In the beginning of the year 1875 it was rumoured that the project was seriously entertained, and on the 16th of March the Marquis of Salisbury made an official announcement to the Indian Council of the intended visit. Many arrangements, however, had to be made, and many difficulties surmounted, before actual preparations for the journey commenced. All these are recounted in detail by Dr. W. H. Russell, in the introduction to his book on the 'Prince of Wales's Tour,' a reprint in expanded and permanent form of his letters as the special correspondent of the _Times_. Dr. Russell had the advantage of accompanying the Prince as one of his personal suite, under the title of Honorary Private Secretary. It is fortunate that the journey had such a historian. The work not only gives a Diary of the tour in India, with a full record of the proceedings of the Prince, but is in itself a most interesting and instructive book of travel, full of information, conveyed in the graphic and bright style which has made the author famous as a man of letters. To this book the reader of these pages is referred for the story of the Royal expedition, both in India and in the countries through which he passed on the outward and homeward journey.[A] [Footnote A: 'The Prince of Wales's Tour: a Diary in India, with some accounts of the visits to the Courts of Greece, Egypt, Spain, and Portugal.' By William Howard Russell, LL.D. With illustrations by Sydney P. Hall. Sampson Low & Co.] The Prince was fortunate in the companions of his journey, even to the humbler and useful attendants. It is greatly to the credit of his judgment and his right feeling that the first to whom he expressed a wish to accompany him was Sir Bartle Frere, a wise and good man, and whose Indian experience would be of immense value. In the suite there were, of his own household, Lord Suffield, Sir Dighton Probyn, Colonel Ellis, and Sir Francis Knollys. The Duke of Sutherland, Lord Alfred Paget, Lord Aylesford, Lord Carington, Colonel Owen Williams, Lord Charles Beresford, Captain Fitz George, were invited to join the expedition. Canon Duckworth was selected as chaplain, and Sir Joseph Phayrer as physician; Mr. Albert Grey, secretary to Sir Bartle Frere, Dr. Russell, and Mr. S. P. Hall as artist, completed the list of those who formed the suite of His Royal Highness. Several of these--General Probyn, Colonel Ellis, and Dr. Phayrer--had long Indian experience; and Lord Charles Beresford had accompanied the Duke of Edinburgh in his Indian tour the year before.