Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LETTER OF INTRODUCTION
- LETTER I THE TWO SYSTEMS
- LETTER II AN INDIAN RAILWAY
- LETTER III A GOVERNMENT SCHOOL AND AN OPIUM FACTORY
- LETTER IV A STORY OF THE GREAT MUTINY
- LETTER V A JOURNEY, A GRAND TUMASHA, AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CIVIL SERVICE CAREER
- LETTER VI A TIGER-PARTY IN NEPAUL
- LETTER VII ABOUT CALCUTTA AND ITS CLIMATE; WITH SERIOUS INFERENCES
- LETTER VIII ABOUT THE HINDOO CHARACTER; WITH DIGRESSIONS HOME
- LETTER IX BRITISH TEMPER TOWARDS INDIA, BEFORE, DURING, AND SINCE THE MUTINY
- LETTER X THE “ANGLO-SAXON” PARTY IN INDIA
- LETTER XI CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA
- LETTER XII EDUCATION IN INDIA SINCE 1835 ; WITH A MINUTE OF LORD MACAULAY
LETTER VI - A TIGER-PARTY IN NEPAUL
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LETTER OF INTRODUCTION
- LETTER I THE TWO SYSTEMS
- LETTER II AN INDIAN RAILWAY
- LETTER III A GOVERNMENT SCHOOL AND AN OPIUM FACTORY
- LETTER IV A STORY OF THE GREAT MUTINY
- LETTER V A JOURNEY, A GRAND TUMASHA, AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CIVIL SERVICE CAREER
- LETTER VI A TIGER-PARTY IN NEPAUL
- LETTER VII ABOUT CALCUTTA AND ITS CLIMATE; WITH SERIOUS INFERENCES
- LETTER VIII ABOUT THE HINDOO CHARACTER; WITH DIGRESSIONS HOME
- LETTER IX BRITISH TEMPER TOWARDS INDIA, BEFORE, DURING, AND SINCE THE MUTINY
- LETTER X THE “ANGLO-SAXON” PARTY IN INDIA
- LETTER XI CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA
- LETTER XII EDUCATION IN INDIA SINCE 1835 ; WITH A MINUTE OF LORD MACAULAY
Summary
March 28, 1863
My dear Simpkins,–For some time past, “my mind has been divided within my shaggy breast,” as to whether I should send you an account of our tiger-party in Nepaul. I was deterred by doubts of my ability to hit off that peculiar vein of dullness which seems the single qualification requisite for a sporting author. Why a pursuit of such absorbing interest should lose all its charms in the recital it is hard to say. Perhaps men are misled by the delights of a hard run or a successful stalk, and imagine that a bare unadorned narrative will best convey the idea of those delights to their readers. But this can hardly be the cause; for accounts of sport, for the most part, are characterised by carefully elaborated jocosity of a singularly insipid flavour. Sometimes the writer aspires to poetry; in which case he invariably talks about his Pegasus, and is mildly mythological, calling all ladies “Dianas,” and speaking of the sun as “Phoebus.” After describing the breakfast at the house of “Amphitryon,” the meet on the lawn, and the scene at coverside, he proceeds somewhat in this strain:–
“Across the fields proud Reynard goes,
Amidst a hundred Tally-hos.
Our Master kept the Cockneys back,
Who pressed and jostled in the track.
Right manfully his tongue he plies,
And to perdition dooms their eyes. […]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Competition Wallah , pp. 158 - 196Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1864