Vlll PREFACE, 



of his fitness for civil rule. It was perhaps in- 

 evitable that a man of his mark and character 

 should repel at least as many as he attracted. 

 Few men, indeed, have had warmer friends or 

 more persistent enemies. But the latter included 

 none of his own household, and very few who 

 could claim much personal knowledge of the man 

 they misjudged. 



In writing about Hodson, I have tried to steer 

 an even course between the Scylla of unqualified 

 praise and the Charybdis of undeserved censure. 

 A careful study of Reynell Taylor's report, — the 

 full text of which will be found in the Appendix, 

 — compared with the evidence contained in some 

 of Hodson's own letters, and in the statements 

 volunteered by important witnesses, has convinced 

 me that nine -tenths of the stories current to his 

 discredit owe their prevalence and long vitality 

 to a widespread misconception of the causes which 

 led to his removal from the Guides. Of the re- 

 maining tenth it is enough, I think, to say that 

 they are either absurd distortions of frhe truth or 

 conclusions drawn from facts about which opinions 

 will always differ. 



In this volume I have quoted liberally from the 

 letters published by the Rev. Prebendary George 

 H. Hodson in his excellent biography of his illus- 

 trious brother. These letters are at once so char- 



