178
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii i. FEB. -26, 1910,
In reference to MB. STEWART'S mention
of Geffery's interment at St. Dionis Back-
church, it may be of interest to note that a
lengthy extract from the knight's will, in
regard to his bequest for maintenance of
daily service there, occurs at 5 S. xi. 22.
WILLIAM McMuRRAY.
"DISGRUNTLED" (10 S. xi. 326, 452). A newspaper use of the word is to be found in Read's Weekly Journal for 6 Oct., 1716, where a correspondent is described as seeming "to be disgruntled about the Pun inserted in our last Journal on the Names of the 5 Rioters justly hang'd at the end of Salisbury Court in Fleet Street.' 1
ALFRED F. ROBBINS.
NOTES ON BOOKS. &c.
Many Memories of Life in India, at Home and Abroad. By J. H. Rivett-Carnac. (Black- wood & Sons.)
THESE many memories of our old and valued contributor Col. Rivett-Carnac well deserved a permanent form. They have evidently given pleasure to the author in their compilation, and we have little doubt that feeling will be shared by many readers.
Col. Carnac's father, Admiral John Rivett- Carnac, was a cadet of the ancient Suffolk family of Ryvet, and the writer of these ' Memories,' the second son, was born in Portland Place on the 16th of September, 1838. Portland Place had in those days " a distinctly Eastern flavour." The boy's maternal grandmother, the widow of a distinguished Indian officer, lived close at hand; on different sides of the broad street two of her sisters, married to directors of the East India Company, resided ; also several other Eastern magnates. In addition, " a grim old great- uncle," who was always giving "good advice, but never a single tip," lived in a big house at the corner, half way down Portland Place. " In this same house I was more recently the guest of a very different personality, Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, who never forgets those who have served with him in India, or elsewhere, and whose cheery presence had effectually exorcised the spectre of the grim old Indian nabob of some sixty years before."
The Colonel's father was " an amiable man save when the gout was upon him," and he " had brought ashore with him much of the discipline and language of the quarter-deck. We always called him ' Sir,' and gave him a wide berth when my mother hoisted the storm signals of gout."
After being placed in a school at Bonn, the lad on returning home went to Haileybury, his father having obtained for him an Indian Civil Service appointment or " writership," and in 1858, at the close of the Mutiny, he arrived at Calcutta, where he was for a time the guest of
Outram, who showed him great kindness. Other
friends were Sir Bartle and Lady Frere. The
former he admired with boyish enthusiasm " as
an ornament to the service, and one of the most
fascinating men it was ever my good fortune to
meet .... His looks were greatly in his favour, and
when lie entered the room one was at once pre-
possessed by the graceful, dignified figure of the
man, with a head like that of a Konkani Brah-
min, and delicate, well-cut features."
To young Carnac fell the honour of managing the farewell ball to Lord Clyde on his way home after the campaign. " It was a labour of love, as I knew the dear old man well, and had often seen him at our house both before and after the Crimean War, he being an intimate friend of my father's. During his stay in Calcutta at Government House, Lord Clyde had me over several times, and took me out with him, calling me his civilian aide-de- camp. He was good enough to pronounce that I would make an excellent aide-de-camp in time, and 1 little guessed in those days that 1 was to be an aide-de-camp eventually to Sir Donald Stewart when Commander-in-Chief, and also to their Majesties Queen Victoria and King Ed- ward VII."
Shortly after the ball Carnac had to leave Calcutta, having been appointed to an assistant magistracy. Among other appointments, lie filled the post of assistant secretary to Temple when Temple was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces. These were in Carnac's day the happy hunting-ground of the antiquary. One of Temple's successors had a strong taste for anthropology, and was especially keen on the conformation of the heads of the hillmen of India and the peoples representing the remains of the aboriginal tribes. Into the hilly country of Central India had been driven by the advancing invaders from time immemorial the Bheels, the Gondhs, and other of the wild tribes. " In this new kingdom the recently arrived Governor found himself, so to speak, in clover. One of the first circulars that issued from the secretariat was no longer about sanitation or criminal pro- cedure, but invited district officers to forward the interests of science by obtaining for the museums and investigators the skulls of the aboriginal tribes. Dear old Bernard, then secretary, drafted the circular." The great man had running in his mind the desirability of getting skalls for his private collection, so he added " in duplicate." The harassed district officers thus found them- selves faced with the difficult problem of finding aboriginal native gentlemen endowed with ;i pair of skulls apiece to satisfy the hobby of the new Commissioner. - " The order nearly had a tragic result in one district, and, for what I know, may not have escaped those results in some others. All in the Provinces, Europeans and natives, were anxious to carry out the wishes of the new ruler, and far away on tour, in a wild hill tract, the district officer explained to an old native chief how anxious he was to make a good collection of skulls to gratify the whim of the Chief Commissioner. ' I am with you,' said tin- astute old fellow, ' and quite understand what is wanted ; there is plenty of material in my State/ The next morning, when riding back to camp the officer came across a long procession of Gondhs, young and old, roped together, and being driven along by matchlock-men to the old chief's palace
