Difficulties of an Argentine railway engineer—Why Argentina has the Irish gauge—A sudden contrast—A more violent contrast—Names and their obligations—Cape Town—The thoroughness of the Dutch pioneers—A dry and thirsty land—The beautiful Dutch Colonial houses —The Huguenot refugees—The Rhodes fruit-farms—Surf-riding—Groote Schuur—General Botha—The Rhodes Memorial—The episode of the sick boy—A visit from Father Neptune—What pluck will do
CHAPTER X
In France at the outbreak of the war—The tocsin—The "voice of the bell" at Harrow—Canon Simpson's theory about bells—His "five-tone" principle—Myself as a London policeman—Experiences with a celebrated Church choir—The "Grill-room Club"—Famous members —Arthur Cecil—Some neat answers—Sir Leslie Ward—Beerbohm Tree and the vain old member—Amateur supers—Juvenile disillusionment—The Knight—The Baron—Age of romance passed
CHAPTER XI
Dislike of the elderly to change—Some legitimate grounds of complaint—Modern pronunciation of Latin—How a European crisis was averted by the old-fashioned method—Lord Dufferin's Latin speech—Schoolboy costume of a hundred years ago—Discomforts of travel in my youth—A crack liner of the 'eighties—Old travelling carriages—An election incident—Headlong rush of extraordinary turn-out—The politically-minded signalman and the doubtful voter—"Decent bodies"—Confidence in the future—Conclusion
INDEX
HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE
CHAPTER I
An ideal form of travel for the elderly—A claim to roam at will in print—An invitation to a big-game shoot—Details of journey to Cooch Behar—The commercial magnate and the station-master—An outbreak of cholera—Arrival at Cooch Behar Palace—Our Australian Jehu—The Shooting Camp—Its gigantic scale—The daily routine—"Chota Begum," my confidential elephant—Her well-meant attentions—My first tiger—Another lucky shot—The leopard and the orchestra—The Maharanee of Cooch Behar—An evening in the jungle—The buns and the bear—Jungle pictures—A charging rhinoceros—Another rhinoceros incident—The amateur mahouts—Circumstances preventing a second visit to Cooch Behar.
The drawbacks of advancing years are so painfully obvious to those who have to shoulder the burden of a long tale of summers, that there is no need to enlarge upon them.