Unfortunately Lord William was not able to accompany His Excellency, owing to his latest racing accident, from which he had not sufficiently recovered. This was a great disappointment to him, for he may have been happy-go-lucky and devil-me-care in his own private life, but there was nothing approaching it in his official capacity, where he was always keen and full of enthusiasm.
Lord Lytton had arrived in India knowing nothing of it “except its myths,” but was hard at work learning more, being somewhat puzzled but greatly interested. Amongst other matters, such as famine and irrigation, there was the ever-troublesome question of our geographical boundaries amongst the Afghan mountains, requiring close study and attention. It would be pleasant to follow the work done on this tour and its far-reaching results, but it has no place here except as far as Lord William was connected with it, so I pass on, simply stating that after a long and careful study of the famine question, Lord Lytton satisfied himself that periodical famines must be expected, and provision must be made for such distressful times during the country’s prosperity. He appointed a famine commission to enquire into it and report thereon, as to means of irrigation and any other measures possible to adopt. This report was issued in 1880, the year of Lord Lytton’s return to England, and was the foundation of the latter-day system of irrigation, developments of communication, and famine insurance, the benefits of these measures to be reaped by his successors.
In September of the same year (1877) His Excellency returned to Simla. In October Lord William had collected a few promising horses and began entering them under his own name. His colours were carried at the Dehra October Meeting by Oliver Twist, Lucifer, and Firetail. Lucifer was a country-bred, on which Captain Chisholme of Lord William’s regiment won two races for him. A little later, at Umballa, he had a good time, Oliver Twist bringing in the shekels by winning the Drawing-room Stakes, ridden by T. Tingey, the chief professional jockey in India at that time. Lord William rode in all the “chases” at the meeting, but scored no wins. He had a fall in the Grand Stand Plate, but was not much the worse, so remounted and rode in another race the same afternoon. The betting and plunging at this meeting amounted to a scandal, especially as many of the losers were more or less penniless. The settling naturally took a long time; indeed, I have heard that some of the winners never got their money at all. This meeting was the beginning of the break up of a very well-known figure in those days, Captain Frank Johnson, one of the handsomest of men, he being one of the heaviest losers.