Buller

“ On March 3rd Buller's force entered Ladysmith in state between the lines of the defenders. For their heroism the Dublin Fusiliers were put in the van of the procession, and it is told how, as the soldiers who lined the streets saw the five officers and small clump of men, the remains of what had been a strong battalion, realising, for the first time perhaps, what their relief had cost, many sobbed like children. With cheer after cheer the stream of brave men flowed for hours between banks formed by men as brave. ”

“ The Bullers at one time lived chiefly in Cornwall, and Downes was originally a shooting-box. A hay-loft stood at one end, and when the house was enlarged the archway under which the hay-waggons were driven was left standing, and now forms part of the drawing-room—a room with an unusually high ceiling. A member of the family has been kind enough to send me notes of one or two incidents in the history of the Bullers.
'The whole Buller family was at one time reduced to a single individual, John Francis Buller. He died of the smallpox. His mother insisted on seeing him after death. ”

“ Buller was not a brilliant member of the healing fraternity, but a steady-going, conscientious, doggedly energetic practitioner on whose sturdy friendship through all the thick and thin of the regular grind Burns was accustomed to rely. ”

“ He was Buller’s only staff-officer, and the force Buller commanded,137 about a thousand strong, was the strangest congeries imaginable. It consisted of broken gentlemen, of runagate sailors, of fugitives from justice, of the scum of the South African towns, of stolid Africanders, of Boers whom the Zulus had driven from their farms. Almost every European nationality was represented; there were a few Americans, some good, some bad ”

“ No man skulked; the majority were keen enough for fighting, and the funkers, if there were any, had to pretend to be as zealous as their comrades. Buller and Beresford were always in the saddle early, waiting for the firstlings of the muster. ”

“ Buller had a great reception at Aldershot on his return from South Africa. I never saw a more radiantly happy face on a woman than poor Lady Audrey’s, who had been in a state of most tense anxiety during her dear Redvers’ absence. As the train steamed into the station the band struck up “See the Conquering Hero comes!” The horses of his carriage were unharnessed, and the triumphal car was drawn by a team of firemen to Government House. At the entrance gate a group of school children sang “Home, sweet Home”; my husband hauled down his flag and Buller’s was run up, and so that episode closed. ”

“ Hope is ever the watchword of those who wish to conquer. But the tranquil and decorous Westport of to-day, whose chief export is coal, bears no manner of resemblance to the busy, noisy, turbulent Westport of olden times, when heavy exports of golden ore constantly crossed the Buller Bar. ”

“ Now, if I were once suspected, they would find out that I constantly went to Slam’s, who finds agents to sell the game for all the poachers round, and some of the keepers too, if the truth were known, and that I had been seen in Marriner’s company; who is considered to make a regular income out of Lord Woodruff’s pheasants, and they would have some grounds to go upon. But Buller is all right. ”

“ Don’t you know a magnificently happy man when you see one—and can’t you——”
Red’s manner suddenly changed, as Dr. Maxwell Buller looked up at him with an expression of mingled pain and protest. Red’s voice softened, his smiling lips grew sober.
“I beg your pardon, Max, old man,” he said. “You’re in trouble, and I’m a blind ass—as usual. What’s the matter? The Throckmorton case gone wrong, after all? Or worse things befallen? Come—out with it!”
Buller got up. He was Burns’ best friend in the profession—the two had stood together since the earliest days of medical school and hospital training. ”

“ More towards the south, across the Buller, I looked down into the valley of Ohika-iti and Ohika-nui, shut in at their heads by the rugged masses of the Paparoha chain, the whole presenting one of the finest and most magnificent views that it is possible to conceive. . . . The Papahaua chain consists of two ranges, one near the sea running north, the other, six miles to the east of it, at the Buller, running north-west, the two afterwards uniting in a common centre. I named the highest peak, upon which I had fixed my station, Mount Rochfort (3572 ft.) ”

“ Then, when all was ready, the first step in this last stage of the regular campaign was taken by General Buller, who moved his army of Natal veterans off the railway line and advanced to a position from which he could threaten the flank and rear of Botha if he held his ground against Lord Roberts. Buller's cavalry had been reinforced by the arrival of Strathcona's Horse, a fine body of Canadian troopers, whose services had been presented to the nation by the public-spirited nobleman whose name they bore. ”

“ Every one who came within Buller's presence was amused by the keenness of a wit which never wounded, and impressed by the sincerity of his purpose for good. Carlyle styled him 'a fine honest fellow,' and again, 'the genialest radical I have ever met,' pouring out in the columns of the 'Examiner' an elegy on his death. ”

“ He could look up now—Red’s back was toward him.
“Doesn’t the amount of work I stand up under, every earthly day and night, show that in spite of your blamed old dissection I could do a good job over there before I cash in—which, of course, may be indefinitely postponed? Nobody knows better than you that a fellow can go on working like a fiend for years with the rottenest sort of heart, and never even suspect himself that there’s a thing wrong——”
“I know.” Buller’s voice was gentle as a woman’s. ”

“ But Buller had some exceptional difficulties with which to contend. He was weak in mounted troops, and was opposed to an enemy of exceptional mobility who might attack his flank and rear if he exposed them. He had not that great preponderance of numbers which came to him later, and which enabled him to attempt a wide turning movement. One advantage he had, the possession of a more powerful artillery, but his heaviest guns were naturally his least mobile, and the more direct his advance the more effective would his guns be. ”

“ If you could only vary your bowling a little more you would be very dangerous. You see, if you always send the same sort of ball, a fellow knows how to meet it after a bit.”
Robarts as an all-round player was only reckoned inferior to Crawley, and his words of approval were very gratifying to Buller, who felt himself a step nearer one particular goal. ”

“ Charles was saying, “getting up a fight just for a thing like that; all very well for ’im. ’E’s got ’is ’olidays; ’e ’asn’t no blessed dinner to take up to-morrow night like I ’ave.—No need to numb my arm, IS there?”
They went into Buller’s yard through gates. There were sheds in Buller’s yard—sheds of mystery that the moonlight could not solve—a smell of cows, and a pump stood out clear and black, throwing a clear black shadow on the whitewashed wall. ”

“ There is certainly no more capable soldier of high rank in all the army in Natal than Sir Redvers Buller. For three months he has been trying his best to pierce the Boer lines and the barrier of mountain and river which separates Ladysmith from food and friends; trying with an army—magnificent in everything but numbers, and not inconsiderable even in that respect—trying at a heavy price of blood in Africa, of anxiety at home. ”

“ General Buller pushed up the hill as the guns were at work, and afterwards General Hamilton; the one as grim as his pictures, the other looking very happy. The wind blew through us cold like ice as we stood on the hill; as the artillery ceased fire the mist dropped over us chilling us to the bone. We were afraid we should have to spend the night on the hill, but a welcome order came sending us back to camp, a distance of five miles by the roads, as Buller would hold the hill, and our force must march south. ”

“ On the 13th, moving on the same line, and meeting with very slight opposition, Buller took possession of Ermelo. His advance was having a good effect upon the district, for on the 12th the Standerton commando, which numbered 182 men, surrendered to Clery. On the 15th, still skirmishing, Buller's men were at Twyfelaar, and had taken possession of Carolina. Here and there a distant horseman riding over the olive-coloured hills showed how closely and incessantly he was watched ”

“ The necessity for violent exertion had been taken out of Buller, indeed it was now oozing away from every pore of his skin. So he did not try fast bowling, except now and then when he attempted to put in a shooter, but concentrated his attention principally upon placing his ball, or on pitching it to leg with an inward twist towards the wicket. He constantly failed; sent easy ones which were hit about to the peril of neighbouring players; cut Penryhn over once on the knee-cap and once on the ankle. ”

“ Sir Walter Buller gives a fairly complete description of the bird and its habits, and also an illustration of a Kea attacking a sheep, but again one searches in vain for the name of actual eye-witnesses. There is mention made of a shepherd who saw a Kea attacking some sheep while he was driving them, but no name was given; and, as nothing is known of the man, the evidence dwindles away to nothing. ”

“ Possibly having got so far on the northward, the tourist, hearing that beyond the Karamea there is little trace of human life or occupation, may bethink himself wise to retrace his steps and hie back once more to the Buller, and in such decision he will act discreetly, unless endowed with an ardent desire to penetrate scarce trodden solitudes. ”

“ Under her auspices his houses of the Grange, near Alresford, and Bath House, Piccadilly, became centres of life for many eminent men in politics and literature, and especially for Charles Buller, Thackeray, and Carlyle. Mrs. Carlyle, indeed—as readers of her Letters and her husband's Reminiscences will remember—resented his attachment to Lady Ashburton. Lady Ashburton had long been in delicate health, but was seized with her fatal illness at Nice in 1857, and died at Paris 4 May 1857. ”

“ Had Buller in November known that Ladysmith was capable of holding out until March, is it conceivable that he, with his whole army corps and as many more troops as he cared to summon from England, would not have made such an advance in four months through the Free State as would necessitate the abandonment of the sieges both of Kimberley and of Ladysmith? If the Boers persisted in these sieges they could not possibly place more than 20,000 men on the Orange River to face 60, 000 whom Buller could have had there by the first week in December. ”

“ Shots are exchanged and mischief happens sometimes. But my poor little air-gun would not be a very formidable weapon in a row, I expect. Its peppercorn bullets are good for a rabbit or pheasant, but would hardly disable a man. The gamekeeper with his double-barrel would have a good deal the best of it. But, I say, my cold has not taken away my appetite. Let us get in to breakfast, and hang poaching.”
Chapter Ten. The Fates are down upon Buller.
Tom Buller had finished his breakfast, and was ruefully preparing his lesson in his room, when he heard his name being called up the staircase. ”

“ Throughout the Buller district many miners are also engaged to some extent in pastoral pursuits; and smiling homesteads, with good orchards, are a common sight. As a natural result of this more settled life, the miner is in a great measure free from the follies and vices so common on the diggings in former days, but happily in other respects his character is not changed. Now, as then, he is an open-hearted generous man, ever ready to extend a helping hand to any one in need. The genuine gold miner of to-day is essentially an honourable man. ”

“ Mr. Justice Buller directed that the jury was merely to find the publication and the truth of the innuendoes as laid; whether the words constituted a libel or not was for the court. Erskine subsequently, in Michaelmas term, argued against this in a very fine speech upon a motion for a rule for a new trial. The rule was refused, but the question was finally set at rest by the passing of Fox's Libel Act (32 Geo. Ill, c. 60) in 1792, which enacted that the question of libel or no libel in each particular case is for the jury. ”

“ No doubt he will bring the greater part if not all the garrison of Ladysmith back to Frere and Estcourt, both to get them out of the pestilential air here and for convenience of feeding them. The civilian population will leave, of course, as soon as they possibly can. I should think that Buller will leave in garrison here an infantry brigade, part of the cavalry, and two or three batteries, and this with the sick who cannot be moved, will be about as much as our transport will be able to manage until the railway bridge is repaired and the line put in running order. ”

“ Resting the gun on the ledge and keeping his eye along the barrel, he had not the nerve to pull the trigger. At last the retreating figure disappeared, and with it Mike's chance of a fortune. He drew in the gun, and softly closed the window, with a long quivering sigh of regret.
Sidney Buller went west from Detroit when he received the telegram that announced his uncle's death and told him he was heir to the ranch. He was thirty years younger than his uncle had been at the time of his tragic death, and he bore a remarkable likeness to the old man ”