FROM DELHI TO UMBALA. 287 



afterwards told Lord Napier, than he felt at the 

 offer thus made to him. He agreed to let Hodson 

 buy the whole lot at two rupees four annas a head. 

 The purchase-money, which Hodson paid over to 

 the prize agent, amounted to Rs. 3491. Under an 

 escort of his own sowars the cattle with their 

 drivers were sent off to Delhi, where the cattle 

 were sold at a very handsome profit. 



Out of the proceeds, says the Rev. C. Sloggett, 

 Hodson bought at Umbala for 1200 rupees a house 

 " which, just before the Mutiny and a few months 

 after, was worth Rs. 15,000, for which I believe he 

 ultimately sold it. At first, however, his wife lived 

 in it, and in grateful remembrance of the mode of 

 its acquisition they bestowed upon it the name of 

 the Cowhouse." The name, in fact, was given as a 

 joke by Hodson himself, who appears to have been 

 in high glee at the result of his lucky speculation. 



" Not many weeks elapsed," continues Mr Slog- 

 gett, " ere many of the residents had left, and were 

 succeeded by others who, though they knew of 

 Hodson, knew nothing of the circumstances which 

 had enabled him to purchase so large and fine a 

 house, and so the rumour grew and spread that 

 one who was known to have been in debt a short 

 time before must have ' looted ' largely ere he 

 could have become the possessor of so valuable a 

 house." ^ 



Lord Napier's testimony to the truth of a story 

 told by Brigadier Show^ers needs no corroboration. 

 It may, however, be worth noting here that the 

 late Sir Donald Stewart, who had served on the 

 general staff during the siege of Delhi, declared 



1 Rev. C. Sloggett's letter to Mr Bosworth Smith. 



