104 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



think one that will in the end be more distin- 

 guished. However, I was guided by Mr Thorn ason's 

 and Sir H. Lawrence's advice, and must take the 

 consequences." 



There were other matters, also, on which for the 

 moment he was specially employed. " The army 

 has fallen to my share, and I have to examine into 

 the claims of innumerable fine old hangers-on of 

 the Lahore State to grants or pensions, to record 

 their rights, and report on them for the decision of 

 Government. Then there are upwards of 2000 old 

 women, wives and mothers of soldiers killed in war, 

 whom I have to see and pay the pittance decreed 

 by their masters. Lord Dalhousie and his secretaries 

 and officials are stern and hard taskmasters, and are 

 not unworthily represented by the new Board, the 

 only merciful member of which (Sir H. Lawrence) 

 is left in a minority, and is, moreover, too ill to 

 do much." 



In October Hodson was again disabled for a time 

 from active work. For several weeks he was, in 

 his own words, " continuously bedridden, thanks 

 to a rampageous horse. Gentlemen at home ride 

 trained and broken horses ; we ride fresh young 

 brutes innocent of bit or saddle till the day one 

 mounts them, and it's not one wild trick but a 

 thousand they have. But my leg is doing well, 

 only sprained ; but three weeks on one's back is 

 hard lines when, as now, it means solitary confine- 

 ment. 'Tis true an acquaintance now and then 

 drops in, and the doctor's visits mark the lapse of 

 days, but at the best it is weary work." 



During those weeks of enforced idleness he 

 amused himself with reading the Life of Sir T. 



