from time to time accounts of sporting expeditions, and though Reynell Taylor remained a keen sportsman to the end of his days he seldom after this allowed himself time for suchlike healthy exercise. He seems to have eschewed even the games he was most fond of, and though he lost none of his interest in them he seldom engaged in them himself. 'He would allow himself,' writes General Coxe, 'no recreation, and during the many years I passed in intimate association with him I could never induce him to join our shooting-parties, or even take the occasional recreation of a game of cricket or rackets.'

But it was during the hot season especially that Reynell Taylor was tied to his desk, for at this time of year the Wuzeeree tribes withdrew from the lower hills, and the border was left, in a measure, in peace. From June to September he was consequently more able to turn his attention to judicial and other matters, and it was then that he remained at work from early morning till late at night, never going out except for half an hour before sundown for a much-needed gallop or walk. So much, indeed, was this the case that the remark, 'Here comes Taylor, as usual, with the bats,' was a standing joke with those about him.

In the cold season it was different. For eight months in the year he could never count on a night's rest, and he frequently had to ride off at a moment's notice a distance of thirty or forty miles, and take up his quarters in the open with his rough escort at some threatened point of attack. The intimate knowledge of the ground possessed by the tribes, and the extraordinary rapidity of their movements, caused Taylor's small force to be always on

the watch, but it was the example he set himself that was of such inestimable value, and when he was succeeded in his wardenship it is officially recorded that double the number of troops were then found insufficient to protect the frontier.

Upon the improvements he effected in the country I need not dwell; suffice it to say that under his rule many miles of new roads were made; large tracts which had hitherto been covered by thorn jungle were cleared for cultivation, particularly in the case of an extensive waste called the Nar; the trade of the country gradually increased, and the inhabitants enjoyed a tranquillity to which they had long been strangers.

In April 1852, after having been in India for nearly twelve years, Reynell Taylor applied for leave to return to England. The application was granted, and in May he was succeeded in the Deputy Commissionership by Nicholson.

Among the papers that have been entrusted to me there are two letters dealing with this period which show better than any words of mine the estimation in which Reynell Taylor's official superiors held both his character and his services. The first of these is from a GovernorGeneral whose words have sometimes been quoted as not a little sharp and inconsiderate. It runs thus :—

'My dear Taylor,-The power of encouraging and rewarding such men as yourself, is one of the few things which makes the labour and anxiety of ruling men in some degree bearable. I have seen your progress with great satisfaction. I earnestly hope you may have future

opportunities for gaining distinction, which you are so well fitted to win. Farewell, my dear Taylor.

The second is from the Board of Administration :—

'Sir, On the occasion of your leaving Derah Ishmael Khan to proceed to Europe the Board have desired me to thank you for the zealous, able, and conciliatory conduct which has distinguished you since you came under their orders, answering most fully to the high expectations which their previous knowledge of your character had led them to entertain. They do not hesitate to say that the comparative tranquillity of the Bunnoo and Derah Ishmael Khan frontier and district during the last three years, has been mainly owing to the energy, promptness, and judgment by which your proceedings have been marked. 'P. MELVILL, Secretary.'

Higher praise than this could not well be given, and these two letters bring to a fitting close the most eventful half perhaps of Reynell Taylor's life. As one of a number of picked men, known as the 'Wardens of the Marches,' his services had been of no common order; but though the condition of the Upper Derajat rendered his post one of peculiar difficulty and danger, he would have been the last to claim that he did either more than others or more than was his duty. When he had done a thing, even though the service was exceptional, he had almost a horror of being praised for it or being spoken to about it. Nothing he disliked more than to hear a man dilating upon his own exploits, and to such a one he would remark

good-naturedly:- I should not say too much about it if I were you. You did your duty as best you could, and that's enough.'

Reynell Taylor was one among many who bore the burden and heat of the day in our early connection with the Punjab; he toiled as others toiled, seeking for no particular reward, and content in that glow of satisfaction which comes, and must ever come, in return for work well done.

Perhaps it were better to leave it thus.

·

'All speech and rumour,' says the sage, is short-lived, foolish, untrue. Genuine work alone, what thou workest faithfully, that is eternal, as the Almighty Founder and World Builder himself. Stand thou by that, and let "Fame" and the rest of it go prating.'

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CHAPTER VIII

RETURN HOME.

DHURMSALA DURING THE MUTINY.

1852-1859.

THERE are few moments of happiness in a man's life excelling those which bring to an end a long period of separation, and there are few men who are better able to appreciate such moments than those who, after braving dangers by sea or by land, return once more to the shelter of their own homes. One thing alone is wanting then to fill the cup to the full-the circle must be intact; there must be no gaps.

And such was Reynell Taylor's fortune. After twelve eventful years he returned home to find the same faces to welcome him—father and mother, sisters and brothers; and when he reached Sandhurst on July 9, 1852, all the members of the family then in England were assembled there to meet him. Such a home-coming, after so long an interval, is not allowed to many.

I have little to tell of the first part of Reynell Taylor's leave in England, for there is not much that is worthy of note in the few scattered fragments I have been able to collect. Compton, Haccombe, and Fallapit were, of course, always open to him, and he spent much of his time hunting and shooting at either one or the other. At Compton he had, in his brother-in-law, Lord Willoughby de Broke, the