At Dumdum Kate Coventry won the Handicap Chase as well as another race. After this, luck seemed to desert the combined stable, though Kate Coventry still played up nobly, winning the Ballygunge Cup, and Lawyer the Trial Chase Cup. At Deccan, Pot Boy and Lawyer also won a race or two.
Then came the Umballa Autumn Meeting, where their luck was so crushing Lord William vowed he would get rid of the lot of his horses, and advertised the majority for sale. He may have deceived himself through disappointment, but nobody else thought for a moment he would be able to live without racing, in taking which view they were correct, for in July, 1881, he purchased Camballa and Western Princess through the dealer and importer known by the name of Teddy Weekes. Luck seemed once more to be returning, for at the October meeting at Dehra Fleur-de-Lys won over the hurdles, Kate Coventry the Himalayan Chase, and Warrego the Corinthian Stakes, while Probably, a country-bred pony, showed the way in the Gimcrack Stakes. Again at Umballa the good Kate Coventry, Fleur-de-Lys and Probably also each won a race.
Lord William was now recognised as a rising racing man, and as one come to stay. He began to do great things when the Government moved down to Calcutta for the cold weather of 1881-2. His new purchase Camballa, a black Waler gelding, began well by winning the Viceroy’s Cup, steered by Ryder. I see in an old paper of that time “the unpopular Governor-General was not present to see his cup run for.”
It will be remembered I have already pointed out the reason of Lord Ripon’s unpopularity with his own countrymen, though never was a Viceroy so loved by the natives, into whose hands he played all the time, no doubt thinking it would lead to future good, but causing at the time dread and consternation amongst Europeans. Whether his scheme of equalisation between the races has been a success or not I leave to my readers to decide, though perhaps it is still early days to say definitely one way or the other. Certainly, if we may judge by the way India has assisted us in our present struggle, we should feel inclined to think it had, but it is necessary to look a little beyond our noses, and think what may be expected in return—the quid pro quo.
I do not suppose Lord Ripon troubled much as to whether he was popular or not, he was there to do the best for the country and its people, according to his light, after that it must be left in the lap of the gods. The public opinion I have heard expressed of the Viceroys during the time Lord William was on the staff ran as follows—that Lord Lytton was charming, hard-working, and that his work would live long after him; Lord Ripon unpopular, as it was thought he would make life impossible for the white man in the country owing to his enormous sympathy with the natives; Lord Dufferin, popular but left a great deal in the hands of his private secretary; Lord Lansdowne, universally popular, and Lady Lansdowne especially so. These being the only Governor-Generals under whom Lord William served I need go no further. He spoke of them all with affection and gratitude, saying he had received “the greatest kindness from all officially and individually.” I must confess when he said this I felt much as I do when parents say they love all their children alike, which cannot be in the least true; they may love them all, but it must be in different ways and degrees, so I think Lord William felt, if he had spoken literally, he had affection for all his chiefs but in different ways and degrees.
Even Viceroys have a good deal to “put up with.” First and foremost they have to act on orders from home, after which, if the measures do not prove successful or satisfactory, the blame of course falls on the Viceroy’s head; then when settling down and getting into his stride, finding help and comfort in some of his staff—say the Military Secretary, that office bringing the individual more closely into association with him than the rest, forming an important part of his daily life—it has not been unknown for one Military Secretary after another to find that their health will not stand the strain, or that they wish to return to their regiment, another has married a wife who will not live in India and so on, so resignation follows on resignation, leaving the unhappy Viceroy in a constant state of explanations and instructions to new-comers, and with nobody to lean on, while possibly feeling anxious over work of which he has had no previous experience and hardly knows where to turn to find someone who does. Occasionally, perhaps, Viceroy and members of the staff find “incompatibility” a reason for divorce.
The cold weather of 1881-2 proved to the Beresford-Stewart partners that they had a good thing in their new purchase Camballa, besides winning the Viceroy’s Cup, he also won the Burdwarn Cup. Many people speculated as to this horse’s lasting powers, as he stood rather straight on his pasterns, and in India the ground is very hard. However, he did all that was required of him, caused no disappointment, and then was sold again at no loss, so was not a bad bargain. Lord William also won a race himself on Alien; his pretty little Australian mare Fleur-de-Lys, which he had bought from Mr. Abbott, the Tirhoot planter, also won the Tom Thumb Stakes for him. This little mare was charming as well as pretty, and as intelligent as a dog. She had a great affection for her syce, who had been her close companion from the time she arrived in India, and her owner used to give his friends little exhibitions of her affection at times. He would hide the syce somewhere, and then let Fleur-de-Lys loose out of her stable, telling the man to call her, while he kept dodging about hiding from her, but she always found him in spite of all the dodging, whinnying with pleasure when she came up to him. If anyone caught hold of the syce and pretended to beat him and he howled, the mare would go straight for whoever it was she supposed was hurting her friend and companion, would savage and trample on the offender if she could get at him. So great was her affection for her syce that it was unnecessary when moving about the country to put a bit into her mouth, for she would follow him anywhere. She was eventually sold amongst others to the Prince of Jodhpore, where she would be well cared for.
Warrego was now the property of the Beresford-Stewart stable, and won the two mile Durbangah Cup for them. Camballa beat several good horses for the Merchants’ Cup, proving himself the horse of the year.
At the end of the cold weather 1881-2 Mr. Stewart was obliged to leave India and go home owing to ill-health.