carriage, when a grizzled, travel-stained man in a huge sun-topee and with blackened fingers hurried towards them with apologies for having kept the Viceroy waiting, saying that he had understood that his arrival was to have been later. This remarkable person was none other than his Excellency the Governor of Madras, who had been riding on the engine and driving his own train!
When the Duke visited Trichinopoly in his official capacity he is said to have been again lost by his staff. Report had it that they found him inside the boiler of an engine which had been disabled by an unusual accident. He was inspecting the flaw that had caused the trouble, and was discussing it with a European engine-driver in the employment of the South Indian Railway whom he had known in England on the Great Northern Railway.
The Duke used no ceremony towards his subordinates. He was in the habit of addressing them by their surnames with the familiarity of an old friend. At oar first dinner at Government House he leaned forward, looked towards my husband and called out ' Say grace, Penny.'
Some of the older men, who were accustomed to the ceremonial which is traditional in Indian official life between the Governor and his subordinates, did not altogether approve of his style of address. As one of them remarked :
'It is hardly fair upon us. When the Duke says "Cockerill, my boy," I can't reply "Buckingham, my boy." '
For all his eccentricities he made an excellent Governor, sparing himself no pains to gain all sorts of knowledge connected with his duties and responsibilities, and seeing to the best of his ability that laws and regulations were properly carried out. His thirst for information was often a source of trouble to the already over-worked officials.
