34
in the Council, from retiring, and in the end
Sir Richard wrote to him :
" I am not going to sympathise with you for
becoming a knight-errant, as I know you have been
looking forward to the day when you would.
I know no one who is better provided by his tastes
against boredom when out of office." This was
perfectly true. And Sir Reginald Glancy, who had
known him and his work for a long time, wrote,
" Hyderabad cannot do without you." But
Nizamat Jung had made up his mind, and when
the time came for him to retire, " This day (the
22nd of D^ember^i^g)/' he wrote in his diary
tf is_ a red-letter day in my life. It is thirty-four
years since I "first dreamt of what I have now
gained. My father's hope of spending his last
few years in the quiet enjoyment of rural life was
never realised ; he died ' in harness ' in 1897, and
so did my uncle in 1904 and three of my cousins,
all high officials, between 1916 and 1920. This
only confirmed my determination to save myself
from a similar fate, and I made plans accordingly.
The first essential thing was the cultivation of a
refined distaste for the supposed privileges of
rank and dignity. I looked upon office as a stern
duty that had to be performed at much self-
sacrifice ; its emoluments, its power and its pres-
tige I regarded asjnconyenieat,vanities."
Then on the ^th of January, 1930, when he had
.got back to rural scenes :' " I wonder whether
the old mood will ever come back again with the
same unbounded capacity for careless enjoyment.