is
impossible to do anything," and the chance of reaching
elephants or anything else sinks. He walks over to the
estate of Mr. H. Leyssuis, " the furthest limit of cultiva-
tion," beyond which there is no disturbed country ; he
stays with the manager, a Mr. Taylor, and with his help
arranged with the Chief to go after buffaloes, probably
bantin {Bos sondaicus) — in the early morning. Taylor and
he wait till midday at the rendezvous. The Chief did not
like wild buffaloes and had never meant to come. There is
a chance of seeing elephants out in the grass, but though they
are often seen Loder says, " I do not know that I should be
able to get up near, as this sort of grass is often very much
matted together and any length from 4 ft. to 12 ft. high."
He has beautiful views of mountains, but neither he nor
anyone else can go there as the Batacks are not to be
trusted.

He gives a long account of the tobacco plantations and
of the tobacco. " Here the tobacco grows 6 ft. high, and
some of the leaves have been measured 2 ft. 3 in. long and
1 ft. wide and as soft and pliable as kid.

" Mr. Halewijn I like very much and he has been very
kind to me." Loder writes home to try and find a nice
English family for his two boys and suggests several
clergymen. " I really should very much like to do this in
return for his kindness to me."

May 29th ; at Halewijn's. — " Wine, beer and iced water
were drunk and cigars smoked for an hour or so before
dinner at 8 p.m. Dress : White linen trousers and waist-
coat, black morning coat, black tie and white kid or silk
gloves ! "

Wliilst making his way alone up the river from Clumbia
in his sampan he arrives on Sunday, June 13th, 8.30 at
night, at a Dutchman's plantation and walks up (with
fresh elephant tracks in the road) to the house (1-| miles).

RUDE AND INHOSPITABLE CONDUCT 189

The owner of the estate, Mr. Westerveld, kindly gave him
a bed and said his things should be brought up the next
morning. This Mr. Westerveld shall have the special
distinction of a unique record, that of rude and inhospitable
conduct towards Loder during his long months of travel.
Loder had been one day in this most likely neighbourhood,
and the following is his entry in his diary :

" June 15th. Tuesday. — Raining hard. . . .

" At noon Mr. Westerveld returned from Mr. De Mum-
ick's place (two hours' distant). We spoke a few words
about the rain, etc., and then his manner to me quite altered ;
he took a turn to the other end of the verandah and then
came up to me and said quite roughly : ' I saw two
elephants by the river this morning ; why were you not
there to shoot them ? You say you come here to shoot
elephants — it's all humbug, it's all humbug. My house
is not an hotel. I think it's best you go out of this at once.'
I was of course very much astonished at this outbreak and
said that if I had had the slightest idea that my being at
his house annoyed him I should not have stayed a moment.
I told him that I considered it very kind of him to have put
me up at all and I had only stayed on during Monday at
his own invitation. Only the day before when he told me
that he should be starting for Penang on Wednesday and I
said I should go on up the river then, he said, ' Oh, don't
let my going away make any difference. You must shoot
an elephant here ; my assistant will look after you when I
have gone.' I had declined this, saying that my time was
too short, that I could not stop longer than that. Mr. W.'s
whole conduct to me on Monday was most friendly — a com-
plete contrast to that of this morning, than which nothing
could have been more violent and offensive. I called my
servant at once and told him to pack up my things and I
went myself and said good-bye to Mr. W., thanking him
for his kindness to me on the day before and saying how
sorry I was that any unpleasantness had arisen between
us. He also said good-bye and ' perhaps I make a mistake,
perhaps I make a mistake.' But as soon as I was out of the
gate at the front of the house my servant tells me he came
into the room where my things were and ordered them all
to be taken out of the house at once, had them put outside,

190 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

saying, ' I can't stand this any more.' I went to his
assistant's house to say good-bye and told him about it, but
he could not understand it all. At the village I hired a
sampan at twice the proper fare ($11) to take me to Mr.
Waller's house, and had my things brought down. Went to
see the place quite near to where the elephants had torn
up huge cocoanut trees the night before, close to the road.
Slept in my sampan ; millions of mosquitoes — outside my
mosquito net."

To those of us who have lived in hot countries and the
Low Veldt and have met the queer characters that are pro-
duced by fevers, perpetual heat and sometimes by drink,
there is nothing strange at all in Mr. W.'s conduct. With
the Dutch perhaps more than ourselves neurasthenia often
manifests itself in exaggerated suspicion or outrage —
such outbreaks are common among all whites, and these
scenes are as unaccountable to the possessors of debilitated
nerves as to their victims. A very little thing will provoke
in an otherwise kind nature a quite diabolical nastiness — a
word, a loud voice, a laugh ; but to young Edmund Loder's
sensitive nature such an experience would be distressing and
perplexing. I myself once stayed with a German and two
good-natured Englishmen in the Transvaal Low Veldt,
not far from the Portuguese East African frontier, who were
pals by day, but who at night would shout and fight like
fiends, and often went off their heads with or without
whisky over the most trivial differences and petty
jealousies.

Loder returns to Labuan after three weeks' failure, and
one night at dinner at Mr. Halewijn's he meets some
planters who all agreed that there were lots of elephants in
the Longkat district ; and with one of these named Lorcke
he sails in a sampan (native boat) for Columbia, and has
a somewhat risky voyage. The sampan is " a very large
canoe made out of a single tree with a bamboo mast with
rattan cane rigging — not at all safe in squally weather,"
and they had more wind than was nice. On the second day
they get through the surf, leave the sea and start up the

HUNTING DIFFICULTIES 191

Longkat River, and " never before or since have I seen so
many mosquitoes." At Columbia he changes into a smaller
sampan and proceeds seventy miles very slowly up-stream
alone and passes the nights at planters' houses.

" At one of these houses I met a man of the name of
Captain Murray, who is also trying for elephants" (and
who had recently got near them). " As soon as the
Batacks carrying his water bottle and cartridges saw them
they threw down their loads, shouted and ran off ! " — and
so did the elephants.

He gives a curious account of this man's life and of
his adventures from boyhood, which included being shot
through the knee and shoulder in trying to run a ship
he commanded (without a captain's certificate) through the
blockade at Charlestown, driving a water-cart in South
America, going to the gold-fields in Australia, getting his
nose broken in a row there, commanding a Japanese man-
of-war, and " now he builds small steamers in England and
brings them out here and sells them in Penang, Singapore,
Hong-Kong, etc."

Loder got amongst the elephants, but never saw any,
yet heard them one very dark night close to " breaking
down huge cocoanut trees within seventy yards " of the
river bank under which he was sleeping. He and Murray
agreed to hunt together, but the whole thing was " a mass
of difficulties." Batacks would not carry, the guide would
not go in front; they worked chiefly by compass; the leeches
were dreadful ; sandflies penetrate mosquito curtains,
sleep is impossible ; they suffer from thirst and the water is
never safe, especially with cholera about — he alone of the
party escapes fever. One day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. they
struggle through the jungle. " You can hardly imagine
what that means in that climate, in the strong, heavy
canvas clothes one is obliged to wear on account of the
thorns of the rattan cane."

Abandoning this work, he tries to catch elephants coming
to the plantations to feed on the plantains ; forty came

192 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

just before their arrival. " They did not come again
during my stay." At last he gives it up, and getting a
sampan for himself leaves Murray and makes his way down
a river, and so in his sampan to Labuan and via Penang
he goes to Singapore, taking with him as the result of five
weeks' desperate work " three monkey skins, one monkey's
skull and the skin and skull of a flying fox, the ears of which
insects had eaten off." He saw several " huge alligators,"
but did not shoot any. On his way to Singapore he makes
friends with a Colonel Sladen (he met him first at Moulmein)
— " I like him very much." He arrives at Singapore
June 30th. " I see to-day by a paper that Lord Ranfurly
has died in Africa, where he had gone to shoot elephants."
I must pass over a great deal, but may note a few
experiences in Java.

In a letter posted July 27th at Buitenzorg he describes
Batavia (which he sees with a M. Roviniski, a Russian with
whom he had struck up a friendship), Cheribon, the vol-
canic cone of Cherimai (9,000 feet), Saumarang, with four
volcanoes in sight (all just under or over 10,000 feet). From
Soerahaya he drove forty m.iles to Passoeroewan (Pas-er-u-
an). " The posting in Java is very good." He did the
forty miles in 4f hours at a cost of 25 guldens (about £2).
One has four ponies kept on the gallop the whole time,
seven relays, and losing a great deal of time at each change.
Pasereyan he reaches by driving, and rides on to Tosari
(5,700 feet). People constantly come up here for a change
of climate — and get it, for the thermometer went down at
night to 46° F. under his verandah. He rides with a
Dutch family to Tengg-er — three volcanoes in sight all tlie
way, including Se-Mero (11,000 feet). Loder carries on
conversation with a few Dutch words, some Malay words
and a good many German. He gives a very graphic account
(sent with maps) of Tengg-er, comparing it to a lunar land-
scape, and says of the Sand Sea Crater (four miles diameter)
if it had not been for trees within the inner side of the wall
" I could have fancied myself in the moon." In the Sand
Sea (grey ash) four small volcanoes rise out of the enor-

VOLCANOES 193

mous soup-plate crater. " Batack is an exceedingly per-
fect cone 800 feet above the plain, Bromo is still occasionally
active and has not preserved its perfect shape." He
climbs up Bromo and looks do^\Tl into the crater (about
1,000 ft. diam..).

In The Geographical Magazine for April 1921, p. 311, is a
brief notice of recent accounts given of these volcanoes by
Dr. W. van Bemmelen, the Director of the Batavian
Observatory, under the heading " Volcano Studies in the
East Indian Archipelago," which puts down the depth at
400 ft. in 1875 ; in 1838, 1,500 ft. ; and in 1844, 1,000 ft.
" It puffed off a good deal of smoke, steam and sulphur
while I looked into it, but there have been no explosions
or eruptions very lately."

At the end of his description, Loder remarks, " All this is
most interesting to me from its likeness to a lunar land-
scape," and begs them to look at Nasmyth's plates of the
moon. '• The lunar crater Copernicus is 56 miles in
diameter and about 10,000 feet deep. You might inquire
in London if there is no book describing this great crater
Tengg-er."

In the same letter he writes :

" I have seen a lot in the sporting papers during the last
ten months or so about a new system of boring guns by
which they say that the shot is thrown much closer and
with greater penetration, giving altogether an improve-
ment of about 40 per cent. Have any people we know tried
these new barrels yet ? I quite agree with what Mr. Grant
Duff says (in Wayside Notes) about the Taj. j\Ir. Ruskin
should come out to see it and describe it. It is a pity Lord
B}Ton did not see it ; he has done well enough with
St. Peter's in Rome in ' Childe Harold ' towards the end
of the Canto . . ."

He has recommended in his letters a good many books
to his family —

" but I never heard that you ever looked at them. Now
I am going to give you another — Veronique, by Florence
Marryat ; the novel is perhaps not worth much for its

194 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

story, but the descriptions of Indian life, natives, the
Neilgherry Hills are, and the Ufehke (though not to them
agreeable) caricatures of Anglo-Indians are better than any
I have seen elsewhere."

He discusses sunsets — dismisses Indian ones as inferior
to English ones and supposes the finest are to be seen in
Spain and Italy. ^ He tires of the perpetual dark-green
foliage of the East.

" I have seen nothing to compare yet, for diversity of
colouring, to one of our Sussex views in autumn. I
suppose these again are beaten (for foliage colouring) by
the autumn woods of Canada."

He visits from Bandong (16 miles) the double crater of
Tankoban Praoe. It is like, he says, a figure 8, and he
goes down (about 800 feet) and examines one of the two.

" Very recently the whole bottom of this crater must
have been a boiling mud lake ; the mud is still soft, but at
present there are only a few boiling mud ponds. The dia-
meter of the mud floor is 400 yards. . . . There are several
places where sulphur vapour comes out of holes in the
earth — some of them make a tremendous noise like a boiler
blowing off steam. The distance across the two craters
from lip to lip may be about a mile and a quarter. I did
not go down the other crater, as there was too much sulphur
vapour coming out of it. At times it came out in huge
clouds covering the whole mountain. My gold chain and
all the silver money I had turned quite black. The ride
up the mountain was through the most beautiful tropical
foliage I have yet seen, tree ferns in great quantities and
the forest trees all covered with orchids and creepers of a
thousand different kinds. ... I consider this volcano
a very excellent specimen."

Years after Loder and I came upon volcanic craters and

^ Having seen many sunsets in European countries, Asia and Africa
(North and South, Equatorial, and East Africa, the Sahara, Sudan, etc.),
of these I should put the sunsets twenty to eighty miles south of the Atlas
first, British East African second, S.E. African third) — but this scale
includes light and colour effects on the earth with those of the sky. For
sky only, England is hard to beat, but is beaten, I think, in the High-
lands of East Africa. — A. E. P.

IS DAHATO A VOLCANIC REGION? 195

sulphur springs in Dahato (Abyssinian Somaliland).
Knowing this did not fit with Professor Gregory's accepted
geological theory for this part of Africa, I wrote a paper on
the subject for the Royal Geographical Society. The
authorities were quite incredulous and would not accept
the fact of anything volcanic in that region. Had I ever
seen volcanoes ? Yes, many. And been close to them ?
Yes, many, active, dead and intermittent, and been up
them too. Why had I not specimens of lava, ash, photo-
graphs of it, pieces of lips, etc. ? After all, if you assert
you have seen a horse you do not bring bits of him to sub-
stantiate your assertion. Loder was immensely amused at
my not being credited with such elementary knowledge,
and still more astonished that he himself, rather a special-
ist in such matters, should not be believed. It is really
best not to report things sometimes.

Loder had the drive of his life on what he calls " a
most tremendous above mentioning road " from Bandong
to Buitenzorg.

" Sometimes the post cart was lei down a hill by a rope
fastened behind and made fast to post after post in suc-
cession. In fifty places one or two pair of bullocks were
put in front of four or six horses to pull up ascents. . . .
Down all inclines the horses were made to go full gallop,
swinging round corners at an alarming rate."

During a very near thing to an upset and a smash he says :

" I fully expected a crash, but could not help laughing
at the absurd way a native on the front seat held on. The
driver, however, did the best thing under the circumstances,
i.e. lashed the leaders as hard as he could, and in another
100 yards we had got into straight running again."

He comes to the conclusion that the view from the
Belle Vue Hotel, Buitenzorg, is " without exception the
most beautiful I have ever seen," and describes it.^

1 His brother, Alfred Loder, was of opinion that this view was the most
beautiful in the world. His brother Gerald thought the panorama known
as "Humboldt's View" in Tenerifle and that of the Snowy Range from
Darjeeling finer.

196 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

His travels now include Saigon (where on shipboard he
was alarmingly and suddenly ill — tried to get to the doctor,
but fell down in a state of collapse — he gets over the worst
quickly and wTites : "Men are generally killed by or get
the better of cholera in about four hours ! Short work ! "),
Hong-Kong, Canton. (At Canton he meets the British
Consul, Sir Brook Robertson, " the funniest little man in
the world to look at, but very amusing and interesting
. . . they say he weighs 80 )."

" Shanghai (August 29th). — The English Concession
has really a very striking appearance. Shanghai was only
opened a comparatively short time ago, and yet the
streets, houses, quay, etc., are as substantial and well
arranged as if it had been gradually improving two or three
hundred years." (He stayed here with a Mr. Hansen.)

When he and Mr. Hansen, who had been exploring the
native town one evening, turned to go home and were look-
ing for a respectable Chinaman to direct them, Loder says :

^ "I turned suddenly round and for a second was quite
startled, for who do you think was at my elbow ? The
original Chinese giant ' Chang,' 7 ft. 11 in. high, but
looking immense in those little streets six feet wide. He
was very polite and speaks English very well and showed
us the way. ..."

At Hankow he stays with a Mr. Evans and there im-
bibes a great deal of information about tea, the cultiva-
tion and trade — he asserts that the very finest parcels of
each year from the Hankow district (supposed to produce
the best of all) are bought up for Russia. " England gets
none of this."

He describes the immense examinations at Wu-Chang.
It is partly funny to think of 10,000 candidates for the
Public Service being locked up in what Loder describes
" very much like wine bins " for the whole of seven days,
taking seven days' food into the bins with them ; if it
happens to be hot weather at the time, " numbers of the
candidates die." He is very much impressed with the
Court of the Guild of Chinese Merchants at Hankow, and

JAPAN 197

gives an account of its wonders in workmanship and
construction and ornamentation. The river scenery is
fully described — also Kinkiang and a fleet of " thousands
of junks at anchor waiting for cargoes."

We must, however, get on to his time in Japan — of
it he says on September 17th :

" I enjoy this country immensely ; the pleasantest to
travel in of any that I have yet tried ; the people have
such polite manners, the girls are so good-looking, every-
body smiling and laughing and treating life generally as
if it was the greatest joke out."

He has now after fifteen months' sight-seeing under a
tropical sun got rid of a great deal of his restless energy,
and admits he is rather boiled, raggy, and limp.

He looks at Fusiama (14,400 feet), but feels no inclination
td go up it.

" The country children are delightful ; they do not
run away and pretend to be shy like English clodhoppers,
or behave rudely like town-bred brats, but if you take
the slightest notice of them, and just smile in passing, they
return your smile with a smile, your bow with a bow,
and all in the most gentlemanlike or ladylike manner,
and do it probably more gracefully than if they had been
taught by the best posture master in the world. The
scenery pleases much in the same manner, excepting
Fusiama and one or two more volcanic cones ; there is
nothing grand about it, but pleasing every bit of it is,
and that is just the word for it."

In answer to home inquiries as to whether he has grown
a beard and what he is like he quotes a long piece of
Laura's speech to Beppo when he came back, after six
years' silent absence, with the manners and dress of a
Turk :

" Now Laura, much recover'd, or less loth
To speak, cries ' Beppo ! what's your pagan name ?
Bless me ! your beard is of amazing growth !
And how came you to keep away so long ?
Are you not sensible 'twas very wrong ?

198 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

" ' And are you really, truly, now a Turk ?
With any other women did you wive ?
Is't true they use their fingers for a fork ?
Well, that's the prettiest shawl ! as I'm alive !
You'll give it me ? They say you eat no pork.
And how so many years did you contrive
To — Bless me ! did I ever ? No, I never
Saw a man grown so yellow ! How's your liver ?

" Beppo ! that beard of yours becomes you not ;
It shall be shaved before you're a day older :
Why do you wear it ? Oh ! I had forgot —
Pray don't you think the weather here is colder ? ' "

and so forth.

" 3 a.m. I am getting abominably sleepy, but must
finish this to-night ; I've just lit my seventh cigarette
in the last two hours, but it is no go."

Yet at this hour in the morning he gives a full account
of Sir Harry and Lady Parkes. Lady Parkes' lovely hair,
the red hair of the best part of a dozen children, of a
walk with Sir Harry in the Tycoons' wonderful " gar-
denised Park " — discusses home news, makes estimates
for the costs of running deer forests, laments over the
death of his beloved setter " Belle " and begs his father
to get him a pup of the same breed and colour if possible.

To his brother Wilfrid in another letter he pours out
his grief about poor " Belle " and his mind is evidently
turned homewards.

" How is it I never hear anything bad or good about
that chestnut horse I was riding in the Park just before
I left. What sort of a hunter is he ? I am a little
sorry Cocktail must be sold, but he was always delicate
and must be sold now. I should like to have just three
horses as good-looking as the young chestnut and as good
every way as Cocktail."

He is alarmed at the prospect of his mother's mounting
all the photographs he has sent home, and is terrified
they \\Till be put on paper or cardboard which has been
bleached white with chlorine. "It is this which has the
most to say in the matter of fading photos. Winsor &

LACQUER

199

Newton's drawing paper is all made out of white rags
washed clean before being pulped ; no bleaching matter is
used." It was in countless little matters of this sort even
when young that Loder's practical general knowledge was
so starthng. He pursues this subject, describing the slight
refermentation of paste after being used as a cause of fading
in photographs ; " every time it gets a Httle moist in damp
weather, and this does the photo no good in the long run.' '
He describes Nagasaki, Kobe, Osaka, Odowana — his
voyage from Shanghai in the Costa Rica, one of those
*' great wooden American side wheelers with M^alking beam,
very comfortable." He discusses Japanese lacquer :

" Lacquer of course is the manufacture of Japan ; it
is really the Japanese jewellery — but it is no use bringing
the best sorts to England, as no one is connoisseur enough
to appreciate it. Do you remember a little curious-shaped
lacquered box which Capt. Chatfield had down at the
Beeches and tried to make us understand was something
good ; but I do not thhik any of us saw much in it ?
That little box certainly did not cost less than £3 \0s.
and perhaps double that sum. I just boughc a little case,
gold lacquered, about three inches square, for $13, just
as a specimen. It was what they call the best gold lacquer,
but there is again beyond this a special quality which
even the uninitiated would at once see was something
superb. I saw such a piece to-day ; it was a small
cabinet perhaps 9 in. X 6 in. X 6 in. ; its price was £75,
but it certainly was wonderful lacquer."

His travelling in China and Japan was done rapidly,
as the following time-table shows :

August 1875 :

Saigon . . . August

Hong-Kong

Canton

Hong-Kong

Shanghai

Kiu-Kiang

Hankow (and Wachang)

Kiu-Kiang

14

4th to 6th.

9th to 10th.
10th to 13th.
13th to 17th.
18th to 21st.
24th
25th.
29th.

200 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

Shanghai . August 29th to September 5th.

Nagasaki . September 7th to 8th.

Hiogo . . ,, 10th.

Osaka . . ,, 11th.

Yokohama . ,, 14th.

Odowana . „ 20th.

Totska . „ 23rd.

Yokohama . „ 24th to 26th.

On the last date he sailed for San Francisco.

He carries off a few curios and gongs from Japan,
Whilst at Yokohama he writes :

" The Rev. Sholto Douglas, who gave me or rather
tried to give me 71 minutes in Madras Cathedral last
February, has turned up here. I am afraid as long as he
and I remain here church will be forbidden fruit for m.e."

The sight of Douglas seems to have been the only thing
that marred the complete happiness of his sojourn in
Japan.

Loder is by no means well when he goes on board the
Great Republic on September 26th, and is still ill when
he lands on October 17th at San Francisco ; but he goes
on to Denver, and November finds him once more with
friends in the old quarters at HalVs Gulch. The air of
the Rockies sets him up and he is soon hunting wapiti.
This time he sees plenty and some very fine ones, but
only gets two and the better of these is nothing very
good. This second hunting trip in America must not
keep us ; it differs but slightly to the last, and we shall
find him again hunting wapiti with more success in the
Rockies.

Writing to his father from Hall's Gulch he says :

" I will try my best to get some live wapiti, and if we
can succeed in making them thrive at Whittlebury I do
not think you will ever regret the trouble and expense,
which no doubt will be considerable. If they ever grow

THE UNITED STATES 201

to a good size I have no doubt they will look nearly as
well in Whittlebury Park as in their native mountains. I
should like to see the fallow deer herd number about 300
to 400, and all to be what I call the true fallow deer, that
is, a light reddish-brown skin with white spots all over
the body." '

After his return from hunting wapiti in bitter cold, he
reaches Denver and there collects some heads ; he pur-
chases five antelope heads at $1 each, one wapiti skull $8,
one mountain bison head $75, and a lot of buffalo robes
and wolf skins for $100.

Passing through Buffalo City he meets once more Jem
Thompson and stays awhile at Victoria, where he dines
with a Mr. Grant, who seemed to Loder in those pre-
Pussyfoot days a strange customer, for they dine at 5.30
and " he gave us no wine, but cigars and pears after
dinner " ; and in spite of this subduing post-prandial
occupation he, their host, " told us a lot of stories wliich
I did not believe." At London he stays with a charming
old lady, a Mrs. Harris of Eldon House, and at Phila-
delphia, having been given a platform ticket by one of
his friends there interested apparently in the state of his
soul, he goes on a Sunday evening to one of Moody and
Sankey's meetings.

" Moody did not preach badly, but was nothing out of
the way in his address. Sankey's singing was good, but
at first I thought his voice was coarse."

The cold in Canada he found " fearful," being the

^ Judging from Epping deer and New Forest deer, this would not be
the old English type. In the same letter Loder writes: "I don't
think we have more than forty or fifty of this sort now. I should like
to weed out all those white red deer hinds and white-faced stag abom-
inations. The red deer herd and doubtless the fallow deer would be
greatly improved by a cross from some good park like Windsor. I
think nothing could be prettier than to have nice herds of all the dif-
ferent species of deer and antelope which would live in the park — say
fallow, red deer, wapiti, barasing, sambur, hog deer, Japanese deer,
American black-tailed deer and white-tailed deer, American antelope (a
very hardy beast), elands . . , and I dare say there are a dozen more."

202 A PILGRIMAGE [ch. vi

severest November for many years. He puts down these
temperatures for November 30th, 1875, at 7 a.m. :

Toronto .

4° below zero F.

Ottawa .

20° „

Quebec .

20° „

Gatenean Mills

30° „

In New York he buys seven pairs of wapiti horns at $10
each, one pair of black-tailed deer horns at $5, and goes
to see a man who will land wapiti alive at Southampton at
$200 each, buffalo for rather less and Virginian deer at
$60 each.

Of Canada he says, " I had a delightful time amongst a
lot of nice people." He is very much interested at Boston
at Alvan Clark & Sons, Brooklyn Street, with a 26-in.
object glass for a telescope, and finds one that will suit his
own telescope at home 8 in. with 9 ft. 6 in. focus.

About the 12th of December he sails for Liverpool in the
Adriatic with a live wapiti and a number of wild turkeys
and canvas-back ducks ; the birds, not being alive, are put
in the ice-house, destined for his friends' " Christmas
dinners." He reaches home just in time to spend Christmas
Day at home.

During his absence he must have travelled some 50,000
miles, perhaps much more. In August 1875 when at
Shanghai he makes a careful estimate of the distance he
has covered up to then ; excluding his voyages in native
boats on rivers and on the coasts of Sumatra, he puts
the details down thus :

By rail

. 10,000 miles

,, steamer

. 16,000 „

,, carriage and horseback

. 1,210 „

On foot

. 1,120 „

28,330 „

He had still to travel in Japan, cross the Pacific, and
travel in America and Canada and cross that continent

COST OF TRAVELLING 203

and the Atlantic. He was careful over his accounts and
expenditure, and found India " and some other countries
very expensive " for a traveller. He calculates that
every 6,000 miles he travelled with a servant and baggage
cost him £100. The rupee at that time was the same value
as the English florin.

CHAPTER VII

ST. GEORGE LITTLEDALE AND EDMUND LODER

" Long years have pass'd, old friend, since we
First met, in life's young day ;
And friends long lov'd by thee and me
Since then have dropp'd away."

MOOEE.

It is more than forty-six years since Sir Edmund Loder
made the acquaintance of Mr. St. George Littledale, a man
destined to take a place in the first ranks of the Asiatic
explorers of our time and v/hose achievements with big-
game, if they have been equalled, can scarcely have been
surpassed by anyone. His hunting expeditions which were
the most remarkable are those he made in the least known
and wildest regions of Eastern and Central Asia. There
also he was the first discoverer of the wild camels in the
Gobi desert, but he also brought back, too, great trophies
from America and is the only man I know who has hunted
and killed specimens of the Caucasian bison, generally
known by the unscientific name of " the Aurochs."

Probably of all the fruits yielded by Loder' s travels in
the East, an account of which has been given in the last
chapter, the one prized the most was the friendship the
seed of which was sown among the cliffs and shollahs of the
Neilgherry Mountains. Mr. Littledale has furnished me
with the following reminiscences, which though brief are
so charming that I have placed them apart in this chapter.
As sportsmen Loder and Littledale were kindred spirits,
and my friend's admiration for Littledale and his achieve-
ments knew no bounds — his name was constantly on his
lips. My own introduction to Littledale was rather a
curious one. In the early nineties (? 1893) I was about

204

MANIPULATING RIFLES 205

to start for Algeria and had received a letter from Loder
urging me to take with me a new kind of rifle which he and
Littledale had seen and tried — this was the '256 Mannlicher,
price £4 including bayonet, a recently perfected Continental
military arm.

Loder told me how to procure the rifle from Belgium,
how to manipulate it, what to have done to it in order
to transform it into a sporting weapon, and sent me the
results of his experiments as regards its accuracy, penetra-
tion and for getting the bullets to " set up." Having got
the rifle, the bolt being a novelty to me I took this to pieces
and with infinite difficulty put it together again, but found
that I could not mount it in the breech. I wrote to Loder
and he replied with a few lines saying he had got into the
same trouble himself, but that Littledale was in town and
he had asked him to go to me and to put me right. Mr.
Littledale came at once and in a moment put my rifle in
order, and gave me such a first-rate lesson in its mechanism
and resources that I never after had any trouble. I
believe that Littledale, Loder and I were the first English-
men to adopt this rifle for big-game shooting, and that we
all stuck to it and swore by it till our travelling days were
done. Personally after the lapse of more than a quarter of
a century I consider it still holds the field as a magazine
rifle, in the combination of killing power in relation to
calibre, its handiness and sureness in manipulation, the
absence of mechanism that can " go wrong" and its extra-
ordinary wear-and-tear properties. Among Littledale' s
collection of trophies heads of the following stand out —
their measurements are recorded by Rowland Ward :

Red Deer Chamois

Carpathian Stag Cashmere Serow

Maral Alaskan Rocky Mountain

American Wapiti Goat

Asiatic Wapiti Nilgiri Ibex (16| in.)

Newfoundland Caribou Tien Shan Ibex (53 in.)

Prongbuck Caucasian Ibex

MongolianGazeWe (gutturosa) Bharal (Caucasian)

206 LODER AND LITTLEDALE [ch. vii

Pallas' s Bharal Marco Polo's Argali
Ladak Bharal {Pseudosi Kobet Dagh Urial

naJmra) Caucasian Bison

Colorado Bighorn American Bison

Kamchatkan Bighorn Kamchatka Brown Bear

Siberian Argali Caucasian Brown Bear
Littledale's Argali

Mr. Littledale's Reminiscences
In January 1875 Edmund Loder and I found ourselves
the only guests at Silk's Hotel, Ootacamund, and on dis-
covering that we were both in the Nilgiris with the same
object — a campaign against the Nilgiri ibex {Hemitragus
hylocrius) — we decided to join forces and had a most en-
joyable and successful shoot. Edmund Loder had an argu-
ment with a particularly fine tiger, and, as everyone who
knew his skill with the rifle would anticipate, the skin and
skull were brought into camp and are now a prominent
feature of the Museum at Leonardslee. Some sambar and
several old " saddlebacks " were also part of the bag.
Landing once at Bombay twenty or more years afterwards,
the first thing I saw in the Pioneer was that some mis-
creant (!) had shot an unusually fine Nilgiri ibex half an inch
larger than the one we got, depriving our shoot of the record
head. This casual meeting at Ooty formed the com-
mencement of a lifelong friendship between Edmund Loder
and myself which remained undimmed for forty-five years,
till his death left the botanical, zoological and scientific
world and his countless friends greatly the poorer for his
loss. After our trip was over a fine old specimen of an

English gentleman Colonel H asked us to join him in a

drive of some woods where anything from a tiger to a wood-
cock might happen. The tiger certainly did not turn up ;
but after a most excellent lunch, at which the Colonel played
a good knife, fork and tumbler, he proposed a rifle match
and he solemnly tied two empty bottles by the necks to a
branch about fifty yards off. We both pointed out that it
was much too near to be any test, and they w^ere moved
further away. We each promptly broke our bottles. Two

SHOOTING PROWESS 207

more empty ones were produced — one specially emptied (!)
by the Colonel for the occasion — and these shared the same
fate. We could only find full bottles in the tiffin basket, and
asked permission to use one. With a twinkle in his eye he
said " You shall each have one shot, but I will hang it up
myself." He did so, but at such a distance that it could
hardly be seen. Loder won the toss and took first shot —
which, in the early days of express rifles, with any one else
could only have been termed a lucky one, for nothing was
left of the bottle but the neck dancing on the string. I
immediately claimed the right of a shot at the other full
bottle. " No, young man, certainly not ; I don't trust
either of you." So the match was drawn, hugely in
Edmund's favour. Some years later I took a magnum '500
Express to Leonardslee to try at the targets ; it fired far too
heavy a charge for its weight and kicked viciously. From
the way it tore up the ground he nicknamed it the " Estate
Destroyer." Edmund sat down to have a shot. There was
a huge report, and he was sent flat on his back with the rifle
far behind him. As he lay there he said, " Where am I?
What has happened ? " Both barrels had gone off at once
and the recoil was tremendous. Shortly afterwards having
the same rifle out in the Rockies, a Crow Indian chief,
" Crazy Face," strolled into camp. Seeing the rifle, he asked
to be allowed to fire a shot ; he did not hold it tight enough,
and we saw his cheek was bleeding. Without taking any
notice of his injuries, he quite gravely asked me to allow his
friend to have a shot. His friend, however, had seen all he
wanted to see about that rifle, and would have none of it.
On one occasion when I was Edmund's guest at Hop-
freben, he brought home quite a nice stag, except it was
very narrow. Having recently returned from Alaska, I
told him that a man out there had offered to give a moose
head of mine 12 in. or 15 in. greater spread. Loder inquired
how it was done. They spread the horns with a block and
tackle and then put a strong piece of timber to keep the
width till the horns got set and dry. So we determined to
experiment with his head. We tied the coronet firmly

208 LODER AND LITTLEDALE [ch. vii

together to prevent the skull splitting ; we fastened the
head between two posts of the verandah, and with a rope
spread the antlers as much as we dare, and it really made
quite a fine head. We decided to leave it there to dry and
set. Next morning the head was found in two pieces ;
very heavy rain having fallen in the night tightened the
rope and spread the horns still farther to breaking point.

One day at Bisley he lent me a rifle and told me to have
a try for the Martin Smith Sporting Rifle Competition.
Having shot and cleaned the rifle, I found Edmund shooting
in a long-range match roped off from the public. Attract-
ing his attention, I threw him the card target. He looked
at it carefully, then jumped up, throwing regulations to the
winds, came shaking me cordially by the hand and said,
" That settles it ; well done, old chap — I knew you would
win it." As a matter of fact he divided with Rankin. I
told him he had most peculiar stuff to clean his rifle with,
it smelt strongly of almonds. With a voice that could have
been heard from Dan to Beersheba he told the world in
general that I had been cleaning the rifle with his hair oil.

CHAPTER VIII

1876 AND 1877 — MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TOUR —

AGE 26-27
" But in the North long since my nest is made.

O tell her, hriej is life but love is long.
O Swallow, fljang from the golden woods.
Fly to her, and pipe and woo her and make her mine.
And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee."
Lines in Edmund Loder's diary written therein

at Darjeeling, March 1875.

How the Christmas of 1875 was spent at the High Beeches
or how Edmund Loder passed the spring and summer of
1876, after his journey round the world, must be left to
the reader's imagination. Having studied his journals
and reflected on the possible feelings prompting him to
enter certain passages from the poets, I believed I detected
signs of at least a fairly frequent turning of his heart in
a direction where in 1876 it was to be lastingly settled.
This chapter is given in the main to the year which wit-
nessed the most important event in his life : the laying
deep the foundations of that happiness which outlasted
all the storms of life and the winning of that love which
abode by him to the moment of his last breath.

There are amongst the notes which Loder left behind
him some for a lecture which he gave in the early part of
this year at Slaugham Common, not far from the High
Beeches. It seems likely that parental and other pres-
sure must have been applied to overcome his shyness of
public appearances. But the lecture was delivered and
was a great success, for he had carefully arranged his
subjects with a view to an entertaining variety, and there

209

210 MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TOUR [ch. vin

is plenty of anecdote as well as an amusing account of
his struggles with the Swedish language. It was accom-
panied with an exhibition of his trophies and curios, from
flying fish bottled in whisky to scalps and praying wheels.
I do not know if a certain young lady, Miss Marion
Hubbard, was amongst the many neighbours who were
present at this lecture, but her home was not far away
and but five miles from the High Beeches. She and
Edmund Loder had known each other since childhood,
but until this year did not often meet except out riding.
Sir Robert Loder was fond of coursing and used to come
with his greyhounds and course over Mr. Hubbard's big
fields at Plummer's Plain. Perhaps these occasions were
seized by the little god for letting fly some of his darts.
I know nothing whatever about it, but even old men have
some remnants of imagination. The author does know
what Sussex is in spring and summer, the texture of the
shade in its hanging woods, and of the sun-glints on
the paths ; what gardens were and m.ay be yet with

" rivulets hurrj-ing thro' the lawn,
The moan of doves in immemorial elms.
And murmuring of innumerable beea."

Others have ridden side by side in leafy lanes on summer
days, and wandered among heath and bracken in the long
sweet evenings of an English June, before thrush and black-
cap have quite closed the too short season of their song. At
least there was there a lovely setting for Love's young
dream, and the reader is free, as I am, to put into it a
tall, lithe, eager lover with light-blue eyes and a lovely
girl with a strangely sweet gentleness in her ways and
voice. Surely this spring the beeches wore for them
their tenderest green, and when October came put on
for their betrothal their softest red. We are given
memories, it is said, that we may gather roses in December,
and I only guess at the beauty and the sweetness of
what was gathered at the winter season of their lives.
Whatever may have been the course of their courtship,
Edmund Loder on November 21st, 1876, was married to

PARIS AND ALGERIA 211

Marion the third daughter of Wilham Egerton Hubbard
of Leonardslee.

The month before Christmas was spent in Paris. It is
not every newly married pair who resort there who occupy
their days as they did. But neither of them was ever a
waster of time. They did not sit side by side and pretend
to read Dante — no, they bought a Paris Directory and
studied this together, putting down the address of every-
one entered therein who was described as a " Naturaliste "
and then with methodical labour visiting day by day
everyone in a given area who came under this heading.
They were collecting horns, and did not mean to miss the
chance of getting new and rare specimens. But many
a time they climbed to an atelier au cinquwme to find a
savant or a professor interested only in bugs or beetles
or the like.

From Paris they travelled through Spain and then
crossed over to Or an. I have space to deal with but little
of their doings, but shall refer to their time in Algeria.

Loder was a pioneer in many directions. As far as I
know he was the first English sportsman to go to the
Aures in the quest for ^\'ild sheep, and the first of my
acquaintance who discovered the charms of Biskra as a
winter resort. I believe the following is the genesis of
the attempts to obtain the so-called " mouflon,'' the
I'arui of the Arabs {Ovis lervia). Edmund Loder with
difficulty got news of them, and with his companion
Charles Radcliffe found them in 1877 in the Metlili, but
though they saw a fair number they failed to get a speci-
men. With the information supplied by Loder, Edward
North Buxton and his son Gerald Buxton went to the
Metlili in 1881 (?), and then to other mountains, including
the Amarkhadou, and succeeded in shooting specimens.
More than ten years after I selected Biskra as winter
quarters for my wife and family and hunted in the Aures
during the winters 1892 to 1895. Loder and I were com-
panions in several expeditions during these years. Thus
it was Loder who opened the way for so many besides

212 MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TOUR [ch. vni

myself to one of the finest forms of sport and to enter
a new kind of world and a new sort of life. The question
may be asked whether Robert S. Hichens' novel The
Garden of Allah would ever have been written had not
the wild sheep drawn Loder on his honeymoon to El
Kantara and thence to Biskra — a work which must
remain a masterpiece of descriptive art quite apart from
any other merit it may possess.

In the worst storm of this winter Mr. and Mrs. Loder
crossed from Carthagena to Oran — a fearful night cross-
ing which gave Mrs. Loder a horror of sea voyages which
she never entirely got over ; she was very ill too, but
her husband was always a good sailor. They found Oran
" all dried up like Spain " and famine imminent. In
Algeria the harvest is early and depends on rain during
the months of December, January and February. In
Oran there had been no rain at all instead of the usual
17 inches, so they went on to Algiers where things were
a little better. I take the following extracts from Loder's
letters home, most of them being from those to his mother
and father :

"H6tel d'Orient, Algiers,

February 25th, 1877.

" We did not care much about Spain ; seen as we saw
it from the railway, it looked so burnt up and dirty.
Even Madrid seemed far from civilised. The Picture
Gallery there is called the richest in the world, but we
did not care for the ' style ' of pictures and I think both
of us would prefer to revisit the galleries at Amsterdam.

" We like this hotel ; our view is splendid, out on the
harbour— then across the Bay the water in which is
always changing colour, dark blue, light green, dark green,
light blue — beyond a range of mountains and then beyond
again Jurjura Mountains, 7,500 feet, all covered with
deep snow, sixty miles away. The native part of the
town is more interesting to Marion than to me, as all
towns of the Orientals are more or less of a type.

" Very good books to read on the country are Algeria
as it is, by George Gaskell (pub. Smith, Elder & Co.),
only 7*. 5d. ; a French book (3 frcs.) Voyage en Algerie,

ALGIERS 213

by C. Cartheron (Paris : J. Helzel, 18 rue Jacob) ;
]\Iurray's Handbook of Algeria is one of his very best,
with a lot of light reading in it.'

" We have met a young couple, a Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Radcliffe ; they were married about six weeks ago and
have been travelling in Spain and crossed over with us
from Carthagena to Oran. We generally walk and drive
together in the afternoon.* As yet I have met with no
one who has ever shot the wild sheep of the country, the
Aoudad or Moufion a Manchettes, nor anyone who has
any friend who has done so, but the skins and horns are
frequently brought in by the Arabs. I have hopes of
being able to find out their whereabouts from the natives
of Biskra, when we get there ; but as yet our prospects
of sport seem very slight indeed.

" We saw Colonel Playfair, the English Consul ; he
says we shall find it most delightful in the Aures Moun-
tains if we look only to find magnificent scenery and are
interested in ruins and Roman remains — but as for sport,
he is not a sportsman and knows nothing at all about it.

" We are both very pleased with Algiers, Marion quite as
much as I am. If I can find these mouflon (which at
present seem at least doubtful) I shall think still more of
the country, but I am afraid that the big game of Algeria
is nearly a thing of the past."

There is a postscriptum to this letter referring to his
brother Alfred, who is making his way into Cashmere in
the footsteps of Edmund Loder.

" I fancy that the Sawalek Range (mentioned by Alfred
in his letter where he says he is at the foot of them) are
the hills in which the fossil remains were found of that
great four-horned monster the Sivatherium. I have
shown you a drawing of the skull and also of the restora-
tion of the whole animal."

^ Written in the main by the best English authority on the subject,
viz. Colonel Sir Lambert Playfair, for more than thirty years Consul-
General at .AJgiers, the author of many interesting works, e.g. In the Foot-
steps of Bruce, The Scourge of Christendom, etc.

2 The Radcliffes and Loders became fast friends, and the Radcliffea
were for years Loder's companions in many sporting trips.

214 MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TOUR [ch. viii

They travel to Blida — " it is very pretty with groves
of immense olive trees and thousands of orange trees " —
then three hours by rail and ten hours by diligence to
Teniet, 3,800 feet above sea.

"Teniet el Had,

March 7th, 1877.

" Teniet is only a mountain village with very limited
accommodation, but we had the assistance of the Sub-
Inspector of the Forest and got on very well ; he lent
Marion his wife's side-saddle and borrowed a mule for the
Radcliffes. They rode in ' caccolet,' the thing they carry
wounded soldiers in — two iron chairs, one on each side
of the mule. Three hours' riding from Teniet brought
us to the Forest -keeper's hut, where we had breakfast.
This is the centre of the Cedar Forest. The views all
round are very beautiful ; some of the trees are 27 feet
round and 500 years old (5,000 feet above the sea). I
enclose a few seeds of the cedar from Teniet — you can
have them planted."

He sends his camp outfit by sea from Algiers to
Philippeville, and in order to reduce sea journey by
sixteen hours for his wife's sake plans out the journey
overland, no easy one in those days :

" First day, 5.30 a.m. to midnight by diligence, 109
miles, to Beni Mansour ; Beni Mansour, 23 miles, by mule
path to Akbou ; 48 miles, on to Bougie (no hotel there),
Bougie to Philippeville by sea if necessary " : but he thinks
of trying to get to Constantine by land by a road to Setif,
but it is " doubtful if the road is passable," then " we shall
have made one of the most beautiful journeys that can
be found."

" El Kantara.

March dlst, 1877.

" At Constantine we made the acquaintance of two very
charming men, Monsieur Brosse the Prefet and Si Larbi
Ben Zagouti, an Arab — the latter had travelled (Paris,
Vienna, Strasburg, etc.). Through them we saw many
things, mosques, etc., which we should not have seen
properly without them."

MRS. LODER'S ILLNESS 215

They pick up a cook here, trained in Paris : "he has
turned out an excellent cook, but rather difficult to
manage."

By night diligence they reach Batna and have got up
into the cold ; here they got mules from the O.C. troops
and completed their outfit for their march. Here also
they made the acquaintance of a very distinguished
Kaid, Boudi Ef (Bou Dhiaf, Kaid of the Touaba
Oulad Daoud), who had taken an active part in sup-
pressing the recent insurrection in the Aures. A Bordj,
where I have been to near Batna, which was heroically
defended against a horde of rebels, still bears his name.
They were also entertained by the then Cadi Mustapha
Ben Derouich and first sampled the native dishes of kous-
kous and a meshoui (a sheep or lamb roasted whole).

They marched for two days from Batna to El Kantara
in the teeth of a most bitter wind, the air " keen and freez-
ingly cold," and with disastrous results to their plans, for
Mrs, Loder catches cold and becomes very ill on arriving at
El Kantara. Fortunately Loder catches a doctor passing
through, and sent to Batna for medicines, and his first
anxieties are relieved. The climate now is perfection, for
they are on the rim of the desert. But he decides that all
idea of camp life must be abandoned.

" It is very sad to give up our camp just as we have every-
thing so complete, but anything is better than to run any
risk to her health. Our camp is pitched close to the hotel
(Ber brand), and the Radcliffes live in it. The great moun-
tain of the Metlili towers above the hotel, and the gentlemen
tackle it and find the wild sheep."

During the days they hunted on the Metlili they saw a
good number of " miouflon." Loder saw in all thirteen
one time and another, but apparently got but one shot and
says of it :

" Shot at about 200 yards at one of two which were on
the move, but luck did not favour me. They are difficult
to find and should be looked for in early dawn and at sunset ;
15

216 MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TOUR [ch. viii

during the daytime they will hide closely under ledges of
rock and under thick bushes away from the sun.-^

" They are noble game and live in a most difficult
country for hunting in — all loose stones on big rocks with
immense ravines ; all quite impassable without grass or
rope soles (this was before we were able to obtain solid
rubber soles hard enough to stand such work). The Arabs
kill them, but they go out for two or three days at a time
and sleep out in the mountains and are on the spot before
sunrise." (This is the process described by Buxton, who
in his Short Stalks quotes the reply of an Arab who knew
" French " to his question as to how they got the mouflon :
" Marchey marchey, couchey couchey.") "' I am certain
anyone could get one who went out with nothing else to do,
but ought to sleep two or three nights on the mountains
without coming down."

The Radcliffes march on to Biskra and the Loders
follow in the diligence. The Radcliffes will do the Oued
Abdi without them ; "all this is very sad, but the consola-
tion is that it might easily have been worse." Radcliffe had
had a chance too at the sheep, but missed the long and
moving chances they gave. The Radcliffes had even worse
luck later on than the Loders', for Radcliffe got fever, had
to get back to Europe, and by the time he got to Gibraltar
was delirious and dangerously ill. Both married couples
must have kept very lively recollections of their honey-
moons. Loder's descriptions are brief but good of the
country. El Kantara he finds " most curious and beauti-
ful— the oasis a mile away, a patch of green of about 18,000
palm-trees and amongst them fig-trees and apple-trees and
Si^vicot-trees, the last as large as our orchard trees in
England."

This letter describes his walks with his wife in the Oasis,
a sirocco, a dust-storm, the desert as a sea with green oases
and palms as islands ; and he says :

^ It is not so much to get shade that the sheep do this, but to escape
observation, being continually hunted by the Arabs and the shepherds.
I have seen them in the hottest hours of the day, later in the year than
this, lying and sleeping in the full sun on mountains less hunted than the
Metlili.— A. E. P.

BISKRA 217

" H6tel dxj Sahara, Biskra.

April llth, 1877.

" The sunset lights here are very curious (I think Gaskell
describes them very well in his book). We have seen no
brilliant sunsets like ours, for there are very few clouds,
but at sunset the sky becomes all golden and the light part
of the hills bright rose and the shadows deep purple.

" The sun and clear air show off everything so wonder-
fully, giving the whole landscape such bright colours.

" You may perhaps think a date-palm is a date-palm,
but at Biskra alone there are 170 different sorts, with names
to each, like roses in a garden in England.

" Just now we heard a noise at our door, and when we
opened it found a young Arab with a little beast in his hand
the size of a small rabbit. It was a young hyaena which
he wanted to sell to us."

In these letters there is a good deal about his anxiety
about a new venison larder at Amat and the necessity of
preventing risks of mildew. This reminds me of some
remarks of his daughter Patience in her notes :

" His two great anxieties on arriving at a new deer forest
were always where he was to keep his guns and rifles, and
what sort of game larder was there (he never found one to
his liking all the twenty years I can remember). How good
the fishing was, or how good the heads were likely to be,
never worried him at first. I remember at one place we
had only just arrived, the footman announcing with a
groan ' there are pike in the loch,' but even that did not
dismay father in the least — he was too much excited nailing
up his gun-rack, for which he had found a beautiful place
in the dining-room."

" The Kaid of Biskra we found a charming man, one

of the wealthiest and most honourable of the Arab

aristocracy." ^

" Bone.

April 26th, 1877.

" We had been away from Constantine about six weeks
and the country had much changed in the meantime . . .
now all the fields were green with crops and all the trees just

^ This would be the Kaid or Agha Ben Gana, whom 1 knew in later
years. — A. E. P.

218 MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TOUR [ch. viii

out in leaf, so that the scenery was as pretty as it could be.
Marion has taken to painting many of the pretty wild
flowers we find — she does this very well."

He describes at length in this letter the curious boiling
springs and cones of Hammam Meskoutin and the Roman
Baths :

" All round is most lovely, something a little like Japan,
beautiful valleys all densely wooded with green open spaces
here and there and millions of the brightest flowers every-
where."

He writes of a beautiful drive from Duvivier to
Soukarras (twenty-six miles) through the forest of Beni
Sallah, " which is the only forest in Algeria where the red
deer (identical with Scotch deer') are found."

" We had a very fine day for our drive and enjoyed it as
much as any part of our journey. The wild flowers were
wonderful and the foliage beautifully varied."

From the pretty little French town of Bone they make a
pilgrimage to the Tomb of St. Augustin (two miles from
Bone) and then sail during a beautiful sunset and a pretty
moonrise for Goletta.

" Tunis.

May 1st, 1877.

" The ruins of Carthage are almost nil ; everything
has been carried off except cisterns, which perhaps are only
Roman work. A great deal of Venice is built of the marble
from Carthaginia, and for more than 1,000 years the ruins
have served as a quarry — this still goes on and it is too late
to stop it."

Of all the sights which he describes in and about Tunis
he finds the Bazaar (the Suks) the most striking : " One
article of commerce," he writes, "is perfume; we v/ere

1 These are now considered a subspecies and have been differentiated
from Cervus elaphua scoticus as C. e. barbarus. Loder possessed the record
head of the African stag — horns 38| in. in length, 5| in. circumference
between bez and trez and with an outside spread of 36 in, — an " eleven-
pointer."

CAGLIARI— CORTI— NICE 219

rather astonished at being asked £3 for a bottle holding
about 1^ teaspoonful of jasmine ! ! We did not buy any."
They had crossed from Tunis to Cagliari in a rolling
and pitching boat :

" Nice.

May IZth, 1877.

" Cagliari would be considered a curious and picturesque
town to people coming out straight from England, but
seemed tame after Algiers, Tunis, Constantine, etc. . . .
The view from the citadel heights of Cagliari is a fine one,
in its way, as any of the kind, and there are lots of wild
flowers."

Their next stays are at Oristomo and Sassari, and
then they go to Porto Torres and cross over to Ajaccio,
which " is one of the prettiest places we have yet seen
and now of course looks quite at its best."

Of the journey to Corti by diligence Loder says :

" This drive is as beautiful as anything can be, snow
mountains in sight nearly the whole time (Monte d'Oro,
8,000 feet), and the variety of greens is very great.
The scenery is something like the Swiss but on a smaller
scale, but the variety of colouring is certainly greater in
Corsica. Corti itself is very pretty and so is the whole
drive from Corti to Bastia — near Bastia is a very beautiful
grotto which we visited."

They arrive at Nice on May 12th. " Nice is certainly
a pretty place, but I do not think I should care for it in the
season when hundreds of English people are here."

From Nice they journey home — and thus ends their
Wedding Tour, which has lasted six months.

CHAPTER IX

FLOORE, 1877-1889 — cactus-hunting on the MEXICAN

FRONTIER, 1878 COLLECTING PLANTS IN THE DOLOMITES,

1883 — AFTER THE WHITE GOATS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS,

1887.

" Down the world with Mama !
That's the life for me !
Wandering with the wandering wind,
Vagabond and unconfined !

Arabs of the whole wide girth
Of the wind encircled earth !
In all climes we pitch our tents.
Cronies of the elements.
With the secret lords of birth
Intimate and free."

Richard Hovey.

On their return from abroad Mr. and Mrs. Loder settled
down at Floore in Northamptonshire, in the home pro-
vided for them by Sir Robert, and here they passed the
first ten years of their Kfe together. The making of a new
home, the arrangement of new possessions and the organisa-
tion of indoor and outdoor estabHshments is a fascinating
and absorbing occupation for the newly married people.
Onl}^ birds and badgers make such a delightful fuss about
this business. We can picture them as very busy this
summer amongst the furniture, presents, trophies and
pictures within the house, and with the stables, farm and
plans for their garden outside. Besides they had to make
the acquaintance with a new country and receive visits
of their numerous neighbours. It is certain that the
young couple were kept going and that no hours hung heavy
on their hands.

220

HEART TROUBLE 221

Floore was a charming property with fine timber round
the house, about seven miles from Northampton, in the
middle of the Pytchley Country and within easy reach of
the Grafton Hounds. Here Loder lived the life of a country
gentleman, filling his days with a greater variety of pur-
suits than most men can make time for. He devoted him-
self to astronomy, to the making of a lovely rock garden
(there were few in those days), to horticulture and natural
science. In the autumns they were in Scotland, in the
winters he hunted regularly with the Pytchley and had the
reputation one would expect of " going very hard." Here
also he began to put his ideas into practice of turning a
part of his grounds into a little zoo, beginning, I believe,
with emus and mouflon. He took during his father's life
a great interest in the improvement of the red deer and the
herd of fallow deer in Whittlebury Park and in the acclima-
tisation there of the wapiti which he imported from
America.

Loder filled his garden at Floore with interesting
plants, and in spite of a bleak climate he contrived to
establish a collection which became well known. He
specialised in narcissus, and was very successful in raising
hybrids. For the last three years he was at Floore, from
1886 to 1888, he was on the Council of the Horticultural
Society, and it was through love of gardening that he
formed friendships with such men as the Rev. C. Wolley
Dod, Sir Trevor Laurence, Sir Michael Foster and Sir
Joseph Hooker.

Early in his life at Floore his heart went wrong, the
trouble being due, I believe, to overstrain in Cashmere,
and he became so ill with its weak and irregular action,
and consequent nervous depression, that for some months
he was wheeled about in a Bath chair. The heart is an
organ that has great powers of recovery, however sus-
ceptible to derangement from fatigue or nerve strain.
Whilst Loder was in this state his father and the family
were much concerned and even alarmed, but after he
recovered his health I have heard it said by those about

222 FLOORE AND SUNDRY EXPEDITIONS [ch. ix

him that it was " only liver" and that he soon got " quite
well." That his heart recovered sufficiently to live a life
of abnormal activity is true ; but that he was constantly
liable to have symptoms of the old trouble is more correct.
He often complained to me of his heart, but he led so
healthy, so regular and so temperate a life that his moral
strength triumphed over this physical weakness until he
was far advanced in years.

My father used to say of me that I had been smitten
with a " wandering damn," and Loder had undoubtedly
symptoms of the same affliction if the desire to see and
know is to be considered one. For neither his journey
round the world nor the six-months' wedding tour nor
the delights of English country life had cured him of a
wish to see and to do more. They had been but a year
at home when we find Mr. and Mrs. Loder on board the
Germanic and sailing for America on July 4th, 1878.
On arrival in the States they revisited his old haunts
and friends ; but there is no need for us to travel with
them over something like the old ground. It seems that
Edmund Loder had now become thoroughly interested
in certain branches of horticulture and botany, and had
directed his studies and attention to the curious family of
the Cacti. To see them in their native habitat and to
collect them was a principal object of this expedition.
We find him setting out with his wife from Pueblo Cucharas
on the Mexican frontier to hunt for the varieties which
abound in this region. Their hunt was made in an
" express wagon," a vehicle devised to get over almost
any kind of country and to give the passengers on board
plenty of exercise — it had springs, but only under the
front seat. They collected great quantities of cacti on
the prairies. The nigger who drove them was much
puzzled with their ardour in this singular quest and
indeed with their activities generally ; and when he at
last beheld the wagon loaded up with the trophies of
their chase he remarked, " I never see any feller make
any money out of them things ! " " Them things " were

HIS COLLECTION OF CACTI 223

brought home to Floore and formed the nucleus of a
marvellous collection. For his cacti Loder built, with
his usual practical skill, a special house, so made of iron
and glass, without wood, that the maximum amount of light
and sun should reach the plants. When he left Floore in
1889 he did very much what Peter Beckford did with his
harriers — " having thus got them perfect he parted with
them," Loder presented the whole of his collection to the
Royal Botanic Garden at Edinburgh. Forty-two years
after, Professor Bayley Balfour writing to Lady Loder (in
January 1921) says :

" I have a most vivid recollection of the splendid col-
lection of cacti, presented to us by Sir Edmund Loder,
coming here. It was in the year after I came to Edin-
burgh and I find on looking up our records that there
were 250 species of cacti and of other succulent plants in
the gift — truly a sumptuous one and one that I valued
very greatly because it really was the foundation of our
collection. I am glad to tell you that nearly the whole
of them are still alive and thriving here. . . . Many of
them of course have had to be propagated, the older
plants dying out, but I can safely say that the gift is still
the backbone of our collection. It has always been a
very pleasant thought to me that Sir Edmund was so
kind to us."

Edmund Loder was awarded the First-Class Certificate by
the Royal Horticultural Society for some of his cacti ;
on June 14th, 1881, he obtained these high awards for
Echinocereus fendleri and for Echinocereus gonacanthus,
and his exhibits are referred to in the Scientific Com-
mittee's Reports.^

1 See The Garden, six (1881), p. 628; and The Oard. Chron., N.S.
(1881), p. 799.

The Garden contains many papers and notes written by Sir Edmund
in the early eighties, and he read at least one paper at the meetings of
the Horticultural Society. On May 8th, 1883, " a paper was read by
Mr. E. G. Loder on ' Hardy Cacti : their Habitats and Culture.' " The
Garden referring to this paper says : " Hardy Cacti was the subject of a
paper by Mr. E. G. Loder, who makes this interesting class of plants a
speciality in his garden at Weedon and who has recently collected them

224 FLOORE AND SUNDRY EXPEDITIONS [ch. ix
His daughter Mrs. Otter says :

" Two very childish recollections stand out in my
mind. They both show that he liked to share even with
a child his varied interests. I remember on one occasion
being taken out of bed in the middle of the night to be
shown a night-flowering cactus, and at another time being
carried down to the Observatory to look through the big
telescope at the moon or some new star, I can't remember
which. He was not in a sense a child-lover (at least not
when we were children), but he would take as much pains
explaining a simple thing to a child as in unravelling
some deep problem with a fellow-scientist. It v/as the
key to the whole of his life's work — he had ' the genius of
taking pains,' and that is obviously why everything he
touched turned into a golden success."

I do not know whether he was always a lover of children
or not, but in middle life he was most delightful with my
little people and quite won their hearts by being always
ready to have a joke with them or to show them inter-
esting and amusing things.

As for the cacti, after 1889 he turned them out of his
life and directed his mind to new studies. The only
occasion on which I ever heard him mention them was
to correct my ignorance when we were in Somaliland
together. I had been there before, and though I knew
the native names of the trees and more conspicuous shrubs
and plants, I was without the slightest scientific know-
ledge of the vegetation. I pointed out to him such
curious things as the Barawai tree {Adeniuni speciosiim).
I remember his looking at an enormous bulbous plant,

from their native habitats in Colorado and other parts of North
America. Many interesting facts were stated, with regard to the native
habitats of these plants, which are of so much value to cultivation."

See The Garden, xxiii (1883), pp. 437, 438. Other notes and articles
by Sir E. G. Loder in The Garden are " Rocky Mountain Cacti," xix,
p. 593 ; " Cacti Indoors and in the Open Air," xx, p. 601 ; " On Cacti
which have been Tested for Hardiness," xxi (1881), p. 28. Tliere is a
coloured plate of Echinocereus gonacanthus, and the text referring to it is by
Edmund Loder, in The Garden, xxii (1882), pp. 444-5.

ALPINE PLANTS 225

almost spherical with a few twigs and leaves sprouting
out of the bulb, which was about four feet in diameter,
and his saying " that is a potato," and then, thinking of
a certain forest, I said, " and I will show you a forest
of cacti." " That you cannot do," he replied ; " there
are no cacti in Africa — you will have to go to America
to see them.''' And he gave me a simple and general
account of succulent plants and of the milky- juiced
trees and their distribution, and told me my Cande-
labra trees were Euphorbias before he had even seen
them.

One other of Mr. and Mrs. Loder's expeditions made
for the purpose of enriching their garden at Floore, which
boasted now a beautiful Rock and Alpine Garden, may
be mentioned. It was one made to the Dolomites in 1883
with the object of finding Phyteuma comosum. They set
out with a formidable outfit of hammers, jemmies and
tools associated more with Bill Sloggins and the burglary
profession than with the gentle gardener's, for Loder
anticipated a formidable resistance on the part of P.c.
to all efforts to prise him out of his rocky fastness. The
headquarters of the expedition vras the Glocken Haus
above Heilinger-blut, a two-roomed Alpine hut, reached
of course on foot. One room was set apart for the ladies
of the party and the other one left for the men. When
this campaign had been brought to a victorious conclu-
sion the party made for the Engadine and there added
to their collection of Alpine plants.

The years at Floore were interrupted by yet another
trip Loder made to America with the Radcliffes, and it
was one he always recalled with special pleasure ; it took
place between the months of July and November in 1887.
He went out on the Servia. Apparently Loder enjoyed
even more than usual the company of the acquaintances
he had, or made, among the passengers on this voyage;
at least he makes in his diary more mention of them and
of the subjects discussed than is his wont. The title he
gives to this volume of his journals is After White

226 FLOORS AND SUNDRY EXPEDITIONS [ch. ix

Goats .^ Lord Herschell was on board and there must have
been other pohticians too, for he mentions a " very
lively " dispute about Free Trade and Protection on deck,
" which was continued afterwards in the evening in the
smoking-room." There was the Rev. John Gillespie,
Vice-President of the Highland Society, who knew his
father's sheep and horses ; there was John W. Mackay
(the Silver King), " said to be the wealthiest man in
the world " ; a young Englishman, G. F, Farnham,
who is sending 300 English mares to a ranch in British
Columbia ; but it is one Hubbard, an American, with
whom he spends the most time, discussing rifles and sport-
ing experiences, for Hubbard had done a great deal of
shooting and fishing in America. The Radcliffes, when
Loder arrived in the States, were at the Yellowstone Park.
In the middle of August he meets them at Missoula, and
there they collect their outfit for their hunting trip. Hank
Carnes as guide and hunter. Bill King with seven pack-
horses, Espagnol with five more, Jacob, a cook, and Bill
Gormally are engaged to accompany them.

Their first camp is made at Arlee, and here and at their
next camps on the Jokko River and at the head of the
Jokko Lake they get good baskets of trout, but catch
none of the weight of those which the Indians bring into
their camp (trout of 9 lb, and 12 lb. are mentioned).
Making their way generally through thick timber, they
reach the Clearwater Valley and camp at Two Forks.
Thence there is no trail and they go forward through
forest on game tracks or on no track at all, and make a
camp at Round Prairie, and from this point they have
to cut a trail to reach white goat country. During
their march up and indeed throughout the time they

^ The weird-looking creature known as " the Bocky Mountain goat "
or scientifically as Oreamnus americanus, is related to the Asiatic family
of Serows {Capricornis suniatrensis). Of the Serows there are at least
some ten varieties of subspecies. Though none of these are white, several
of the Serows have tendencies to white on the legs, such as those of Nepaul
and Darjeeling, and the Sze-chuan Serow is white-maned. The typical
form is dark grey to black, and the Malay varieties are all black.

A DAY AFTER WHITE GOATS 227

were after the goats it appears to have been cold and wet.
From Goat Camp by dint of hard chmbing they reach
heights whence they spy the goats and sometimes wapiti,
but the goat country is yet too distant. They work at
blazing a trail up into the " Basin," and after the men
have worked on this trail from September 6th to the
12th they get up 1,000 feet above their last camp
and pitch their tents at a spot they call " Canon
Camp." From this camp they have their first success.
Here Loder gets three goats. He gives a long descrip-
tion of his first day ; here are some extracts from the
account :

" Saw a goat on a red cliff — waited for some time and

then tried a stalk, but he got my wind and made off.

Came dov/n a ravine into the Basin again. On our way

down we saw a goat 400 to 500 yards above us. The goat

was in full sight, so I had to keep a tree between me and

it all the way — very hard work as the hill was steep. I

got within 130 yards of it, but could only see its head

and neck and even that was partly hidden by a rock.

The goat was lying on a shelf of rock very straight above

me — I had an uncomfortable place and my neck got stiff

with looking up so long, so at last I whistled and threw

down stones, but the beast would not rise although he

heard the noises. It kept me waiting a long time till my

neck got very painful, but at last it rose and I shot. It

fell in two bounds down the rocks. . . . When I got up

to it, it was quite dead. I shouted to Hank, and he got

up to me and we pulled it down to a flat place and skinned

it there. Then Hank packed the head and skin in his

ruck-sack and I put a hind-leg in mine. It was 7 o'clock

before we got away from the beast and it was two hours'

walk back to camp. It got quite dark in three-quarters

of an hour and we had a very bad time. Hank fell

badly once and I cut my shins against a rock. They were

alarmed in camp at our being away so late and fired a

couple of shots, v/hich we answered with two more. They

very wisely sent two men off with a lantern up the trail

they had cut during that day. . . . We got into camp

just before 10 p.m."

228 FLOORE AND SUNDRY EXPEDITIONS [ch. ix

By the 18th the trail into the Basin is cut and they
now are camped 6,500 feet up and near the ground they
have been working to reach since the end of August.

Both Loder and Radchffe shot well and had luck with
the goats, and from a camp 800 feet higher continued
their success. Altogether Loder got nine goats ; Rad-
cliffe got a number of good ones too, though how many
is not recorded in the diary. On October 3rd, having
done with the goats, Loder gets his best wapiti.

" Started with Bill King at 8 a.m. on horseback. Heard
an elk at 10 a.m. far below us. Went on for some hours,
then turned back lower down. Heard the elk again at
3 p.m. Left the horses and King behind and went to-
wards the sound. He was evidently moving about, as
the whistling came first from above and then from the
side. I kept on very carefully and at last saw the tips
of his horns and soon after a small piece of his body (part
of his ribs, I thought). I fired at this and saw that I
hit, but the beast did not fall, so I ran on and fired twice
more ; this dropped him. He was a fine beast :

6 ft. girth at brisket.

88 in. from root of tail to between horns.

108 in, from root of tail to between nostrils.

Tail— 7 1 in.

Height at shoulder- — 5 ft. 4 in.

Horns — 54 and 50 in.

54 in. round the neck."

The next day he weighs the " elk " and made him 752 lb.
" clean without entrails, liver, lungs and heart, which
weighed about 40 lb. more. The entire skin weighed
83 lb."
Here are some of the measurements of the white goats ;

No. 5,

From root of tail to between horns . 50 in.

From root of tail to upper lip and in-
cluding tail to tip, leaving out 7 in.
of long hairs (a small thin bunch) . 61 „

From hind hoof to upper lip . . 90 „

MEASUREMENTS OF WHITE GOATS 229

From fore hoof to top of withers
Girth at brisket.
Live weight ....
Girth of neck after skinning, taken 2 in
below where head was taken off

41 1 in.
48 „
225 ft).

21 in.

53

in

56

J J

IH

jj

100

9»

38

J J

246

ft.

He makes the weight and measurements of one of Rad-
diffe's goats greater than this :

Girth round brisket ....
From root of tail to between horns .
From between horns to upper lip
Tail 3 in. and hair 4 in.
Hind hoof to upper lip by ridge of back
Height at withers ....
Weight (live weight)

On October 5th they break up camp and start on their
march back to Arlee, where they are, as on the previous
occasion, entertained by a Major Ronan and his wife and
where Loder notes that their seven children, the baby
included, are particularly nice, and where he also says
"at Major Ronan' s request I wrote a sketch of our trip
for publication in a Helena paper." He gives the Major
his tent, valise and blankets, his bridle to Hank Games,
his saddle he sells to Bill King for $10 and then packs
up and expresses his skins to Rochester. At Missoula he
pays off his men :

" Bill King and 7 pack-horses and for

potatoes ...... $240

Espagnol and 5 horses and 1 extra for 9

days and potatoes .... $203

Bill Gormally $107

Jacob the cook . . -^ . . . $100

" Paid Hank Games $5 per day for himself and horse,
50 cents a day for each of his four pack-horses." He esti-
mates his trip with stores and saddle, etc., to have cost
him £128.

Hank meets many old friends at Missoula, all of whom
wish to stand him drinks, so that by night he had had

230 FLOORE AND SUNDRY EXPEDITIONS [ch. ix

more than was good for him and " showed his $50 notes
recklessly," so that Radcliffe before going to bed " got
his pocket-book away from him and gave it to Kennedy
the landlord to lock up in safety." They proceed the
same night to Victoria.

After visiting Vancouver and the " new town with
plenty of ferns, Aspidium munitum., among the stumps "
and admiring the fine snow cone of Mt. Baker, they go to
Toronto and once more visit Niagara.

At Rochester, where we find him next, he looks through
the collections of H. A. Ward and at his own wapiti and
goat-skins — " bought several things ... a moose head I
bought was collected many years ago by Prince Maxi-
milian."

On October 26th he went on board the Adriatic and
sailed from New York.

In his diaries of this trip he mentions many plants and
flowers which he observed, and collects seeds and roots.
He gives very full particulars of everything he sees and
does, and never shoots a " grouse " or catches a trout
without mentioning it; temperatures and altitudes he
records with regularity as in other journeys.

And so the years passed between Floore and Amat, with
weeks spent in town or abroad, with visits to Whittlebury
and to country houses, until Sir Robert's death in 1888.
It has already been mentioned that Sir Robert left
Whittlebury to Sir Edmund and Floore to a younger son,
Mr. Sydney Loder, how it was that Sir Edmund decided
to leave Northamptonshire and to return to his native
county, Sussex, and also how Leonardslee, his wife's old
home, became theirs to the end of his life.

There exists still the Visitors' Book of Floore kept up
to the end of their time. It holds evidence of the number
of their friends and contains the names of many gifted
and interesting people who were within the circle of their
acquaintance. It would be entertaining to reproduce it
with the comments of their guests on leaving, but I must
be content to give random selections :

EXTRACTS FROM VISITORS' BOOK 231

The following two are by the Rev. C. Wolley Dod, a

late Master of Eton (Floore is pronounced Flore).

July 1st, 1883 :

" Mid every plant that Adam knew or we know,
Both ' Flore simplice ' and Flore plena.
In rapture lost we wonder now no more
WTiy Flora gave her name to flowery Floore."

June 7th, 1884 :

" The Muses nine might all combine
With Greece's seven sages
To celebrate Floore's wonders great
And -svrite a thousand pages.

" The visitor who signed his name
Had arm than Csesar stronger.
Who came — and saw — and overcame
The wish to stay here longer."

There are at least two highly appreciative entries by
Sir Joseph Hooker in regard to the gardens, expressing
surprise at the numbers of plants in the collections and
remarking on the charms of Floore.

Here are two by Mr. H. C. Goodhart, who married a
niece of Lady Loder'S, the Hon. Miss Rose Rendel :

July 6th, 1886 :

" There came two young people to Weedon
Who one thing — at least — are agreed on —
So long as they live, they'll vow Floore can give
A bisque and half thirty to Eden."

January 23rd, 1888 :

" Two persons revisited Floore
Who had honeymooned there once before ;
But now they are three, and they all do agree
It's a place they entirely adore."

Here is one by G. B., November 17th, 1884 :

" May my pipe whene'er I load her
Ne'er waft her fragrant odour.
May time the great corroder
Turn my meerschaum into clay,
May I choke in a pagoda
Off mutton boiled with soda.
If the name of Marion Loder
Fromi my memory fade away,"
16

232 FLOORE AND SUNDRY EXPEDITIONS [ch. ix

Here is another, by Sir Edmund's old friend of the
Rocky Mountains, J. Gladwyn Jebb :
February 21st, 1885 :

" Inspected many rifles and targets — was not certain
that I understood the first and quite certain that I could
not hit the other, but found that miserable weather only
makes Floore the brighter indoors."

By C. H. B., March 19th, 1885 :

" My mind much exercised by mine host and my body
by his little daughter."

There are several references to the emus ; one visitor
remarks (A. M. H., November 15th, 1886) : " Leg of emu
an agreeable innovation on the dinner table."

The full life lived in the first decade of married life at
Floore drove along the seasons of each year at a pace that
truly must have made Time fly with Edmund Loder,
and now the scene is changed to Leonardslee.

CHAPTER X

AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM
" Afric is all the smi's." — Don Juan.

Loder's big-game expeditions in Africa were confined to
North Africa, Somaliland and British East Africa. Algeria
and Tunisia are not generally regarded as countries
yielding much sport for the rifle since the lion and bubal
have been practically exterminated. The red deer are
reduced to a few Tunisian herds, and the North African
buffalo survives only in the marshes near Bizerta, but it
was to their mountains and deserts that Loder returned
over and over again. Not that sport was the only at-
traction for him ; the flowers and vegetation, and natural
wonders of the maritime plains, of the plateaux, of the
mountains and of the Sahara, interested him, and only
in a less degree its history, inhabitants and antiquities.
From a purely sporting point of view and for a combina-
tion of variety in the sport afforded, of skill and effort
required in obtaining, and of the fascination of being
" far away " with undisturbed possession of vast hunting-
grounds among a most sporting description of natives,
Loder doubtless would have placed Somaliland first. It
is a tracker's and stalker's country and yields fine trophies.
British East Africa is a colony easy of access, where
safaris are " ready made," where large bags are comfort-
ably obtained ; and is a country possessing a special
charm in the wonderful variety of beautiful regions and
of many perfect climates. It is a country where an old
gentleman with a shooting pony can shoot as much as
he likes and acquire a large collection of fine trophies
without great exertion or fatigue. The attractions of

233

234 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

the Atlas Chain and of the deserts beyond are of quite
another character. The sport afforded for the rifle is of
another class, appealing to those who delight in victory
over the greatest difficulties, and which for the attain-
ment of success demands the highest development of the
hunter's craft. Looking back over many years, the
retrospection gives now a clearer value to each experience
of travel and a fuller comprehension of Loder's love for
the Aures and of the deserts. It is strange that of the
many voices calling back that of the Red Mountains and
the Cream}^ Sands awakes the keenest longings to see and
feel " once more." Scotch hills, Pyrenean heights, equa-
torial peaks, Indian jungles, game-crowded plains, kloof
and kranz, bush and African forests all call back with
various voices, resurrecting companions, adventures,
sounds and scenes ; but it is the region of utter loneliness,
deathly silence and perfect purity of the Great Sahara
which leaves on some men the deepest impression and
which yields experiences treasured above all others.
Though Loder and I were familiar with the northern
edges of the Great Desert, it was not till 1894 that we left
for the first time those more beaten tracks and entered
into its real solitudes and silence. My own later journeys,
far beyond where he and I went together, have no doubt
deepened my earlier impressions, yet it was with him I
first felt these strange regions as something " beyond" in
the way in which music and dreams are not of this world.
The Sahara has no resemblance to such desolations as
the bare, terrible Nubian desert with its orange sand and
naked black rocks ; it may at times be awful, but it is most
beautiful. It was in our quest of the reem, when Loder
obtained the first type-specimen of Gazella loderi, that we
first traversed the solitudes south of the Great Chotts and
entered the labyrinthine dunes of a miniature erg with its
lovely genestas and desert plants and found ourselves in a
land of divine quiet. The camels with an indolent swing
move noiselessly, and even the sounds when the day's stage
is done, when camels groan at the unloading and tents are

THE SAHARA 235

pitched, it is so small a stir in the vastness of earth and sky
that the sense of quiet is even greater than during the hot
hours of the afternoon. In melting hues of indescribable
colours day passes into the exquisite purity of night under
the silver moon and the stars set in the sapphire sky, and
desert thoughts come near that High World which lies
beyond our own. Loder used to recall these nights and
also the less romantic mornings when his faithful Ahmeda
Ben Houbi called out " Quatre heures." I am sure he often
in after years saw Ahmeda again through his tent door
silhouetted against the little fire of dthrin grass, stirring
porridge and making our coffee — firelight on silvery plants,
on the sand, on motionless camels, on Arabs rolled in
shroud-like burnouses — ^no sound but that of the coffee
mill and of horses munching their barley or tossing it in
their nosebags. Loder breaks the spell. I can see him now
going to his little square mess tent and hear his loud shout
of " parritch," so much Scotch has he taught Ahmeda.
Night wanes, the blue above pales, its gems fade out, the
dawn creeps on, drowning at last the lingering morning
star. The golden light comes faster and faster, sending
before it a flood of rose and violet, and overflows the silent
sands and bathes the grass, broom, and iridescent " had." ^

The winged minutes of loveliness pass, the march begins
and the day boils at last.

Our months in those mountains which stand like a wall
along the northern frontiers of the desert were delightful in
other ways. The southern ranges of the Atlas and Aures
are mostly red or orange, and in appearance are not unhke
the mountains which border the Red Sea, yet their deso-
late and often cruel aspect changes in the early and late
hours of the day. Then their heights and pinnacles are
lit up in a blaze of living light, their battered sides and cliffs
are covered with heavenly hues and tenderest tints. In the
evening lovely shadows of violet creep up the gorges and
the clefts, and as these shadows turn to purple the summits
shine in rose, in crimson and in flame. When you are up

1 " Had," a glistening tufted desert plant.

236 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

among the red rocks the sense of the bareness disappears :
scented herbs, fine grasses, lovely little flowers, gaily
coloured plants grow on every ledge and terrace and hang
from slope and crevice. There are even forests of ilex,
juniper and thuya to be found and in many a ravine runs
water, sometimes fringed with oleanders or dense masses of
maidenhair. The mountain forage of the arui and admi
is full of sweet smells and as dainty as can be. There are
cool caves and shady shelters and here and there bush and
scrub for the hunters and the hunted in the hottest hours
of the day.

Putting aside the red deer of Scotland, a truly wild animal
but continuing its existence under the partly artificial
conditions of man's protection, the beast that most fascin-
ated Loder was the arui. In briefly describing the Barbary
wild sheep and their habitat I shall give, I trust, some
indication of Loder' s character and what appealed to his
nature. 1

There are three mountains of the Aures which have been
the arui hunting-grounds of the majority of English and
other visitors and which were the scenes of the pioneers
Loder' s and the Buxtons' first enterprises. Their accessi-

1 Loder in his journals invariably calls the "arui" {Ovis lervia) by the
French local name "mouflon," though in conversation with Arabs and
others he used the Arab name " larrowi " (contraction of el arowi). The
Arabs always speak of the Barbary wild sheep as "larowi" or "lerowi,"
just as they do of the mountain gazelle [Oazella cuvieri) as "ladmi"
or "ledmi" — Loder spells "ladmi" " I'admi," but it should be "ladmi,"
the words being el admi or el edmi. I have adopted among the many
English names given to these animals "arui" and "admi" — Lydekker
uses the name " udad " and others " aoudad " — where these names
originate I do not know. The nearest to them which I have heard
is " owthathow " ; the Chouia (Berbers) name — " fechstal " — is another
Arab name, I believe, though I never remember having heard it used by
Arabs. I have also taken Loder's spelling of " reem " [Oazella loderi) for
the sand gazelle, as it is phonetically good, though "rime" would repre-
sent the Arabic name. The Arab pronunciations of the names of :

Dorcas gazelle is Rhozal {Gaz. dorcas).
Sand gazelle is Reem [Gaz. loderi).
Wild sheep is Laarowie (Ovis lervia).
Movmtain gazelle is Ladmee (Gaz. cuvieri).

m

HAUNTS OF THE ARUI 237

bility from the railway and to the bases of operations of
El Kantara, El Outaia and Biskra accounts for this. Each
is formidable in its own way, each is constantly hunted by
Arabs and residents, but each still probably yields a fair
chance of success. Of the mountains in the Province of
Constantine two of these three, the Metlili and the Amark-
hadou, have yielded the finest heads, yet the wild sheep are
more numerous in the Western Atlas towards Morocco and
on the Eastern Atlas in Tunisia and more easily obtained.
Though lioder and I hunted the latter and other ranges,
Loder always returned to his earlier hunting-grounds. The
Metlili is the mountain mass which forms the western
rampart of the beautiful gorge of El Kantara, through which
the ancient Roman road and the modern railway penetrate
into the desert. From the train, on emerging from the
gorge, the southern sides of the Metlili have the appearance
of having been ploughed into stupendous ridge and furrow
with strange regularity from top to bottom. But away
from this face the intricate and broken heights of the
Metlili with its labyrinths of ravines and gorges make it a
stronghold for the arui and a formidable mountain for the
hunter. The second mountain of the three, Djebel el
Melheha, stands south and east of the Metlili and forward
from the main Aures range, and is known to English
tourists as the Salt Mountain. It is the most singular
mountain we ever hunted ; its summits are a home for
the admi and it is a resort of the arui. It is literally an
enormous pile of reddish rock-salt. Through ages the salt
gradually denuded of its covering has dissolved in its hol-
lows and the rugged cliffs and peaks have been stripped
of protecting earth, so that the whole mountain is broken
up into a myriad pinnacles of shining rock-salt fretted in
every direction and into glistening cliffs of rainbow hues.
The higher grounds are a maze of bottomless craters and
crevasses. Around these shafts and pits is sweet herbage
and plant life ; herbs and grass grow on little plateaux on
the tops. In a hundred places there is hiding and shelter
for the wild sheep, and when the mountain has been covered

238 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

with snow I have tracked them to where they were basking
in perfect comfort on the edges of bottomless pits. It is
not an easy place upon which to get a quiet shot, for in the
chimneys and shafts are hundreds of blue rock-pigeons, and
as you cross a crater these fly out and put the whole moun-
tain on the qui vive. You are perpetually crossing skylines,
the wind eddies and nowhere have you any extended field
for spying. Besides it is a mountain with peculiarly nasty
dangers and you have to look to your footing. Loder, who
loved his deer-glass and the scientific stalk, preferred other
hills to this, and the Amarkhadou was his favourite. This
mountain is one of the highest and is in character distinct
from all other mountains of the Aures. It is a country, it
rises in range upon range of lesser mountains from the
desert up to high terraces and is topped on its southern face
by white cliffs. There are hundreds of gorges and ravines,
woods, villages ; on its upper terraces are fields of barley
and on its summit stands the French telegraphe opiique.
There are man}'^ wild boar, always some fine rams, always
some admi and a few leopards on the Amarkhadou, but
from frequent hunting the game here is as cunning as can
be and finds refuge in fastnesses which are extensive and
magnificent. In this particular mountain the arui, es-
pecially the old rams, affect the bush,^ and a sheep will lie

1 R. Lydekker in The Sheep and its Cousins gives a good description of
the arui in his chapter on " Aberrant Wild Sheep," but needs some
correction as regards his habits and distribution. The arui has been
found south of IChartoum ; it does not inhabit the desert, but is found in
Saharian mountain ranges as well as in the Atlas and moimtains of Egypt
and the Sudan. Fossil remains found in the South of France represent
sheep similar to or akin to the arui. The following statements of Lydekker
require modification : " the horns of ewes being only slightly smaller " than
those of rams. The horns of ewes are shorter and weaker, there being no
comparison between those of a fully developed ram and ewe horns. Wlien
he states that "water is everywhere scarce'' it is not a fact — there are
many rivers and streams flowing through the Aures and Atlas Mountains
and into the desert. Lydekker also says " the arui according to native report
have often to travel a long distance before they can slake their thirst." The arui
has no thirst to slake beyond that which is satisfied by the juice of herbage
and plants. After the hottest days on the hottest rocks I have seen them
ford streams and pass rain pools, and never in my life have I seen either an

DIFFICULTY OF STALKING ADMI 239

so close and tight under a juniper that sometimes nothing
but a dog will put him out. These and a few other rougher
mountains were Loder's favourite hunting-grounds and
where he found full play for every art of the stalker and for
all his natural gifts and acquired skill. There can be little,
if any, doubt that the arui and the admi of the Aures are the
most difficult of all wild animals to stalk. Apart from its
smaller size, the admi is, in the Aures, the more difficult to
fairly stalk of the two, being invariably on the watch by
day, keeping to bare ground with a good field of vision. If
in the still mountain air you have succeeded in getting over
the noisy ground within 200 yards of even a single admi,
the very instant you squint round a rock or move your rifle
muzzle over a stone, you are detected, and even if he be
lying down he immediately springs in two or three bounds
over a skyline or behind cover. In five years when I have
often stalked them and successfully got within range I never
once had a quiet shot, and all I have killed were " galloping
shots " at distances of from 200 to 800 yards. ^ Both the
arui and the admi are present in considerable numbers, but
old and young all their lives are constantly being disturbed

arui or a gazelle drink. It is not safe to say the arui never di-inks, but he
does not drink as often as an English sheep, and more old people die without
having seen a sheep in England drink water than those who have. " They
keep strictly to the open country, never entering the cedar forests." This
is not accurate ; they hide much in juniper, thuya and ilex bush and woods,
though probably this is not a natural but an acquired habit due to perse-
cution. The largest flocks I have seen of arui have been from seven to
thirteen (I once saw twelve adult ewes and an old ram). Whether if
entirely unmolested and allowed to increase the flocks would be larger than
this I do not know.

^ None of the gazelles in North Africa are easy to obtain in fair stalking.
Occasionally the broken banks and the depressions in dry river beds,
undulations in the ground, and mounds and bushes facilitate the approach,
but more often the cover obtainable is very slight indeed. Gazelle are
wild and restless creatiires, and from coloration are small targets at
150 yards. The judging of range in the lucid or tremulous and heated
atmosphere of the desert is not easy, and in our early days the high-
velocity and flat-trajectory rifles were unknown. Double-barrelled
•500 and -450 bore Expresses were our weapons — and you could not afford
to make a mistake of fifteen yards in judging distance when shooting at a
2 to 6 inch vital target.

240 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

and shot at by shepherds and Arab hunters with dogs and
guns; they receive no protection from authority at any
season of the year, and their safety depends on the cultiva-
tion of their most extraordinarily acute senses of hearing,
sight and smell, their knowledge of man's ways, the pro-
tection of their coat-colour and the shelter that broken and
intricate country affords them among rocks and caves on
cliffs and among bush and trees. Loder often related
instances of the cunning of old rams, but he does not men-
tion them in his diaries. Of many, I will give one which
I observed during one of our later hunting trips. Accom-
panied by my Arab shikari I was spying about at 8 a.m. one
day from behind rocks on a terrace high up on the north side
of a long mountain ridge known as the Arzghub el beghral
(" the mule's hind-leg "), which at its western end termin-
ates in cliffs and a deep gorge, when about a half mile to my
right (east) I saw an old ram and five ewes cross the skyline
and descend my side of the hill and pass slowly westward.
The ram was leading and halted at times to scan carefully
the country ahead. Arrived some 700 yards below where
we were posted, he surveyed the ground above him and
fixed his eyes on us. After a stare of some ten minutes he
decided that whether we were rocks or not it was safer to
consider we were neither mineral nor vegetable, and the
flock bundled along at an improved pace till they arrived
at a very large rock (perhaps 40 feet high and 60 wide)
which in some past time had fallen from the crest half-way
down the mountain-side. The family party hid behind
this monolith. After some time I put my eye to my tele-
scope and examined the ground between us, with the view
of a possible stalk, and then the rock. I found that it was
split in two and that at its narrowest the cleft was about
two feet wide. I then thought I might see the sheep
through the slit, and what did I see but part of the head and
horn of the old ram with his eye glued to the cleft watching
me ! Through the long hours of the morning we thus
watched each other. About 1.30 he had had enough and
decided that we were not human beings, and he made off,

VIGILANCE OF A RAM 241

quietly followed by his wives, first sweeping down under
cover and then upwards, and in view he crossed the ridge
above me to my left. Leaving my shikari to watch, I ran
up and over the ridge behind me, certain I must see them
between this point and the gorge. I was sliding on my back
down a couloir on the cliff-side when they came in sight on
my right and I immediately stopped, lying on my rifle to
keep the sun off it. The sun was full on me and I dare not
move. The ram now took his stand on a slab that jutted
out from the cliffs some 450 yards away and the ewes lay
down on shelves above him. He spotted me in a minute,
but could not make me out. There he stood with his frills
and trouser hair floating in the breeze against the sky
and never took his eye off me. I believe I endured the
exquisite torture of his gaze, the terrible sun, my rifle
hand crushed against the rock and a stone in my spine for
over an hour, hoping against hope. At last I could stand
it no longer, and centimetre by centimetre began to extract
my right hand and rifle, but long before it was free the
beautiful beast turned on his pedestal and dropping off it
disappeared into the gorge followed by his harem. I went
there, but beyond the sound of stones falling in its dark
depths I never heard or saw anything more of him nor of the
ladies he had so gallantly protected. I am convinced that
during the seven hours' endurance he never made me out
to be a man, but he defeated me by ceaseless vigilance and
a determination to take no risks.

Loder and I once watched an Arab and an old ram play-
ing hide-and-seek with each other for hours. It was
wonderful to watch the ram slinking under shelves of rock,
standing under a bush, slipping down a couloir, getting
behind a stone. The amusing thing was to see the beast
at last escape unobserved with the Arab staring at the very
ground the sheep was creeping and dodging over.

The following table gives the results of four similar
spring expeditions to the mountains for arui, which will
suffice for my purpose of showing that the arui is not too
easily obtained :

242

AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM

[CH. X

Hunting
days out .

Animals
shot at.

Arui.

Admi.

W. Boar.

Dorcas

Totals.

1891

Loder

18

8

3

0

0

0

3

C. Radcliffe .

16

4

1

0

0

0

1

1893

Loder .

13

12

1

2

4

1

8

C. Radcliffe .

12

6

1

0

0

1

2

1894

Loder .

13

5

0

1

0

0

1

A. Pease

11

1

0

0

0

0

0

1895

Loder .

25

?20

1

0

5

6

12

A. Pease

21

? 13

3

1

0

4

8

129

69

10

4

9

12

35

We obtained arui and gazelles on other occasions, but the
above is a definite record of hard days in which Loder does
always more work, gets more shots and kills the most.
Supposing 9 days were given to boar and dorcas gazelle, it
required 12 days on the average to kill an arui, though 24
days yielded none in 1894.

Loder was particularly interested in the fauna of North
Africa, and even in the early nineties very little definite
information was obtainable about it. The addax, the
bubal, the buffalo and the red deer were known to exist in
North Africa, but no Europeans, save a few French resi-
dents and officers, knew much about them or even about the
varieties of gazelles. The interior of Tunisia was little
explored by Englishmen ; I had made one attempt to find
lions, but arrived at the conclusion that they were extinct
by 1895 save a very few in the great forests north of Bordj
Bou Arredj. We, however, collected definite information
about the addax (the Sudan, where they are now got, had
long been unapproachable and little about the addax was
known even in Egypt), the bubal, the red deer, the buffalo
and the reem. The bubal still were on the Hamada in
Oran and towards Morocco, the buffalo in the swamps of
Bizerta, the red deer in the forests of Tunisia, and in 1895

FAUNA OF NORTH AFRICA 243

we came across several stags' heads (horns) in the hands of
natives. The addax in favourable years when rain fell
came up near to Bir Beresof and even to the Chott Djereed,
and could be got from Bir Aioueen south of Ouargla.^
East and west of Ouargla the reem was very common.
Some four years later I obtained as many specimens of the
reem as I wanted in the Oued Ighaghar, but again failed to
reach the addax. It was thirteen years after his first
attempt on the Metlili during his honeymoon before Sir
Edmund found time for a second try ; Lady Loder's serious
illness in the pioneer expedition and her disagreeable ex-
periences in a Mediterranean storm had damped her ardour
for Algeria, and she disliked the idea of being away for long
from her children. Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe were again Sir
Edmund's companions, and following the Buxtons' ex-
ample they took professional chamois-hunters with them — •
Andreas Ranch from Pontresina and Benjamin Vergez
from Gavarnie in the Pyrenees. Loder makes many notes
about the journey to Biskra ; he notes that the Zoological
Gardens at Marseilles have been enlarged, but " there are
not many animals," and that agaves, Braccena indivisa
and myrtles have suffered from the severe winter on the
Riviera and the prickly pears and eucalyptus in Algeria have
been damaged from the same cause. At Constantine and
at Biskra he buys addax horns and adds to his collection
of native footgear. There are not many earlier allusions
to Hichens' Garden of Allah than this entry :

" March Uh, 1891. . . . Drove to Monsieur Landon's
Garden. A very fine garden, but arrangement stiff and the
variety of palms in it is not very great." ^

In those days arrangements for a shooting trip had to be
made with the countenance of the Bureau Arabe and a
Spahi escort provided. Preliminaries arranged, they
reached the Amarkhadou on March 8th, and camped

1 The Royal Geographical Society spells Ouargla (Wargla) ; I adhere to
the local spelling which gives the local pronunciation, as I also do in the
cases of Oued (Wed), Djebel (Jebel or Gebel), etcetera.

* The garden was much improved by 1893. — A. E. P.

-I-

244 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

4,000 feet up at Ain Tarfa. On the following day Loder
apparently made his first acquaintance with the admi ; he
writes in his diary :

" In the middle of the day started a wild boar in the face
of the cliff and he went straight off towards Hammam.
In his course he disturbed a gazelle which had been lying
down. We made it out to be one of the large kind with
straight horns {Vadmi). We saw no mouflon, and in the
evening we went to where we had seen the gazelle, but could
not find it."

I will give one or two full entries of his days. Here is
the one for the day on which he got his best arui :

''Saturday, March 14th, 1891.— Got up at 4.30— called
the cook, as I could not make him hear from my tent be-
cause of the wind.^ Very cold night and water frozen.
Went off with Benjamin at 6 a.m., first down along the
stream S.E. of Hammam and then up to the top of the high-
est top E., and some distance down into the valley which I
had not seen before. Saw an Arab before us, and did not
see any mouflon. As the wind was still high, so as to drown
the noise of our footsteps, we tried looking for mouflon in
all thick places. At 12 o'clock we jumped a mouflon out
from under a thick bush in the dry bed of a rocky stream.
He went off with tremendous bounds, but I luckily had my
rifle ready in my hand and hit him with both barrels in
shoulder and high in ribs. He fell dead after going about a
dozen yards. He was a very fine beast.

Horns. — 12| in. circumference at base.

28^ in. length.

22| in. spread inside.
Girth at brisket. — 3 ft. 10| in.
Height at shoulder (stick upright). — 3 ft. 8^ in.
Length. — Betv/een horns to root of tail — 4 ft. 7| in.

From between horns to end of nose — 15f in.

Tail 10 in. or with hair — 16 in.

Length, total — 7 ft. 3| in.
Circumference of neck.- — 2 ft. 5| in.
Nose to end of bone of tail. — 81 j in.

Charlie and Ranch saw nothing all day."

1 It must have been "some" wind. — A. E. P.

HUNTING IN THE PYRENEES 245

On this trip he shot two more rams and his companion
one, but he failed to get anything on the MetHH and the
Salt Mountain. He returned via Algiers and spent several
days visiting the Jardin d'Essai. This was his practice
whenever he found himself there.

In after years I went several times with him to the
Jardin d'Essai, and learnt more in an hour with him than
I had in months of residence at Mustapha Superieure. In
1891 he has interviews with the Directeur, Monsieur
Riviere, and purchases specimens of palms and yuccas.
He is enthusiastic about some of the palms, which he
describes as " splendid," but I cannot read the names ;
one is, I think, Juhcea spectabilis.

This same year 1891 found him with Lady Loder in the
Pyrenees— hunting the Pyrenees ibex {Capra pyrenaica)
and izard (the Pyrenean chamois) — with success and col-
lecting plants. It is somewhat singular that I had been
with my wife, my brother and sister and Mr. A. E. Leatham
hunting in the same beautiful valley, the Val d' Arras, on
the Spanish side earlier in the same year, living in the
shepherds' house *' La Grange " and having similar
experiences. Lady Loder still remembers the disturbed
nights in the room over the cow byre where lived the
mooing cow on which we depended for our milk and its
bellowing calf. Descriptions of hunting ibex and izard in
this magnificent country have appeared since the days
when Sir Victor Brooke made his hunting trips for ibex,
izard and bears. To these and Mr. Edward North Bux-
ton's Short Stalks the reader may be referred. To obtain
ibex a man had to be a fearless climber, for there is in
Europe no more trying work for feet and head than on
the stupendous cliffs and precipices of these valleys. It
is moreover a paradise for the lover of Alpine flowers and
of beautiful trees, and probably without rival in the
world for the combination of exquisite colouring and
magnificent mountain scenery.

In 1893 he again went for the wild sheep, and the
Radeliffes again were his companions. They had with

246 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

them this time Celestin Passet and Fran9ois Trescarges
of Gavarnie as their shikaris. From his daily notes of
this time I give the following extracts :

" Saturday, February Uh. — (On the Bastia bound from
Marseilles to Philippeville.) Ship rolled a good deal in
the night and so I did not sleep very well. Very fine
sunny morning. . . . On board is Mr. Vincent Calmady-
Hamlyn, brother-in-law to A. Pease, who is at Biskra
with his wife. He is taking out a rifle for Pease, but has
lost the cartridges : his travelling bag having been stolen
in Paris.

Monday, February 6th. — Talked to Mr. and Mrs. Alfred
Pease. He had been hit by some large shot (buckshot in
the head and face) out of a gun by a man who was out
shooting gazelles with him a few days ago.

(This was really the beginning of our acquaintance.)

Thursday, February 9th. — This evening Bate arrived
with a friend. Major Sullivan (also Mrs. B. and Mrs. S.).
This is the Bate who shot white goats before us at Arlee.
He is going to try for mouflon. He has just shot three
moose in Canada. Took a short walk with Alfred Pease
and he pointed out hills where he had seen gazelles,
etcetera."

I had during residence at Biskra become familiar with
certain admi and arui mountains, but Loder was anxious
to get some Dorcas gazelles and I was familiar with their
favourite country — I had got many in the district of Ain
Naga, but had not up to then got many by fair stalking.
I found great pleasure in the art of manoeuvring gazelle
to my friends and excitement in shooting them at full
gallop from the saddle, and both these methods w^ere more
productive of heads and meat than stalking, and I became
eventually an expert at both methods — so that in a few
hours I could generally in that district get all I wanted.
I never killed more than six buck in a day. All Loder's
killed were stalked ; and though gazelle swarmed on the
hunting-grounds to which I directed him, he found them
by no means easy to stalk. His first day at Ain Naga he
never got a shot, and Radcliffe had three shots without a

PHANTASIMAGORIA 247

hit. On his march to Ain Naga he had the good fortune
to see a splendid Phantasmagoria. It is not often that
this phenomenon is seen. I have never seen a really
good one — though of course we both were very familiar
with mirages and I have seen some very beautiful ones.
Loder told me this Phantasmagoria was almost perfect
with its reflection of houses and palms in the sky.

On February 12th his notes give a day after Dorcas
Gazelle, when he got his first :

" Left camp at | to 6 with Trescarges, crossed the river
towards Sidi Okba and spied from the sandhills and saw
one gazelle ; crossed the river again and tried to get
near the gazelle, but it saw us and went off. Afterwards
we saw two more, but they also went off. Later we saw
six on better ground and I thought we were sure to get
a shot, but something moved them. . . . We now spied
twenty-five or twenty-six gazelles in one lot, and they
seemed at first as if they would come towards us — Charlie
and Celestin were on the other side of them. After watch-
ing them for several hours they passed us to the south
at about 800 yards and went out of sight. We followed
and could not see them for some time, but at last saw them
moving off quickly. We followed again and again and
each time they moved off. At last we got within 200
to 250 yards and I got a shot, killing a good male — a
lucky shot, as it was too far to pick one. CharHe did not
get a shot."

Here is a successful day after sheep on the Amark-
hadou :

" Wednesday, February 22nd. — I started with Trescarges
at I to 6 a very blowy morning, quite overclouded after
a windy night. Went to the high spying cliff — saw
nothing — moved farther and spied again and saw nothing.
Turned to the south and went downwards, walking slowly
and quietly looking before as for mouflon. At 9 I was
walking ten yards ahead of Trescarges with the rifle in
my hand and I heard him whistle, and turning round I
saw him point upwards and I saw a mouflon making off
up a ravine. He went out of sight almost at once, but I
17

248 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

saw him again at 250 yards, when he jumped on to a rock
and showed a broadside. I shot at him at once and made
a lucky shot, hitting him rather forward and kilhng him
dead. It appears that Trescarges stayed a httle behind
me to look down a small valley while I was looking well
ahead up the valley. Trescarges happened to turn his
head to his immediate right and saw the ram close to him
within thirty yards lying and watching me ; the mouflon
never saw him, as he had his eyes fixed on me. When I
moved behind a tree the mouflon got up and sneaked
away up a watercourse. It was then that Trescarges
whistled. He was a fine beast :

" Horns. — Length . . 26 and 24 in.

Circumference at base 11 ,,

Tip to tip . . 15 „

Spread inside . 18 „

Round brisket . . . 46 „

Round belly . . . 50 ,,

Height between sticks . 39 ,,

Length from middle between

horns to root of tail . . 57 „
Weight of head and skin with

legs .... 36 lb.
Weight of body sun-dried the
next day at 4 p.m. with heart

and lungs (otherwise clean) 132 „

168 ib. = 12 stone."

Here is a day of success with admi on the same moun-
tains :

" Monday, February 27th. — Went with Trescarges up-
wards towards the west at | to 6. At about 6.30 spied
five admi feeding in a field (i.e. barley on the high terrace).
Tried to stalk them, but could not see them when we got
to the place where they had been. Went on farther and
saw two lots of wild pigs, one lot of five and the other of
eight. Came back to a high peak above camp at 1 p.m.
and spied till 4 p.m., when I saw five admi again on the
edge of the farthest wooded hill from Hammam. Stalked
up to them, but could not see the male — told Trescarges

WILD BOARS 249

to look with his glass, and he picked out the farthest one
among the bushes, which he said had fine horns. I took
a shot at this and knocked it over. As the rest ran off I
had a shot at another which we thought might be the
male, but it was very difficult to see anything distinctly
as the sun was setting right in their direction. We did
not see this one again. The first one shot at turned out
to be a good female— she got up after the first shot and
required another, although the first had taken her full in
the shoulder.

" Tuesday, February 2Sth. — Went out at 6 with Tres-
carges. ... As soon as we had got up high we spied
some wild pigs towards the east and went after them.
They seemed all about one size and I could not make out
a boar. I shot at the largest and killed it. Then the
others came round and I fired three more shots and killed
two more on the gallop — very pretty shots. Took the
skull and head skin of the old sow. Saw nothing more all
day. Charlie shot at mouflon twice, but did not get one."

These are samples of the more successful among many
long days of hard work, but they give some idea as to
how he dealt with the rare chances that th's game offered.
" W^alked and spied all day and saw nothing" is often
the sort of entry — or " spied an admi, went up to stalk
it ; when I got there could not find it."

When this trip was over Loder suggested another with
me, and on his return to Biskra he notes : " sent an Arab
with a letter to Alfred Pease to tell him that if he would
return at once to Biskra I would go out with him on a trip
for six or seven days" ; and on March 4th he notes : " Pease
came back at midday from Ain Hammia with rheumatism
and did not feel inclined to go into the mountains until
he got better." I had been hunting admi and wild sheep
and sleeping out in Arab tents without tent or pro-
visions of any sort. I had been badly shot in the head
and had my leg broken with the kick of a horse that
winter and came in lame and knocked up. Our expedi-
tions together were postponed for a year. Of these and
subsequent ones I have written fully in my Travel and
Sport in Africa, so that as regards them I shall give only

250 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

a few entries — and those shall be more in regard to our
desert expeditions, in quest of the reem and the addax.

So Loder packed up his trophies and we saw him off.
He went home after visiting Hammam Meskoutin and its
curious cascades, hot springs, and antiquities, via Tunis,
Goletta, the Island of Pantelleria (famous for its donkeys),
Farragnari Tropani, and Palermo. At Palermo he parted
from the Radcliffes and went to Naples, climbed Vesuvius,
visited Pompeii and met Graf Sohns, whose acquaintance
he had made before at La Mortola (Sir Thomas Hanbury's
place near San Remo), and who was working at the Naples
Marine Zoological Laboratory. I give one entry of his
a yropos the Naples Museum : " Much interested with
the Pompeian things. Of the statues I liked the Dancing
Fawn and Narcissus listening to the Echo best," and
here his diary for 1893 ends :

Monday, February 5th, 1894. — Loder arrived at the Hotel
Victoria, Biskra, once more. " Pease came down to meet
me." There were there Herbert Whitfield the cricketer,
E. Devas, " who was at Whittlebury some years ago, and
Jephson, who was with Stanley in Africa." He hears
that Bate has gone towards the Amarkhadou — and such
news as I had collected for him as to the nearest country
in which we might get the " Gazelle des Sables." On
February 8th we started in search of the reem, my wife
being with us. On the 12th, after four days marching
S.E., we found a negro herding camels who came into
our camp and said he could take us to where the reem
were, and, filling up with water at Sef el Mounadi, the
negro took us in less than two days to where they were.
Loder has given a very good account of this expedition
and its results in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society,
but it may be interesting to give the exact record in his
diary of the day on which he secured the type-specimen
of the Gazella loderi :

" Wednesday, February lUh.—Le{t camp about 6 a.m.,
got near some large sand hills at 8.30. Left the horses

LODER'S GAZELLE AND ADDAX 251

with Bob (Pease's groom) and I went off with Ibrahim the
nigger — Pease with Ali. Before long we saw a reem with
his head looking towards us. We waited a long time and
he moved off to one side. We ran from bush to bush as
he crossed hollows and got within 150 yards as he came
to the top of a sand hill. He was facing me and I was
unsteady with running and missed him with my first
shot, but killed him with my second as he ran off and
stood again. I afterwards saw lots of four and five and
two. Pease saw three. Got back to horses at 4 and back
to camp about 7 p.m.

" The reem weighed 34 It). Horns, 13 in. ; height at
shoulder, 2 ft. 4 in. ; girth at brisket, 2 ft. 1| inches."

This was the only shot either of us got during the five
days' toiling in the heat and sand, though we saw a
number. Then we made our way back to water and pro-
visions. Before we reached Biskra again we had a most
disagreeable experience in a sand-storm. In our next
hunt in the mountains this year Loder got a very nice
male admi, a moving shot at 300 yards. Here is his
measurement :

2 ft. 7h in. at shoulder ; 2 ft. 8| in. girth at withers ;
neck, 1 ft. ; weight, 52 lb. (gralloched) ; root of tail to
between horns, 3 ft. 5| in.

There is a good photograph of Loder with his admi
in my Travel and Sport in Africa, and some account of
our time after sheep.

In the months from February to April in the following
year Loder and I set out from Biskra, intending if pos-
sible to get the addax, which up to then had not been
obtained by any Englishman. I obtained information
during the winter before Loder came out that they were
likely to be found beyond Bir Beresof in the direction of
Ghadamis. The addax is very nomadic ; it follows the
rains. In the Sahara rains are very local ; and without
definite knowledge of where rain has fallen within a year
the quest for addax is likely to be abortive, as it was in
our case. But although our travels failed in their main

252 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

object, these months yielded perhaps the most interesting
experiences which we ever shared together. We visited
many strange places, saw much striking scenery, came
across many cm-ious Roman and other remains, had
various adventures and brought back strange objects
and some live pets, sand fish, silvery hedgehogs, a baby
wild boar, a zorilla and two of the curious pink donkeys
of Souf.

Early in February we started on our march via the
Chotts to the oases of Souf. On February 15th we crossed
Chott Belgoud and Chott el Hadgel and two days later
entered the first of the Oued Souf oases, Ogmar, with its
curious village of domed houses built with a cement
made of gypsum found below the sand. In all the Souf
oases the date-palms grow in deep pits in the sand ; their
roots reach the water, below the gypsum, which is in
fact a subterranean river and which renders this strange
sand desert habitable. On February 18th we entered the
large white town of domes. El Oued, where in those days
the last military post of the French was stationed in this
direction. The whole of our journey is related in my
Travel and Sport in Africa, and is there copiously illus-
trated, so that I need not describe it here in detail. At
El Oued we were held up by the French authorities and
allotted a room in the fort pending a decision from the
General of Division as to what was to be done with us.

The decision eventually came, flashed at night from
Batna, across the Amarkhadou and thence across the
desert to El Oued, from the telegraphe optique stations.
It was a refusal to let us go to Bir Beresof or to the
south, but gave us leave to proceed, on our giving our
parole to respect this decision. Meanwhile we made the
best use of our time in exploring El Oued, talking to
Touaregs, in making friends with a tame addax in the
fort, studying the system of cultivation of pure sand and
water, which to our surprise produced quite excellent
vegetables and even tobacco. The dates of Souf are of
superlative quality, by far the best in the world ; some

1

SOUF 253

are spherical and like almost transparent balls of pale
amber. We found the old Roman coins still in regular
daily circulation in the market.^ Capitaine de Prandiere,
who commanded the garrison, was most hospitable and
kind to us, and we messed with him and his brother officers
(Adjoint Grevy, Lieut, de Genie Frerey, Aide-Majeur
Cousin). One day a number of important Chamba per-
sonages came in from the south on their great snow-white
Mehari camels — " a very beautiful sight," says Loder in
his diary, " as the Mehari camel is a most graceful animal."
In his diary he has noted some high thermometer readings
recorded by the French in 1894 — among them (at 5 p.m.) :

June 22nd, 100° F. in true shade.
June 23rd, 107° F.
June 24th, 111° F.
July 12th, 122° F.

We obtained a guide and struck N.E. from El Oued,
and at Debila I purchased a second rose-coloured donkey,
and the same day we left Behama, the last of the Souf
oases, behind us. At the end of February we reached
Nefta in southern Tunisia, passing W. of the great Chott
Djereed. We happened to be in this strange place when
General Millet, the Controller-General, arrived to unveil
a monument to Dr. Canova, who had died in a devoted
fight with an epidemic of cholera. In his company was
Mr. Hagard, the British Diplomatic Agent at Tunis, who
introduced us. He invited us to be present at the cere-
mony, and we attended it.

From Nefta we marched to Touzer with its 300,000
palms and curious brickworked houses. Thence we
marched to the Tunisian Mountains, having a little
shooting at gazelles, bustard and rock pigeons on our way.
In his diary Loder enters on March 8th : " Pease shot a
gazelle (looking at him) at 270 yards through the ear

^ Any Roman copper coin did duty as a Tunisian flous — I several times
received from tlu-ee to six in a handful of copper flous. About seven to ten
•were change for a French ten-centime piece.

254 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

and stunned it, and shot again and killed it." Why a
bullet passing through the ear should stun an animal, I
do not know, but I have killed a rabbit with a similar shot.

We were among unfriendly Tunisians at Tamersa and
gave up our intention to try for a red deer stag farther
north, and hunted our way through the mountains to
the Algerian frontier at Negrine. The Tunisian country
was dried up and both nomads and their flocks had deserted
it, and also the game, though Loder killed one arui. In
a good season it is fine arui ground. In one amphitheatre
of rocks where I presumed the Arabs had cornered a
number of the wild sheep with their dogs we saw the
remains of at least twenty sheep recently killed.

On March 10th Loder enters in his diary :

" A pretty camp under the palm trees of Ferkane-

wandered about all day among small ravines and passed
a good many Roman remains of towns. Camped at 2.30
in a gorge (Khanga Sidi Musa), apparently an old Roman
camping-ground. Pease and I dammed up a pool and
caught fish for breakfast."

From this camp we hunted a vast mountain, the Djebel
Abiad, which we had to ourselves and which had many
fine sheep on it. I saw here the two best rams I ever
saw, but only got one moderate one. It was the strangest
network of deep ravines and a very hard mountain to
tackle. Loder wounded and lost a very fine ram here.
When we had worn ourselves out on it we moved on, and
soon got news from Biskra by means of an Arab we dis-
patched, who for forty francs rode there and back for our
letters in eleven days. Among the items of news brought
by this courier Loder notes the destruction by fire of his
brother Reginald's house Maid well Hall, that " Johnny
Cobbold and E. Devas " have been out six weeks after
arui and got nothing and that " Lee has been out a
month and got nothing."

Still going westward we reached Khanga Sidi Nadji,
where we were hospitably entertained by the Kaid and

A HOT CLIMB 255

the Khalifa, and then went south to Zeribet el Oued, as
we found it hard work getting on in the mountains with
camels. Indeed, sometimes we had had a great deal of
pick and spade work to get the camels through. At
Zeribet it was decided that though I did not know the
track I should ride to Biskra and bring back mules for a
last attack on the Amarkhadou. Starting at four in the
dark I only reached Biskra at nightfall. I collected
mules and men and fresh horses, and accompanied by my
wife rejoined Loder at the foot of the mountains.

Our journey up with the fresh mules was an awful
experience. It was a very hot day and an awful climb ;
every load came off, mules fell and rolled down rocks, the
men struck and then came to blows and at the end pitched
our tents in an Arab cemetery, the only level ground
they could find. The smell was terrible and we had to
move. Fresh mutinies and battles ensued — Loder and I
armed with tent mallets got order restored, and my wife
at last produced dinner late on a lovely night. Loder
said, " This has been the very worst day in our lives, but
not such a bad one after all."

We had one shocking experience during a delightful
fortnight in which we both got mouflon, admi and wild
boar. We had both had glimpses of an enormous ram
and were eager to get him, and spent much time examin-
ing his tracks. On an unfortunate day we made inquiries
of a local Arab hunter to whom we promised a large reward
for khabar. A few days later the Arab appeared in our
camp with the skin and coveted head, and was amazed
at our indignation and disappointment ; for having
noted our eagerness, he had found the monster's fresh
track in a barley field, and there he sat by day and night
till he returned and at earliest dawn one morning shot
him in the head at sixty paces with his long flint-lock.
This head is in the Natural History Museum at South
Kensington.

Before the middle of April Loder was home again — he
mentions having travelled to El Guerrah with " two Han-

256 AFTER ARUI, ADMI AND REEM [ch. x

burys and L. Walker," and adds, " David Hanbury has
been shooting Ovis poll and has been at Kashgar."

Thus ended our last and most delightful expedition in
Algeria — and from henceforth we were fast friends. Twice
in later years I revisited these scenes — once with my wife
alone. My last time after arui in the Aures was in 1910
with my son who was killed in the War— and now all
my companions, all our shikaris and our guides have
departed and I alone remain to record a little of those
fleeting years the memories of which time cannot tear
away.

PREFATORY NOTE TO CHAPTER XI

In the following chapter, which has been written by Mr.
Charles G. A. Nix, there are allusions to the shooting
seasons spent at Schwarzensee in xlustria and some charm-
ing reminiscences of deer-stalking. With regard to the
latter there is no need to add anything. These remarks
taken from Sir Edmmid's daughter's recollections, how-
ever, may be quoted :

" Scotland was a great joy to us all, and there one could
see his true sporting spirit, for if a lucky guest got the
best head of the season he was always unfeignedly
delighted. He was a brilliant rifle shot and very seldom
missed, but if he had the misfortune to wound a deer
he never if possible gave up the chase till he had killed
it ; he had an absolute horror of leaving a wounded beast
out in the forest.

" He was very fond of telling this story against himself.
I wish I could tell it as he used to. He was out stalking one
day and the light was very bad, and he spied a stag lying
against some rocks below him ; he took careful aim and
fired. The beast never moved. He fired again, two or
three times with the same result ; he then readjusted his
sights, took another look through his glass — the stag was
still lying there quite unperturbed by the fusillade ; then
the voice of the stalker at his elbow, ' I think he has been
dead some months.' Such was the case ; he had died of
cold lying against the rock and remained there in quite a
lifelike position."

In the Appendix on p. 274. will be found the details of
his Scotch bags from the year 1898 to 1915.

With regard to Schwarzensee some additional particu-
lars may be of interest and worth recording.

257

258 PREFATORY NOTE

For three seasons, 1895, 1896 and 1897, Sir Edmund
rented the splendid country round the pretty lake misnamed
Schwarzensee from Prince Philip of Coburg. He invited
me every year, but only twice was I able to join his party.
At the end of the last season the picturesque collection of
huts in which we lived, and which formed a square in the
exquisite valley, succumbed to a fate that had often
threatened them, and were burnt to the ground. What
has taken their place I do not know, but nothing nevv' could
suit the scene so well. In those years it was an ideal place
for chamois-hunters and for lovers of wild mountain
scenery. It seems but the other day that my wife and I
started on our mules early on a September morning from
Fischer's little Gastehaus at Oblarn and were put on the
right road by Count Bardeau's forester to Wald, and after
reaching Wald, in the afternoon, entered the most lovely
valley, with its forests rising and climbing precipitous
mountains with snow-splashed peaks and snowfields far
above.

The first season's stalking resulted in 31 chamois. A
few mistakes in shooting geiss (females) instead of bucks
occur with the cleverest eyes ; but the proportion of bucks
killed during the whole of Loder's time, a great authority
considered " stood at the top of the tree " for Austria
and Hungary.

Here is my note of the bags :

1895

Rifles Chamois killed

Lady Loder . . .2

Sir Edmund Loder . .18

W. A. Baillie-Grohman . 2

Merrick Burrell . . 3 (got the heaviest buck killed,

29| kilos).

Count C. Bardeau . . 2

Alfred E. Pease . . 4 (1 buck, 28 kilos).

31

BAGS IN STYRIA 259

1896

Rifles

Chamois killed

Lady Loder .

. 6 (1 buck, 28 kilos).

Sir Edmund Loder .

. 15 (heaviest buck, 29 kilos ;

another buck, 28| kilos).

W. A. Baillie-Grohman

. 2

C. D. Radcliffe

. 1

Reginald B. Loder .

. 12

Hon. T. Fremantle .

. 5

Chas. G. A. Nix

. 2

43

Later in the season the following went for " bartgems " :

Baron Snedelnitzke . . .4

Baron Steinberg . . . .2

Count Bardeau . . . .1

W. A. Baillie-Grohman . . .2

Making the total bag . . .52

1897. — For this year I have not full particulars, but have
a note that Loder's limit of 90 was reached. To finish this
season, his last, he had 9 days' driving and accounted for
46 out of the 90 in those 9 days. We were 5 rifles the last
8 days. Up to then stalking had been the rule. The Hon.
T. Fremantle (the present Lord Cottesloe) headed the score
with 16 in 8 days — out of which he had 5 blank days. On
one day he killed two, one of which weighed 31 kilos
(68| ife.), and the other 28 kilos, clean weights. I had the
lowest score of 5 in 8 days, four of which were blank days,
and I drew the top post three days in succession. Loder
and Baillie-Grohman each got 8 in 9 days and Oxley 9.

The first day I ever had at Schwarzensee remains in my
memory. Sleet and snow-storms made me very wet and
cold, and though I spied many chamois they all were
females, mostly geiss and kitze ; but I saw what I never saw
before or after, a little troop with a jet-black (kohl geiss) and
a snow-white one in it. They would have been a pretty

260 PREFATORY NOTE

right and left, but in Austria it augurs death to shoot a
white chamois.

I remember a few good stags being killed ; one of Loder's
weighed 23 stone clean.

One abnormality may be mentioned. In 1895 Lady
Loder shot a chamois with a horn growing out of the
coronet of a, forefoot. This horn was annulated like a head
horn, had a crooken, but " more so " than the usual crook.
The horn measured in length 7| in. and in circumference
at base 5| in. Three years afterwards I sketched and meas-
ured another similar abnormal horn growth in thcEngadine.
The horn in this case sprang out of the skin on the shin of
a fore-leg, about two-thirds of the way down the leg
below the knee — it was 11 cm. in length and 7 cm. in
circumference half-way ; it, however, had no crooken ;
the tip of the horn being broken, hollow and frayed. The
leg was then in the possession of Dr. Oscar Bernard of
Samaden.

CHAPTER XI
By Charles G. A. Nix

SPORTING AND OTHER REMINISCENCES

" All who joy would win
Must share it, — Happiness was bom a twin."

Don Juan.

When I first met Sir Edmund Loder I was a boy of 19
and he was a man of over 40. Our friendship extended
for twenty-eight years, and during that time his cheery and
unselfish kindness never varied.

He was an old friend of my father and used to shoot with
him regularly, and I can recall even now the delightfully
friendly way in which he treated the son of his old friend.
I had the feeling that he knew all about me and was
genuinely glad to meet me.

A day's shooting in 1892 was the commencement of a
friendship which gave me more thoroughly happy times
than I can count. Not merely was the sport I enjoyed with
him excellent, but the companionship at all times and in all
places was a thing by itself. It did not matter where you
were or how dull things might be if Sir Edmund was there.
There was always something to talk about and, moreover,
he did not talk on any subject unless he knew a great deal
about it. Consequently whatever he said was worth
listening to.

Up to the time I left Cambridge I had only met him on
two other occasions, and I did not get to know him at all
well till 1896. In that year I went to Bisley, and, having
bought a Mannlicher sporting rifle, I tried my hand at the
running deer. Sir Edmund immediately spotted me and

261

262 REMINISCENCES [ch. xi

took the greatest interest in my feeble efforts to make a
good score. He was not shooting at the deer that year
(in fact I don't think he ever shot at it again), but he was as
keen as possible that I should do well and at once gave me a
lot of good advice based on his great experience and success.
It was simply typical of the man to give a youngster
all the help he could, but I thought it very strange that he
should take so much trouble over a beginner whom he
scarcely knew. However, that was his nature, and he was
always the same. Also, I did not know then what I very
soon discovered, that he was one of the cleverest men of
his day, crammed with knowledge and experience which he
was only too glad others should benefit by, if they cared to.
He might not care to put his knowledge on paper, but if
you asked a question you could count on getting a sound
reply on any subject he had taken up and worked at. My
success at Bisley was not great, but any improvement I
made was due to his coaching.

A day or two after the Bisley meeting ended I received
a letter from Sir Edmund which gave me more pleasure than
any letter I have ever received. It was an invitation to go
to Austria and shoot a chamois. The wording of the letter
was charming :

" As you have been doing so well at the running deer at
Bisley, would you like to try your new Mannlicher at a
chamois ? "

The words of praise were very pleasant and I think I
nearly suffered from swelled head !

Of course I jumped at the chance, and that was the first
of many happy visits, some to Austria and many more to
Scotland. I had the best of chamois and deer-stalking,
excellent fishing on the Tay, but above all the delightful
companionship of the man himself. It always seemed to
me that the difference of twenty-five years in our respective
ages did not exist. He was so young, so active mentally and
physically and so ready to take an interest in everything
that appealed to a younger man. It was then that I found

SCHWARZENSEE 263

that he only talked about what he knew and that his facts
were always correct. It was so easy to get information on
many subjects without the trouble of looking up books or
references. Sport, gardening, natural history, photography
and many other subjects would be discussed with an
amazingly complete knowledge that only an exceptionally
brilliant intellect could have acquired. A happy knack of
telling an appropriate story at the right minute was another
great gift he possessed, and he had a great fund of stories,
suited to any audience.

My first visit was to Schwarzensee, that delightful place
in Styria which he had for three years. There were stags
and roe as well as chamois, and good trout-fishing in lake
and river. Sir Edmund and Lady Loder both caught some
good fish in the lake, but I don't think they ever got any of
the real big fish of 10 Ife or so. In one place the river had
been dammed up by an avalanche, and there the fishing was
quite wonderful on the right day. The fish ran three or
four to the pound and rose like mad. As the water was
as clear as glass, one could see the fish rushing at the
fly and wonder which of two or three you were going to
hook. Sir Edmund used to say he liked fishing when
you caught something and that avalanche pool was the
nearest thing to a certainty that he had ever come
across.

My first day's stalking was about the longest I ever had,
from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. I was after the same beast the whole
time, and when I had got my shot and killed it I felt rather
pleased with myself. But the supposed buck was a doe,
and my return to the house was not quite so triumphant
as I should have liked. Sir Edmund met me at the door,
heard my story and simply said, " Well done, you killed
your first chamois and have had a d — d good hunt."
Some men would have said, " You young ass, why weren't
you more careful ? " But Sir Edmund would never have
said a thing like that. He was pleased I had killed my first
chance and had had a real good stalk, and, though he was so
careful himself and would not have made such a mistake
18

264 REMINISCENCES [ch. xi

under similar circumstances, he never even hinted that I
had been a bit too hurried.

Few men were so absolutely unselfish about sport as
he was. He always wanted a friend to have as good a
chance as himself, and more than once he sent me out
specially after some well-known good buck. If you failed to
see the good buck, or worse still, saw it and missed, he was
quite disappointed, and probably took an early opportunity
to send you to the same beat for another try.

That year, as the snow came early, we had to give up
stalking for some days and do some drives in the woods
for stags and a chance chamois. At one drive Lady
Loder got a big stag, the only one we saw, but in the
same drive a goat came along which I nearly shot at.
When telling Sir Edmund about it, he confessed he also
had very nearly shot at the brute. This rather surprised
me, as he had more than once impressed on me the im-
portance of making sure you were shooting at the right
animal, especially in thick covert. He used to quote
with great glee from an account he had seen in an Ameri-
can paper about shooting accidents in the Adirondacks.
Every season a certain number of sportsmen were killed,
and the excuses given were that some of the poor wretches
had been mistaken for deer and others for squirrels.
" Squirrels, do you understand — squirrels ! " And those
who knew Sir Edmund will appreciate the emphasis he
put into the word " squirrels." He would certainly never
have been amongst the squirrel-shooters.

If you were shooting badly he would do all he knew to
put you right. The second time I went to Schwarzensee
I started off by missing five shots at a real sitting chamois.
The next day I did the same thing, and came home in
despair. I was using a rifle that I had done very well
with at Bisley, and felt convinced that it was the man
and not the rifle that was to blame. I told this to Loder,
who said he was going to shoot my rifle at a target and
find out for certain whether I or my rifle was wrong.
He started at 100 yards and had to come into 15 yards

ALPINE FLORA 265

before he could hit an ordinary Martin Smith target.
The stock had warped a good deal since Bisley and con-
sequently affected the accuracy of the Lyman sight,
which was placed on the small of the butt. I felt I was
done as I had no other rifle with me, but Loder was equal
to the occasion and produced a file, which he worked
with for over an hour and cut down the stem of the
Lyman. The rifle shot all right afterwards, and any
subsequent misses were my fault. I think he enjoyed
that little episode as much as anything, and for years
afterwards used to refer to his skill as a rifle vet.

During this visit I had a chance of seeing something
of the Alpine flora, as even in August a few good plants
were still in flower on the very highest ground. It was
my first introduction to this class of plants, and I used
to bring home my finds for Sir Edmund to name. When
he found that I was really keen to learn, he used to bring
home plants for me, as he knew from previous seasons
where to look for nice things. I saw many plants that
I should otherwise have missed. Very often he would
tell me that I might see some special plant at a particular
place on my beat for the day, and so accurate were his
descriptions of the locality that I nearly always found
that plant. This plant-hunting adds enormously to the
pleasure of chamois-stalking. Owing to the chamois
hiding up for the middle of the day, there are generally
several hours of loafing when nothing can be done in the
way of stalking. It is even useless to do any spying.
The plants, therefore, came in very usefully, and Sir
Edmund's keenness was a great spur to my botanical
zeal. Schwarzensee, being mostly granite, did not possess
a very rich flora. A few years later Sir Edmund had
Hopfreben for three seasons, and that was in a limestone
country. I went there in October, and almost his first
remark was that I was too late for the flowers, which were
much better than at Schwarzensee. He told me what
he had found, and nearly every day gave me directions
where to look for the remains of good things. In Scot-

I

266 REMINISCENCES [ch. xi

land, too, he was just as keen ; and though he had found
most of the rare or interesting plants years before, he
always looked out for old friends and told me how many
he had found. He used to tell rather a good story against
himself in regard to plants. Many years before, when
at Amat, he had collected such things as Loiselauria
procumbeiis and Silene acaulis and taken them down
south. The next year he thought he would take a few
more plants, and went out stalking provided with a
trowel. During his first dig he heard the stalker say in
disgust to the pony man — " That scratching has begun
again ! "

The stalking at Hopfreben was far harder work than at
Schwarzensee, but Sir Edmund, then nearly sixty, went
as well as ever and seemed quite impossible to tire. He
was also shooting very well, and to his great joy Robin
was proving himself a good shot and an untiring walker.
Both at Schwarzensee and Hopfreben the Jagers had a
great opinion of Sir Edmund as a shot. They always
said he was so cool and quiet at taking any decently
possible chance. When he made a miss he always tried
to account for it, and always said it was his own fault
if the shot had been anything like a possible one. Some
years later, I think at Dundonnel, he told me that he
believed he could find some new way of missing a stag
each season. This was really a very sound statement,
with which I think everyone who has done much stalking
will agree. I killed one or two very good bucks indeed
at Hopfreben, and they were bucks that Sir Edmund
knew all about. As old bucks keep very closely to their
own beats, it was more than even betting that you could
see the animal, and therefore, when you went to the big
buck's ground, you knew Sir Edmund had given you the
chance of getting one of the plums which he could so
easily have kept for himself. That was not his idea of
sport, and he used to tell the story of a stalker who asked
the tenant of a forest whether the guest was to see a stag,
or have a shot or kill a stag. When shooting with him

HOPFREBEN AND GLENCARRON 267

you always knew that you were meant to kill the best
beast you could get. He once sent me up to kill a very
well-known old buck that had lived in the same place
for six or seven years. He had seen the buck more than
once and knew it was as good as any on the whole shoot.
When I came home with the buck he was as pleased as
if he had shot it himself.

He was certainly a most excellent walker on steep
ground, and on one occasion fairly walked me off my
legs. We were going up to try and drive a very cunning
old buck ; and as it was the last day of his last season
at Hopfreben, he was determined to give away no chances.
As the wind was rather uncertain, we had to make a big
detour to get to our places without running the wind too
fine. It was a three-hours' walk and climb, but Sir
Edmund did it without a halt and talked the whole way
up. He arrived at the top quite fresh, and if the buck
had come along at that moment he would have sat down
and fired a good shot. That is my last recollection of
a day in the Alps with him.

It was on our way home from Austria that I saw him
really angry for the only time in all the years I knew him.
At Boulogne the box containing his cameras was pitched
on the steamer as if it had been a log of wood. He fairly
stormed at the porters and gave them a dressing down
in forcible English and French that took their breath
away. I don't think anything else would have made him
really angry, certainly none of the ordinary things that
upset mankind.

After Sir Edmund gave up Schwarzensee he had several
forests in Scotland, including Glencarron, Rothiemurchus,
Achdalieu and Glenclunie. I think it was during this
period that he had Ben More Asynt, but I am not quite
sure as I did not go there. Glencarron was a very jolly
place. The stags were good, and there was also a small
river with salmon in it. Of course the salmon in October
were pretty red, but even then they took a fly and gave
something to go for on non-stalking days. Sir Edmund

268 REMINISCENCES [ch. xi

was always keen about salmon-fishing, and used to get
a good deal of sport out of the small rivers. In later
years, after he gave up stalking, he had various beats
on the Tay, and put all his enthusiasm into the catching
of salmon. I was very lucky at Glencarron and killed
three very good stags. When I arrived I was told that
there was a " desirable eleven-pointer " which everyone
knew. Sir Edmund used to say that one or two well-
known stags with pet names added enormously to the
interest of a forest, as you had the excitement of looking
for them every time you went out. The " desirable
eleven-pointer " spent most of his time in the sanctuary,
but one day, when I was sitting down smoking a pipe
and spying some far-away stags, he walked past me within
fifty yards, accompanied by a very good ten-pointer. Sir
Edmund was rather grieved that the one named stag had
made such a fool of himself before the last day of the
season. It spoilt the excitement.

I think Sir Edmund was rather disappointed with Glen-
clunie, as the stags were mostly small. There was one
great excitement, however, provided by a large herd that
used to come out of Mar forest nearly every evening.
They used to start feeding out from Mar about an hour
before dark, and the game was to try and cut out a big
stag in the very short time available. The herd con-
tained all sorts and conditions of stags, and I never saw
so manv one-horns and switches. There were two or
three royals and one very good ten-pointer and several
fair beasts with ten and nine points. We had several
attempts at these good stags, but always just failed. One
night I got well in and could just see the tops of the best
royal over a small hump in the ground. I waited for a
little bit more to show up ; but as I was surrounded by
deer, I knew I should be spotted very soon, and sure
enough an old hind got me. The second she barked the
game was up, and I just saw the royal moving off in the
middle of a crowd, but there was no chance of a shot.
Loder condoled with me on my bad luck and said he

FOREST LODGE AND DUNDONNEL 269

wished he could get as close to the herd as that. A night
or two afterwards he was riding home, and, just as the
light began to go, saw some of the herd close to the path.
He jumped off his pony, snatched the rifle from the stalker
and took a quick shot at a good beast, which dropped
like a stone to the shot. He handed the rifle back to the
stalker and walked towards the stag, but to his horror
saw the animal jump up and gallop off. He could not
get the rifle in time, and the light was so bad that, even
if he had, I do not think he would have done much good.
When he came in he was very angry with himself for
being caught napping. He said that, with all his ex-
perience, he ought to have known the beast was very
likely to get up, and his only consolation was that he had
actually " creased " a stag in the most approved American
hunter's fashion. It was some days before he got over
the misfortune.

Sir Edmund had hunted in America before the great
herds of bison had been exterminated, and it was most
interesting to hear him talk about them. I am glad to
think that I have known a man who had seen that won-
derful sight and have heard the tale first-hand.

After Glenclunie Sir Edmund took Hopfreben in T>to1
for three years and then came back to Scotland once
more. Amongst other places he took Forest Lodge for
one season. A year or two later he took Dundonnel on
a lease, and that was the last forest he had. Dundonnel
was a most attractive place, though at that time the
stags were not very good. Lady Loder killed one very
heavy stag on the low ground, 20 stone, if I remember
rightly, but the general run of stags was much smaller.
There were several nice young stags which were spared,
but I never heard that Sir Edmund benefited much by
leaving them to grow. The fishing was good, as there
were several lochs and the Gruinard River. The best of
the fishing was earlier in the summer, but in August there
was still a certain amount of sport to be had. I was
only at Dundonnel in October, and in both years that I

270 REMINISCENCES [ch. xi

was there the weather was extraordinarily fine and dry.
The Gruinard was a nice river to fish and full of salmon,
but I never did any good in it.

Sir Edmund's spare time was spent on colour photo-
graphy, and nothing that he took up showed more clearly
his determination to do a thing well or not at all. He
was never quite satisfied with his work, though to the
ordinary individual his results seemed perfect. There was
a certain rowan-tree near the lodge which was scarlet
with berries, and this tree made an excellent subject for
colour photography. I should not like to say how often
that tree was photographed. If the light seemed extra
good or different from a previous day, another plate
would be exposed in the hope of eliminating some tiny
defects in previous pictures. To attain perfection in his
work seemed almost an obsession, but those who have
seen an exhibition of his colour photographs will agree
that his striving after perfection was justified. He had
mastered the technique by sheer hard work and constant
repetition, and his scientific mind enabled him to select
and use to the greatest advantage the best lenses and
apparatus.

The stalking at Dundonnel was the last I ever had with
Sir Edmund. The lease came to an end during the war,
and he never took another forest. I think he felt he had
no longer the energy or desire for the sport, and there was
no Robin to help him to enjoy it. He had always been fond
of fishing, and he took a beat on the Tay in the autumn of
1917. There is little better autumn fishing in Scotland
than the Stanley Water, and Loder meant to have a real
good time with the salmon. Unfortunately it was a bad
autumn and the fish were not taking. That year I had
fourteen days' leave in September, and Sir Edmund asked
me to spend a week with him on the Tay. With only a
week to spend on the river, it was long odds at that time
of year that the water might be too low, but when I arrived
at Stanley I found the water as good as could be, and from
previous experience I felt I was in for a good time. But

SALMON FISHING 2T1

the fish were hopelessly stiff, and I only had hold of two
fish in six days, one of which got off. Loder could not
understand what had happened and why no fish were being
caught. He knew he had a first-class bit of water, that the
river had a good fishing height and that there were plenty
of fish up. It worried him dreadfully, and he simply would
not listen to me when I told him that such things happened
to everyone who fished. His theory was that he was a most
indifferent fisherman and must be doing something wrong.
He said he must learn to cast better, and used to watch
other people and try to improve by constant practice.
As with his colour photography, he could not be satisfied
with mediocrity. He took the greatest care with his tackle
and his keen mind was quick to appreciate the best reel, etc.,
and their particular points of advantage.

However, in spite of this unfortunate autumn, he was
badly bitten with the salmon fever, and determined, as
he said, to have one real good time with the fish before he
died. He therefore took the Lower Scone water for the
next two or three springs, and, I think, realised his ambition.
I went up for a fortnight with him in 1919, and during that
time he killed a lot of fish. He had also done very well
before I joined him, killing one fish over 30 Ife, and several
over 20 fb.

Even then he was very upset by a blank day, and if other
people were catching fish he always maintained it was his
own want of skill that prevented him getting a fish. One
day in particular he was very depressed. It was a cold,
bright day and the water was low for the time of the year.
Even the boatmen said they thought it a rotten fishing day.
From my point of view it was a real good day, as I killed
five fish. Sir Edmund was delighted with my good luck,
but seemed to think it showed more clearly than ever
that his blank day was due to lack of skill. Now, all my
fish were caught harling, so any question of personal skill
was eliminated, and this I duly pointed out to him. But he
refused to be convinced. He knew he could not cast a long
line and that his experience of fishing was limited, so there-

272 REMINISCENCES [ch. xi

fore he must be to blame. It was very typical of the man
and showed his anxiety to do a thing well.

It was during this time that he was at work on his list of
Conifers grown at Leonardslee. The first and second proofs
had been corrected by himself and then sent to my brother
for further correction. The third and final proof arrived
while I was staying with him at Perth. We set to work
on the final revision, and he was not satisfied until we had
both been through those proofs five times. They were
then sent again to my brother. This incident will perhaps
give an idea of the care he took with all his work and his
intense desire to make anything he did as nearly perfect
as possible. This trip to the Tay was the last sport that I
enjoyed with him, and in many ways it was one of the
pleasantest fortnights I ever spent in his company.

One other trip, though not a sporting one, stands out
very clearly as a most delightful time. That was a visit
in pre-war days to some Irish gardens. Needless to say,
it was a strenuous time, as Sir Edmund had carefully
planned to see as much as possible in the shortest possible
time. We worked to a very strict time-table, going from
Castlewellan in the north to Fota in the South and to Val-
encia Island in the west. There were many gardens to see
between these extreme points, and travelling in Ireland is
not always so speedy as it might be. It was therefore a
little difficult to keep to the time-table, and unfortunately,
on one occasion, we did our best to spoil it most effectually.
We left Cork one Saturday evening for Kenmare, where we
were due to visit Lord Lansdowne's beautiful garden on
the Sunday morning and a garden on the opposite side of
the river on the same evening. We were both very tired
and sleepy when we got into the train at Cork, and we
slept so soundly that we passed the junction for Kenmare
and finally woke up when the train reached Killarney
about 10 p.m. There was no train back till Monday morn-
ing, and I felt we were hopelessly done. But Loder was
far from beat, and he was determined that our programme
should not be upset. He inquired for a motor and was

DRIVE TO KENMARE 273

told that there was only one available for hire. That
motor Avas sent for, but failed to appear. We were told
that the driver was " jollying " himself and would not
turn out. Again I felt we were finally done, but Loder
simply ordered a car, and eventually, about 10.30, we started
to drive to Kenmare. It v/as a bitterly cold night and I felt
thoroughly mean and miserable. Loder said our road was
one of the most beautiful drives in Europe, but as I could
see nothing I had to take his statement on trust. I think
he knew that I was not enjoying life at that moment, so he
set to work to cheer me up, and never did a man do such a
job in a better way. He managed to keep me thoroughly
interested and amused till we arrived at Kenmare at 2.30
a.m. I can honestly say I enjoyed that drive in spite of the
cold and a very tired horse. After arriving at the hotel, we
spent another half-hour knocking up the servants, so that
it was nearly 3.30 before we got to bed. The blankets were
very thin, and I was thoroughly chilled and could not get
to sleep till daylight, but at 7.30 sharp Loder hammered
at my door to let me know that breakfast was at eight and
that we should start at 8.45. He did not seem a bit the
worse for the long drive and short sleep — and he had carried
out his programme. When I said good-bye to him outside
the sleeping-car at Fishguard, he suddenly said, " I wonder
if we made the most of our time and saw all we could." I
felt I had no doubt about it.

No cheerier or kinder companion could any man possibly
have had. A good sportsman, widely read, with a scientific
and accurate mind, taking an interest in everything and
giving an excellent example of always doing the best work
or leaving a thing alone, he did not suffer fools gladly and
therefore some people found him difficult to get on with.
Those who knew him best knew his real value and enjoyed
the friendship that he was always so ready to extend.
Whether at Leonardslee or in Scotland, or in any other
place or at any other time, he was always the same. What-
ever the work or sport he had in hand, one always knew that
he was putting his whole mind into it. And that was the

274 REMINISCENCES [ch. xi

secret of his success in so many pursuits. Very few men can
hope to excel in more than one direction, but Sir Edmund
made good in everything that he took up in earnest.
And yet no man was more modest about his own achieve-
ments. I don't think I ever knew him praise his own work
— not even the garden at Leonardslee, which was his own
creation and must always rank as one of the finest gardens
in England, whether regarded from the artistic point of
view or merely as a collection of trees and shrubs. It was
his greatest work, and he could have left no better monu-
ment behind him to keep his memory fresh in the minds of
his friends.

APPENDIX

Year.

Forest.

Stags
killed.

Killed by Sir E.

1894 .

Kintail

_

30

1895-7

Schwarzensee (Chamois)

159

57

1898 .

Benmore

47

29

1899 .

Clunie

45

21

1900 .

Glencarron

42

20

1901 .

Rothiemurchus

59

20

1902 .

Achdalieu

55

26

1903 .

Strontian

21

9

1904 .

Baddock

38

10

1905-7

Hopfreben (Chamois)

98

51

1908 .

Athole

69

21

1909 .

Dundonnel

45

13

1910 .

Auchnashellach

35

17

1911 .

Dundonnel

42

16

1912 .

>»

43

19

1913 .

>»

42

17

1914 .

>»

18

181

1915 .

f >

45

23

420

* Only September.

It is not many men who between the ages of 49 and 66
kill their 20 stags a season stalking. Sir Edmund's aver-
age during this period of his life was 19 J — and in his
last season when 66 he killed 26 sta^s.

CHAPTER XII

SOMALILAND, 1896-7, AND BRITISH EAST AFRICA,' 1908

" But those hardy days flew cheerily !
And when they now fall drearily.
My thoughts, like swallows, skim the main,
And bear my spirit back again
Over the earth, and through the air,
A wild bird and a wanderer."

The Siege of Corinth.

In November 1896 Sir Edmund Loder, my wife and I
started for a winter in Somaliland. My wife and I had been
there the previous winter, chiefly in the Gadabursi country,
but had never crossed the waterless Haud. This we
intended to do with Loder. The Horn of Africa is a
pecuUarly wild region and the Haud had never been crossed
till 1885. Burton, Speke and Stroyan made the first at-
tempt to penetrate into Somaliland in 1855 ; but though
they had the support of the Bombay Government and were
accompanied by a gunboat, they were set upon immediately
they landed at Berbera ; Stroyan was killed and Burton
and Speke wounded, and they barel}'^ escaped with their
lives. In 1885 Lort-PhilHps, Percy Aylmer and the
brothers James obtained the first laurels — crossed the Haud

^ It is now called Kenya Colony, a name taken from a mountain. No
one knows whence this name arose ; it is not a native name for Mt. Kenya,
and it is not a name that can be traced in any way. The Kukujru, the local
natives, have two names for it, Kirinyagaand Kirimaraor Crithuri, and the
?.Iasai call it Bonya Ebor. The Wakamba call it Njaro, and the Zanzibari
call it Meru. Apparently Kenya is some European corruption of the name
Kirinyaga, but no improvement. Kirinyaga means "It is wonderful " ;
Kenya means nothing (vide Geog. Journal, July 1921, " Movmt Kenia,"
by Rev. J. W. Arthvu-). Peter Beckford inquired of his huntsman why he
had called a hound "Lyman," and said, " Pray what does 'Lyman' mean?"
Beckford's himtsman was a philosopher, and replied, " Lord bless you, sir,
what does anything mean ? "

275

276 SOMALILAND [ch. xii

and reached the Webbc Shebeyli, and brought back the
first rehable accounts of this strange countrJ^ Later
Swayne (1893) reached Ime, and after numerous journeys
became the chief authority on Somahland. When we were
there the man whose reputation had gone furthest into the
interior and who had most impressed the wild Somahs
with respect for British authority was Captain Cox
(Koggis).' With Colonel Ferris administering the country
from Aden, Major Abud and successive able residents on
the coast and the redoubtable Koggis maintaining order in
the hinterland, the pax Britannica had spread far into the
interior and British privilege and credit reached its highest
point. Thus from 1890 to 1900 the coastal belt and country
north of the Haud had become a happy ground for officers
from India on leave and for a considerable number of
European sportsmen. Not a few of these crossed the Haud
at various times — but I believe the late Lady Pease was
the first and last white wom.an to have been in distant
Ogaden and to have reached the very little known country
of Bourka. For sportsmen generallj^ Ogaden and the far
side of the Haud has for more than twenty years become
a closed book. During these years there have been
continual wars and trouble with the Mullah Mohamed
Abdullah, who was a match for the British until
aeroplanes arrived on the scene in 1920-1 and death
removed him.

Firearms have been acquired by the natives and the
big game seriously reduced. In our time, however, it was
a sportsman's paradise, and amongst the Somalis the
exploits of Lord Delamere with lions and elephants had
made his name a great one with these sporting people
and a familiar one in every karia of the Horn. Delamere
still holds the record of the world as a lion-hunter, and in
the year 1896-7 of which I am about to write made his
historical journey with Dr. Anderson across Somaliland

^ General Sir Percy Cox. The Soma) cannot pronounce x — the
result is rather funny. WTxen they attempt English a box is a boggis,
an oryx is an orygis, an ox is an oggis.

PASSENGERS ON BOARD 277

and into British East Africa, there to become one of the
greatest of the pioneer settlers and founders of the new
Colony now called Kenya.

Of all the many voyages out this one with Loder stands
apart in my memory as a particularly pleasant one.
Loder notes many names of our friends who by luck
happened to be going to India and the East and of those
whose acquaintance we made on the voyage. We made
up a table on the P. & O. — Lord and Lady Breadalbane,
Arnold Morley, A. Sneyd, Fitzherbert, Miss Hozier and
a Miss Woodcock were of this party. In his journal he
notes :

" Find that Lord Breadalbane is an old photographer ;
showed him my photos with isochromatic plates, which
he has not used. Lady Breadalbane is a great gardener
and has lots of Himalayan rhododendrons. . . . Went
over the engines with Lord and Lady Breadalbane and
A. Morley ; very fine, 10,000 horse-power ; two low-
pressure cylinders, 10 tb., 74 in. ; one intermediate ; one
high-pressure, 160 ft>., 45 in. ; four crank. There is a
remarkable absence of vibration."

Other names he enters among the passengers. He saw
something of Lord Fincastle, Lady Muriel Gore Brown
and " Colonel Watkin, the inventor of a range-finder " ;
to the latter he had been introduced by another acquain-
tance, General Nicholson, and he also made friends with
General Nairn.

At Port Said we found our friends the Luptons on
board another P. & O., the Clyde. At Aden we were most
hospitably entertained by General and Mrs. Cuningham
at the Residency, and helped and advised in the kindest
way by Colonel Ferris, Political Agent Somali Coast
Protectorate. With his usual care in such matters, after
remarking " he was very kind " in explaining the maps
and telling him where he could most likely find the animals
he most wanted, and giving him a special permit to obtain
specimens of Pelzeln's gazelle, which is a local species

278 SOMALILAND [ch. xii

confined to the Maritime Plains, Loder copies the permit
into his diary :

" To T. Malcolm Jones, Esq., Assistant Political
Agent, Berbera.

"• My dear Malcolm Jones,

" Sir Edmmid Loder, who is going to shoot, wants
some Plains' Gazelle (Pelzelni), native name Dero. These
are plentiful in the Reserve and I have told him he can
shoot what he wants there. Please tell Adan Yousouf,
the head man, so that there may be no difficulty.

*■' Yours ever,

W. B. Ferrls.

" Please give Sir Edmund Loder and Mr. Pease all the
assistance you can in getting things together and making
an early start."

There is an entry wliilst at Aden that reminds me of
Loder's tender feelings for those he had left at home.
** Walked in the afternoon with the Peases along Jopp's
drive and picked up shells " ; and the next day, " Sent
off a parcel of shells to Robin and wrote him a letter."
He was doing this after we had been very busy drawing
our supply of rifles and carbines for our Somalis at the
Arsenal and collecting stores, and I saw tears in his eyes. I
said, " I hope there is nothing the matter," and he gave
his eyes a smudge with his hand and said " No — I am
only sending Robin the shells, and it made me think of
him and home." I do not know if those among his casual
acquaintance have ever guessed at this side of Loder's
nature, but I often came across it. We went over to
Berbera in the little coasting steamer, the Falcon, and
were quite a happy party at the Residency at Berbera ;
and whilst making our final preparations several sports-
men turned up, including two officers, Timmin and Mar-
shall, with four lions, and who had just had one of their
shikaris killed in a lion charge. Lord Delamere also
Joined us, and I remember weeks after seeing him in the
interior wearing a pair of white canvas rubber-soled

CROSSING THE GOLIS RANGE 279

shoes, the sort we called " fives shoes " at school, which
Loder had thrown away with other non-essentials into a
corner of his room at the Residency when we left Berbera.
As an illustration of Loder' s quickness : We had not
been with Delamere more than a few minutes when
Loder said, " Those are my shoes which I threw away
at Berbera." Delamere said, " Yes, and just what
I wanted." Delamere was starting, with 150 men
and many camel loads, with Dr. Anderson for Lake
Rudolph.

Our first camp was made December 9th, and we crossed
the GoHs Range at the Jerato Pass. About the Gan
Libah we got some fine Greater Kudu (the Somali Greater
Kudu, Strepsiceros kudu chora, are not equal in size to
the South African S. capensis).

Here is his diary entry for one of these days :

" Monday, December lUh (1896).— Temp. min. 46° F.
at night— felt much warmer than night before, although
we are camped at the top of the pass (Jerato) on the open
plain at 6,000 feet. Left camp with shikaris at 6.15.
Went near place where we had seen big koodoo yesterday.
As we came into one of the small ravines saw two male
koodoo go out at the other end. Followed their tracks
and saw one, the larger one, go into some thick bush,
where he apparently stopped. . . . We went on and
stalked up to the bushes where we had last seen the
koodoo, and saw him going out on the other side. I fired
with the Mannlicher and he fell, but I gave him another
shot.

" Measurements [he does not give the horn measure-
ments in his diary — his best Somah head 56| in. long in
curve ; the latter he killed the next day, December 15th] :

Between nostrils to between horns .
>> „ root of tail

M T, end of tail

.» ,, end of tail hairs

Girth at brisket ....

Half-way down girth of neck .

Height at shoulder (between two uprights)
19

Measurements of No

.2.

It. in.

ft.

in.

13

15

6 4

7

8

7 3

8

9

8 6

9

6

4 7

0

H

3

3

4 7

5

0

280 SOMALILAND [ch. xii

" Photo' ed him with pocket Kodak — full aperture first
and then with second stop. Sent for pony, which we had
left on the plains, and then photo' ed again with Watson
camera and Iso films. Ate lunch, grilled koodoo steak
and liver and marrow bones. Packed skin and meat on
pony and sent him to camp with syce and second shikari
carrying head. Went on with Jama and rested for an
hour and then turned southward : saw no koodoo, but
soon saw alikud (klipspringer) and shot a male — and
soon after another male which I also shot. We then came
to the plain and tried for dero (Gazella spekei) and gerenuk
{Lithocranius walleri). Fired a shot in the high wind
at a dero and hit, but did not get him. As we %vere
getting near camp at 5 p.m. I stalked and shot a male
gerenuk, a long shot.

" Gerenuk measurements :

12| in. curve of neck.

From lower lip to point of shoulder-blade front of
chest, 2 ft. 5 in.

Height at shoulder, 3 ft. 5 in. Girth at brisket, 2 ft.
10 in."

Before crossing the Haud into Ogaden we spent a week
with Lord Delamere and occupied ourselves in pig-sticking.
The old wart-hogs on the Ooanouf plain gave us great
sport and numerous croppers, though a large proportion
got to ground in spite of our having a small army of earth-
stoppers. Loder also shot gumburi here. Loder's biggest
stallion (Equus asinus somalicus) measured 4 ft. 3 in.
in height. He notes too on December 18th that I brought
back to camp in the evening three baira antelopes,' one
male gumburi and one ditha {Hycena striata). He was
most interested in the baira, as they were the first he
had ever seen, and the following day I pointed out to
him a hill where I had seen a good many. As these most
beautiful hill gazelle were then considered difficult to ob-
tain, he meant to make the most of his chance. He says :

" Saw three baira as we began to climb the hill. I
spied and saw that one was a male with horns. It is

1 The Baira (or Beira) Dorcotragua melanotis.

BAIRA GAZELLE 281

a most difficult hill to stalk quietly on, as it is completely
covered with loose stones. We stalked the three baira,
but they heard us as soon as we began to get near and I
had to shoot at one from the shoulder. This dropped,
and I went forward and came in sight of another which
I killed, and then had a shot at the third from the shoulder.
This one was very badly wounded but went on down the
hill. We followed it and saw it several times still going
on. In the middle of this chase we saw three more baira
going up a hill face in front of us. They had evidently noticed
us and were moving off fast. We waited till they were
out of sight and then followed. We nearly came up with
them several times, but they got us before I could shoot
(as I wanted the male I had always to use the glass before
taking up the rifle). In this way we walked the whole
length of the hill, and in the last corrie I got a shot at
what I thought was the male and thought I had missed,
and fired again and again thought I had missed as I saw
the bullets strike on the stones beyond — both were,
however, killed dead, falling just out of my sight ; the
third was 200 yards off across the corrie, and I saw with
my glass that this was the male with horns — I fired and
apparently did not do much damage, and I fired again,
when he went into a bush out of sight. We went round
the bush and found him lying dead ; the other two proved
to be a small male with horns about an inch long and a
good female. The first shot was also a good male, the
second a small female and third a small male."

Thus he killed his six specimens. He gives the measure-
ments of an adult female :

Baira (adult female). Height . 2 ft. 2 in.

Girth at brisket . . . . 1 ft. 9 in.

Eyes : red hazel or chestnut ; pupil blue-black.

Deiamere, Loder, Anderson and I must have got about
a score of pigs with the spear during these four or five
days, and Loder got a fair proportion of first spears ;
but his mounts were not as bold as ours were, either in
galloping over the top of one of these ugly brutes or in
facing up when a pig turned and charged.

On Christmas Day he writes :

282 SOMALILAND [ch. xii

" Went out again with Lord Delamere after pigs — had
some capital runs. Dibatag, the pony lent to Pease (by
Delamere), proved to be very game and fast, and he got
both first spears ; but I had good fun and ran my spear
clean through the first pig and caught the second, a big
boar in full charge, at the end of my spear and kept him
off, though my pony stopped dead. . . . Had a plum
pudding and champagne for dinner in the evening."

We got several waire or waira * [Proteles cristatus) while
pig-sticking — one we captured alive and sent to the coast.
Having thus spent Christmas together, we filled up with all
the water we could carry for our seven days' march across
the waterless Haud. Among the big game shot on the
Haud were several dibatags {Ammodorcas clarkei), one of
the most singular of long-necked and long-tailed antelopes.
Loder's specimen of a male measured :

8 ft. 2 in.
2 ft. 2 in.
11 1 in.

Height ....

Girth at brisket

Girth at middle of neck .

From between nostrils to between

horns ....

Neck to shoulder-blades in back

to root of tail

to end of tail

to end of hairs
Length of horns 11 in. on curve. Eyes dark hazel-
iris blue-black.

6| in.
1 ft. 10 in.

4 ft. 2 in.

5 ft. 4 in.
5 ft. 6 in.

On the seventh day we made Darror Pool.

New Year's Day, 1897. — Darror figures in most maps,
but is nothing but a depression in the bush of some two
and a half acres that holds the stagnant water of the last
rainy season till the middle of January, after which it is
usually dry ; therefore anyone who takes this route across
the Haud should get the best native information available
of the condition before setting out on it, for any miscalcula-
tion as to water is a most serious thing in this country. We
had some seventy camels and were sixty souls, besides

1 Almost identical with the " Aard wolf " of South Africa.

DARROR 288

horses, milch goats and sheep. About half-way across at
a place the name of which amused Loder very much, and
which he has transcribed into his diary— Beluljoogieban-i-
waabaa-adoh-dahadodi — he makes a characteristic note :

" To save the three buckets of water which forty men
have to boil their rice in we gave them six sheep last night
and gave the water to the five ponies. The sheep are worth
about Rs. 5 each, so that the water comes out at about
Is. 8d. a gallon."

The sixth day we had been told we should reach Darror,
and the seventh day was a day of great anxiety. However,
on arriving at Darror on the seventh day we found there
was still a depth of some three inches of green, slimy water
round which the warlike tribe of the Rer Ali Ogaden had
pitched their karias. Some 400 of their camels were stand-
ing in the pool, their women washing their tobes ; and our
delight at seeing the water was som.ewhat tempered when
we realised that for many days to come we should have to
drink it and cook with it. By repeated boilings and skim-
mings after precipitating with alum and filtering we ob-
tained a fairly clear tasteless liquid. It is a curious fact,
which Loder and I assured ourselves of, that the natives
can drink the most stagnant, putrid and contaminated water
without any risk of bad results. They appear to be im-
mune from all forms of enteric, typhoid and dysentery
arising from dirty water, though they may drink the filthiest
for months. Whether this is acquired and hereditary
immunity, or resistance developed from the healthiness of
their lives and the simplicity of their diet (which in the
interior is entirely animal) of camels' milk and occasional
mutton or camel, it is difficult to say.

We worked westward through Ogaden, getting lions and
rhinoceros, and reached Milmil. There were few natives
about, but we were told by them that there was an EngHsh-
man in the Tug Sulul, about three days distant in the direc-
tion we were bound for, but that he had been attacked by
Habasha (Abyssinians) and some of his men made prisoners.

284 SOMALILAND [ch. xii

We sent forward scouts, who returned in a few days with
the information that the EngHshman had gone back to the
coast. We knew that it must be Greenfield, as he was the
only man out in these parts. Later we had the true
version, but at the time we were uneasy. Greenfield had
really made our course easier, for after rescuing his men
he had made peace with the Abyssinians and extracted a
promise that they would show kindness to " any people of
his tribe " they might meet. Included in our instructions
from Colonel Ferris was one that we were carefully to avoid
contact with Abyssinian posts (the Italians were at war
in 1896 with Abyssinia), so we went forward. Meanwhile
when camped at Gagab we saw the most wonderful meteor
any of us had ever observed. I have noted that I could
trace its broad track of fire, " which did not entirely fade
out for something like a quarter of an hour." Loder,
however, says :

" Saw a splendid meteor after dinner this evening (Janu-
ary 19th). It started near the Pleiades, nearly overhead,
and came down within a short distance of the horizon (east).
It left a bright trail which could be seen for some minutes,
perhaps five or six."

On reaching the Deghabur Tug we found natives, but
in a pitiable condition, having just been looted by the
Habasha. Thence we marched by Sabatti Waine, an
isolated hill near which Delamere had been mauled by a
lion a year or two previously. One of our men who spoke
English pointed out the spot to us with a grin of satisfaction,
exclaiming, " / there when he bite him."

On reaching the hills of Horo-abdulleh beyond the Tug
Fafan and after crossing the Sibi desert we found Grevy's
zebra very numerous indeed, and in spite of our scheming
ran up against the Abyssinipjis. I was out hunting one day
in what we thought was entirely uninhabited country when
suddenly I saw coming down a Tug in a cloud of dust some
hundreds of cattle and sheep. I asked my Midgan shikari,
" What does this mean ? " He looked at me and said
" Habasha "—and added " with loot." Then he added

ABYSSINIANS 285

with glee, " See, the Habasha have seen us and are running
away," and I saw two Abyssinians with their rifles legging it
through the bush. My feelings were different to my men's,
who only saw an immense windfall of loot, and vistas of
beef and mutton for months ahead. Failing to overtake
the fugitives, we drove the cattle to camp and held a council
of war. We decided to track up the Abyssinians, who no
doubt would make for the base military post (at Melka
Degahamadou) and report we had looted them. Much to
the disappointment of our men, after having watered the
cattle we sent them with an escort and one of my shikaris
who spoke Harari and Amharic to Melka Degahamadou.
All's well that ends well, for on Loder and my coming into
camp the next afternoon we found my wife on the most
friendly terms with two Abyssinian officers whom she was
regaling with the best our stores afforded. Exactly what
we foresaw had happened : the fugitives had reported we
had looted them, but their lie was proved, for in a few hours
every head of cattle and sheep arrived. The Abyssinians
were very proud of their rifles ; they were all armed with
the 1894 Italian magazine rifle, part of the loot after the
awful disaster to the Italian Army at Adowa. One of the
officers had been perforated by Italian bullets at the battles
of Macalle and Adowa, and gave us an interesting account
of his adventures.

In the Dahato Valley we reached well- watered plains with
numerous karias and herds of camels, cattle and sheep in the
green grass, but it was also a sportsman's paradise. There
were many elephants, rhinoceros and herds of Grevy's zebra
all round, and the fly country of Bourka was uninhabited
and full of game. We had killed an elephant and several
rhinoceros, when we received a message by " running
camel " from the authorities ordering our immediately
putting ourselves in touch with Berbera, and instructing us
to avoid recrossing the Haud by ordinary routes. With
this most exasperating news there was another thunder-
bolt, namely, that I had been elected M.P. for Cleveland.

So back we marched, and after some rather alarming

286 SOMALILAND [en. xii

experiences with the not too friendly Rer AH — now
assembled at Milmil, and who informed us " the Turks were
at Hargaisa and at Berbera " — we made preparations for
the waterless march north, off any known track. We
crossed the Hand in nine days and on the last day in
February struck Awbahadleh and water. The rest of our
time in Somaliland was spent in the Western Golis and
in pretty camps about Argan,

Any number of extracts from Loder's diaries could be
given, but there is a similarity in the experiences of
travellers and sportsmen which makes me hesitate in giving
any further account of our adventures. It is, however,
worth while noting experiences which correct the general-
isation of other writers. I have more than once seen it
stated that wart-hogs never charge. I have several times
been viciously charged by them in Somaliland and
Abj^ssinia and I saw Mr. Harold Hill, with a very neat
shot, bowl over a wart-hog which deliberately, and from
a long distance in the open Kapiti Plains near Chumbi,
had charged straight for my wife.

Here is one of Loder's entries :

" At Hagal, February 17th, 1897, saw a big koodoo at
7 a.m. Soon afterwards at the foot of a steep hill, in
thick bush, we heard grunting, and at first I thought it
might be a rhino, but the noise changed to a kind of low
roar and the men said ' Lion.' It was quite close, just
behind the first bush, not ten yards off and above us. I
did not much like the position. It sounded as if it were
a lioness with her cubs or a lion disturbed at his meal. I
changed (•577) hollow-point bullet for solid and moved
forward : as soon as I moved there was a crash in the bush
and the animal came in sight not five yards off — it was a
wart-hog ! I gave him one in the ribs as he galloped by, and
immediately another one came at us on the left. I put a
bullet through him, making a huge wound, but it did not
stop him, and he came right up to my legs ; both barrels
were discharged, but I gave him a good poke in the eye with
the muzzle of the -577 and turned him on to Jama, who kept
him off with the muzzle of the MannHcher. Abdullah

A LIONESS KILLED 287

(second shikari) got out of the way with a lively hop.
Mohamad Aboukir, my syce, was leading the pony 50
yards behind and was in a small hollow ; he had heard
the grunts and roars, and when he saw the hogs making
for him he thought they were lions and ran for his life.
This made Jama and Abdullah almost die with laughing,
and indeed the whole affair was most ludicrous. The
hog which got in amongst us died a few yards after
reaching Mohamed but the other went on some distance."

One day at Argan, on a day when Loder got a good kudu
bull and a wart-hog, he describes how he got a good lioness :

" At about 3 p.m. we started a lion out of the rock not
far from us, but it was out of sight in a moment. I ran up
to the top of the rocky hill and saw the lion near the top of
the next. Putting up 300 yards sight, I fired at it with the
Mannlicher and hit it low down in the shoulder. This made
it roar and jump up, biting at its fore-leg. While this per-
formance was going on, I got 100 yards nearer and fired
again. This shot produced more roars and made it spin
round and round, but after settling it moved away slanting
downhill : it then lay down behind the bush. I got fifty
yards nearer, but the lion was now very difficult to make
out without glasses, and with the rifle there was really
nothing to aim at. After looking carefully with the glasses
I fired a shot which made the lion sit up and then lie down
again. I believed it was now dead, but fired another shot,
and as it did not move went up to it and found it dead.^

" It was a full-grown lioness :

" 5 ft. 7 in. from nose to root of tail.
2 ft. 7 in. tail.
8 ft. 2 in. length.
Circ. at brisket, 3 ft. 5| in.
Height, 36 in. Skin, 9 ft. 1 in.'

j>

We had a very rough crossing to Aden in the WoodcocJc,
were again entertained with delightful hospitality at The
Residency by General and Mrs. Cuningharn and sailed on
the P. & O. s.s. Australia at the end of March.

1 Every one of the bullets had hit on the shoulder at ranges from 300
to 150 yards. — A, E. P.

288

SOMALILAND

[cH. xn

Loder's cabin companions were Captain Wyllis (2nd
Lancers) and a Campbell, and General Sir W. Lock-
hart was on board ; amongst other acquaintances he
mentions Elliot, Mrs. Henderson, Mr. Pottinger and Sir
W. McNeal.

During our trip we shot twenty-nine varieties of Somali
" big game " ; this includes the smaller animals on the
following list. Considering the amount of marching we
did, Loder's bag must be counted a very excellent one.

Nineteen members of the order of Ungulata have been
ascribed to Somaliland, but five of these, giraffe, topi,
waterbuck, bushbuck and Kirk's dik-dik, hardly belong to
Somaliland proper, and as far as I know have only been
obtained on the confines ; of the fourteen proper to
Somaliland Loder obtained thirteen.

I have added some of Loder's measurements, as they are
useful records for naturalists and taxidermists :

Lodefs Somali Bag (those only got by Pease are added
to complete varieties) :

—

Somali name.

No. killed
by Lodet.

Felidce.

1. Lion {F. leo) ....

2. Leopard [F. pardus) .

Libah
Shabel

1
1

Cyncelurus.

3. Cheetah (C. jubatus) .

Harimud (Pease)

Proteles.

4. Waive OT AardWoU {P. cristattis) .

Waire

1

Hyasnidce.

5. Ditha, Striped Hy^na [H. striata)

6. Waraba, Spotted Hyasna {H.

crocuta) ....

Ditha (Pease)
Waraba

1

Canidce.

7. Grey Jackal (C variegatus)

8. Black-backed Jackal (C. meso-

nielas) .....

9. Maritime Plain Fox (C. fame-

licus ?) .

Dawa'o

Dawa'o (Pease)
Dawa'o

1
1

Otocyon.

10. Goli-waraba (0. megalotis)

Goli-waraba (Pease)

a

SOMALI BAG

289

Lycaon.

11. Yeyi, Somali Wild Dog (L. pictus

somalicus) ....

Bubalis.

12. Swayne's Hartebeest (B. swaynei)

Oreotragus.

13. Somali Klipspringer [0. soma-

licus) .....

Dorcotragiis.

14. Baira (D. melanotis) .

Madoqua.

15. Phillips's Dik-Dik, Golass {M.

[Rhynchotragus] phillipsi) .

16. Giinther's Dik-Dik, Guzli (M.

guentheri) ....

Gazella.

17. Dero, Speke's Gazelle (O. spekei) .

18. Dero, Pelzeln's Gazelle (O. pd-
zelni) .....

19. Aoul (6. soemmerringi)

Somali name.

No. killed
by Loder.

Yeyi
Sieg

Alikud
Baira or Baireer

Sakaro Golass
Sakaro Guzli

Dhero

Dhero
Aoul

3

7

4
11

Lithocranius.

20. Gerenuk {L. walleri) .

Gerenuk

13

Ammodorcas.

21. Dibatag {A. clarkei) .

Dibatag

1

Oryx.

22. Beisa Oryx (0. beisa)

Beit

15

Strepsiceros.

23. Greater Kudu (S. kudu)

24. Lesser Kudu {S. imberbis) .

Phacochoerus.

25. Wart hog (P. oethiopicus) .

(exclusive of pig-sticlang)

Godir Waine

Godir-Arreho or

Aderyo

Dofar

5

1

5

Equidoe.

26. Gumburi, Somali Wild Ass (E.

asinus somalicus)

27, Faro, Gravy's Zebra {E. grevyii) .

Gumburi
Faro

3
8

Rhinoceros.

28. Black Rhinoceros (R. bicornis)

Weyil

2

Elepkas.

29. Elephant {E. ajricanua orleansi) .

Marodi

1

105

Loder's Bag : 105 head in 25 varieties.

290 BRITISH EAST AFRICA [ch. xu

The above list excludes such animals as baboon, various
mungooses, hyraxes and other small animals which we
obtained.

At the end of 1907 Loder started on his last big-game
trip in Africa. During his time there he was not actually
on safari for much more than two months ; for part of
this time he was on safari with Mr. Gerard Gurney, north
of the Athi, Donya Sabuk. Both Loder and Gurney
made my place on the Kapiti Plains (Kilima Theki) their
headquarters between their trips, shooting and collecting
in the vicinity. Later I went on safari with Sir Edmund
north of the railway at Simba and in the country lying
between my home in the Machakos District and this lower
and hotter country. Towards the end of his time he
made a couple of short trips on his own ; on the last he
went north to Mohoroni to get Jackson's hartebeest,
roan antelope, oribi and topi.

He and Gurney seem to have come across a great
num.ber of rhinoceros in the weeks they were together —
I think more than seventy are mentioned in Loder' s
diary. He shot five or six, the number being a trifle
outside the number allowed on his licence ; but several
were shot in self-defence, and having exceeded his num-
ber he worried a great deal about it. One day he and
Gurney counted twenty rhinos. He performed the feat
of photographing at thirty-five yards and then killing a
rhino that charged him.

We went out on the Adolph Woermann. The German
boats being subsidised had run off the British and Austrian
Lloyd liners of the best class and the Germans did you
better and cheaper every way than the other boats. We
made a good many acquaintances. There were some
forty English passengers for Mombasa alone — George
Barker of Alexandria, Caves, Corys, Crossleys, Pellys,
Cunliffe, Dalziel, Hall, Harrises, Hendersons, Kindersley,
Lea, Morris, McCaw, McClure, Moore, Hon. R. A. Pelham,
the Hon. Audley and Mrs. Blyth, are amongst the names
he has noted. Audley Blyth and his wife were also going

FRIENDS IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA 291

for big game. Some of these we met afterwards, but
Audley Blyth we never saw again as he came to a tragic
end on safari. At Aden his brother Gerald, who was
making his way from India to Uganda, joined him, and
they travelled on the boat to Mombasa and from there
up the railway as far as Nairobi together. Loder made
many new friends in B.E.A. and met very old ones, such
as the Hon. F. C Jackson,' and enjoyed meeting also many
naturalists, sportsmen and interesting people among those
often to be found at Nairobi and in this hospitable country.
The Hon. John Wilson entertained us at Kilindini, and
wherever Loder went at Nairobi or among settlers he was
welcomed.

I do not propose to give an account of his sport in
B.E.A. or much from his diaries. He did little there in
comparison with what many others have done, and was
neither there long enough nor went far enough to make
his experiences worth while relating at length. Yet the
bag he made in 1908 speaks to his having made good use
of his time. He was now nearly 60 years old. Few men
of this age would go out on safari, were they as active
and keen, who had deer-stalking and other interests at
home, and fewer still would make a bag like the fol-
lowing in two months. It must be remembered his was
made in spite of three weeks or more being occupied in
trying to get a bull giraffe for his museum. He had extra-
ordinarily bad luck, as well as having been directed to by
no means the best country for giraffe. Had I known in time
how anxious he was to get a giraffe, he could easily have
got his bull near my place, as we never shot giraffe, and
when Roosevelt was with us the following year he and his
son Kermit got several very fine ones. There seems to be
a kind of law in shooting, that what you set your heart
on getting you shall nearly break your heart in obtaining.

When I was with Edward North Buxton in Somaliland
in good Lesser Kudu country he worked for weeks before

^ Sometime Acting Governor of B.E.A. and afterwards Governor of
Uganda.

292 BRITISH EAST AFRICA [ch. xii

he got a chance or a shot at one. I myself have set my
heart on a good buffalo and a good roan, and though I
have killed more than eighty varieties of big game I have
never got either. Out of hundreds of roan and thousands
of buffalo I have seen, I have knocked down one or two
and lost them, but shall die without a head of either.
Loder saw plenty of giraffe, but for weeks they were
nearly always cows ; whenever he did get near one it was
always a cow or a poor-sized bull. In his diary he writes
on March 3rd :

" Started out from camp after giraffe again ; went east-
wards for three hours, and near the big hill [Mwasangornbi]
saw twenty eland and soon after giraffe. We went after
them. They were always on the move, but we kept on
trying various stalks and sometimes crawling ; the soil
too hot for one's hands. After three hours' very hard
work in a burning sun they got something and moved off
quickly. The truth is that the giraffe's eyes are better
than mine or my men's."

However, in the end he got a fair bull about 18 feet in
height — the one bull in a herd of twenty, but even then
he says he could not get nearer than 850 yards and took
his -256 Mannlicher :

" as I was sure I could place a bullet well and it had to
be done quickly. I heard the shot strike, and running
on I saw him going slower than the rest and put in an-
other. Soon after he stood still with his neck outstretched,
and then we saw him fall."

When I told him we could get one easier with horses
on the plains he shook his head ; he wished to stalk and
kill one unaided by horse or others.

I was camped with him during these arduous days.
The neighbourhood of Simba is a hot region and it was
often over 90° in the shade in the afternoons, yet he
left camp at dawn and often returned after dark having
worked hard all day. I never considered him a very
lucky sportsman. There are some who get magnificent

I

STUNG BY BEES 293

trophies and rare specimens by good fortune and with
a minimum of effort, but Loder was not one of these.
His success was due to clean shooting, careful selection
of his heads, and by persevering, strenuous hard work due
to his eager nature and indomitable courage in the face
of difBculties.

It is worth recording perhaps that Gurney, whilst with
us, got the best wildebeest head I ever saw in B.E.A.
and that I obtained the biggest wildebeest bull I ever
saw there, but with old, worn and thin horns, not a good
head considering the size and age of the beast. His height
was 56 in. (14 hh.) and he girthed between elbows 5 ft.
10 in.

On one occasion Loder had a very narrow escape from
being stung to death by bees — a swarm attacked two
mules of his and he went to the rescue.

" I got the syce," he says, " to cut the rope of the one
tied up near the tents, but I had to go down myself and
cut the rope of the one near the stream. I was badly
stung on my head and forehead and lost iny spectacles
and knife, but I cut the rope and kicked the mule to get
it to move, but it seemed to have lost its power ; we
got it into camp at last, and I am afraid it may die."

It died at midnight, and Loder himself was ill for a day
or two, but kept on working and shooting.

" March 6th. — Met Knowles at Jackson's, who gave me
a photo of his record buffalo head.

" April lUh. — On the German boat returning Graf
Casimir Zichy showed me his photos ; his friend Graf
Nicolaus Keglevich had shown me his some days ago."

At Aden he bought a pair of Bushbuck horns 18| in.
long and Beisa oryx horns 35f in. long from the Somalis.

We all sailed together from Mombasa in April on the
very comfortable, cool, clean and well-ordered German
D.O.A. s.s. Markgraf. During a particularly nice voyage
we picked up a varied store of information from our
acquaintances among the passengers, who included Mr.

294 BRITISH EAST AFRICA [ch. xn

C. W. Hobley, an official of B.E.A., and the Hon. Galbraith
Cole, who is amongst the earlier settlers and who was a most
pleasant addition to our table. The well-known Colonel
Jim (J. J.) Harrison was also on board; Count Casimir
Zichy, Herr I. Schilling and Count Nicolaus Keglevich
were amongst the Austrian and German sportsmen and
travellers. But our strangest companions were twelve
hippos out of fourteen which had been shipped at Kilwa
on a voyage to Hagenbeck's at Hamburg. They were
fed chiefly on enormous buckets full of condensed milk ;
they were hosepiped with fresh water in their great
mouths and exteriorly with salt water. We buried four
at sea during the voyage and landed two at Port Said
for the Cairo Zoo. In my own diary I write :

" The noise they make when I am in my bunk with
my eyes shut makes me feel at home — as if I was camped
again on the shores of Lake Zwai, on the banks of the
Hawash, or once again on our Nugger among the Nuers
of the Bahr el Ghazal."

We had, besides, monkeys, parrots and camels and 200
sheep.

Loder arrived at Leonardslee on April 30th.

Loder's Bag in British East Africa, 1908

Giraffe {Giraffa camelopardalis) . . 1

Impala {/E'pyceros melarri'pus) . . 8

Bohor Reed Buck {Cervicapra bohor) . 7

Waterbuck {Cobus ellipsiprymnus) . 7

,, {Cobus defassa) . . .1

Thomson's Gazelle {Gazella thomsoni) . 6

Rhinoceros {R. bicornis) . . .5

Hartebeest (Kongoni) {Bnbalis cokei) . 5

,, (Bubalis jacksoni) . . 4i

Grant's Antelope {Gazella grantii) . . 3

Wart-hogs {Phacochcerus cethiopicus) . 3

Chanler's Reed Buck {Cervicapra chanleri) 8

Zebra {Equus burchelli grantii) . . 2

Duikers (varieties not specified) . . 2

APPENDIX 295

Oribi {Ourehia kenyce) . . . .1

Eland (Taurotragus oryx) . . .1

Wildebeest (Connochcetes taurinus albo-

jubatus) . . . . . .1

Topi [Damaliscus jiimela) . . .1

Spotted Hyaena {H. crocuta) . . .1

62 head
19 varieties.

APPENDIX

The measurements on the next page are from Loder's
notes and were made not always from the best specimens,
but as a guide to setting up his own trophies.

The British East African mammals have often been
measured ; the Somaliland ones less frequently.

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296

CHAPTER XIII
By Lord Cottesloe

SIR EDMUND LODER AS A MARKSMAN

Edmund Loder, being a sportsman and full of interest
in the scientific as well as in the practical aspect of all
his pursuits, took the greatest pleasure and interest in
the rifle and its capabilities. Indeed, his interest extended
beyond this, for the first time that I visited Leonardslee
he was making trials with the sixteenth-century cross-
bow, having two or three specimens to which he had
after many trials succeeded in fitting strings strong enough
for the purpose. Short arrows, or bolts, had to be made
for them ; they were carefully tried, and it was disap-
pointing to find that a range little exceeding 200 yards
was all that could be obtained with them. He was accus-
tomed to fire at the Running Deer target at Wimbledon,
and set up for his own practice a similar range and target
at Leonardslee, in which he took much pleasure. His
interest in the accuracy and effectiveness of the weapons
he used led to his taking part in the sporting rifle com-
petitions at Wimbledon in 1885 and subsequent years.

The records of the National Rifle Association show that
for fourteen years from 1885 he was prominent both with
the double and single sporting rifle. With the exception
of 1897, when he was prevented from attending the
Bisley meeting,' his name appears prominently in one or
both of these series year after year. His most conspicu-
ously successful time with the sporting rifle was in the
years 1893-6 inclusive. In the Martin Smith prize for

^ I infer this, but do not know it ; his name appears in no prize list thia
year.

297

298 LODER AS A MARKSMAN [ch. xiii

accuracy at 100 yards, he was in these years twice first,
once second and once third with the double rifle, and
twice second and once third with the single rifle, the
latter weapon attracting many more competitors than
the former. In competitions at the Running Deer and
Running Man targets he was specially successful in 1891-8,
taking first place at the deer with the single rifle in 1891
and 1892 and second in 1893 and 1894. In the two latter
years he was first in the Running Man competitions, and
in 1895 and 1896 he was third. In 1895 Lady Loder gave
a Cup for the best aggregate of scores in the Sporting
Rifle competitions at Bisley, and he himself won it with-
out difficulty, tying for first place in three of the events,
and making an aggregate score in the five competitions
at Running Man and Deer and the Martin Smith target
of 163 points out of a possible 185.

His skill stood him in good stead on many occasions in
the field and not least during the years when he rented
a shooting in the Tyrol. The vital parts of a chamois
offer a very small mark, not many inches squaj-e, and the
stalker (for Edmund Loder took greater pleasure in stalk-
ing than driving his chamois) often finds difficulty in
approaching much nearer than 200 yards. Hence the
sport affords room for every refinement of accuracy
practicable in the field, such as the use of an aperture
backsight, v/hich he adopted long before it was commonly
used in this country. In practical rifle matters he was
ever progressive. He early understood the virtues of
the aperture sight for sporting purposes, and constantly
used it. He was no stranger to the telescopic sight.
He was one of the first — perhaps actually the first — in
this country to discover the virtues of the -256 Mann-
licher rifle for stalking stags and chamois, this rifle having
a higher velocity and a flatter trajectory and giving
greater accuracy than any rifle of the period when it first
made its appearance as a military rifle. The fore-end
being suitably cut away and sporting sights fitted, and the
nose of the bullet filed away till a small portion of the

RIFLE SHOOTING 299

lead core was exposed, the conversion of the mihtary
arm and ammunition into one suitable for stalking was
easily affected. Its killing power on suitable game was
much beyond that of any other rifle of the time.^ The
flat trajectory added 50 per cent, to the range at which
a stag could be killed with certainty. The great velocity
(2,450 feet per second) caused the small compound bullet
to break up and give a paralysing shock much beyond
that of the soft lead " mushrooming " bullet of the old
•450 or -400 Express.'

The high standard of marksmanship of Edmund Loder
and of some of his guests who enjoyed the benefit of his
experience in these matters was well shown in a match
fired at Schwartzensee in 1897 against a team of the
Jagers employed on the Estate : the latter were very good
shots, but they and their weapons were quite outclassed.
[The team was, I think. Sir E. G. Loder, Hon. T. F. Fre-
mantle, J. S. Oxley, W. A. Baillie-Grohman and myself.
(Four -256 Mannlichers and one Mauser.) — Note by A.E.P,]

The Match Rifle, which since the early days of the
National Rifle Association has done so much to test
inventions and to improve the accuracy of the military
rifle, naturally offered a great attraction to a mind so
interested as Edmund Loder' s in the scientific aspect of
the weapons of sport. In each of the twenty-six years
from 1885 to 1911 he competed with it at the meetings of
the EngHsh Eight Club. In 1903 he was third in the
main competition, winning the Bronze Jewel, and in 1901
he was fourth. Nor did fortune specially smile on his
assiduity in shooting for the same twenty-six years at
the meeting of the Cambridge University Long-range

1 The long and heavy military pull had to be got rid of, and the late
Daniel Fraser of Leith Street, Edinburgh, was able by an ingenious and
simpler intercepting safety device which he invented to transform the
pull into as perfect a one as we had in the beautiful old Express
rifles. — Alfred Pease.

2 Lord Cottesloe as early as February 1898 worked out the following
Trajectory Tables, which exhibit the advantages in the trajectory of the
•256 rifle over the '303 rifle — ^this being but one of the many superior
qualities of this weapon over any other. — Alfbed Pease.

300

LODER AS A MARKSMAN

[CH. XIII

TRAJECTORY TABLES

Of -303 and -256 Kifles, to 500 yards, showing the height of the bullet above or below the line of aim
when elevation is given for any even distance of 50 yards.

The measurements are given to the nearest -^ of an inch. Those in heavy type are
minus quantities, i.e. the bullet is below the line of aim. N.B. — No allowance has been made
for height of foresight above centre of bore.

•303 RIFLE, 215 GR. BULLET, MUZZLE VELOCITT 2,000 F.S.

Elevation
given for

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Height of
bullet at
50

ft. in.
11

ft. in.

ft. in.
1-2

ft. in.

2-5

ft. in
3-9

ft. in.
5-5

ft. in.

7-2

ft. in.
9-0

ft. in.
10-9

ft. in.
1 0-9

ft. in.
1 3-0

100

4-6

2-4

—

2-6

5-5

8-6

11-9

1 3-5

1 7-3

1 n-4

2 3-6

150

10-9

7-5

3-9

—

4-3

9-0

1 2-0

1 7-3

2 0

2 7-1

3 1-5

200

1 8-2

1 3-8

110

5-7

—

6-2

1 0-9

1 8-0

2 3-6

2 11-7

3 8-3

250

2 9-0

2 3-5

1 9-5

1 2-9

2 7-8

—

8-3

1 5-3

2 2-8

3 0-9

", 11-6

300

4 1-7

3 7-0

2 11-8

2 3-9

1 7-3

100

—

10-7

1 10-1

2 10-3

3 111

350

5 10-4

5 2-7

4 6-3

3 91

2 110

2 0-2

1 0 5

—

1 1-3

2 3-5

3 6-5

400

7 11-7

7 2-8

6 5-3

5 6-7

4 7-3

3 6-9

2 5-5

1 3-2

—

1 4-2

2 9-3

450

10 5-9

9 7-9

8 91

7 9-3

6 8-4

5 6-4

4 3-4

2 11-3

1 6-2

—

1 7-3

500

13 5-3

12 6-2

11 6-2

10 51

9 2-7

7 11-2

6 6-5

5 0-7

3 5-6

1 9-4

—

Angle used

2'-1225

4'-41

6'-9225

S'-C6

12' -6225

15' -81

19' -2225

22' -86

26'-7225

30- -8 1

•256 RIFLE, 156 GR. BULLET, MUZZLE VELOCITY 2,350 P.S.

Elevation
given for

0

50

100

150

200

250

3U0

350

400

450 500

Height of
bullet at
50

ft. in.
•8

ft. in.

ft. in.
•9

ft. in.
1-9

ft. in.
3-0

ft. in.
4-2

ft. in.
5-5

ft. in.
6-9

ft. in.
8-4

ft. in.
10-1

ft. in.
11-8

100

3-5

1-8

—

2-0

4-2

6-6

9-2

1 0

1 3-1

1 6-3

1 9-8

150

8-2

5-7

3-0

—

3-3

6-9

10-8

1 3-1

1 7-6

2 0-5

2 5-7

200

1 3 3

11-9

8-4

4-4

—

4-8

10-1

1 3-7

1 9-8

2 4-3

2 11-2

250

2 11

1 8-9

1 4-5

11-5

6-0

—

6-5

1 1-6

1 9'2

2 5-3

3 2-0

300

3 2-0

2 9-0

2 3-6

1 9-7

1 31

7-9

—

8-5

1 5-6

2 3-3

3 1-7

350

4 6-2

4 0-4

3 61

2 11-2

2 3-5

1 7-1

9-9

—

10-6

1 10-0

2 10-1

400

6 2-1

5 7-4

5 03

4 4-3

3 7-6

2 9-9

1 11-5

1 0-1

—

1 1-0

2 2-8

450

8 2-0

7 6-5

6 10-5

6 1-5

5 3-6

4 4-8

3 50

2 4-3

1 2-6

—

1 3-5

500

10 6-2

9 98

9 0-9

8 2-9

7 3-9

6 3-9

5 2-8

4 0-7

2 95

1 5-3

—

Angle used

l'-6

3' -3

5 -2

7' -3

9'-6

12'-1

U'-8

17'-7

20' -8

24' 1

Feb. 1898.

T. P. FREMANaXE.

THE ELCHO SHIELD 301

Club ; ^ he was third in 1892, and on other occasions
fourth, fifth and (twice) sixth, but was never fortunate
enough to win the Cup, which, given for the top score
in two days' shooting at 900, 1,000 and 1,100 yards, is a
specially coveted trophy. That meeting, which has a
social side quite different to that of other competitions,
gave a special opportunity for his personality to be known
and appreciated among his fellow-marksmen. In the
long-range competitions at Bisley he competed constantly
with varying success during the same years, with the
exception of 1897, his name appearing in the prize lists
some forty times. He attained the summit of his am-
bition in being included in the team for the Elcho Shield.
This occurred on two occasions. In 1900, when he shot
for the first time, he made top score for England, with
198 points out of a possible 225. It was a year of low
scoring, and Ireland won the Shield with 1,537 points,
England making 1,518 points and Scotland being third
with 1,505. After an unlucky start at 800 yards, he
made the top score in his team at both 900 and 1,000
yards. In 1905 he was again in the English team, and
made 199 points, 5th score in the team. The Scotch
made 1,607 points and the English 1,602 ; Ireland was
last of the three teams. That the special satisfaction of
winning some of the most important of the individual
prizes shot for at Bisley was denied him is hard to ex-
plain, for he was on occasion capable of making brilliant
series of bull's-eyes. It was no doubt in a great degree
due to mere ill fortune. But a contributory factor may
have been his very keenness, which in spite of itself ill
brooked the long-drawn-out monotony of effort entailed
in so many of the competitions. It was more than once
a source of regret to his friends that he failed to pull off
some important event after a brilliant endeavour. But

1 Two or three years before the war, Sir E. Loder, hearing that the
undergraduates of Cambridge University were in a difficulty about provid-
ing themselves with match rifles for use in the Inter-University Long-range
Match for the Humphry Cup and for other long-range shooting, very
generously presented a full set of four match rifles to their Club.

302

LODER AS A MARKSMAN

[CH, XIII

there is, in fact, no ground for criticising such a really fine
record of long-range shooting, only just failing to attain
the very highest successes, by one whose cheery presence
and hearty laugh, whose acute interest in all that per-
tains to the sport of shooting, and whose many-sided
knowledge on other topics were an element much valued,
and after 1911 greatly missed, by his fellow-competitors.

FOOTNOTE BY A. E. P.
Peizes won in Rifle Competitions by Sir Edmund Loder at
Wimbledon and Bisley — including those Won in Team Shooting.
1885.

1886.

1887.

1888.

1889.

1890.

1891.

1892.

1893.

Henry

1894.

Martin Smith (10)

Martin Smith (1)

Holland & Holland

(a rine)

Arthur

Colt

Martin Smith (2)
Secretary of State

Hillhouse

Duke of Cambridge

Martin Smith (3)

1895.

Martin Smith (11)

Secretary of State

Albert

Association

Colt

Ladies' Prize

Hillhouse

St. Leger

Daniel Fraser

Perriet et Fils

Lady Loder's Cup

Brownlow

Martin Smith (4)

Perriet et Fils

Holland & Holland (a rifle)

A. K. Evering

Extra Prize

Martin Smith (5)
Perriet et Fils

1896.
1897.

Martin Smith

Albert

Jeffrey

Bass

Dogle

Aggregate

? Absent

Henry

Martin Smith (6)
Secretary of State
Extra Prize

1898.
1899.

Martin Smith

Brownlow

Elkington

Martin Smith

M. B. L. Evering

1900.

Elcho Shield

Martin Smith (7)

Bass

St. Leger

Eandco

Colt (a rifle)

1901.

Martin Smith (8)
Colt (a rifle)

Martin Smith (9)
Ladies' Prize

1902.

1903.
1904.

Eandco
Eandco

Holland & HoUand

1905.

Elcho Shield

Colt
Hillhouse

Eandco
Bass

CHAPTER XIV
By J. G. MiLLAis

RHODODENDRONS AT LEONARDSLEE

At least twenty-five years ago, Sir E. Loder, following
the lead of J. H. Mangles, perceived that if rhododendrons
were to be improved as garden plants some new strain
must be introduced to create hybrids that would in future
become good flowering shrubs. This theory he put into
practice by acquiring a fine collection of the Himalayan
species and a few of the best Chinese then known and
crossing them together, as well as using them as pollen-
parents on the best of the Caucasicum arboreum catawbiense
hybrids already in existence.

It has already been proved that the intercrossing of
hybrids usually results in failure, so he was careful to
avoid this error, and what mattered most in eventual
success was that he spared no pains to obtain exceptional
examples of the various species from which to breed.
For instance, in the case of R. Loderi, without doubt the
finest hybrid rhododendron ever raised and one that as
a hardy shrub is never likely to be surpassed, he used a
remarkable R. Fortunei as well as an exceptional R. Grif-
fithiannm. To prove the success of his experiment it may
be mentioned that at least five other workers have pro-
duced the same hybrid, commonly known as R. kewense,
but with indifferent results.

It takes many years before a man's work can be seen or
judged, because the majority of hybrids, especially those
from Himalayan parents, do not flower until they have
reached from 6 to 15 years of age. In fact some of the
Loderis already over 20 years of age have not flowered

303

30i RHODODENDRONS [ch. xiv

yet. Nevertheless at least fifteen or twenty of Sir E.
Loder's hybrids have flowered out of some 200 yet to
bloom, and the majority of these are exceptional rhodo-
dendrons, which are great additions to our gardens. It
must be stated, however, that most of the Leonardslee
hybrids are early flowering and not suitable to all gardens,
and that they require some cultivation and careful plac-
ing in semi-shady and sheltered situations. It remains
now for other hybridisers to create a race of late-flowering
hybrids, mid-June to August ; these we shall await with
interest, as it will give us a series of fine shrubs extending
over a long period.

Mr. J. C. Williams, Mr. Magor in Cornwall and Mr.
L. de Rothschild have already done some good work in
this respect, using the finest forms of R. auriculatum,
R. Fortunei (Hupeh form), R. decorum, R. maocimym,
R, discolor, R. Ungerni and some of the old Am.erican-
Indian hybrids. The four species with which Sir E.
Loder achieved most success, using them both as seed
or pollen parents, were R. Griffithianum and R. arboreicm,
blood-red (Kermisimum variety), R. Thomsoni and R. For-
tunei. With R. caucasicum, a lovely and very hardy
species, he worked but little except through species on
hybrids, and omitted the already overworked American
species except in the case of the very best hybrids, and
even these he used but sparingly.

The Leonardslee hybrids which have now flowered
will be cliiefly successful in gardens of medium tempera-
ture and good shelter. In most cases they flourish
best when planted in a mixture of peat and sand with
a plentiful mixture of good, rich, friable loam. In
later years Sir E. Loder was much prejudiced against
the use of leaf-mould, a point on which, I think, most
gardeners would not agree. When used in the house
leaf-mould is apt to go mouldy, owing to improper drain-
age, but used with discretion in the open garden I have
only seen beneficial results. After all rhododendrons
when they grow large and shelter their own roots are

R. LODERI 805

always creating their own food, which is leaf-mould or
peat formed by natural vegetable decomposition. The
following are some of the best Leonardslee hybrids which
have already flowered. I have tried to keep them some-
what in their order of merit.

R. Loderi. — This magnificent hybrid, in the estimation
of the best judges the finest hybrid rhododendron ever
raised, was bred from an exceptionally fine sweet-scented
R. Fortunei and a very large flowered R. Griffithianum
that existed in Mr. Fred. Godman's green-house at South
Lodge. The cross was made in 1901, and the first seed-
lings flowered in 1907 and afterwards in succession until
1921. Twice R. Griffithianum was the male parent and
once R. Fortunei, but it was when R. Fortunei was the
seed-bearer that the greatest success was achieved, quite
80 per cent, being the large-flowered true R. Loderi.
In the case where R. Fortunei was the male parent only
12 per cent, of the seedlings were good.

R. Loderi at 20 years old has formed a large, well-
habited round shrub up to 14 ft. high, and there seems no
reason why in time it should not reach 30 ft. in height.
The leaves are about 8 in. long, 4 in. wide, the new growth
forming beautiful crimson bracts. It usually makes its
growth a little later than R. kewense, a plant of similar
parentage, and so escapes the destructive spring frosts.

The flowers are of extraordinary size, substance and
beauty, usually over 6 in. across (two in 1920 had flowers
over 7 in.), sometimes rich pink, but more often pink
turning to waxy white. Many examples from R. Grif-
fithianum and others have pure waxy-white flowers, of
which the varieties "White Diamond" and "Sir Joseph
Hooker " are the best. Out of the whole batch of seed-
lings two only have exhibited lovely cream flowers. The
whole truss of from 7 to 10 flowers measures as much as
31 in. round.

Not only have we size, substance, scent and colour in
this wonderful hybrid, but, what is rare in such a cate-
gory of superlatives, we have charm and refinement.

306 RHODODENDRONS [cm xiv

Many large flowers are apt to be coarse, but this is not
the case with R. Loderi, which in my garden stands out
in quahty high above all its compeers. Sir Edmund
named many of the best varieties, and all of the following
present slight individual characteristics of colour and
form : " White Diamond," " Pink Diamond," " Sir
Joseph Hooker," " Gamechick," " Patience," " King
George," •' Queen Mary," " Pink Coral." One I have
recently named as " Maximus," as it had not previously
flowered and exhibited flowers over 7 in. across. Besides
these exceptional plants there are still in the garden at
Leonardslee many which are equally good and deserve
a name. The variety most generally admired is " King
George," and I have seen one truss with no fewer than
12 flowers.

R. Gauntletti and R. Loderi. — Spurred by the success of
R. Loderi, Sir Edmund made many crosses from it, but
so far none have flowered except this cross. Up to date
(1922) only three examples have flowered, but these have
proved to be something exceptional. The habit and leaves
as well as the flowers take after both parents but with a
strong tendency to R. Loderi and all its waxiness and
refinement combined with greater hardihood. The flowers
and leaf growth come later in the season, all great
assets for gardens of colder temperature. The flowers
unfold pink, but turn white after a week's development.
About May 25th this hybrid with perhaps the best
forms of R. decorum and R. Griffithianum are the
finest white rhododendrons to be seen, and in time we
shall see them in front of even the superb R. Loderi
white.

Sir Edmund made a number of crosses between R.
Loderi and other species and hybrids, but they are all
small up to date and unlikely to flower for many years.
Of these the raiser thought highly of R. Loderi and
R. arboreum (blood red) and R. Loderi (" Pink Coral ")
and R. arboreum (blood red). The latter has all the
characters of both parents and possesses fine leaves. If

R. DECORUM AND R. GRIFFITHIANUM 307

it proves to be a red Loderi, as there is every reason to
hope, it may be a wonderful plant.

R. decorum and R. Griffithianum . — A very large number
of crosses were made at Leonardslee with R. Griffithianum,
both as pollen and seed plant. A few have flowered, but
none are so good as the above-mentioned cross. At one
time it was considered that R. decorum gave no good
hybrids, but Sir Edmund has proved that his judgment was
too hasty, for crossing this species (sparingly) he has made
some fine hybrids worthy of a place in the most select com-
pany. Some twenty plants of the above-named white have
now flowered and prove to be a high-class waxy-white
(almost cream) rhododendron. The flowers possess a very
thick corolla of large size which remains in beauty for a long
period. There is httle scent and the leaf habit is not very
good, but as a flowering shrub it will take high rank in the
future.

R. "May Queen" {R. decorum and R. Standishi). — A
hybrid with very large flowers, habit poor and without
much vigour. The flowers, however, are very large and
beautiful ; the style and anthers are a lovely rich pink.
Only one plant exists of this hybrid.

R. Fortunei and R. Tliomsoni. — This may be described as
a glorified R. Luscombei or R. Luscombeanum. In every
way, colour, size of leaves and flowers, and habit, it is far
superior to the old plant and R. Luscombeanum splendens.
The large, rich, satin-rose flowers develop in April and make
a charming colour scheme with the other R. Thomsoni hy-
brids and early examples of R. Loderi, R. caucasicum hybrids
and magnolias. Many good judges consider this to be Sir
Edmund's second best plant, and its beauty and vigour far
surpass the hybrid made by Mr. Luscombe. The reverse
cross R. Thomsoni and R. Fortunei was also created, but as
yet it has not flowered nor does it appear to be so virile a
hybrid.

R. Thomsoni and R. Otto Forster. — One of the mysteries
of hybridisation is the variation of seedlings. In this case
quite 50 per cent, are useless plants with pale, early pink

808 RHODODENDRONS [ch. xiv

flowers without character or beauty ; 30 per cent, more
have nice, waxy, pink flowers, 18 per cent, good rose-pink
and perhaps 3 per cent, magnificent deep crimson flowers
of great substance and beauty.

Although about 18 years old no good examples appeared
until the spring of 1921, when three examples flowered,
showing splendid crimson red trusses. With the sun shin-
ing through them on a spring evening the effect of this
fine-flowered plant is glorious, far surpassing any of theother
red hybrids in bloom in April. Its habit and thick glossy
leaves are also very attractive. In time this red variety
should be in every good garden. R. Otto Forster {R. arhor-
eum album and R. Griffiihiannm), one of the parents, is a
difficult plant to grow, being fickle and requiring frequent
moisture. In the case of this hybrid it is one of the easiest
to cultivate, and remained in the best of health without
being given water during the great drought of 1921.

R. Thomsoni and R. decorum. — A very charming rhodo-
dendron with rich rose-pink flowers very similar to R.
Fortunei and R. Thomsoni, but not quite as good. Habit
and leaves rather poor. First flowered in 1920.

R. Thomsoni andR. Ascot brilliant. — ^^A neat, well-habited
plant of even, upright growth with fine trusses of red
flowers midway between both parents. Some examples
have flowers almost black-crimson. Stands drought far
better than either parent and makes a noble show about
April 15th. The best varieties, such as " Torch," '' The
Flame " and " Firefly," are almost as brilliant as R.
Thomsoni with a better habit. A plant with a future.

R. barbatum and R. Thomsoni. — A similar cross to that of
R. Shilsoni, but without the poor constitution of that plant.
In this case the plant is perfectly hardy. The flower
trusses of those that have bloomed are not so large as
R. Shilsoni, but the colour is as good. These hybrids are
exceptionally vigorous and good-natured in almost any soil,
and should be planted where the beautiful but fitful R.
Shilsoni does not succeed. Like the parents, however, it
requires a fair amount of shelter from hot sun.

VARIOUS CROSSINGS 309

R. Luscombe's Scarlet and R. Thomsoni. — Flowers a
good glowing scarlet, and habit upright and tree-like like
the seed parent.

R. Mangles' Scarlet and R. Thomsoni. — Flowers similar
to the preceding, but habit more like R. Thomsoni.

R. Gauntletti and R. Griffithianum. — A good pinkish
white with more substance than R. Gauntletti, a fast
grower, very floriferous and hardy.

R. Combe Royal and R. Griffithianum. — A tall rather
leggy grower with large drooping leaves. Flowers in
large trusses midway between both parents.

R. arhoreum album and R. Griffithianum. — The majority
of these seedlings are not so good as the same hybrid
raised by J. C. Williams, but so far two examples have
exhibited their character in flowers which are large, waxy
and pure v/hite,

R. Griffithianum and R. campylocarpum. — This hybrid is
similar in appearance to those raised by Smith of Pen-
jerrick and Mr. J. C. Williams. Up to date only three
have flowered, and these showed trusses of pink externally
and cream in the interior of the corolla. In Cornwall,
Smith's hybrid is greatly admired by many good judges.
The Leonardslee plants may be considered as very similar.
They resist drought well and are fairly hardy. I have
known them to make two growths in one season.

R. Campbelli and R. Otto Forster. — A fine pink for April
with robust and glossy dark-green leaves. It is a plant
that does not flower until some 10 or 12 years of age, but
will when mature make an attractive specimen. The
influence of R. campanulatum coming through the mother
is predominant.

R. Campbelli and R. Windsori. — Here the influence of
the male parent {R. arboreum strain) is evident, but the
flowers are good pink and campanulate like the seed
parent. It does not flower until of considerable age.

R. Methven's hybrid and R. barbatum. — In this case
the influence of R. barbatum is very strong, whilst the
R. Thomsoni strain combined with R. catawbiense flori-

810 RHODODENDRONS [ch. xiv

ferousness make the plant a regular bloomer in April.
It is very hardy, with small rich red trusses, and stands
drought and poor soil better than its parents.

R. arhoreum album and R. campy lo carp um.— This is a
very interesting hybrid partaking equally of the parental
characters. In 12 years it has reached 12 ft. in height,
being cone-shaped like R. arboreum and with the rounded
leaves of R. campylocarpum. About 15 examples have
flowered, of which the majority take after the tree rhodo-
dendron in the shape of the truss, but with a nice cream
tinge of colour. Two have been a pure cream, and one
magnificent example came in April 1921 with splendid
cream-yellow flowers. This fine example remains at
Leonardslee, and it is to be hoped that other examples
which are still to flower may prove as good. In its best
form a remarkable rhododendron, and one that in the
future will be coveted by experts.

R. Campbelli and R. barbatum. — A robust grower with
leaves shorter and more rounded than R. barbatum. A
plant of high class.

Sir Edmund Loder's brother Gerald presented a very
beautiful silver-gilt Challenge Cup ^ to the Royal Horti-
cultural Society in 1921, in memory of Sir Edmund Loder,
for the encouragement of the cultivation of rhododendrons
(including azaleas). The award is to be made annually by
a Committee of seven, four appointed by the R.H.S. and
three by the Rhododendron Society.

The first award of the Cup (for the year 1921) was to
Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour, K.B.E., F.R.S., Regius Professor
at Edinburgh.* In 1922 the award went to Mr. J. C.
Wilhams.

^ From an ancient Irish design.
* Sir Isaac died in November 1922.

CHAPTER XV

THE MUSEUM AT LEONARDSLEE

I AM able in this chapter to present to my readers a de-
scription of Sir Edmund Loder's Musemn, which contains
the results of his constant collecting during some fifty
years. The description is by a personal friend of Sir
Edmund's, Mr. W. P. Pycraft of the British Museum of
Natural History, and was written for this memoir.

The following pages may not appeal to all readers, but
they will to those who had the same kind of interest in
natural history that Loder had, and it seemed impossible
to complete any memoir of Sir Edmund without devoting
some attention to one of the great achievements of his
life.

The Museum at Leonardslee is considered by so great
an authority as Mr. J. G. Millais to be in some of its
features the most wonderful private collection in the
United Kingdom. As regards that section of it which
is devoted to typical heads and horns of wild animals it is
probably the best collection ever put together by a single
man. To Mr. Pycraft' s description I have added, merely
to demonstrate the quality of the big-game trophies, a hst of
some 170 of the Leonardslee specimens found in Rowland
Ward's Records of Big Game (1914, 7th edition). I have
added a few particularly notable specimens not found in
Rowland Ward's book. Twenty-seven of those on my list
are " records." Rowland Ward's lists are very valuable,
far the best of their kind and most useful to sportsmen.
No doubt there are specimens in private hands, in private
and public museums as good and better than some of
the " records " in the book. In my own observation the
21 311

312 THE MUSEUM AT LEONARDSLEE [ch. xv

majority of sportsmen, more especially overseas and in
the Colonies and Protectorates, neither measure nor
weigh their trophies. I have seen wonderful heads in
Africa in the possession of white men who never gave
a thought to measurements and many who never heard
of a book of records. Again, in giving records of length
of horn, it is giving only one record of one particular
point of excellence — a head must be judged also by
form, beauty and strength. There are, as Mr. Millais
has somewhere pointed out, other attributes which cannot
he given in a book of records, e.g. in the case of deer, the
roughness, quality of pearling of a horn, length and up-
turn of brow-antlers, true symmetry, heavy and graceful
tops and crowns. Loder's " record " wapiti is not a
beautiful head nor is it his best wapiti head. Rowland
Ward's book is our standard work and can teach the
sportsman more than any other one as to what he can
achieve, or at least what he should aim at procuring. It
may be an incentive to some to reprehensible slaughter
in order to " get up " on the list, but it should satisfy
a collector to obtain a beautiful and fine specimen of any
species. Loder several times said to me, " Of course I
am pleased to get a record head, and to buy one if
I come across one, but the great thing is to have a fine
typical example."

Notes by Mr. Pycraft

The Museum was always a source of joy to Sir Edmund.
But though it was a sportsman's Museum before anything
else, yet its contents show that his interests were by no
means confined to " big-game " animals.

This much leaps to the eyes the moment one steps into
the spacious outer room. : for while the walls are bristling
with horns and antlers, and skulls and horns of rhinoceros
and the skulls and teeth of hippopotamus and other trophies
of the chase are distributed over the floor, it is patent that
this Museum was intended to subserve the dual interests

CONTENTS OF THE MUSEUM 313

of the sportsman and the man of science. Hence the
wall-cases filled with skulls and skeletons, many of them
disarticulated for convenience of study ; and hence the
remains of recent and fossil man ; some fine skeletons
and skulls of the great anthropoid apes, and a series of
skeletons and skulls of all the more important groups of
the mammaha, down to the primitive but highly specia-
hsed Ornithorhynchus. These, in themselves, bear witness
to the fact that the range of vision of the founder was
far-reaching. For Sir Edmund, indeed, collecting was
not an end in itself, but a means to an end. This was
to get together a goodly number of typical specimens to
serve as standards of comparison with extremes in point
of size and weight, as well as of variations of form, and
to supplement these by specimens throwing light on the
thorny problems of evolution.

The contents of this Museum can best be appreciated
if they are surveyed systematically. And this survey
should begin with the skulls to the left of the entrance,
representing those remarkable antelopes the hartebeests
and their allies. The ringed and lyrate horns of the
bontebok (118) and the now almost extinct blesbok (120),
the topi (118) and the sassaby (121), in the right-hand
corner, should be compared with the strangely twisted
weapons of the hartebeests to the left, wherein the horns
are set, as it were, upon a pillar of bone rising from the
top of the skull. This feature is specially well marked in
Jackson's hartebeest (111), Swayne's hartebeest (108)
and the West African hartebeest (106). Though none
of these are record heads, that of the korrigum, or Senegal
hartebeest (116), stands fourth on the hst of heads in
collections in this country.

The horns of the brindled and white-tailed gnus (122)
in their way are quite as remarkable as those of the harte-
beest. Unfortunately there are no examples in the
collection of the early stages of growth of the horns of
the white- tailed gnu (125), known also as the gnu, or

314 THE MUSEUM AT LEONARDSLEE [ch. xv

" wildebeest " ^ : for these are represented only by short,
vertical spikes. The horns of this specimen (125) should
be specially noted, since they are the longest yet recorded.

Over the doorway are examples of the chiru (185), one
of the most interesting animals of Tibet, as well as
among the most cherished trophies of the sportsman.
Other examples (85) will be seen in the centre of the wall
to the right of the doorway. These should be compared
with those of its near ally the saiga antelope (184), one
of the most remarkable of all the Central Asian antelopes
on account of the strange inflation of the nose, which
forms a kind of short trunk. The purpose of this peculiar
modification of the nasal chamber has so far proved an
insoluble problem, for it is found in many other animals
quite unrelated, and living in totally different environ-
ments. The horns of this animal, it will be noted, are
conspicuous for their white appearance. Ages ago, it
is worth noting — in Pleistocene times to be quite precise —
the saiga antelope was to be found as far west as England.

Below and to the left are specimens of Loder's gazelle
(199), a species rediscovered by Sir Edmund many years
ago, in 1894, as well as the record example of a distinct
race (199) inhabiting the sand-dunes of the Algerian and
Tunisian Sahara, and the deserts of N.W. Kordofan and
Egypt. Other examples of Loder's gazelle will be found
in the centre of the right-hand wall (199, A and B). Near
the doorway are some fine heads of sable and roan ante-
lope, oryx and addax (218-28) ; and these are succeeded
by bushbuck, waterbuck, lechwe and kob antelopes.
Among the last named, very appropriately, will be found
the record specimen of Loder's kob or puku, though
unfortunately the locality from which it was obtained is
unrecorded. Reed-buck, the beautiful Soemmerring's and
Grant's gazelles (206) occupying the centre of this wall,
the spring-buck, and the graceful palla (181) are also to
be noted, as well as heads of the curious little four-horned
antelope (140).

1 The Gnti or Black Wildebeest, v. p. 325 for measurements.

BIG -GAME TROPHIES 315

The massive eland and the rare bongo are well repre-
sented. The last-named, indeed, is worth careful study,
for it is seldom seen in collections, and this particular
specimen only just falls short of proving a record head.
In examining these horns comparison should be made with
the singularly beautiful spiral weapons of the koodoos
and their near relations the nyala and the situtunga
(238). As touching the eland, it is to be noted that not
only does the Museum boast some fine examples of the
Sudan and Senegal races of the giant eland — coveted of
the sportsman, though rarelj'' seen in museums or private
collections — but also of the record specimen of the even
more precious Congo race (Taurotragus derhianus congo-
laniciis). The animal from which this head was taken
was shot by Sir Henry Stanley, and presented to Sir
Edmund by his friend Mr. J. G. Millais.

This beautiful series of antelope horns ends with a
number of extremely good examples of chamois (249) and
prong- horn (104), the last-named being remarkable for
the fact that it is the only hollow-horned ruminant which
sheds its horns. Only the horny sheath, however, is cast
off, unlike the deer, wherein the whole antler is shed.

Among big-game trophies markhor and ibex, and the
big-horn sheep and their allies, and that remarkable
animal the Rocky Mountain goat have always held a
high place among sportsmen. And of these animals Sir
Edmund brought together a fine series which will be
found on the right-hand wall and the wall adjacent. The
remarkable differences in size and form which the horns
of these animals present is illustrated in a very striking
manner in this collection. While the impression of these
heads is still fresh in the mind three most remarkable
heads of the domesticated goat, hanging immediately
over the doorway of the inner room, should be inspected.
The finest of these (286), from Daghestan, is the largest
known of its kind. It seems incredible that so small an
animal could support so huge a burden. The other two
specimens, one from Angora, the other from Daghestan,

316 THE MUSEUM AT LEONARDSLEE [ch. xv

are also considerably larger than any other specimens in
this country.

Though wild oxen are not so well represented here as
are other hollow-horned ruminants, yet some striking
examples will be found over the door of the African
buffalo, the Indian anoa, the gaur, the yak and the Euro-
pean and American bison.

The deer differ in one striking particular from the
" Cavicorn " ruminants and this concerns their horns or
" antlers," These are always branched, in some species
excessively so. Furthermore these weapons are shed and
renewed every year, a fact which seems almost incredible
when one contemplates the huge size which they attain
in some species. In the deer, again, the horns are to be
regarded as answering to the " horn-core " of the hollow-
horned ruminants, for they have no outer sheath as in
those animals, save when they are "in velvet" — the
term used to describe the antlers during growth, when
they are invested by a short, hairy covering, recalling
" velvet pile," which protects a close network of blood-
vessels, whose function it is to build up the horn. When
this is complete the velvet peels off, giving the animal, for
a time, a very dishevelled appearance. The only example
of such horns " in velvet " among the fine series in this
collection is that of a Scotch red deer (65), and this is a
malformed specimen.

To appreciate the great range in the fashion of the
branching of the antlers which obtains among the different
species of this group, comparison should be made between
the heads of the familiar red deer (15) and their variants
in the heads of the Eastern red deer (29) and wapiti
(36). i\.nd these should be compared, on the one hand,
with the barasingha (64), Schomburgk's deer (65), Eld's
deer (66), sambar (49), Pere-David's deer or milou (76),
the American white-tailed deer (79) and the mule and
marsh deer (82-84) ; and on the other with the fallow
deer (75), Irish deer or "Irish elk" (1,000), the caribou
(2 A) and the moose (12). Such a broad general survey

IRISH ELK 317

cannot fail to impress one. For these different types
are all variants of a single theme. But more than this,
each one of these types varies, within Umits, in every
individual of every species. This is perhaps nowhere
more strikingly apparent than among the caribou and
the moose. These facts more than justify what may
seem, to some, the unnecessary duphcation of the heads
on this wall. But this criticism would not be justified,
for each particular head has earned its place there.

To some, " record " heads, or heads in the neighbour-
hood of records, are alone interesting. This standard of
" fitness " is a mistaken one, as a glance at this imposing
array will show : for many which are lacking in inches,
or in fractions of an inch, often present characters of far
greater importance than can be found in mere measure-
ments. The heads of the sambar afford an interesting
illustration of this view.

In the centre of this room is a magnificent mounted
skeleton (the most complete in existence) of the Irish
deer or " Irish elk," or as Mr. J. G. Millais calls it,
a gigantic fallow deer, which well shows the enlargement
of the neck vertebrse necessary to enable its astonishing
load to be carried. Yet, even with such adjustment, it
is possible that the extinction of this wonderful animal
was brought about by the excessive weight and enormous
span of the antlers, which must seriously have hampered
flight from wolves during winter or perhaps man with
his trained wolves. A still finer pair of antlers, by the
way, hangs in one of the rooms of the house.

The various forms of wild swine, regarded as trophies,
are chiefly esteemed for their tusks, which present striking
diversity of form. This becomes immediately apparent
when the skulls of such species as the hippopotamus,
wart-hog, and babirusa are compared. The strangely
curled upper tusks of the last-named species are even
more remarkable than is apparent on an inspection of the
skull, for they leave the mouth not, as in all other mem-
bers of the tribe, by passing out beneath the upper lip,

318 THE MUSEUM AT LEONARDSLEE [ch. xv

but by piercing the skin on either side of the base of the
snout. The molars of the wart-hog, it is by no means
generally known, disclose a very singular mode of reduc-
tion with advancing age. In the " milk " dentition there
are seven pairs of " grinders." In the succeeding per-
manent set the first two pairs of pre-molars are wanting,
and as age advances ail the grinders save the last pair
are gradually shed, and these survivors are of enormous
size. The skull on the left-hand wall (347) should be
examined in this light.

Though the rhinoceroses are in no way related to the
swine, it will be convenient to discuss them here. Both
the huge Indian and the African black and white
rhinoceroses are represented by some fine skulls and
horns ; and the Museum also contains a very perfect
example of the now almost extinct Sumatran rhinoceros.

That the largest of all the big-game animals, the
elephant, finds a place here goes without saying. One of
the most conspicuous objects in the large room is the
mounted head of the African elephant, while in the inner
room are two enormous tusks of this animal, weighing
respectively 184 ft». and 150 ft). The longest tusk measured
9-5 ft. A bisected skull of the Indian elephant in one of
the glass cases shows the enormous development of bony
air-chambers above the brain-case. This bony mesh-
work affords a light but excessively strong support for
the greatly expanded outer surface, or roof, of the skull,
which has been immensely enlarged, to provide attach-
ment for the powerful muscles necessary to support the
burden of the great masses of ivory forming the tusks.

The Wall- cases

Though mention has already been made of the glazed
cases which run round the wall of this room, it would be
well now to examine their contents a little more carefully,
though without attempting a minute analysis.

On the top shelf of Case No. 1, on the right-hand side

THE WALL-CASES 319

of the room, will be found some human skulls of living
races, and casts of the roof of the skulls of the famous
Pithecanthropus and Neanderthal man. About the in-
terest of these fossils there can be no dispute. The
former represents the earliest known and extremely ape-
like man, found, with other portions of the skeleton, in
a river-bed in Java some thirty years ago. The latter is
one of the earliest types of the genus Homo : a very
primitive man, whose blood, according to some authorities,
courses through at least some living races of mankind.
The first discovered skull came to light in a cavern in
the Neanderthal, near Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1857.
His race it was who fashioned the rude flint implements
found in the cavern of Le Moustier, Dordogne, France,
and hence Neanderthal Man is commonly referred to as
'' Moustierian man." With these remains are placed
skulls of the gorilla, chimpanzee and orang, while in the
case on the opposite side of the room will be found com-
plete skeletons of these creatures, which, from their
many points of resemblance to the human race, have
given rise to such bitter controversy. The relative
lengths of the arms of these three skeletons should be
specially noted, as also should the structure of the feet
and hands, when it will be noticed that in the orang
they are much more adapted for climbing than in the
other two species, which can progress much more easily
upon the ground.

Case C contains skeletons of flightless birds, representing
the ostrich tribe, wherein the wings show successive and
progressive degrees of degeneration ; and the penguin,
wherein the wing has become transformed into a
swimming organ, or " paddle " comparable to that
of the whales and turtles, on the one hand, and the
extinct sea-dragons such as the ichthyosaurus and the
plesiosaurus.

A fine collection of bears' skulls occupies Case D, in-
cluding a huge skull of the great cave-bear {Ursus spelceus).
It is apparently the largest in any collection in this

320 THE MUSEUM AT LEONARDSLEE [ch. xv

country. Here also are skulls of the camel, various horses,
the quaint manatee, the dugong and the tapir.

Case A contains a skeleton of the Rocky Mountain
goat, and skulls of giraffe and elephants, in section to
show the great air-sinuses of the roof of the skull, already
alluded to ; and the skull of a walrus which constitutes
a record in regard to the length of the tusks, which
measure over a yard.

Mounted Specimens

Nearly all the mounted specimens are to be found
within the annexe to the large room, where by means of
blinds they may be shielded from the light. But for this
precaution all would soon fade to a uniform drab. An
exception is made in the case of the Rocky Mountain goat,
which being white is in no need of special protection.
Two of these animals in a glass case form a conspicuous
ornament to the outer room, and in examining them
special note should be made of the bare patch at the base
of the horns, for these are scent-distributing glands.

But to return to the inner room. This contains a col-
lection of mounted specimens such as must set the pulses
of the sportsman beating the moment he enters ! For
here are heads of rhino, buffalo, bison and antelopes of
many species. There are also some magnificent heads of
wapiti. Eastern red deer and moose. The great variation
in the palmation of the moose horns is well shown here.

The floor is chiefly occupied by specimens of the larger
big-game animals shot by Sir Edmund, with the excep-
tion of a few West African and some South African such
as the zebra, wild ass, kudu, topi, blesbok, the graceful
palla antelope, and the singular, long-necked Waller's
gazelle, the Barbary sheep, and wild boar. Here too are
the wonderful elephant tusks already mentioned, and
above the door the no less wonderful heads of the goats
of Daghestan.

This room, like the larger outer room, contains food for
reflection on many themes. Foremost among them,

PROBLEMS OF EVOLUTION 321

perhaps, that of evolution ; and the factors which moulded,
like a potter's wheel, the diverse shapes, weapons and
coloration of the creatures here brought together. These
were problems which always fascinated Sir Edmund, and
they were largely responsible for the existence of this
Museum.

In this room are a moose from Alaska with 70 in. span
and very fine palms, a Siberian roe with a head very
near perfection, though not a record as to points or
inches, and a West African hartebeest which holds the
record with 37| in.

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326

THE MUSEUM AT LEONARDSLEE [ch. xv

Horn.

Length on
front.

Locality;

Blue Duiker (Cephalophus monticola) .

in.
2

Pondoland.

Yellow- backed Duiker ( C. sylvicuUor) .

5i

Gabim.

Harvey's Duiker (C. harveyi) *

4*

Kikujai Forest.

Baira {Dorcotragus melanotis)

4

Somaliland.

Salts Dik-Dik (Modaqua saltiana)

3

Abyssinia.

Swayne's Dik-Dik (M. swaynei)

3

Somaliland.

Livingstone's Suni (Neotragus living-

stonianus) .....

3f

Zambesia.

Steinbok (Rhaphiceros campestris)

5i

S. Africa.

Waterbuck (Cobus ellipsiprymnus)

31i

S. Africa. .

Deiassa (C. defassa).

—

Lech we (C. leche) ....

30f

N.W. Rhodesia.

The Kob (C. cob) ....

20

T<ake Chad.

Uganda Kob (C. cob thomasi) * .

24i

circ. 1^.

Loder's Puku (C. cob. loderi)

21

Rooi Rhebok (Redunca fulvorufula

chanleri) .....

6f

—

Bohor Reed Buck {R. redunca bohor) .

10

Abyssinia.

Dibatag (Ammodorcas clarkci) .

lOf

Somaliland.

Impala (j^pyceros melampus typicus)

28|

E. Africa.

Impala ( JE'. melampus peter si) .

231

Angola.

Saiga (Saiga tatarica)

131

Volga Steppe.

Chiru (Pantholops hodgsoni)

25

Chang-chenmo.

Black Buck (Aniilope cervicapra)

26*

India.

Tibetan Gazelle (Oazella picticaudata) *

m

Ladak.

Mongolian Gazelle {G. gutturosa) *

13f

Altai.

Saikik Gazelle (0. yarkandensis) *

17

E. Turkestan,

Chinkara (G. bennetti)

13i & 7|

India.

Admi Gazelle (G. cuvieri) *

141

Algeria.

Dorcas Gazelle (G. dorcas) *

13J

Speke's Gazelle [G. spehei)

lOf

Somaliland.

Pelzeln's Gazelle (G. pelzelni)

14

Somaliland.

Rime Gazelle [G. loderi)

15|

Tvmisian Sahara.

Rime Gazelle [G. loderi) .

14J

Algerian Sahara.

Rime Gazelle [G. loderi) .

13i

Tunisian Sahara.

Grant's Gazelle (Tana race), G. granti

petersi, B.E.A. .

22i

Voi.

Soemmerring' s Gazelle ( G.soemmerringi)

19|

Somaliland.

Springbuck (Antidorcas euchore)

15i

S. Africa.

Gerenxik (Lithocranius walleri) .

16

Somaliland.

Sable Antelope (Hippotragus niger) .

66

Angola.

Sable Antelope (H. niger)

45f

B. Cent. Africa.

Roan Antelope (H. equinus)

31i

S.A.

Gemsbuck (Oryx gazella) .

45f

S.A.

Beisa OrjTC (0. beisa)

35|

Somaliland.

Beisa Orjrx (0. beisa callotis)

29

E. Africa.

Arabian Oryx (0. leucoryx) *

231

Arabia.

Addax ( .4 ddax nasomaculatus) *

30*

Sahara.

Four-homed Antelope (Tetraceros

quadricornis) ....

4| f. 2i h.

India.

* A " Record head."

ROWLAND WARD'S RECORDS OF BIG GAME 327

Nilgai {Boselaphus iragocamdus) *

Bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus)

Biishbuck (T. s. decula)

Sititunga (T. spekei selousi)

Sititunga (T. s. gratics)

Greater Kudu {Strepsiceros capensis)

Greater Kudu (S. c. chora)

Lesser Kudu (S. imberbis)

Bongo (Booceros euryceros isaaci)

Lord Derby's Eland [Taurotragus der
bianus) ....

Sudan Giant Eland [T. d. gigas)

Congo Eland (T. d. congolanicus)*

Chamois (Rupicapra tragus)

Goral {Nemorhcedus goral griseus)

Japanese Serow (Capricornis crispus)

Serow (C. sumatrensis)

Takin [Budorcas taxicolor)

Rocky Mountain Goat {Oreamnus
americanus) ....

Musk Ox (Ovibos moschatus)
Nilgiri Ibex {Hemitragus hylocrius)

Pir Panjal Markhor (Capra falconeri)'\

Astor Marklior (C falconeri)

Cabul Markhor (C. falconeri)

Steinbok (C. ibex) *

Nubian Ibex (C. nubiana)

Arabian Ibex (C n. mengesi)

Pasang (C hircus cegragus)

Sind Pasang {C. h. blythi)

Daghestan Goat

Spanish Ibex (C. pyrenaica)

N. Western Tur (C. severtzoun din

niki) .....
Pallas's Tut {C. caucasica cylindri

comis) ....

Arui (Amotragus lervia)
Bighorn {Ovis canadensis typica)
Kamchatkan Bighorn (O. c. nivicola)
Tibetan Argali (0. ammon hodgsoni)
Alatau Argali {0. a. karelini)
Bokharan Argali (O. a. nigrimontana)
Marco Polo's Argali {0. a. poli) .
M. Polo Argali (0. a poli) (2nd)
Urial (0. vignei)

Afghan Urial {0. v. cycloceros) .
Cyprian Mouflon (O. orientalis typica
Mouilon (0. jnusimon)
African Bui5alo (Bos cajfer)

Width of palm
Indian Buffalo (B. bubalis)

Horn.

Length on

front.

in.

18f

11

30i

32|

57i

561

32i

32i
36J
39i
lOf

n

7

9*
21i

91
24
15^
51f
50
33
34i-
38|
4U
43'
46|
52i
27f

33|
28|
40J&39i
32|
50^
49*
33'
69i
62*
33|
34*
23^
28*
50
11
60

Locality.

India.

Locality vmrecorded.

Abyssinia.

Barotsiland.

Gabun.

S. Africa.

Somaliland.

Somaliland.

Man Forest, B.E.A.

Locality unrecorded.

Bahr el Ghazal.

Stanley Falls.

Tyrol.

Chaniba.

Japan.

Lo ality unrecorded.

Abor country.

Cassiar.

Arctic America,
Nilgherries.
Pir Panjal.
Astor.

Afghanistan.
Styria.

Upper Egyp*.
Arabia.
Taurus range.
Sind.

Daghestan.
Central Spain.

N.W. Caucasus.

E. Caucasus.

Algeria.

America.

Kamchatka.

Pangong Lake.

Alatau Mts.

Bokhara.

Tagdumbash.

Tagdiunbash.

Ladak.

Waziristan.

Cyprus.

Sardinia.

Bechuanaland.

Locality unrecorded.

* A " Record head."

f The Astor Markhor is C. f. typica.

22

The Pir Panjal
The Cabul

C. f. cashmiriensis,
C. f. megaceros.

328

THE MUSEUM AT LEONARDSLEE [ch. xv

The Anoa {B. depressicornis)
European Bison (B. bonasus)
American Bison {B. bison)

Yak {B. grunniens) ....
Indian " Bison " (B. gaurus)
Bantin (B. sondaicus)
Hippo Tusks : Canine

Inrisor .....

Algerian Wild Boar {Sus scroja), tusk

outside curve ....
Wart-hog (Phacochcerus oethiopicus),

length exposed ....
Rhino (Rhinoceros bicornis) Front

Rear
White Rhino (i?. simus) .

Horn.

Length on

Locality.

front.

in.

10

Celebes.

16f

Lithuania.

16i

Colorado.

16i

Colorado.

32i-

Tibet.

38

Locality unrecorded.

26|

Java.

31f

20f

j- Locality unrecorded.

8f

Algeria.

15f

S. Africa.

37

Uganda.

m

40|

S. Africa.

40i

S. Africa.

* Approaching record or an exceptionally fine specimen.

African Elephant : Length of tusk, 9 ft. 5 in. ; greatest circumference,

22-1 in. ; weight, 184 lb.
Siberian Elephant (extinct) : 11 ft. outside ctirve ; 20| in. ; 173 lb.
Lion Skull: Length, 14 J in.; width, 9J in.; cleaned weight dry, 4 lb.;

South Africa.
Tiger Skull : Length, 14^ in. ; width, 9| in ; cleaned weight dry, 4 lb. 12oz. ;

Duars.
Leopard Skull : weighing 1 lb. 12 oz.

♦Walrus: (1) Tusk, 32 in. long and record circumference, lOj in. ; * (2) 36|
in. since 7th edition.

* Cave Bear of Europe : Basal length of skull from back to front, ISf in.
(Alaska record 20^).

Record Cave Bear: Width across zygomatic arches, 11| in. (record
of all bear skulls).

CHAPTER XVI

ROBIN LODER

*' He was an excellent and gallant officer, and we all
deeply deplore his death. In addition to the gallantry
he displayed in action, his work at all times was of a
first-class order, and he was untiring in carrying it out.
He was a general favourite, and will be greatly missed.
I feel I have lost a personal friend."

These words were not taken from a message to his parents
or family, when Captain Robin Loder died of his wounds,
but from the letter of one General to another — that is
why I have selected them from the number of expressions
of affection and admiration that are to be read in letters
of those whom he served under and with. These speak
of his gallantry too, of his splendid work unassumingly
done, of his cheerfulness and of pride in him and the 4th
Sussex.

The domestic side of a man's life is the base on which
its happiness depends, and one great omission in this
memoir of my friend is the absence of any description of
the home life at Leonardslee. To those who had the
happiness of intimacy with it, there is no need to refer
to it ; for others I am powerless to give any idea of what
it was ; nor can I offer any account worthy of those
pleasant years in which Sir Edmund's and Lady Loder' s
lives were filled with those joys and those hopes which
grew up with their children. Love claims that past and
holds it safe ; all that it was and will be is theirs and
does not belong to us. Yet as their boy Robin inherited
many of his father's natural gifts and was heir to his

329

330 ROBIN LODER [ch. xvi

place as head of the family, I cannot but feel that this
volume would be very incomplete without some account
of him, whose short life brought such pleasure and light
during thirty years into the home at Leonardslee and
whose passing out of sight, in spite of the glory of the
passing and the nobleness of his death, was the greatest
sorrow Sir Edmund ever had to face. Moreover, Robin
left a little son, and I think of him and the day when he
may pick up this book.

Robert Egerton Loder, whom none of us ever knew by
any other name than Robin, was born in London on
March 10th, 1887, at 3 Grosvenor Gardens. He was
christened at St. Peter's, Eaton Square, on April 18th,
his sponsors being his uncles Wilfrid Loder and William
Egerton Hubbard and his aunt Adela Stewart. Though
born in London his parents lived then at Fioore. He
never knew, however, any other home but Leonardslee,
for the family left Fioore for Leonardslee in August
1889.

I remember him very well as a quiet little boy, a re-
served child, but with a very uncommon happy indepen-
dence about him. He seemed more gentle than most
boys and less responsive to the things which usually
attract children. He was always happy and sweet-
tempered, and, though it is a strange thing to say about
a boy, and sounds uncanny, he was never naughty nor
even mischievous. Still more strange, he loved his lessons
and especially arithmetic. He early showed a clever
brain and great perseverance and in many ways he was
different to other little people ; for instance, it was re-
marked that he took as much pleasure in putting his
playthings away as neatly as possible as in playing with
them.

His mother told me that at a very early age he came to
her saying, " I have nothing to do, could you give me
some sums ? " His little son. Sir Giles, shows the same
aptitude ; for being told on his 6th birthday (Novem-
ber 10th, 1920) that he would have no lessons that day,

ROBIN LODER'S CHARACTERISTICS 331

he looked quite crestfallen and said, " Why should I have
a disappointment on my birthday ? "

Robin inherited his father's and grandfather's love of
gardening, and when a little boy was found crying bitterly
because he had by mistake thrown away his fuchsia
cuttings. He also inherited his father's shyness, and
there is a charming photograph of him turning away with
his hands before his face. He believed that if he did not
look at the camera it could not take his photograph.
He had some characteristics which distinguished him
from Sir Edmund : he never took to riding nor to cricket,
and till he was 18 or 19 years old did not show the slightest
wish to shoot. This was stranger still, but I never heard
his father attempt to force Robin's tastes in any direc-
tion, and I used to see him helping his boy to do the
things he was keen about, and shov/ing him how to use
a lathe and to make things in his workshop.

But though it was long before Robin took to a rifle or
a gun, he very m.uch enjoyed the times in Scotland on
the deer forests. The first time he went was to Benmore
in 1898. This year was a marked one in the Loder family's
Scotch annals, for there entered the family circle a collie
named " Ross," which played a very important part in
their lives, and was indeed the pride of Leonardslee for
thirteen years and Sir Edmund's inseparable companion.
It would never do to leave Ross out in any account of
either Sir Edmund or Robin. It was the proprietor of
the hotel at Inveran who in 1898 gave Ross to Robin.
I have never seen a more beautiful specimen of the breed
than Ross, and no more sagacious collie ever breathed ;
he was beautiful in every way, with perfect manners and
temper. Sir Edmund's daughter Patience says of Ross :

" For many years our dear old collie Ross went with
my father stalking, and if he wounded a stag Ross was
always trusted to chase it ; and he seemed to understand
his job, for he never made a sound till he brought his
stag to bay in a burn — then he would bark from pleasure
and excitement. Ross's exploits and accomplishments

332 ROBIN LODER [ch. xvi

were many, and varied from hunting a stag to sitting up
on his hind-legs and holding a biscuit on his nose for my
mother's Borzoi ' Masha ' to take ! We were all devoted
to him and he was father's closest companion for many
years."

When unwatched Ross would succumb to temptation,
and he and Masha would go out poaching together and
were a very deadly combination against rabbits. Ross
would find the rabbits and " set " them in the grass or
bracken, and Masha would dash in and, even if she missed
her snatch, make short work of the course and the rabbit.
Masha, like most poachers, was a thief, and it was never
safe to leave her a minute in the dining-room. In an
attempt to cure her the skin of a potato was filled with
mustard and left where she could easily steal it. She
stole it all right, but turned the tables on her punishers
by carrying the potato to the drawing-room and letting
the mustard ooze out over and into the bear-skin hearth-
rug, and then looked up with the plain question in her eyes
and attitude, " Do you expect me to eat this ? " I have
been on the forest with Ross ; he was a most useful deer-
hound, and there is a photograph of a pretty picture of
him sitting on the body of a stag, which he brought to
bay in a burn, held up till it died and stayed by the
body of which he had charge in this way till the keeper
came.

In 1899 the Loders were at Clunie Lodge, twenty-five
miles from Invermorrison, and at the very end of the
season Lady Loder had a very terrible accident whilst
out deer-stalking. She fell over a precipitous rocky brae
and was very nearly killed. The man who got down to
her did not expect to find her alive, and years passed
before she recovered from the effects of her injuries.
Robin was at school when this happened, and it was not
till the Christmas holidays that his mother described to
him how nearly she had been killed ; but she had to stop
and change the subject, as the boy's eyes filled with tears.

AT SCHOOL 333

On the occasion of this accident Sir Edmund asked the
keepers what they did in the way of first aid on reaching
Lady Loder. One of them answered, " I looked at my
watch." Sir Edmund pressed for an explanation of this
apparently unnecessary action, and got it : "In case I
should be asked at the inquest." Robin had the tender
heart of his father, and it has shown itself again in the
little Giles his son. For in 1919 and 1920 Robin's widow
was lent Clunie Lodge during the summer by Robin's
great friend Mr. Charles Williams. His mother told Giles
one day if he came a little farther he could see " where
Grannie fell down the mountain " ; but he absolutely
refused, saying he could not bear to see it, and whenever
the accident was referred to he would say " Please do not
speak of it."

Robin began to shoot about 1906, but of that anon.

In 1897 after Easter Robin went to school to Mr.
Hawtrey at St. Michael's, Westgate-on-Sea, and was there
till he went to Eton for the summer term of 1900. He
took middle fourth at Eton- This was a slight disap-
pointment to his parents and they were anxious to hear
the result of " trials." Robin wired " passed fairly."
The subject was not mentioned further at the time. When
the first days of his first holidays from Eton had passed,
he was questioned again — he then " confessed " he had
been first in trials and had taken a double remove ! It
was rather like Robin, when the reason was extracted
for withholding this gratifying news, that " he had not
been listening when the list was being read out " till a
dozen or so of the names had been read, and then hearing
other names and not his own he was beginning to be
anxious, when a boy told him he had " passed all right "
— hence the cautious telegram.

At Eton he was in Mr. Ford's House for a year. The
reports of his first term were accompanied by letters from
Dr. Alington and Mr. Ford, the present (1922) head
masters of Eton and Harrow. All his reports with letters
have been bound and are books to be proud of. When

334 ROBIN LODER [ch. xvi

Mr. Ford gave up his House, Robin went to Mr. Stone's.
He was " sent up for good " eleven times, principally for
mathematics, and his last two terms in sixth form. In
July 1905 he passed in six subjects in the Higher Oxford
and Cambridge Examinations. The following year he
went to Trinity College, Cambridge, for three years and
studied Mechanical Science and took an Honours Degree
(2nd class). Whilst at Cambridge he formed a very close
friendship with Charlie Williams, the son of his father's
friend J. C. Williams of Caerhays. They had known each
other at Eton, and after their Cambridge days they went
off together on a shooting trip to New Zealand in 1911
and returned home across America.

On August 9th, 1913, he married Miss Muriel Hoare,
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Rolls Hoare of
Horsham.

I have already said that it was some time before sport
had any attraction for Robin Loder ; but at last the red
deer awoke his hereditary instincts and he took to the
hill as a duck to water. He enjoyed walking and climb-
ing all day and never seemed to tire. He killed his first
beast on September 18th, 1906, and became a good stalker
and a good shot. Robin's initiation to the sport took
place at Hopfreben, and this was the manner of it : He
loved the mountains and had a good head for them, and
the jagers liked going with him, for they could take him
anywhere — he was so safe and sure. The mountains of
this famous chamois ground are particularly steep and
precipitous, and Robin and his father often complained
they could not take a nap after lunch — to roll over in
your sleep was to roll over a precipice, and even to nod
was not without its risk ! Robin had been persuaded to
fire a few shots at a target so as to take his mother's place
in a chamois drive " if necessary " ; and it so happened
late one afternoon one of the jagers came in to say that
a starker buck was in sight from the house — but he must
be reached within an hour or light would fail. The Frau

CHAMOIS-SHOOTING 335

Baronin could not get there in an hour, so Robin was
persuaded at last to try his hand. He was watched with
glasses, and the onlookers saw the chamois roll over before
the sound of the shot reached them, Robin returned
with his buck, which weighed 41 1 kilos. ^ His father had
up to that date killed 99 chamois at Hopfreben but none
so heavy as this.

The following I take from his sister's reminiscences of
Hopfreben and Scotland :

"As a change from Scotland we went to Hopfreben in
the Tyrol for chamois-shooting. It was a very lovely
place ; the house was built like a Swiss chalet and had
a veranda running all round and a very overhanging
roof. Inside it was luxurious to a degree — a grand piano
(it was always a mystery how it ever got up the very steep
and narrow drive to the house) and a more enormous
arm-chair than I have ever seen in any house ! The most
interesting people there were Frau Hurtel, the house-
keeper, and ' Alban ' her St. Bernard dog. She was
devoted to father from the first moment, as his was the
German she could easily understand. The hours we kept
there were early, the stalking party starting out at 3.30
a.m. and coming back about 7 p.m.

" Frau Hurtel alwavs met father in the hall on his
return, with a glass of whisky and milk, and insisted on
taking off his heavy nailed boots with the long eisen in
the heels ; but whether this was pure devotion or only
out of consideration for the carpets, we never knew.
Then came an awful day when Alban was very ill (over-
feeding and no exercise) and Briicker, the jager, said he
must be shot. ' No one but the Herr Baron should do
it, then,' said Frau Hurtel. The Herr Baron declined,
as he had no shot gun, but said he would see that Briicker
understood how to do it quite painlessly. The hour
chosen was when we were all at dinner, and just as Frau
Hurtel was handing me the potatoes the shot rang out ;
she dropped the dish and fled for comfort to her kitchen !
Poor soul, by the next year she had another ' Alban '
exactly like the last and who probably shared his prede-

^ 88 lb. About 45 kilos is, I believe, the record " clean " weight for
Austrian chamois. — A. E. P.

336 ROBIN LODER [ch. xvi

cesser's fate, as during the winter he Uved entirely in the
kitchen and ate all day !

" The hills were very steep, and this terrified some of
the party — father and Robin hardly noticed them. Both
had excellent heads for heights — even the stalkers acknow-
ledge that ; they always said they could take ' der kleiner
Baron ' where they would not dream of taking another
Englishman."

On August 4th, 1914, Robin Loder was with his regi-
ment, the 4th Sussex, on the way to Salisbury Plain when
war was declared. On mobilisation they were sent to
the War Station at Newhaven till May 1915 — then once
more he was at Cambridge for three days when en route
for Bedford. The regiment remained at Bedford till
July. On July 17th they sailed from Devonport and
eventually landed at Suvla Bay. At this time Robin was
machine-gun officer. He was seconded as Brigade
Machine-gun Officer on September 3rd, and was in the
Gallipoli Peninsula till the evacuation. He stood the
hardships of this awful campaign and was one of three
out of twenty-nine officers who was never in hospital.
Even during the blizzard and the privations of the evacua-
tion he took no harm.

Then the 53rd Division was sent to Egypt, and on
May 1st, 1916, Robin was seconded as Staff-Captain. In
this year General Sir Archibald Murray, K.C.B., men-
tioned him in dispatches for his distinguished services
between June 1st and September 30th (1916). He was
again mentioned in dispatches. Then his regiment moved
up towards Gaza, and on March 26th, in the Battle of
Gaza, he was fatally wounded. Three days later he gave
up his young life in the hospital at Khan Yunis. He was
reburied on May 13th, 1919, at Deir el Belah, between
Kasa and Gaza ; his body lies in Grave 72, Plot C. " He
was one of the bravest soldiers ever seen." A great friend
of mine who was killed in the first battle of Ypres believed
that there was a special place hereafter for those who die
for their country. There is a special place too for them

"AUF WIEDERSEHEN » 337

in our lives and hearts, in which, though they be dead,
they still speak to us.

And now all I can say to father and son as I come to my
last chapter is " Auf wiedersehen."

I give a complete letter from Edmund Loder about
Robin. It is dated April 10 (1917) from Leonardslee :

" Dear Alfred,

" If anything could lessen my sorrow it would be
a letter like yours written from the heart. The boy was
everything to me : he entered into so many pursuits
with keenness and worked hand in hand with me in all
our little schemings in the garden, woods and lathe-room.

" We were just good pals and partners ; he was to me
a dear friend, an able colleague and a charming companion
as well as a loving son,

" Nothing could have been further from his character
than fighting and soldiering ; but yet from a sense of duty
he joined the Territorials some years before the War, and
since that time he does his work with energy and efficiency.
He has been on the Staff of 5 or 6 Generals in Gallipoli
and in Egypt, and besides being mentioned in despatches,
they have all spoken very highly of his conduct.

" I try and comfort myself by thinking of his 30 years
of blameless life well lived, and of his work well done,
but I shall always miss him terribly.

" I remain,

Yours aff^,

E. G. Loder."

CHAPTER XVII

" HE PASSETH ON ALSO "

" Linquenda tellus et domus et placens
Uxor : neque hariam, quas colis, arborum
Te, praeter invisas cupressos,
Ulla brevem dominum sequetur." ^

Horace.

Some time before the outbreak of the Great War, Sir
Edmund wrote to me saying that he was troubled with
his heart and asking me whom I had consulted about mine
in London. I told him he could with confidence go to
Sir James Mackenzie. He wrote again to me and gave
me the opinion and results of the diagnosis — how that
his was an incurable case and that he would have to go
slow and avoid worry and physical exertion. Some men
would dramatically tell their friends after such an inter-
view that they had been sentenced to death. Doctors do
not sentence us — we are sentenced to death the moment
we commence our sentence to live. The physician may
postpone at times the fulfilment of the sentence and help
us through the journey in the Valley of the Shadow.
Loder as usual measured up the facts, and in his philo-
sophic way recognised them and made the best of the

^ Sir Herbert Maxwell quoted these most appropriate lines in an article
on Sir E. G. Loder in 1920. I have attempted to render at least their
meaning into English verse :

" His gentle wife, his home, his lands,
All that he cherished here must now be left.
The trees he owned and tended with his hands
Through this short life — of all but one bereft — ■
Only a Cypress spreads
In silent gloom

That shadow which man dreads
Across his tomb."

338

THE ANXIOUS PERIOD OF THE WAR 339

limits fixed to his activities. Like most of us who grow
old, doubtless the realisation that his life was behind him
came upon him not altogether suddenly, but in its fullness
when his mind and his heart were still very young. It
comes to us sooner or later one day as a shock that of
nearly all we hoped to see and do all has been seen
and is done. When I got Loder's letter I pictured him
going home and quietly making up his mind that he
had reached the evening of his day, and that with care
he might have some years of happiness in his home ;
he would still be able to do many things he loved to
do, and was but limited in the direction of physical
exertion.

The war came — a trial for the sound hearts of those
whose dear ones were in the thick of the fight. Anxious
days and nights made up slowly the tale of weeks and
months and years. Then came to him too the dreaded
and desolating news.

Some three or four months before going to Scotland
and the Tay and within five months of his death he wrote
me the following letter. I give it in full for several
reasons : it is characteristic, it is touching in the pathos
of its simplicity, he gauges his strength as accurately as
a man can ; moreover, in this memoir, as yet, there is but
a single letter of his given in full. To me a letter like this
from him told me all, and more definitely than a long
one could have conveyed :

" Leonardslee, Horsham, Sussex,

November 2'kth, 1919.

" Dear Alfred,

" I have been reading your book about Christo-
pher ; 1 it is very interesting and touching.

" I ought to have been able to have done something
similar about our dear Robin.

" I keep fairly well, but my heart trouble does not
get any less and is not likely to do so.

^ Mj'- son, who was killed in 1918 in the war. In a previous letter he
says almost the same thing as in these first two sentences, but adds to the
second " but I had not the heart to do it."

340 "HE PASSETH ON ALSO" [ch. xvii

" It takes the form of breathlessness with very sHght
exertion, so that I can do very Httle.

" I have got a beat on the Tay for next March, but hardly
know whether I shall manage it. The fishing is mostly
harling from a boat : I certainly could not do a day's
casting. If you ever come south give us a chance of
seeing you.

" I remain

Your aff.

E. G. LODER."

In March 1920 he went to the Tay, as he had done for
several years, for the only form of sport that w^as still
within the limits of his strength, salmon fishing and harl-
ing from a boat. But even this was now too much for
him. He became ill, and accompanied by a nurse he
arrived once more at Leonardslee. He walked into the
house and went straight into his little room near the
entrance hall to see his letters, exactly in the same old
way. Lady Loder suggested to him that after his long
journey he had better leave his pile of papers and corre-
spondence and come upstairs. He " supposed he had
better" — and in his own room and in his own home he
passed the last weeks of his life. He suffered discomfort
but not much actual pain, and then without a struggle
on Wednesday night, April 14th, 1920, the wonderful
light went out of those eyes, the clever nervous hands
had done all they had to do and he left the body behind
him which had served him so well for more than seventy
years. On April 19th, without pomp but in the company
of many mourners, his body was carried in a moss-lined
farm wagon drawn by four horses to the old parish church
at Lower Seeding. On the coffin rested a full-length
cross of the beautiful rhododendrons " Glory of Leonards-
lee " ; lovely blooms of the same plant were massed
beneath the memorial window to his boy Robin. The
service at his burial included the Foresters' Ritual, and
as the congregation followed the body out of the church
the organ gave forth Spohr's " Blest are the departed."

HIS GARDEN HIS COMFORT 341

So his body was laid in the flower-decked grave with this
inscription on the coffin :

EDMUND GILES LODER, 2nd Baronet

BORN AUGUST 7TH, 1849. DIED APRIL 14TH, 1929.

JESU MERCY

I end this memoir with the words of his daughter :

" The garden was really his greatest interest, and during
those terrible years of war, especially when the blow fell
which broke his heart, it was to his garden he went for
comfort ; and found it, I think, and strength as well to
take up his life again and to face the world like so many
fathers who had given their best.

" ' He made the rhododendron,' a friend said once.
Certainly the one named after him is very lovely with a
beauty all its own. Apart from its size and the texture
of its flowers, it grows as if it loved living there ; it is at
home, and is content and grateful and gives of its best.
The great plant of ' Pink Coral ' which grows against
some dark trees has flowered this year (1920) as never
before, and with the sun shining behind it and lighting
up each individual truss, and turning each flower into
exquisite loveliness, one instinctively thinks of the brain
and perseverance which went to the making of so much
beauty.

" Father had a peculiar grasp of any subject in which
he was interested and an extraordinary memory — no
detail ever escaped him, and his interests ranged from
astronomy and colour photography and from collecting
conifers to jade. He had also the fine qualities of a great
nature, absolute loyalty to his friends and generosity to
his enemies, and in addition to this a friend said of him
' a boy's keen fresh English heart.'

" ' What more is wanted ? He was indeed one
Who dying leaves as his bequest
An added beauty to the earth.'

" I wonder whether the Garden he now walks in is
much fairer than the beloved one here which he made so

342 "HE PASSETH ON ALSO" [ch. xvii

beautiful ; and I like to think of him gardening still —
privileged to add even to the glories of Paradise."

In Lower Beeding churchyard there is a grey granite cross
with a bronze crucifix attached, and below these words :

THE PEACE OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED

BE WITH EDMUND GILES LODER

BORN AUGUST 7, 1849.

DIED APRIL 14, 1920.

A stone table has been erected in the prettiest part of
Leonardslee garden with the inscription :

TO THE MEMORY OF EDMUND GILES LODER, WHO MADE
AND LOVED THESE GARDENS.

FINIS

INDEX

The Specimens in Loder^s Collection finding a place in Roivland Ward's
Big Game Records,'^ pp. 322-8, are not included in this Index.

Abo, 146

Abud, Major, 276

Abyssinians, 283 et seq.

Achdalieu, 267

Aden, 148-277 et seq., 291 ; tanks,

148
Adenium speciosum, 224
S.S. Adolph Woermann, 290
S.S. Adriatic, 230
Agra, 164
Ain Hammia, 249
Ain Naga, 246
Ain Tarfa, 243
Ajaecio, 219
Akbou, 214
Aleveras Grove, 130
Alexander III (Russia), 36
Alexandra, Grand Duchess, 35
Alexandria, 148
Algeria, 211 et seq. ; books on,

211-13; big game of, 213, 230

et seq.
Algiers, 212, 219, 245
Alington, Mr. (Eton), 333
Allyghur, 165, 172
Alpine plants, 225 ; flora, 265
A1.SOO, 154
Amarkhadou(Djebel),211, 237,238,

243, 250, 255
Amat (deer forest), 44, 141, 159,

217, 230
America, see Ch. V, 89 et seq. ;

Civil War, vi, 90 ; horses, 92
Amritsar, 163

Andaman Islands, 143, 180
Anderson, Dr., 276, 279, 281
Anson, Col. and Mrs. (Penang), 186
Anstruther, Col. B. LI., 56
"Antony" (Loder's Indian ser-
vant), 150, 151
Arboretum (Chicago), 104
Arlee, 226, 229

23 343

Aspidium munitum, 230

Assam, 165, 169 ; rainfall, 149

Athi River, 290

Atlas Range, 234, 237

Aures Mts., 211 et seq., 213, 234,

336
Aures insurrection, 215
S.S. Australia, 287
Awbahadleh, 287
Aylmer, Percy, 275

Animals (in addition see pp. 322-8)

Addax {A. nasomaculatus) , 242-3,
251 ; a tame A., 252

Admi gazelle (G. cuvieri), 233, see
Ch. X, 239 ; stalking, 249 ;
weight and measurements, 251

Alikud (Somali Klipspringer), 280

Alligators, 192

Ammodorcas clarkei, 282 ; measure-
ments, 282

Antelope, see Prong-horn Antelope

Antilocapra americana, 108 n.

Argali, 177 n.

Arui (Ovis lervii), 29, 30, 31, 177 n.,
211; in the Metlili, 215;
habits, 216 and n., 233 et seq.,
236 n., 238 ; vigilance of,
240-1 ; measurements, 244,
248 ; Loder's big ram, 247-8 ;
in Tunisia, 254 ; a coveted
ram, 255, 256. See Ch. X

Aurochs (Bos bonasus), 104, 204

Badminton, game of, 150
Baillie-Grohman, W. A., 259
Baker, Sir Samuel (rifles), 171
Balfour, Arthur, 47
Balfour, Gerald, 47
Balfour, Prof. Bayley, 223 ; Sir
Isaac Bayley Balfour, 310

344

INDEX

Bandong, 194 et seq.

Bankok, 183

Baramola, 152 et seq.

Barawai tree, 224

Barclay (friend of W. Loder), 159

Bardeau, Count, 258-9

Baring, Miss, 171

Barker, George, 290

Barnes, J. K., 80

Bastia, 219

S.S. Bastia, 246

Batack (volcano, Java), 192

Batacks, the (Sumatra), 187 et seq.

Batavia, 192

Bate, Mr., 246, 250

Batna, 215

Bayleys, the (Calcutta), 171

Beach House (Worthing), 50, 54 n.,
55

Bear Creek, 131

Beckford, Peter, 223

Behama, 253

Bell, Wm., 185

Bemmelen, Dr. W, van (on Vol-
canoes), 193

Benaig, 160

Benares, 165

Ben Derouich, Mustapha, 215

Ben Gana (the Agha of Biskra),
217 n.

Beni Mansour, 214

Beni Salah (forest of), 218

Benmore, 160

Ben More Asynt, 267

Ben Zagouti, Si Larbi, 214

Berar (political questions), 179

Berbera, 275, 278

Bergman, 184

Berlin, 147

Bhamo, 183

Bhoteahs, the, 179

Bir Aioueen, 243

Bir Beresof, 243, 251

Biskra, 211 et seq. (Kaid of, 217),
237, 251, 255

Bisley, 208. See Ch. XIII

Black Hawk, 114

Black Willow Creek (catastrophe),
137

Blida, 214

Blyth, Hon. Audley and Mrs.,
290-1

Bokhara, 148

Bologna, 147

Bombay, 147, 149

Bone, 217-18

Borecherdt, 115, 116

Bott, John and Elizabeth, 36

Bou Dhiaf (Boudief), 215

Bougie, 214

Bourka, 285

Bramber, Rape of, 40

Breadalbane, Lord and Lady, 277

Brindisi, 147

British Columbia, 226

British East Africa, 233, 290 et

seq. See Ch. XII
Bromo (volcano), 193
Brosse, M., 214
Brown, Col. (Commissioner, Moul-

mein), 183
Brown, Mr., 127
Buffalo Bill, 95
Buffalo City in 1873, 107, 201
Buffalo-himtmg, 95, 109 et seq.,

136 et seq. ; shooting frona

horseback, 137
Buffalo Station, 107
Buitenzorg, 192, 194
Burma, 142-3
Burrell, Sir Chas. Ra\Tiiond, 41,

55
Burrell (Etheldreda), Lady, 38 and

n., 55, 72, 129
Burrell, Sir Merrick, 55, 258
Burrell, Sir Percy and Ladv, 148
Burrell, Sybil (birth of), 129
Burrell, Sir Walter, 41 and n.
Burton, Sir Richard, 275
Bushire, 147
Busk, Capt. H., 38, 39
Busk, Hans, 37, 159
Busk, Joe, 141
Busk, Julia Clara, 37, 39 ; her

works, 39
Busk, Maria Georgiana, 37
Busk, Rachel, 53
Busk, Sir Wadsworth, 37
Bioxton, Edward North, 27, 211,

216, 236, 245, 291
Buxton, Gerald, 211
Byrne, Julia Clara, 37, 53
Byrne, Merielle (marriage of), 127
Byrne, Wm. Pitt, 37, 39, 71
Bvron, Lord, 6, 7, 21, 145, 192

Animals

Baira gaze\\e( Dorcotragusmelanotis) ,

280 ; measurements, 281
Bantin {Bos sondaicus — Sumatran

buffalo), 188
Barasingh {Ccrvus cashmirianus),

152 and n., 160; weight of,

160
Barbary Wild Sheep, 29, 30, 31.

See Arui and Ovis lervii

INDEX

845

Bears, 153 et seq. ; weights of, 159
and n.
Alaskan B. {Ursus arctus dalli),

159 n.
Cashmere Black B. ( U. torquatus),

154 et seq.
Cinnamon or Snow B. {U. arctus
isabelUnus) , also called the
Red B. and Himalayan Brown
B., 155-8
Grizzly B. (U. horribilis), 159
Kodiak B. ( U. arctus middendorfi) ,

weight of, 159 n.
Polar B. {U. maritimus), 159 n.
Beisa Oryx, 293
Bharal (Caucasian), 177 n.
Bighorn, 134 et seq., 177 n.
Bison (see also Buffalo) : American
bison {Bos bison) or " bufialo,"

104 n. ; their numbers, 106 ;
uses to Red Indians, 106 ;
American mountain bison, 134,
201 n.

Caucasian (B. bonnsus), 105 n.
European {B. bonasus), 104,

105 n.

Indian [B. gaurus), 145, 165
Toungou (Burma), 182

Black-tailed deer (Mazama Colum-
biana), 118

Bos bison, see Bison

B. bison athabascce, 104 n.

B. cafer (African bufialo), 233

Bubal, the, 233, 244

Buffalo (American, see also Bison),
95, 105 et seq. ; numbers
killed by hunters, 107, 108 n. ;
head measurements, 112, 128,
136 et seq., 139, 141 n. ;
(Bizerta), 233

Bushbuck, 293

C

Cabell, Dr., 99

Cacti, 222-4 and ns. See Ch. IX

Cagliari, 219

Calcutta, 167, 171, 179, 181

Calcutta, Bishop of, 171

Callistoga, 128

Calmady-Hamlyn, V., 246

Calverley, 8

Cameron's Ranch, 129

Camorta, 180, 183

Camperdown, Lord, 167-8, 168 n.,

170
Canada, 143, 201
Cannes, 11
Caiion Camp, 227

Canova, Dr., 253

Canton, 196

Carigola, 179

Carnes, Hank, 226 et seq.

Cascades, the, 102

Cashmere, 22, 142-3, 145-8, 151,

153 (bears), 161
Caspian Sea, 147
Cautley, Capt., 150, 153
Cazalet, Mr., 47 n.
Cedar Forest (Teniet el Had), 214
Central City, 114
Chambas (at El Oued Souf), 253
Chang (the giant), 196
Chapman, Mr. (Chowchilla Ranch),

129
Cheraponjee, rainfall, 149
Cheribon, 192
Cherimai (volcano), 192
Cheyenne, 116
Chicago, 104, 141
Chikotee, 153

Chillianwallah, Battle of, 163
China, 142-3 ; Loder's itinerary in

C, 199-200
Cholera, 186
Chott Djereed, 243
Chottfl, the, 252
Chowchilla Ranch, 129
Clark, Alvan, 85, 150, 202
Clarke's Ranch, 130
Clearwater Valley, 226
Clumbia, 188
Clunie Lodge, 332-3
Cobbold, J., 254
Cobiu-g, Prince Philip of, 258
Columbia, 190

Conifers (at Leonardslee), 272
Constantine, 214, 219
Cooke, Capt., 183
Cooke, John Esten, 102
Coote, Col. and Mrs. (Jubbulpur),

149, 171
Corbui, 164
Corington, 102
Corriemulzie, 159
Corsica, 219
Corti, 219
Cottesloe, Lord, vii, 25. See Ch.

XIII
Country Life, 13, 14, 21 n.
Cox, Capt. (Sir Percy), 276 and n.
Crossbows, see Ch. XllI
Cuningham, Gen. and Mrs., 277,

287

Animals
Capra caucasia (Bharal), 177 n.

346

INDEX

Caprn falcon eri cashjniriensisCPanjaA

Markhor), 156
Capricornis sumatrensis (Serow),

226 n.
Capybara, 8, 66 and n.
Cashmere stag (Cervus cashmirien-

sis), 152
Caucasian bison, 105 n., 204
Cervus :

C. axis (Cheetal),

C. canadensis songarias, 178 n.

C. canadensis typicus, 103 n.

C. duvauceli, 152

C. elaphus barbarus (Beni Sallah),

218 andn., 233
C. elaphus maral, 178 n.
C. elaphus scoticus, 218 n. See

Red deer
C. unicolor typicus (Sambur or

Sambar), 175
G. yarcandensis, 178 n.
Chamois, 62, 257 et seq. ; bags of,
258 et seq. ; weights, 259-60 ;
abnormal, 260, 298, 335 and n.
See Ch. XI
Cinnamon bear, 118
Corsican mouflon, 11 n.
Coypus, 8, 66

D

Dahato Valley (volcanic evidence),

194 et seq.
Darjeeling, 171
Darror Pool, 282 et seq.
Date-palms, 252
Dates of Souf, 252-3
Davies, Sir Henry and Lady, 150
Davis, Bancroft, 94
Debila (Souf), 253
Deer forest, 86

Deer-stalking, 164. See Ch. XI
Deghabour, 284
Deir el Belah, 336
Delamere, Lord, 276, 278 et seq.,

280 et seq., 284
Delano, 94

De la Rue, Warren, 180
Delhi, 163-4
Deli, 184

Deli, Sultan of, 187
De Mumick (Sumatra), 189
Dent, Clinton, 2, 80 et seq.
Denver, 112 ; besieged by Indians,

113, 131, 135, 201
Dera Ismail Khan, 148
Deras, E., 250, 254
Derdapoora, 154
Devil's Gate, 117

Dickens, Chas., 90; American Notes,

94 99
Djebel Abiad, 254
Djebel Amarkhadou, see Amark-

hadou
Djereed (the Tunisian) and Chott

Djereed, 253
Djurdjura Mts., 212
Dod, Rev. C. Wolley, 221, 230
Dolomites, the, 225
Donkeys, the pink (of Souf), 252-3
Donya Sabuk, 290
Douglas, Rev. S. (sermon, Madras),

173, 200
Dudly, Gen., 136
Duleep Singh, 163
Dundonnel, 266 et seq.
Dutch wars in Sumatra, 185 and n.
Duvivier, 218

Animals

Dero gazelle, 280

Dibatag (Ammodorcas clarkei), 282 ;

measurements, 282
Ditha (Hycena striata), 280
Dorcas gazelle (see Gazella dorcas),

Loder's first, 247
Dorcotragus melanotis (Baira), 280

E

Echo Canon, 117

Echinocereus fendleri and gonacan-

thus, 223, 224 n.
Eclipse expedition, 142, 145, 180.

181
Edinburgh R. Botanic Garden, 223
Edward VII and tennis, 48
Elephant-hunting, Sumatra, 187

et seq. ; Somaliland, 285
El Kantara (Algeria), 212, 214 et

seq., 327
Ellis, 107
El Outaia, 237
Erg, the, 10 n.
Espagnol (Loder's guide), 226
Euphorbia candelabra, 225
Evans, Mr. (Hankow), 196
Evans, Tom, 117
Everest, Mt., 179

Animals

Elephant (Sumatra), 145-87, 285
Elk horns, 103
Epping Forest deer, 201 n.
Equus asinus somalicus (measure-
ment), 280
Equus grevii, 284

INDEX

3i7

F

S.S. Falcon, 278

Farnham, G. F., 226

Farragnari Tropani, 250

Ferguson, 184

Ferris, Col. \V. B., 276, 278, 284

Fincastle, Lord, 277

Finland, 142-3

Fishing, 262, 263. See Ch. XI, 340

Fitzherbert, 277

Floore, 57 and n., 220 et seq. See

Ch. IX, 330
Ford, Mr. (Eton), 333
Fort Damnation, 98
Fort Hell, 98

Fort Macpherson, 135, 141 n.
Fort Sledwick, 98
Fort Wallace, 115
Foss (the Whip), 128-9
Fossville, 128
Foster, Sir Michael, 221
Foucault, Leon, 182
Fowler, Sir Robert, 14
Fraser, 28
Fraser, Col. (Asst. Resident at

Hyderabad), 167-8
Fremantle, Hon. T. (Lord Cottes-

loe, q.v-), 259, 300 et seq. See

Ch. XIII
Fusiama (volcano), 197

Animals

Fallow deer, 201 and n.
Fauna of North Africa, 242
Flagging Antelope (Prong-horn),
108

G

Gadabursi Coiintry, 275

Gagab, 284

Gainesville, 95-6

Gallipoli, 336

Gambling dens, 125

Ganges River, 166

Garden Chronicle notices, 223 n.

Gavarnie, 243, 246

Gaza, Battle of, 336

" George " (hunter in the Rockies),

132 et seq.
Georgetown, 132
S.S. Germanic, 222
Geysers, the, 128 et seq.
Gholab Singh, 163
Ghurree, 153
Giliespi9, Rev. John, 226
Glacier Point, 130 n.
Glencalvie, 141

Glencarron, 267

Glenclunie, 267

Goat Camp, 227

Godfrey's Ranch, 131

Godong Djohore, 187

Golconda, tombs of, 170

Golden City, 114

Goletta, 218, 250

Golis Range, 279

Goodheart, H. C, 231

Goolburga, 170

Goojerat, Battle of, 162

Gordon (Col. or Capt.), 178

Gore- Brown, Miss M., 277

Goschen, 99

Goschen Pass, 100

Gotha River, 146

Gough, Col., 178

Gough, Lord, 162

Gould, Mr., M.P., 41

Grafton Hounds, 219

Grant, Mr., 201

S.S. Great Republic, 200

Great Sahara, 234

Great Salt Lake, 117

Greenfield, Capt. (in Somaliland),

284
Green-River Station, 116
Gregory, Prof., 195
Grey, Albert (Earl Grey), 168
Grey of Falloden, Visct., 47-8 and n.
Grey's Peak, 107, 112
Groem (? Graeme), 156
Gulpjori, 171
Gundry, Mr., 47 n.
Gurney, Gerard, 290, 293
Guthrie, Mr., 127

Animals

Gazella cuvieri (admi), see Ch. X,
236 n.

G. dorcas, 236 n., 246

G. dorcas (reem), see Ch. X, 234
et seq., 250 et seq. ; weight
and measurement, 251

G. spekei, 280

" Gazelle des Sables " (reem), 250

Gerenuk (Lithocranius walleri), 280

Giraffe, 291 et seq.

Goats, wild, 177 n.

G orals, 177 n.

Grevy's Zebra, 284-5

Gum'buri (Somali wild ass), 280

H

Haden, Mr. (Xagpore), 165

Hagal, 286

Hagard, Mr. (Tunis), 253

348

INDEX

Hague, J. H., 80

Haines, Sir Fred. (C.-in-C), 178

Halewijn (Asst. Resident, Labuan),

187-8
Hall, Gen., 131 et seq.
Hall, Kav, 107-8
Hall's Gulch, 113, 131 et seq., 200
Hall Vallej^ Mining Co., 132 n.
Hamada, the (Algeria), 242
Hamilton, Col. (Moulmein), 182
Hamilton, Major Jas. Stevenson, 28
Hammam (Aures Mts.), 244
Hammam Meskoulin, 218, 250
" Hammerkop," 88
Hanbury, David, 256
Hanging "rowdies" at Hall's

Gulch, 135
Hankow, 196
Harris, Mrs., 201
Harrison, Mr., 141
Harvey, Sir Robert, 2
Hatches, 130
Haud, the, 280 et seq.
Hawtrey, Edward, 79
Hawtrey, Rev. John, 77, 79
Hazelbury. Bryan, 34
Healing Springs, 101
Heathcote, J. M., 47
Heber. Bishop (on the Pathans),

164
Heilinger-blut, 225
Hendersoma, 146 ; the Professor

there, id.
Herschell, Lord, 226
Hesketh, Sir Thos., 46
Hichens, Robt. H., 212, 243
Higginbotham, Elizabeth, 34, 35
Higginbotham, John, sen., 34, 35
Higginbotham, John, jun., 35
Higginbotham, Sophie, 35, 36
Higginbotham, Dr. William, 35,

36, 147
Higginbotham, Mrs. Wm., 147
High Beeches, 38, 57 et seq., 209
Kites Cove, 130

Hoare, Mr. and Mrs. J. Rolls, 334
Hoare, Muriel, 334
Hobley, C. W., 294
Hong-Kong, 196
Hooker, Sir Joseph, 221, 230
Hopfreben, 207, 266 et seq., 335
Horo-Abdulleh, 284
Hot Springs, 101
Hozier, Miss, 277
Hubbard (an American), 226
Hubbard, Marion, 41 n., 210
Hubbard, Wm. Egerton, 41 n., 95,

211, 330
Hudson River, 141

Humming-birds, 102

Hunt Hill Moors, 17

Hunting in the Rockies, 133 et seq.

Hurtel, Frau, 335

Hussey (Banker), 124

Huttian, 153

Hyderabad, 166 et seq., 170

Animals

" Hangul" (the Cashmere stag),

152
Hemitragus hylocrius (Nilgiri ibex),

177 n., 206
Hippopotamus (on board ship), 294
Hyaena (Algeria), 217
Hycena striata, 280

India, 142, 143, 147

Indian servants, 150
Innsbruck, 147
Inveran, 331
Irish gardens, 273
Itaij^ 147

Animals

Ibex, 145

Ibex, Nilgiri, 175, 176, 177 and n.
Indian bison (Bos gaurus), 105 n.,
145

Jackson, Hon. F. G., 291

Jager, Prof., 165

James (the brothers), 275

Japan, 142-3, 197 et seq. ; Loder's

itinerary in Japan, 200
Japanese children, 197 ; manners,

197 ; lacquer, 199
Jardin d'Essai (Algiers), 245
Java, 142, 171, 192 ; posting in,

192 et seq. ; volcanoes, 192

et seq.
Jebb, John Gladwyn, 131 and n.,

134, 230
Jefferson, 99
Jephson, 250
Jerato Pass, 279
Jhelum River, 152, 154
Johnstone, Adjt. (Lieut.), 136
Jokko Lake, 226
Jokko River, 226
Jones, T. Malcolm, 278
Jubbulpore, 149 and n., 171
Jung, Sir Sala, 167, 169, 170, 179

INDEX

349

Animals

Jackson's Hartebeest, 294
Javan rhinoceros, 185

K

Kajnag (Kaoge Nag), 156

Kansas, 104 et seq., 137

Kapiti Plams, 290

Kasa, 336

Kashgar, 178, 256

Keglerich, Graf Nicolaus, 293

Kenmare, 273

Kenya Colony, 275 n.

Khanga Sidi Musa, 254

Khanga Sidi Nadji, 254 ; Kaid and

Khalifa of, 255
Khan Yunis, 336
Kilima Theki, 292
Kinchinjunga, 179
King, Bill, 226, 228
King, Col. (U.S.A. Army), 136
King (Sir R. Loder's gardener), 44
Kinkiang, 197

Kinloch's book on Big Game, 151
Koh-i-noor diamond, 162
Kooch Behar, 171
Krohn, H. A. (Hyderabad), 167, 169
Krohn, Mrs.. 170
Kutub Minar, the, 164

Animals

Klipspringer, 280

Kudu, greater, 279; measurements,
279

Labuan, 184, 186, 190

Lacquer (Japan), 199

Ladak, 161

Lahore, 159, 162

Lake Creek, 132

Lake of Immortality (Amritsar), 163

Lambert, George, 47, 48

La Mortola, 250

Landon's Garden (Biskra), 243

Lansdowne, Lord, his gardens, 273

Lapps, the, 142, 146

Laramie Plains, 116

Lasso, the, 129

Laurence, Sir Trevor, 221

Leatham, A. E., 245

Leconfield, Lord, 63

Lee, Gen., 100

Lee, Gen. R. E., 102

Lee, Mr. (hunting in the Aures), 254

Leonardslee, 5, 13, 32, 58 et seq.,

232 ; gardens, 274
Lexington, 99 et seq.
Leyssius, H. (Sumatra), 188
Lifeboats, 39
Life-ships, 39

" Linnet, The," burning of, 11
List of " Record " Specimens
(Loder's Museum), see Ch. XV,
322-8
Littledale, St. George, vii, 174 ;
first meets Loder, 204 ; his
reminiscences, 206 et seq.
Lockwood, Sir F., 51
Lockyer, 180
Loder, Adela Maria, 56
Loder, Alfred, 47, 72, 81, 82, 169,

183 et seq., 213
Loder, Edmund

acquirements, 14, 144

" Antony," his servant, 150

associates, testimony of, 5, 17.

See Ch. XI, 274
astronomy, 10, 13, 83 ; observa-
tory, 224
athletics, 78 et seq., 159
awards, R. Horticultural Society,

223
" Belle," his retriever, 198
birth, 37, 71

books read at Shanghai, 144
brain power, 13

British Ef>st African bag, 294-5
brothers, 55
Byron, 6, 7, 145
Cambridge, 80 et seq.
Carlton Club, 15
characteristics, 149
childhood, 72 et seq.
children, his way with, 224
collecting cacti, 222
costs (travelling in the Rockies),

229
death, his, Ch. XVII, 340
deerstalking, 159, 164. See Ch,

XI
diaries, 6 ; subjects dealt with,

146
distance travelled 1875, etc.,

229
dress, 23
Eton, 77 et seq.
eyesight, 19

favourite poets, 6 et seq.
Floore, 220 et seq.
foxhunting, 1 1

gardens, 12 ; see Ch. IX, at
Floore, 220 ; visit to Irish
gardens, 273

350

INDEX

Loder, Edmund (continued) :
Hawtreys House, 77
heart, strained, 22 ; trouble,

221
height, 22
High Sheriff, 15
Horace, 15

Horticultural Society, 17, 221
hunters, 198 ; " Lady Bird," 11
hunting craft, 25 et seq.
Indian diary, 148
Indian servants, 150
literary tastes, 14, 144
marksman, as a, see Oh. XIII
marriage, 209 et seq.
memory, 19
mother, his, 50, 53, 56
nature, his, 3, 4, 6, 16 et seq.,

144, 183
Ovid, 15

Paris, first visit to, 73, 211
personality, his, 22, 23. See

Ch. XI '
politics, 15, 16
rate of travel, 143
reading, 144
religion, 32, 52
rhododendrons, see Ch. XIV
Rifle Association, 17. See Ch.

XIII
scenery on, 162
sisters, his, 55

Somali bag, 288-9. See Ch. XII
Stone, Rev. E. D., 77
vitality, his, 22
voice, '208

weddmg-tour, 209 et seq.
Whittlebury, 44 et seq.
Zoological Society, 17
Loder, Elizabeth, nee Higgin-

botham. 34, 35
Loder, Ethel (Lady Burrell), 38 ;

death of, 38 n.
Loder, Gerald W. E., 16, 47, 48, 56,

291, 310
Loder, Giles, 34, 35, 36, 74; his

death, 85
Loder, Lady (Maria Georgian a), 50,

53, 56
Loder, Lady (Marion), vii, 1, 12 ;

accident to, 332-3
Loder, Major Eustace, 87-8
Loder, Major Giles, 57
Loder, Mrs. Giles, 35, 36, 37 ;

death of. 40
Loder, Phihp, 71
Loder, Reginald, 46, 51, 53, 56, 82

and n., 183, 254, 259
Loder. Robert Clare, 74

Loder, Robert Egerton (Robin), 22,
32, 53, 271, 278. See Ch. XVI,
death of, 336, 339

Loder, Sir Giles (born 1914), 330
et seq.

Loder, Sir Robert, 36, 37, 38, 40
et seq. ; greyhounds and
coursing, 43 and n., 210;
M.F.H., 43 ; purchase of
Whittlebury, 44 et seq. ; his
will, 49, 50, 57 n. ; leaves
Sussex, 50 ; death, 50, 54, 55,
230 ; his children, 51, 85

Loder, Sydney, 26, 56, 57, 87 ;
philatelist, 230

Loder, Wilfrid, 17 and n., 57, 72,
143, 159, 167, 174, 380

Loiselauria procumbens, 266

Lolab Valley, 153 et seq., 158

London (America), 201

Longkat district, Sumatra, 190

Long's Peak, 107

Lort-Phillips, 275

Lost Park, the, 134 n.

Lower Beeding Church, 342

Lowry family, 103

Lucas, C. F.," 2, 63

Lucas, E. v., 41, 64

Lulea, 146

Lydekker, 159, 236 n., 238 n.

Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred, 47, 48

Animals

Leopard (Algerian), 238

Lioness, measurement of one killed

by Loder, 287
Lions (Algeria), 242
Lithocranius walleri (Gerenuk), 280 ;

measurements, id.
Lithuanian bison, 105 n.

M

Macaulay, Capt., 147-8

Machakos District, 290

Machil Hills, 158

Mackay, John W. (the Silver King),

226
Mackay, the Rev. J., 183
Mackenzie, Sir James, 338
Maclagans, the (Muree), 150
Madras, 172 et seq.
Madrid, 212 (pictures)
Magor, Mr., 304
Maitland, F. W., 3, 80
Malay Peninsula, 142
Manassas. 96-7
Mandalav, 183

INDEX

351

Mangles, Mr., 68

Marie, Grand Duchess, 35

Mariposa Grove, 130

S.S. Markgraf, 293

Marrvat, Florence, 193

Marseilles (Zoo), 243, 246

Marshall, Bill, 46

Marshall, Isaac, 46

Marshall, Julian, 46

Martin-Smith Rifle Competitions,

208. See Ch. XIII
" Masha " (Lady Loder's Borzoi),

332
Mashmeyer, W., 34
Maximilian, Prince, 280
Mayo, Lord, 148, 169
McKinley, 127
McKinnon, 158
McWade, Robert, 92
Meares, Lieut.-Col. Deveish, 130
Measurements of Somali animals

killed by Loder, 296
Medicine Stream, 136
Meer Allum's Tank, 170
Meerut, 149
Mehari camels, 253
Meldola, Bignor, 180
Melka Degahamedou, 285
Merced, 129, 130
Metapollion, 174

Metlili (Djebel), 211, 237, 243, 245
Milboro, 100
Miles, Mr., 126
Millais, J. G., vii, 2, 6, 13, 14, 15,

21 and n., 311, 312, 315, 317.

See Oh. XIV
Miller, Col. and Mrs. (Muree), 150
Millet, Gen., 253
Milmil, 283, 286
Milvain, Tom, 81 n.
Mines, 130 et seq., 146
S.S. Minian, 172
Missoula, 226, 229
Mitchell, P. Chalmers, 17
Modec Indians, 94
Mohoroni, 290
Mombasa, 291, 293
Monte Cello, 99
Monte d'Oro, 219
Moody and Sankey, 201
Moonal pheasants, 161
Moore, Major (U.S.A. Army), 136,

137
Moorsom, Mr.. 95, 96
Morley, Arnold, 277
Mormons, 119 et seq., 120 n.
Moulmein, 163, 182, 183
Mount Baker, 230
Mukri Magdoulah, 170

Mullah, the (Mohamed Abdullah,

Somali), 276
Munich, 147

Muree, 149, 150, 151, 153, 161, 162
Murray, Capt., his adventures, 190
Murray, Gen. Sir Archibald, 336
Museum at Leonardslee, see Ch. XV

Ahimals

Maral, 152, 1 78

Markhor, 145, 148, 156 et seq.

Mazatna coiumbiana (black-tailed

deer), 118 n.
M. hemionus (mule deer), 118 n.
M. Virginia (Vii-ginian deer), 118 n.
Moose^ 246 ; head of, 230
Mouflon, 177 n., 213, 236 n.
Mouflon, Sardinian, 10 n., 11 and

n., 177 n.
Mountain bison, 134 and n.
Mountain sheep (American), 134
Mule deer {Alazama hemionus), 45,

118 n.
Musk deer (Moschus moschiferus),

160

N

Nagpore (in Berar), 165

Nairn, Gen., 277

Nairobi, 291

Nanga Purbal Mountain, 162

Naples, 250 ; museum, 250

National Rifle Shooting Match,

first, 38 n.
Navoo, 120 and n.
Nebraska, 135, 141 and n.
Nefta, 253
Negrine, 254
Neilgherries, 142, 172, 174 et seq.,

bag in the Neilgherry Hills,

177, 193, 204 et seq.
Neurasthenia in the tropics, 190
Nevada Falls, 130 n.
New York, 92, 141, 230
Niagara, 103, 230
Nice, 219
Nicholas I, 35, 36
Nicholson, Gen., 277
Nicobar Islands, 142, 143, 145
Nijni Novgorod, 147
Nix, Chas. G. A., vii, 2, 11, 257.

See Ch. XI, 261
Nizam (the Nizam's Railway), 166 ;

his court, 167
Northamptonshire, 220, 230
Northbrook, Lord, 171
Norton, Capt., 38

352

INDEX

Animals

(Nilgiri) "ibex," 175 et seq., 206;

tahr or " ibex," 177 n.; tiger,

176 et seq.
New Forest deer, 201

O

Oakland Point, 126

Oblarn, 258

Ogaden, 276 et seq., 280 et seq.

Ogden, 117, 126

Ogmar, 252

Olga, Grand Duchess, 35

Ooanouf Plain, 280

Ootacamund, 174, 178, 206

Ooty, 206

Oppert, Dr. (at Madras), 173

Oran, 211, 212

Oristomo, 219

Otter, Francis, 32 n.

Otter, Patience, 32 n., 224

Otter, Walter, 32 n.

Ouargla, 243 and n.

Oued Abdi, 216

Oued Ighagar, 243

Oxley, J. S., 2, 300

Animals

Oreamnus americanns (Rocky Mt.

white goat), 226 n.
Oryx beisa, 293. See Ch. XII
Ovis ammon, 178
O. canadensis, 134
O. lervii, 29, 30, 31
O. poll, 178, 256

Pacific Railway, 105

Padua, 147

Palermo, 250

Pallardy (guide), 136 et seq.

Palmer, Capt. (Hyderabad), 166
et seq.

Palmer, Gen. Sir Power (Cam-
paigns in Sumatra), 185

Palmer, Hastings, 167

Palmer, Mrs.. 166

Palmer, the Misses, 166, 167, 170

Pantelleria, Island of, 250

Parham, 63

Parkes, Sir Harry and Lady, 198

Parnea, 171

Parry, Dr., 99

Paserepan, 192

Passet, C^lestin, 246

Passoeroewan, 192

Patience (Mrs. W. Otter), 12, 32 n.

Pawnees, massacre of, 136
Payne, 122, 124, 125
Pearce, Capt. and Mrs., 168
Pease, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred, 246,

249, 270
Pedlar, Mr. A., 181

Pelham, Hon. A., 2, 79, 80, 83, 90,

91, 105 n.. Ill, 128, 130, 131

et seq., 134, 137, 140
Penang, 184, 185 ; views at, 185
Penweil, Mr. (Hyderabad), 167, 169
Perdu, Mt., 162
" Peronelle, The," 39
Persia, 147
Pettit, Tom, 47, 48
Petworth, 63
Phantasmagoria, 247
Philadelphia, 92, 201
Philippeville, 214, 246
Phihppine Islands, 165
Photographs, a cause of fading, 198,

199
Phyteuma comosum, 225
Pig-sticking on the Haud, 280
Pike's Peak, 107, 112
Platte River, 115, 136
Playfair, Col. Sir Lambert, 148, 213

and n.
Plummer's Plain, 210
Pompeii, 250
Port Blair, 180, 183
Porto Torres, 219
Prairies, the, 105
Prandiere, Capitaine de, 253
Pratt, Orson, 121
" Pretty Polly," 87
Prizes won at Wimbledon and

Bisley, 302
Probyn, Lesley, 150
Prob.yns, the (Lahore), 162
Pueblo Cachaxas, 222
Punjab wars, 162
Py craft, W. P., i, vii, 5 ; his notes

on Loder's Museum, Ch. XV,

312-21,
Pyrenees, 162
Pytchley Country and Hounds, 221

Animals

Pelzeln's Gazelle, 277
Prong-horn antelope, 19, 105 n.,
108 n., HI, 112, 134, 201

R

Races at Central City, 116
Radcliffe, Mr. and Mrs. Chas., 213,
225 et seq., 230, 243, 245, 246,

250, 259

INDEX

353

Rainfalls in India. 149

Ramsay, Gen., 165

Randall, Miss, 71

Ranfurly, Lord, his death in

Africa, 192
Rangoon, 182, 183
Ranjeet Singh, 162, 163
Rauch, Andreas, 243
Rawal Pindi, 149
Red Indians, 90, 105 at seq.
Red Mountain, 113
Red Sea, 148

Red WUlow Creek, 137, 140
ReQly (gunmaker), 165
Rendel, Hon. Rose, 231
Rendel, Lord and Lady, 11
Rer Ali Ogaden Somalis, 283
Resht, 147
Reynolds, Gen., 136
Reynolds (photographer), 180
RhododendJons, see Ch. XIV
Rifles, 165, 171 and n., 172, 173 ;

new system of boring, 193,

205 ; Mannlicher, 207 ; Crazy

Face and the rifle, 207, 239 n.,

262, 265. See Ch. XIII
Riviere, M. (Directeur Jar din

d'Essai), 245
Robertson, Sir Brook (Canton), 196
Rochester (N. America), 230
Rockbridge Baths, 99
Rocky Mountains, 106, 142
Roman coins circulating, 253 and n.
Roman remains (Western Auras),

252, 254
Rome, 163
Ronan, Major and Mrs. (of Arlee),

229
Rood, M. L. (Denver), 113, 114
Roosevelt, Col. Theodore, 18, 19,

20, 21, 291
Roosevelt Kermit, 291
"Ross" (Loder's collie), 331 et

seq.
Ross Island, 180
Rothiemurchas, 267
Rothschild, L. de, 304
Round Prairie, 226
Roviniski, M., 192
" Rowdy, Will," 96, 97
Rudolph, Lake, 279
Russia, 143
S.S. Russia, 141, 146 et seq.

Animals
Red deer, 63 ; stags' heads, 86 ;
N. Africa Beni Sallah, 218;
Tunisian, 233, 236. See Ch.
XI ; see Appendix

Reem (Gazella loderi), 233 et seq.
See Ch. X, 250

Rhinoceros, numbers seen B.E.
Africa, 290

Rhinoceros sondaicus, 185

R. sumatrensis, 185, 187

Rocky Mountain white goat, 226
and n. See Ch. IX, measure-
ments and weight, 228, 229

Roe deer at Whittlebury, 45

Sabatti Waine, 284

Sacramento, 126

Sahara, 10 n., 251

Saigon, 195 ; Loder's illness there,

195
St. Augustine, tomb of, 218
St. Isaac's Church, 147
St. Michael's, Westgate-on-Sea, 333
St. Petersburg, 147 et seq.
Salmon-fishing, 268. See Ch. XI
Salt Lake City, 90, 117
Salt Mountain (Djebel el Meleha

Aures), 237, 245
Sand-fish, 252

San Francisco, 126, 127, 129, 200
San Joaquin River, 129
Sankey's singing, 201
San Rafael, 129
Sassari, 219

Saumarang (volcanoes), 192
Sawalek Range, 213
Schleieh. Amelia, 35
Schwarzensee, 257 et seq.
Scotch forests, 267 et seq.
Scotia, the, 90, 91
Scotland, 221, 267 et seq.
Secunderabad, 166
Sef el Mounadi, 250
Sellegory, 179
Selous, F., 27
Serringhorn, Island of, 178
S S. Servia, 225
Setif, 214
Shahabad, 166
Shanghai, 144, 196, 199
Sharp's Rifles, 108
Sherman, Gen., 95, 136
Shooting from horseback, 137 and n.
Shoreham, 15, 40 and n., 41, 42
Siam, King of, 183
Sibi Desert, 284
Sikh War, 162
Silene acaulis. 266
Simba, 290, 292
S.S. Simla, 147

354

INDEX

Sinchal, 179

Singapore, 192

Sioux Indians, 113 ; massacre by,

130
Slade, Dr. (medium), 141
Sladen, Col., 192
Smith, Joseph (founder of the

Mormon sect), 120 n. et seq.
Snake River, 132
Snedelnitzke, Baron, 259
Sneyd, A., 277
Sohns, Graf, 250
Somali bag, Loder's, 288
Somaliland, 233. See Ch. XII
Somalis, 148
Sopoor, 154
Souf and Oued Souf, 252 et seq. ;

high temperatures, 253
Soukarras, 218
Southern in "Lord Dundreary,"

103
Spain, 211
Sparre, Count, 146
Spearmint, 87
Speke, 275
" Spion Kop," 88
Spreading a stag's head, 207
Srinagur, 154, 156, 159, 161, 165
Staunton, 102
Steinberg, Baron, 259
Stewart, Adela, 56, 330
Stewart, Gen. (Governor Port

Blair), 180, 183
Stewart, Hon. Alexander, 56
Stockholm, 146
Stone, Mr. (Eton), 334
Stone, Rev. E. D., 77
Stroyan, 275
Stiorminster Newton, 34
Styria, 259
SiJlivan, Major, 246
Sultana, 156

Svmiatra, 142, 143, 184 et seq.
Summat Khan, 156
Summit (Callistoga), 128
Sunsets, 186, 194 and n., 217
Sussex, 57 et seq., 194, 210, 230
Sweden, 143

Animais

Sambur (or Sambar) deer (Cervus
unicolor typicus), 175, 200

Sardinian mouflon, 10 n., 11 and n.

Sea-lions, 127-8, 129

Serow, 177 n., 226 ; Nepal, Dar-
jeeling and Sze-chuan serows,
226 n. ; Malay varieties, id.

Sheep, jungle, 175

Sheep, wild: African: 29, 30, 31,
see Ch. X ; Asiatic, 177 n., 134 ;
American, 174, 177 n.

Skunks, 108

Spotted deer (Cervus axis), 169

Steinbok, 62

Strepsiceros kudu chora, 279 ;
S. k. capensis, id,

Sumatran rhinoceros, 185, 187

Sumatran tapir, 185

Tabernacle (Salt Lake City), 119

et seq.
Tacchini, 181
Taj Mahal, the, 164, 193
Tamersa, 254
Tangore, 178

Tankoban Praoc (volcano), 194
Tay, the, 268
Taylor, Miss Meadows, 170
Taylor, Mr. (Sumatra), 188
Tea crops, 196
Telescope, Lord Rosse's, 182
Telescope rifle sight, 115
Telescopes, 202
Temperatures, Canada Nov. 1875,

202
Tengg-er (Java), 192 et seq.
Teniet el Had, 214
Tennis, 45 et seq.
Tennis court at Whittlebury, 45
Terrapin Tower, 103
" Texas Jack," 95
Thompson, Jem, 107 et seq., 115,

201
Thornton, Sir Edward, 95
Thuillier, Col., Surveyor-General,

India, 148
Times, notice of Loder's death, 6
" Toby," the pony, 12
Toronto, 230
Touaregs, 252
Toungou, 182
Touzer, 253

Transvaal characters, 190
Trescarges, Francois, 246, 247 et

seq.
Trichinopoly, 178
TroUhatten,' 146
Truckle, 126
Tug Sulul, 283
Tunis, 218, 219, 250
Timisia, sport in, 233 et seq., 237,

242
Turner, E., 146
Two Forks, 226
Twynham, Major, 182

INDEX

355

Animals

Tahr, Nilgiri, 177 n.
Takin, 177 n.

Tiger-hunting, 167, 168 et seq., 176
Tiger measurements and weights,
177 n.

U

Ute Indians, 112 et seq.

A>aMALS

Ursus arctus isabellinus (the Cin-
namon, Snow, Red or Brown
Bear), 155

U. torquatus (Himalayan Black
Bear), 154 et seq.

Vaccaros, 129

Val d' Arras (Spain), 245

Vancouver, 230

Venus, transit of, 168

Vergez, Benjamin, 243

Vernal Falls, 130

Verona, 147

Vesuvius, 250

Victoria, 201

Victoria (B.C.), 230

Victoria Rifle Corps, 38

View, the most beautiful, in the

world, 195 and n.
Vikar Ooloomira (the Nawab), 167,

168
Visitors' Book, Floore, extracts,

230 et seq.
Vogel, Dr., 180
Volcanoes (Javan), 192 et seq., 194

andn. ; (Japan), Fusiama, 196,

250
Volga, 147
Volunteers and Capt. Busk, 38

Animal
Virginian deer, 102, 118 n.

W

Wahsatch Mts., 117

Waldo, Edmund Meade, 2

Walker, Mr., 127

Waller, Mr. (Sumatra), 190

Walur Lake. 154, 158

Ward, Edwin, 178

Ward, H. A. (Rochester), 230

Ward, Rowland, Records of Big

Game, 143
Warm Springs, 100
Warnham Court, 63
Washington, 93 et seq.
Waterhouse, Capt., 181
Watkin, Col., 277
Webbe ShebeyH, 276
Weber's Canon, 117
Weedon, 233 n.

Wellington, Duke of, his funeral, 73
West Point, 141
Westerveld, Mr. (Sumatra), 189
Whiskey Gap, 114
Whiskv, Spring, 128
" White's," 130
Whitfeld, Herbert, 250
Whittlebury, purchase, 44 ; stags,

159 ; building, 172, 178, 201,

221, 230
Wild West, the, vi
Wilkinson, Col., 168
Williams, Chas., 333, 334
Williams, J. C, 69, 304, 334
Wilsford, 34, 36, 74
Wilson, Hon. John, 291
Wilson, J. G., 80
Wilson (of Muree), bag in Cashmere,

151
Wimbledon Rifle Competitions, see

Ch. XIII
Wiseman, Cardinal, 39
Woburn, 105 n.
Wolf, M., 182

Wolff, Rev. Joseph (Travels), 178
Woodcock, Miss, 277
Woodward's Gardens, 128
Wray (optician), 149
Wright, R. E., 166
Wu- Chang, 196

Animals

Waire or waira [Proteles cristatus),
282

Wapiti, at Whittlebury, 45, 103,
105 n. ; price of heads, 116 ;
Hall's Gulch, 132, 145 ; Little-
dale and wapiti, 174, 178, 200
et seq. ; horns, 202 ; measure-
ments, 228

Wapiti. Baikal, 178 n.

Wapiti, Tien- Shan, 178 n.

Wart-hogs, 280 ; known to charge,
286

Wliite goats (Rocky Mountains),
225 et seq. ; Bate and wild
goats, 246

White-taiJed deer, 141

356

INDEX

Wild boar, 242, 244; account of

shooting, 249
Wild turkeys, 202

Yarkand, 146 ; expedition, 178

Yokohama, 200

Yosemite, 130 and n., 175 (com-
parison with scenery in Neil-
gherry Slountains)

Young, Brigham, 121, 124

Younghusband, Col. (Muree), 150

Animai,
Yarkand stag, 178

Zeribet el Oued, 255
Zichy, Graf Casimir, 293
Zouche, Lord, 63 and n.

Animals

Zebra, Grery's, 284
Zorilla, 252

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BioMed.