2 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



He was shortly afterwards elected as Fellow and 

 Tutor of Magdalen College. He married Mary 

 Stephen, niece of James Stephen, the eminent 

 Master in Chancery, the friend of Wilberforce 

 and Macaulay, and the head of a family con- 

 spicuous throughout the century at the Bar, on 

 the Bench, in Council, and in various fields of 

 literary achievement. 



Younsf Master Willie was blessed with a brisjht 

 and joyous nature and an affectionate disjDosition, 

 which endeared him not only to his own family 

 but to all around him of whatever degree. " That 

 which characterised him most," writes his elder 

 brother, the Rev. George H. Hodson, " was his 

 quickness of observation and his interest in every- 

 thing going on about him. By living with his 

 eyes and ears open, and never suffering anything 

 to escape his notice, he acquired a stock of practi- 

 cal knowledge which he turned to good account 

 in his after-life."^ With his frank blue eyes, 

 shapely features, his yellow hair and slim well- 

 knit figure, he must have been a beautiful as 

 well as a charming boy. No wonder that, in the 

 words of Miss Sibella Hodson, " his father was 

 wrapped up in him, and we all thought him fascin- 

 ating." If his manner as a boy towards other 

 boys was sometimes rough and masterful, he had 

 ever a soft place in his heart for girls and women. 

 His mother, at any rate, was not afraid to entrust 

 him at need with the sole companionship of her 

 youngest daughter, a trust which he never failed 

 tenderly and loyally to fulfil. 



^ Hodson of Hodson's Horse. By the Rev. George H. Hodson, 

 M.A., &c. Revised edition. 1889. 



