10 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



positors. To remedy this want Dr Arnold arranged, 

 with Price's consent, that your brother should be 

 transferred to my house, partly because from my 

 intimacy with you at Cambridge I had naturally 

 made his acquaintance, and partly because from his 

 energetic character and practical ability he was 

 likely to give efficient help to a new master begin- 

 ning the management of a house. 



" Unfortunately at the time that he ought to have 

 joined me he was taken ill, and did not return to 

 Rugby till a large portion of the half year was past, 

 and as he left it for Cambridge in the following 

 October my immediate connection with him was 

 brief. But it was long enouo;h to sfive abundant 

 proof that Arnold's choice had been a wise one. 

 I remember quite well that soon after he came he 

 made several sensible suggestions as to the arrange- 

 ments of the house, which after two months or more 

 of freedom from the authority of the Sixth had pro- 

 bably become somewhat anarchical. But the great 

 point to be noticed was, that though he immediately 

 re-established the shattered prestige of prepositorial 

 power, he contrived to make himself very popular 

 with various classes of boys. The younger boys 

 found in him an efficient protector against bullying. 

 Those of a more literary turn (amongst others one 

 of the present Professors at Oxford) found in him 

 an agreeable and intelligent companion, and were 

 proud of being admitted to sit in his study and talk 

 on matters of intellectual interest. Those who were 

 anxious that their house should take a good position 

 in the school were glad to see a leading member of 

 the Sixth Form at its head, and helping it to rise 

 to greater importance. The Democrats got their 



