Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/54

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wound healed, but his health was never properly restored. In 1861 there was a great famine in Bengal, and Baird- Smith was sent to inquire into its cause and to report on the best method of preventing such calamities in the future. Again the self-devoted servant of Government threw himself into the task allotted to him, giving no thought or care to his health, with the result that he broke down completely. He was ordered home, but the step was taken too late. He reached the Madras Roads and died there on board the Candia. His body was landed, and he was buried with full military honours in St. Mary's cemetery on the island. Mr. H. G. Keene, C.I.E., who knew him, says : ' He was a man of singular intelligence and versatility a welcome guest wherever he went.' His grave is marked by a modest slab of grey granite. A floral cross is engraved on the recumbent stone with the name and the date of his death. There is not a word about the deeds he did nor of the honours he won.

He married (1856) at the cathedral, Calcutta, Florence Elizabeth de Quincey, the second daughter of the author. Of this same lady Mr. Hogg, writing on family resemblances in 'Harper's Magazine' for February 1890, says : 'On one of my visits to the Houses of Parliament, while passing through one of the corridors, I was startled by the features of a sculptured figure quite unknown to me. The thought flashed, how strikingly that face resembles Miss Florence de Quincey. She was always remarkable for her pale statuesque beauty. On reading the inscription I found that the figure was actually that of her ancestor, Saher de Quincey, Earl of Winchester. When I returned to Edinburgh I reported to de Quincey this singular resemblance of the effigy of the old earl to his daughter over a gap of some five centuries.' The Opium-Eater was much taken with the resemblance, but he was unable