PREFACE. IX 



acteristic of the writer, so full of life and movement 

 and many-sided interests, so rich in terse and lively 

 details of noteworthy scenes, incidents, adventures, 

 that I think no adequate record of his romantic 

 career could do without them. In these letters 

 one sees the man himself in all his varied aspects 

 and relations, from the frank, genial, sympathetic 

 son, brother, friend, and husband, to the cool, clear- 

 headed, resourceful soldier, always ready to do, 

 dare, or suffer greatly in the cause of manifest 

 duty ; quick to take up with a light heart any 

 task that good fortune or the public need might 

 offer to his hands, and successful in winning the 

 unbounded confidence and the loving homage of 

 his Indian troops. Happily for my purpose, the 

 Kev. G. H. Hodson himself invited me to make 

 free use of his brother's published correspondence. 

 I venture to think that no intelligent reader will 

 grumble at my acceptance of an offer so generous, 

 made by a master in his own field of literary art. 



For much of the new matter contained in this 

 volume my heartiest thanks are due to Miss 

 Hodson, who supplied me with a mass of papers 

 bearing upon her brother's career. To Hodson's 

 old schoolfellow and lifelong friend, the Rev. F. A. 

 Foster, I am indebted for some pleasant reminis- 

 cences of his boyhood and for several of the letters, 

 now published for the first time. Another of his 



