144 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



attend the affair will be proportioned to the success 

 of the operation." ^ 



How largely this success was owing to Hodson's 

 leadership may be seen from Colonel Boileau's 

 official despatch: "To the admirable conduct of 

 Lieutenant Hodson in reconnoitring, in the skilful 

 disposition of his men, and the daring gallantry with 

 which he led his fine corps in every advance, most of 

 our success is due ; for the safety of the whole force 

 while in the valley of the Tillah depended on his 

 holding his position, and I had justly every con- 

 fidence in his vigilance and valour." 



This praise was dul}^' indorsed by Sir William 

 Gomm, who begged the brigadier to express to 

 Lieutenant Hodson " my particular thanks for the 

 great service he rendered the force under your 

 command, by his ever-gallant conduct, which has 

 fully sustained the reputation he has so justly 

 acquired for courage, coolness, and determination." 



Before Christmas Hodson and his wife were aojain 

 together in camp at Mardan, thirty -three miles 

 north-east of Peshawar, where Hodson among his 

 other duties was engaged in building a fortified 

 cantonment for the officers and men of the Guide 

 Corps. 



" I wish you could see your little granddaughter," 

 he writes to his father on January 2, 1854, "being 

 nursed by a rough-looking Afghan soldier or bearded 

 Sikh, and beginning life so early as a dweller in 

 tents. She was christened by Mr Clarke, one of the 

 Church missionaries who happened to be in Peshciwar. 

 . . . My second in command. Lieutenant Godby, 

 was stabbed in the back by a fanatic the other day 



1 Bos worth Smith's ' Life of Lord Lawrence.' 



