FROM KASHMIR TO KUSSOWLIE. 125 



of a soldier in times of war and tumults. Certain 

 it is that it requires tlie highest order of man to be 

 a good general, and in the lower ranks (in this 

 country especially), even with all the frightful 

 drawbacks and evils, I doubt wdiether the Saxon 

 race is ever so pre-eminent, or its good points so 

 strongly developed, as in the ' European ' soldier 

 serving in India, or on service anywhere." 



His word-picture of the view which his owai house 

 commanded from the top of a ridge some 8000 feet 

 above sea -level deserves quoting here: "In the 

 immediate foreground rises a round -backed ridge, 

 on which stands the former work of my hands, the 

 ' Lawrence Asylum ' ; wdiile to the westw^ard, and 

 down, down far off in the interminable south, the 

 wide glistening plains of the Punjab, streaked with 

 the faint ribbon-like lines of the Satlaj and its 

 tributaries, and the wider sea-like expanse of Hin- 

 dustan, stretch away in unbroken evenness beyond 

 the limits of vision, and almost beyond those of 

 faith and imagination. On the other side you look 

 over a mass of mountains up to the topmost peak of 

 Himalaya. So narrow is the ridge that it seems as 

 though you could toss a pebble from one window 

 into the Satlaj, and from the other into the valley 

 below Simla." 



After seven or eight hours' work he spent the 

 rest of his day in the society of the 60th Rifles — 

 "the very nicest and most gentlemanly regiment I 

 ever met with." 



In May Hodson's spirits were greatly raised not 

 only by the receipt of letters from home, but also 

 by his advancement to the higher grade of assistants 

 to Commissioners in the Punjab. Of the letters 



