12 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



fellow ! I've been to Brinklow since dinner.' From 

 the same writer we learn ' that as a boy he was not 

 remarkable for physical strength or courage, and 

 none of us would have foretold that he would be- 

 come one of the most daring and successful swords- 

 men in the Indian army.' " ^ 



The sort of courag-e for which William Hodson was 

 not remarkable may be inferred from the following 

 passage in a letter addressed to me by another old 

 Eugbeian, who afterwards won his laurels in the 

 Indian Civil Service. " I recollect," says my in- 

 formant, "that some years ago, when Tom Hughes, 

 the author of ' Tom Brown's School-days,' was stay- 

 ing with me here for a few days, we had a good 

 deal of talk about William Hodson, among other 

 of our contemporaries at Eugby. I then found 

 that Tom Hughes, like myself, had been a good 

 deal surprised at the reputation which Hodson had 

 achieved as a gallant and dashing soldier. The 

 impression which both of us had formed of him as 

 a schoolboy had not at all prepared us for the feats 

 which he accomplished in after-life. We could 

 neither of us call to mind having ever seen him 

 in the thick of a scrimmage at football. He was 

 generally hovering outside on these occasions, look- 

 ing out probably for the chance of running with 

 the ball." 



It seems clear that Hodson's courage was naturally 

 cool and circumspect — the courage, let us say, of 

 Ulysses rather than the headlong fury of Ajax or 

 Achilles. Having no great love of fighting for 

 fig-htino-'s sake, he never threw himself into the 

 rough-and-tumble of a football scrimmage ; nor did 



1 'Fraser's Magazine,' February 1859. 



