given in the novel) are entirely inspired by the buoyant imagination of
Richard Blackmore. A memorial window and tablet to his memory were
erected in Exeter cathedral in 1904.

BLACK MOUNTAIN, a mountain range and district on the Hazara border of
the North-West Frontier Province of India. It is inhabited by Yusafzai
Pathans. The Black Mountain itself has a total length of 25 to 30 m.,
and an average height of 8000 ft. above the sea. It rises from the Indus
basin near the village of Kiara, up to its watershed by Bruddur; thence
it runs north-west by north to the point on the crest known as
Chittabut. From Chittabut the range runs due north, finally descending
by two large spurs to the Indus again. The tribes which inhabit the
western face of the Black Mountain are the Hassanzais (2300 fighting
men), the Akazais (1165 fighting men) and the Chagarzais (4890 fighting
men), all sub-sections of the Yusafzai Pathans. It was in this district
that the Hindostani Fanatics had their stronghold, and they were
responsible for much of the unrest on this part of the border.

The Black Mountain is chiefly notable for four British expeditions:--

1. Under Lieut.-Colonel F. Mackeson, in 1852-53, against the Hassanzais.
The occasion was the murder of two British customs officers. A force of
3800 British troops traversed their country, destroying their villages
and grain, &c.

2. Under Major-General A.T. Wilde, in 1868. The occasion was an attack
on a British police post at Oghi in the Agror Valley by all three
tribes. A force of 12,500 British troops entered the country and the
tribes made submission.

3. The First Hazara Expedition in 1888. The cause was the constant raids
made by the tribes on villages in British territory, culminating in an
attack on a small British detachment, in which two English officers were
killed. A force of 12,500 British troops traversed the country of the
tribes, and severely punished them. Punishment was also inflicted on the
Hindostani Fanatics of Palosi.

4. The Second Hazara Expedition of 1891. The Black Mountain tribes fired
on a force within British limits. A force of 7300 British troops
traversed the country. The tribesmen made their submission and entered
into an agreement with government to preserve the peace of the border.

The Black Mountain tribes took no part in the general frontier rising of
1897, and after the disappearance of the Hindostani Fanatics they sank
into comparative unim