CONCLUSION. 351 



"His joyousness of nature made him the most 

 charming companion. There was a certain quaint- 

 ness of expression which gave zest to all he said ; 

 and yet there was a reverence, too, so that, were 

 subjects graver than usual introduced even by 

 allusion, they at once commanded his earnest 

 response." 



" I admired him," writes Sir Charles Gough, " for 

 his gallantry in leading ; his abounding energy, 

 activity, and resource in difficulties ; his coolness 

 in danger ; and his genial, cheerful, and kindly 

 disposition." ^ 



Many years afterwards a distribution of prizes 

 occurred at the Martiniere College, near Hodson's 

 last resting-place. A reference made by the Prin- 

 cipal to Hodson of Hodson's Horse as the genius 

 loci, and to the slanderous attacks made upon him, 

 was followed by a speech from General M. Dillon, 

 thus reported in a local newspaper: "As one who 

 knew him in the field, and as one who was 

 intimately associated for many years with the 

 greatest soldier of the time, General Sir Robert 

 Napier, now Lord Napier of Magdala, I am in 

 a position not only to give my own opinion, but 

 to state that General Napier was on the most 

 intimate terms with Hodson during almost the 

 whole of the career of that dashing soldier, and 

 that he had the highest opinion of him. I have 

 no hesitation in characterising the attacks that have 

 been made, in the face too of the verdict of such 

 a soldier as Lord Napier of Magdala, as ungenerous, 

 unwarrantable, and atrocious." ^ 



1 Letter quoted in 'Blackwood's Magazine' for March 1899. 

 ^ Hodson of Hodson's Horse. 



