152 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



greatly even with people of his own class and 

 calling. Hitherto, at any rate, Hodson appears to 

 have been far from unpopular with those who knew 

 him, whether personally or by common repute. In 

 the 'Calcutta Review' for October 1852 Sir Richard 

 Temple had said that " Lieutenant Hodson, marvel- 

 lously attaching the Guides to himself by the ties 

 of mutual honour, mutual daring, and mutual devo- 

 tion, has on every opportunity proved that the 

 discipline of a public school and subsequent 

 university training are no disqualification for 

 hazardous warfare, or for the difficult task of 

 keeping wild tribes in check." The enthusiastic 

 greeting which Hodson was afterwards to receive 

 at Delhi from the men he had once commanded 

 bore ample witness to the warmth of their affection 

 for their former leader. 



It is certain, however, that his j)romotion to a 

 command so widely coveted by men of higher 

 standing gave sore offence not only to one or two 

 officers in the Guides, but to several others who 

 deemed their own claims stronger than his. So 

 bitter was the enmity displayed towards him by 

 his adjutant, Lieutenant Turner, that in April 1854 

 that officer, greatly to Hodson's relief, was trans- 

 ferred to a regiment of Punjab cavalry. But the 

 stories he had meanwhile set on foot to Hodson's 

 prejudice must have found their way to the Chief 

 Commissioner many months before. In August 

 1853 John Lawrence writes to Hodson with regard 

 to the general feeling of the Guides : " You must 

 not be hurt at what I say, for I do it simply and 

 solely for your own good. You may depend on it 

 that neither the European nor the native officers 



