130 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



was present except myself, the late Sir Frederick 

 Currie, then a member of the Supreme Council, and 

 Sir Lawrence Peel, the Chief-Justice of the Supreme 

 Court of Calcutta. Hodson then returned to his 

 duty in the Punjab, and w^e never met again." 



Hodson himself was glad to get away as soon as 

 possible from the capital of Bengal. "I hate Cal- 

 cutta with no common dislike, and hope this will be 

 my last visit to the city of palaces and uncovered 

 drains y 



After a short but pleasant visit to Mr Thomason 

 at Ao:ra — " we have nothinoj which kindness could 

 suggest left undone for us " — the newly- wedded pair 

 reached Umballa in the first week of March 1852. 

 Here the call of duty compelled Hodson to sejDarate 

 from his wife, whom he left for the time in the charge 

 of Colonel and Mrs Trevor Wheler. He himself had 

 to make the best of his way to Ludhijina in order to 

 " try a lot of gentlemen who have devoted their 

 youthful energies to strangling their neighbours by 

 the simple art of Thuggi."^ 



Early in April he appears to have joined the camp 

 of Sir William Gomm, the new commander-in-chief 

 at Patiala. On the 13th he writes to his wife that 

 he had been nearly worked off his feet. The com- 

 mander-in-chief was to start at 10 a.m. for the hills, 

 while he himself intended to ride on and breakfast 

 with Mr Lewin Bowring at Umballa on his way back 

 to Kussowlie. 



On the breaking out of war with Burmah he pre- 

 pared to rejoin his regiment, the 1st Bengal Fusiliers, 

 which had been despatched down the Ganges to 

 Calcutta in order to take part in the war. But the 



^ Letters supplied by Miss Hodson. 



