Lallah Rooke celebrity; arriving at
the French Hotel at Pinder, ten miles from Peshawur the following
morning. That day I called upon the Officers of the 6th Foot, with whom
I had served in Jersey, and was persuaded to dine at mess. A melancholy
dinner it was for me, meeting old friends whom I had not seen for so
long. Yet not possessing energy enough for conversation or feeling the
spirit of "Hail fellows, well met." I felt that my moody silence and
ghostlike appearance (for I was dressed in black) threw a gloom over
them. This was no doubt a morbid fancy as also was perhaps the idea that
they looked at me with pitying eyes. But these feelings seized me, and
increased till they became unbearable, and I was glad to escape to my
Hotel.

"THREE MONTHS OF MY LIFE."

A DIARY.

JULY 4th, 1868.--Started from Murree for Kashmir at 5.30 a.m. Bell,
Surgeon 36th Regt. [Since deceased] came with me four miles. Walked on
expecting the dandy to overtake me, but it did not, and I marched all
the way, nine miles up a steep hill to Khaira Gullee, where I halted and
put up in one of the old sheds formerly used by the working party when
the road was being made. I am not tired, though my left heel is
blistered, which is fair considering I have not walked half a mile for
more than a month. The road is excellent and the scenery fine, the Khuds
being sometimes deep, but nothing like the eastern Himalayas. The forest
too is quite different, fir trees predominating here. Saw many beautiful
birds, and regretted I had not brought my gun. In the evening a
thunderstorm came on with a cold wind from the north, so I made a good
fire with a few fir logs. In the middle of the night the storm became
very violent, and large hailstones fell.

JULY 5th.--Got away at sunrise, the rain having quite cleared off, and
marched on to Doonga Gullee, up a hill to an elevation of 9,000 feet,
and then down again to about 7,000; then up a final steep to Doonga
Gullee, 8,000 feet above the sea. The Khuds much grander very deep and
precipitous, sometimes falling one or two thousand feet from the edge of
the road almost perpendicularly. But the hills are too close together to
allow the valleys to be termed magnificent. Reached Doonga Gullee at 10
a.m. The length of last march, eleven miles--the road, a good military
one, has been cut in the face of the mountain. Put up at the Dak
Bungalow, and dined with the officers of the working party; among them
Heat