Postscript

Postscript: Since writing the above I have heard from the authoress of “Odious Child”, who tells Me that her father was one of the first car-owners in Russia (make not remembered) but that her grandfather had no associations with Ettore I3ugatti, simply buying the .electric 13ugatti as a present for his grandson.In 1920-21 her father, while in Holland, had a De Dion Bouton with allweather body, equipped with flower vases and companions of bottles and decanters in the back compartment. This, and the Hotchkiss that he owned later, were declared by her father to he the best cars he ever owned. The Hotchkiss had been custom-made for the Head of the Hotchkiss Company and possessed headlamps that swivelled with the front wheels and a horn that could play two tunes, both, alas, found to be illegal. As far as is remembered, the De Dion I3outon was replaced by a Panhard-Levassor, with Splendid brass headlamps and a body equipped like that of the De Dion and finished in black-and-yellow, picked out with canework.—W.B.