fter a few weeks we left father in Calcutta busily engaged in talking to people and learning about the political situation and the problems that lay ahead and the rest of us set off for the mountains to spend the next six months at Darjeeling.

The Governor had his own train or his own carriages attached to the ordinary train and whenever we travelled we travelled in great luxury.

e were also given a little book containing information about the journey - who was travelling, which compartment they were sleeping in, how many servants would be accompanying them, the names of stopping places, sometimes a map.

ur train stopped at Siliguri, at the foot of the hills and we got into the mountain railway which was to take us up into the `high places`. We had been surprised that there was no view of the Himalayas as we approached them, unlike the Alps, and that we found ourselves actually beginning to climb before we had seen a mountain. As the years were to pass we never ceased to enjoy the thrill we got from this little train as it chugged its way up the mountains, sometimes completing a full circle as it passed over its own tail and sometimes tacking backwards and forwards.