EARLY TRAINING. 3 



" He was always," writes Miss Hodson, " very neat 

 and tidy in his dress and appearance, and he was 

 very handy. His handwriting, too, was always 

 clear and beautiful ; never a blot or erasure, even 

 in the stress of active service. . . . Owino- to the 

 severe headaches from which he suffered, and which 

 made study often hard work for him, and kept him 

 at times from school, I used to be his playfellow," 

 an arrangement which she never found cause to 

 regret, even when her playmate insisted on teaching 

 her the broadsword exercise. 



During William's early boyhood his studies, on 

 account of the headaches aforesaid, were pursued 

 at home under the direction of his excellent father, 

 except for the short period when the Eev. E. 

 Harland acted as his private tutor. " Home life, 

 however," says Mr George H. Hodson, " had not pre- 

 vented him from growing up an active high-spirited 

 boy, full of life and energy." Nor had his peculiar 

 ailments prevented his nimble intellect from imbibing 

 a fair amount of such knowledge as boys of his age 

 are expected to acquire. Whatever else the boy of 

 fourteen may have failed to learn, he had at least 

 received the spiritual training of a nature nutrita 

 faustis sub penetralibus — a nature fed upon the 

 best traditions of a pure English home. 



In the early part of 1837 young Hodson was 

 sent to school at Eugby, then famous for the re- 

 forming rule of its headmaster, the wise and learned 

 Dr Arnold, whose name has long been a household 

 word with all readers of ' Tom Brown's School-days,' 

 and the Life by Dean Stanley. And here I cannot 

 do better than quote the following pertinent memo- 

 randa which have been kindly furnished me b}^ 



