MEERUT TENT CLUB. The Meerut Tent Club Log. A reprint of the records of the Meerut Tent Club from its formation to the present time. Meerut: The "Official" Machine Printing Press. 1899.
8vo. Original black cloth, gilt lettering to spine; pp. vi + 820; binding rubbed, internally very good. Provenance: bookplate of Helperby Hall in Yorkshire to front pastedown. A copy of the spoof ancient text on pig-sticking used by Baden-Powell in his book is tipped in to the ffep and bears the signature of E. Clive Coates, 15th Hussars, dated 2nd April 1902. Coates (1879 - 1971), later known as Sir Clive Milnes-Coates, was a baronet who served first in Meerut, where he joined the Tent Club, and later with the Royal Artillery in the First World War. Helperby was his ancestral home. Taped in to the rear of the book are three letters written to Coates in 1952, as he was trying to track down the Tent Club's original papers. The second of these letters is from the great pig-sticking author Sir Alexander Wardrop, by this time very advanced in years : "My sight isnot very good now, ½ I can read nothing and type by touch alone without knowingwhat mistakes I k make [sic]". His very touching letter points Coates in the direction of the Royal Artillery Institution, the librarian of which confirms, in the third letter, that the records had been given to the British Field Sports Society in the February of 1952.
First edition thus. Very scarce. This comprehensive round-up of the first thirty three years of the Merrut Tent Club confirms Baden-Powell's prowess as pig-sticker - he won the Kadir Cup in 1883 - and the enormous popularity of this sport amongst British officers in the Raj. Every excursion is described in detail, and in heroic terms.
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