a 



FRESH WOODS AND PASTURES NEW." 53 



European troops. The selection was most fortunate, 

 and I doubt not I owe it to my companions." ^ 



As secretary to the new asylum, which was soon 

 to bear the name of its illustrious founder, William 

 Hodson in the spring of 1847 entered into a strange 

 new world of multifarious labours and responsibili- 

 ties. " Since the 1st of April," he writes to Mr 

 Foster in August, " I have been deeply engaged in 

 building and superintending the starting of ' an 

 asylum for European soldiers' children in the hills,' 

 the idea of which was started by Colonel Lawrence, 

 and most liberal funds into the bargain. Through- 

 out the summer I have had the sole direction of 

 some 600 workpeople, besides keeping accounts and 

 answering inquiries and letters from all parts of the 

 country, in my capacity of secretary." 



No wonder that the constant exposure during a 

 very hot June knocked him up, and brought on an 

 attack of illness from which he suffered more or less 

 during the next two months. 



"You would have been amused," he continues, 

 " to see me undertake what might truly be called 

 a magnum opus with so little previous training. It 

 is only a specimen of the way in which India brings 

 a man out, and of how varied and unusual are the 

 calls upon the faculties of mind and body in the 

 course of one's career in the East. 



"Building is a totally different affair here from 

 similar employment at home. You begin literally 

 from the mine, the quarry, and the forest. You 

 have actually to teach your workmen as you go on, 

 and in my case to learn yourself at the same time ! 

 and to be prepared to explain and point out every, 



1 Merivale's Life of Sir H. Lawrence. 



