but it happened while we were with him that he was indisposed. His medical attendant thought that it would be advisable if he took three months* privilege leave to the hills. He looked dubious over the suggestion, and remarked: 'The doctor says I've got gastric catarrh. I don't know what it is ; it sounds like a musical instrument. I suppose I had better take his advice and go away.'
He went, but at the end of a month he cancelled the rest of his leave and returned to Madras. Never was holiday-maker more glad to be back than he was. According to his account, he shivered the day in and shivered it out on the hills. He left Ootacamund without any regret, rejoicing more than a little when he found himself back again in the warm, humid atmosphere of Mettapollium at the foot of the Nilgiris. At the end of his service he went home and took the living of West Hampnett, in England, where he died in 1891.
Among the residents of Madras then were D. F. Carmichael (Chief Secretary), Sir William Robinson (Member of Council), L. C. Innes (Judge of the High Court), H. E. Sullivan (Member of Council), Sir Leslie Probyn (Accountant-General, brother of Sir Dighton Probyn who raised Probyn's Horse), and Sir Henry Bliss, who was appointed by Government to reorganise the Salt Department. Colonel S. H. E. Chamier was a Mutiny veteran, having gone up with the Madras Artillery to take part in its suppression. Colonel Thomas Tennant was head of the Gaol Department. Major Conway Gordon stands out a clear, distinct figure in the past a tall, spare, soldierly man, afterwards head of the railway department at Simla. He was a keen fisherman, and learned to manage the Muckwa's log-boat, sitting astride with his feet in the water like a native. Report said that he wore black stockings on these expeditions to escape the notice of the sharks.
