126 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



from home he writes : " It is very pleasant to 

 receive these warm greetings, and it refreshes me 



* ' CD ^ 



when bothered or overworked, or feverish, or dis- 

 gusted. I look forward to a visit to England and 

 liome with a pleasure which nothing but six years 

 of exile can give," 



With regard to his new official rank, it appears 

 that Lord Dalhousie had yielded at last to the 

 friendly pressure exerted by Hodson's superiors, 

 especially bj^ Mr Edmonstone, who had " com- 

 menced attacking him in my favour before I had 

 been under him four months." 



To the Rev. E. Harland he writes on June 11 : 

 "The old visions of boyhood have given place to 

 the vehement aspirations of a military career and 

 the interests of a larger ambition. I thirst now not 

 for the calm pleasures of a country life, the charms 

 of society, or a career of ease and comfort, but for 

 the maddening excitement of war, the keen contest 

 of wits involved in dealing with wilder men, and 

 the exercise of power over the many by force of the 

 will of the individual. Nor am I, I hope, insensible 

 to the vast field for good and for usefulness which 

 these vast provinces offer to our energies, and to 

 the high importance of the trust committed to our 

 charge." 



In October of the same year he writes to his 

 father: "By the end of next summer I hope to be 

 as strong as I ever hope to be again. That I shall 

 ever again be able to row from Cambridge to Ely in 

 two hours and ten minutes, to run a mile in five 

 minutes, or to walk from Skye (or Kyle Hatren 

 Ferry) to Inverness in thirty hours, is not to be 

 expected, or perhaps desired. But I have every 



