1869-1871 The Lushais--The Lushai expedition--Defective transport again -- Practice _versus_ theory--A severe march -- Lushais foiled by Gurkhas--A successful turning movement -- Murder of Lord Mayo We spent a very quiet year at Simla.

My wife was far from strong, and we had another great sorrow in the death of a baby boy three weeks after his birth.
That winter I was left in charge of the Quartermaster-General's office, and we moved into 'Ellerslie,' a larger and warmer house than that in which we had lived during the summer.
Simla in the winter, after a fresh fall of snow, is particularly beautiful.

Range after range of hills clothed in their spotless garments stretch away as far as the eye can reach, relieved in the foreground by masses of reddish-brown perpendicular cliffs and dark-green ilex and deodar trees, each bearing its pure white burden, and decked with glistening fringes of icicles.

Towards evening the scene changes, and the snow takes the most gorgeous colouring from the descending rays of the brilliant eastern sun--brilliant even in mid-winter--turning opal, pink, scarlet, and crimson; gradually, as the light wanes, fading into delicate lilacs and grays, which slowly mount upwards, till at last even the highest pinnacle loses the life-giving tints, and the whole snowy range itself turns cold and white and dead against a background of deepest sapphire blue.

The spectator shivers, folds himself more closely in his wraps, and retreats indoors, glad to be greeted by a blazing log-fire and a hot cup of tea.
In the spring of the next year (1870) Sir William Mansfield's term of command came to an end, and he was succeeded by Lord Napier of Magd[=a]la.