For ................................................ From ............................................... DUBLIN: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CURWEN, 3, NASSAU STREET. 1881....

The following Journal or Diary was written by my dear Husband—to use his own words—"for you , of course, first, but written in this form specially for the dear chicks, and therefore quite simple and plain, so as to interest and amuse them; but I shall be very glad if it interests the others if you will send it the rounds, as then I need not try to write the same story over and over again, which is very tiresome." When on the 20th March, 1880, being at the time Adjutant-General of the Bombay Army

At each of these places there is a small enclosure, it cannot be called a fort, in which the commissariat stores are placed. General Stewart refused to garrison the smaller of these with our troops, but left them in charge of native levies who the civil authorities assured him were perfectly trustworthy. The value of this opinion has been very conclusively shown by the events of the past week. Each enclosure or fort is like the other, except in size, some being larger than others. They are of th

so I have one room to sleep, sit, and write in, and a room where we dine and breakfast, and which is, of course, public property. I have, as a special indulgence, a bath-room all to myself, but no one else has one. The room when I came into it was horrid; the floor was six inches deep in dust; there were no doors or windows, and altogether it was most unpromising. I have, however, had a floor made for it, the passage and dining-room, of a wonderful kind of stuff like Plaster of Paris which aboun

And though the command entails plenty of work and responsibility, I like it, and wish I could keep it while I am here. The first thing, of course, was to ascertain the positions held by various regiments, their weak points, &c., and so I spent the afternoon in riding round and making myself acquainted with everything as far as I could, so that in case of a row at night, I should be ready to decide on what might be necessary to do. I moved into my quarters in the cantonments, and obtained

Three Batteries of Artillery, Three Regiments of Cavalry, Five Regiments of Infantry, and the line was of good extent. General Primrose commanded the parade, and General Burrows and I | Feu de joie—"Akhbar" admired. | had each our own Brigades. One of the performances on the Queen's birthday parade is firing a feu de joie with blank ammunition, when the fire is run down the whole of the front rank, and then back up the rear rank, and this is done three times, and is, as may be imagined, most try

There are 6 gates in the wall of the City, which is fully 20 to 30 feet high, and very thick and strong. At each of the city gates there is a guard of Native Infantry, and we hold the keys of the gates which we lock every night at sunset, after which hour neither entrance nor exit is permitted to anyone. The guards are stationed on the ramparts, and their posts should, from the first, according to the most ordinary rules of war, have been put in a state of defence, but nothing was done to them,

to be held in readiness to march at once. About ¾ of an hour later General Primrose arrived from the Citadel and authorized my starting at once, urging on me, however, to use great caution, and avoid, as far as possible, any considerable loss of life. Being anxious to be off at once, I had no time to give any attention to getting my own property into the Citadel, but had to leave the matter to my native servant, telling him to do the best he could, and to take the most useful things into safety

Though mine is shorter a good deal than either General Burrows' or General Nuttall's, it has the drawback of being farthest from the Citadel, and it is generally supposed it will be the one on which the heaviest attack will come. Each front is covered outside with a net-work of walls which must be destroyed....

Here the Diary ends! [Pg 164] [Pg 165]...

[Pg 166] [Pg 167] From Rt. Hon. Hugh Childers, M.P., War Office. To Mrs. Brooke, Ashbrooke, Brookeboro'. I deeply regret to have to announce to you that General Brooke fell in a sortie from Kandahar on the Sixteenth of August. Pray accept my most sincere condolences on the terrible loss to yourself and to the country. From Her Majesty the Queen. Balmoral Castle, August 27th, 1880. Lt.-General Sir Henry Ponsonby presents his compliments to Mrs. Brooke. He has been commanded to convey the Queen's