kept up. I hope the maintenance grants are given without stint and you are able to have a good supply of gravel on the platform."

"I am getting so anxious about the season in Pudukota that I sometimes lose my sleep. If we have abundant rains in August and September the state may look forward to a tolerably fair season. Please write and inform me when

ever you have a good downpour or have reports of it in the Taluks."

"I hope a class for drawing has been opened in the State Girls' School."

But he knew he had done his work and must rest. And he did indeed long for rest-complete rest after half a century of toil; but he feared, at the same time, that leisure would soon begin to pall. He used to compare himself to a jutka pony, which is never more at ease than when kicking and running. But he has found congenial employment for his hours; he rises at 7 in the morning and after ablutions and coffee opens the tapal and reads his letters; then an hour or more is given to the newspapers and periodicals; to his steward who comes to report on business matters and take instructions, and to visitors who often come to him for advice and help. Then comes

breakfast at about 12. Then a few hours of rest during the heat of the day. He then writes his letters; he keeps up an extensive correspondence, in which he is still very regular. Among those

with whom he has had for many, many years past the privilege and honour of personal correspondence must be mentioned the present benevolent ruler of Travancore, whose confidence and esteem he has always enjoyed. As the evening draws near, come, in his own words, 'good company, congenial conversation and now and then a dip into the wisdom of our ancestors who have left us an immense legacy.' In the first months of retirement his large circle of relatives from adjoining villages, men and women, young and old, came up in numbers to visit the grand old man in his fine mansion and kept him engaged in talking and more often hearing; then came a lull; and time was sometimes heavy. It was about this time he writes to a friend :

"I am settling down into my new life of retirement. This is the first time I take the sweets (and bitters!) of freedom. Sometimes I feel very queer, having nothing particular to do and nobody to talk to. But I think the leisure is fully required to recoup the hardworked animal and supply its old age wants."

It was the evenings that now and then wanted employment when friends to chat with failed. He tried evening drives but after a time gave them up. The roads were very trying, especially after his drives in Pudukota. Then he engaged a Pandit of rare scholarship and modesty, who kept

him company every evening till it was time for supper; and the evening hours were devoted to regular readings from Sanskrit Literature.

Thus he spends his time; occasionally the Collector of the District asks him for his opinion on questions in which the District is interested; occasionally the Madras Government consult him on questions of public interest. These sometimes keep him at extra work for weeks. When there ran rumours about the abolition of the Government College, Kumbakonam, he wrote many a letter to the then Director of Public Instruction, urging its retention. Governors of Madras have visited him in his home and found wisdom in his words. Reference has already been made to the visit of Sir Arthur Havelock, late Governor of Madras, who, when about to leave these shores, wrote to him :

"I shall leave India with many regrets and with many happy memories. But, of these happy memories, there are few which hold a more conspicuous place than my acquaintance with yourself. The pleasant hour I spent with you in your house on the bank of the Cauvery will always remain fresh in my recollection. I recognised in you one of the most able and remarkable personalities of Southern India and I felt it a privilege to draw on your rich store of wisdom, of knowledge and of experience."

His Excellency Lord Ampthill, the present

Governor, also paid a visit to him last year; Lord Elgin, when Viceroy, halted for a short while at Kumbakonam during his southern tour, on purpose to see Sashiah Sastri and grant him an interview; Lord Curzon also gave him an interview, some time back, at Tanjore; and all these great men have gone impressed by the personality of the grand old man of Southern India. As Sir M. E. Grant Duff writes to Sashiah Sastri in one of his letters :

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"I have again and again said to others and there seems no reason why I should not say to you, that of all the native statesmen I have come across in any part of India you were the one who impressed me most favourably."

His most Gracious Majesty Edward VII. has, in the birth day honours bestowed this year, made Sashiah Sastri a Knight Commander of the Star of India, Lord Curzon, Viceroy, wiring the news and his congratulations thus:

"It gives me great pleasure to inform you that His Majesty has been pleased, upon my recommendation, to appoint you to be a K.C.S.I. Permit me to congratulate you heartily upon this distinction."

And now it is time to bring this sketch to a close. The career of Sir Sashiah furnishes many a lesson of high import to the present generation. He has shown us how it is possible, even for the

poorest among us, to rise to the highest eminence, rank and power by dint of honest, hard work, to come to be honoured of mighty potentates and rulers of the earth by steadily trying to do, to the best of our might, the work that is set before us, leaving the rest in the hands of Him who controls all things. To few men have been given the length of his public life and the wide range of his public action. But at no period during this remarkably long career has Sir Sashiah yielded to the temptation of fingering an unearned or ill-earned rupee or rising 'to dignity through indignity.' He has had no cynical contempt for the blessings of wealth or the good things of life but he has never had the unhealthy hankering for the flesh-pots of Egypt and the supreme faith in the Almighty dollar' which have come in the train of modern ideas.

Sir Sashiah has shown us that to succeed in life large grasp of principles must be combined with skill in the management of details and that the instinct of order should never be allowed to be crushed by the multiplicity of varied, interests. Little things are often overlooked in the contemplation of grand theories and mighty results, but Sir Sashiah has always first cared for little things in whose train he has left the mighty