All the Beresford brothers were smart at repartee; indeed I think they would be hard to beat. Someone asked Lord Charles which of his brothers he considered the quickest at repartee. To which he replied: “Marcus. It was only this morning when walking down Regent Street, ahead of us was a doddering old Irish peer, one of the Backwoodsmen who came over once a year to vote against Home Rule, I said, ‘Marcus, if you were a despotic monarch would you keep that Irish nobleman in your House of Lords?’ ‘Yes,’ said Marcus, ‘I think I should, but I should fire him first on the _Coronet_.’” The smartness of this may be lost upon people who are not horsy and therefore do not know that the part of a horse’s anatomy between the fetlock and the hoof is termed the coronet. The Marquess of Lansdowne succeeded Lord Dufferin as Governor-General of India, holding the office from 1888 to 1893. No events of great importance occurred during his administration; there were some small frontier expeditions, but we did not hear much about them. [Illustration: _Photo. Elliott & Fry_ THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE] In 1893, at the end of Lord Lansdowne’s reign, Sir Mortimer Durand, then Foreign Secretary to the Indian Government, was sent on a mission to Kabul with a view to defining the limits of influence of the British Government and the Amir, with respect to the independent tribes in the wide belt of country between Afghanistan and British India. However, we are not yet dealing with 1893 but 1888, when Lord Lansdowne had only just taken office. He was fond of horses and racing, therefore watched his Military Secretary’s horses work with sympathetic interest. From 1888 to 1894 were Lord William’s best racing years in the East, and all his spare time was devoted to it. At the November Lucknow meeting his racing partner, His Highness of Durbangah, won the Stewards’ Purse with FitzWilliam, Dunn up, Daphne the Dilkoosha Stakes, Soheil, an Arab, the Pony Handicap. On the third day, a pony named Brandy the Paddock Stakes for maiden ponies, besides various others which I forget. At the Calcutta chief meeting FitzWilliam won the Trials by way of a good beginning. Eunice, who had at one time and another won a good many races for Lord William, now won the Karnaul Stakes. Metal was backed for a small fortune for the Viceroy’s Cup, when one of those unexpected things happened which must always be reckoned with in racing; he was beaten by his stable companion making the pace too hot for him, and Myall King again romped in a winner. They also won races with Pekoe and Shamhad, while a grey English mare named Venus, whom nobody expected to do anything, won the Eclipse Stakes for them. Lord Clyde and Clarion won a couple of races at the Extra Meeting, making a tremendous winning year, but not a profitable one taking it all round.