FROM SOLDIER TO CIVILIAN. 105 



Fowell Buxton, whose energy, he wrote, " is admir- 

 ably shown in everything, from porter and beef- 

 steaks to bullying West Indian planters. We want 

 men of that kind out here, who will stand climate 

 and snubbing to any amount. The apathy and 

 laissez -faire S3^stem which the climate of India 

 seems to engender is quite astounding ; but one 

 gets used to it soon, and in time, I suppose, as 

 apathetic as the rest of them. Sir Henry Lawrence 

 is still absent on his tour. . . . He seemed to me 

 utterly broken up, body and mind, when he was 

 here." 



On the 22nd he writes to his father : " How I 

 envy you your mountain and lake wanderings [in 

 Switzerland], and how much I wish I could be 

 with you and the dear sisters amid such a beauti- 

 ful country. What a relief it would be after the 

 sea-like plain of Upper India, to say nothing of 

 the delight of seeing you all again ! . . . I am not 

 yet able to walk or ride, but I make my friends 

 drive me in their carriages." He had "quite a 

 host of guests " staying with him during a great 

 race meeting at Lahore, in which Sir Walter Gilbert 

 might be seen, at the age of sixty-five, " riding races 

 against all comers, professional and gentlemen riders, 

 and beating them all." 



In December 1849 Lord Dalhousie paid his first 

 visit to the capital of his new province. " Great 

 have been the doings," writes Hodson on the 7th — 

 " two balls, two darbars, two levees, ?ifete climnpetre, 

 and an investiture of the Bath, all in one week. . . . 

 I had only just strength enough to stand up during 

 the proceedings. We civil employes gave a ball last 

 night to Lady Dalhousie and the Governor-General. 



