142 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



Of Tliomason's public career every one may allow, 

 with Lord Dalhousie, that if even he " had left no 

 other memorial of his public life behind him, his 

 system of general vernacular education, which is all 

 his own, would have sufficed to build up for him a 

 noble and abiding monument of his earthly career." 



Not long after Hodson's return to his Guides he 

 heard that his wife was about to become a mother. 

 Ridina: hard all night from Peshawar to Eawal 

 Pindi, he was just in time to greet the arrival of 

 the little strang-er. and to see that all was well 

 with Mrs Hodson before returning to his post near 

 Peshawar. 



Before the end of November Hodson was once 

 more leading; his Guides in a short but brilliant 

 campaign in the hills between Peshawar and Kohat. 

 The Bori Afridis were threatening to block the passes 

 that lay between the two stations, and it became 

 necessary to teach these persistent raiders that we 

 could beat them on their own g-round. On the 

 morning of November 29 a select force of Europeans, 

 Guides, and Gurkhas, was led out by Brigadier 

 Boileau from camp at Adizai to dislodge the enemy 

 from the heights which formed their outer line of 

 defence.^ Thanks to the quick turning movement 

 carried out by Hodson's infantry, this preliminary 

 task was soon accomplished. From the valley 

 beyond rose a steep wall of rocks and crags, at the 

 foot of which were three Bori villages. 



Up these forbidding crags swarmed Hodson's 

 dashing Guides and Turner's sturdy little Gurkhas, 



1 The force comprised a mountain train, 400 of her Majest3's 22nd 

 Foot, 200 of the 20th Native Infantry, 400 of the 66th Gurkha 

 Regiment, and 450 of the Guides. 



