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44 THE LEADER. [No. 459, January 8, 1859...
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of Smithfield, Halfiicld, TIalfmarsh, ad...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Service Occasionally Develops, And Who A...
and then to idolise him as a leader . Happy in Ins marriage and with one darling child , he describes himself as , the most fortunate and . the happiest man in India . But with , the winter of 1355 ' came a chilling frost upon his prospects . His appointment to the "@ uides" had raised up enemies "against him , and the biographer hints that Lawrence ' s removal from the Punjab being due to intrigue , and the Anglo-Indians being pretty good haters , the fall of the outspoken confidant became an object with those who had compassed that of the superior . To avoid a long story , a series of charges were concocted against Hodson , of which the only substantial one was the irregularity of his regimental accounts . A court of inquiry sat upon
this , and closed on the 15 th of January , 185 . 5 ; but Hodson ' s enemies having official mechanism at command , its report was not submitted to the Governor-General for six months , the victim being meanwhile superseded . At length an examiner was appointed , who reported in his favour ; but this also was suppressed , or , to speak more guardedly , delayed in transitu . Hodson was on the point of starting for Calcutta to appeal in person to the then hew Governor-General , Lord Canning , when the rebellion broke out . The emergency superseding all routine considerations , General Anson , who . felt kindly towards him , at once cut the knot of his troubles , and ' secured his sabre for his country . He received orders to raise and command a new regiment of Irregular Horse , and in less than three weeks was before Delhi as
head of the Intelligence Department , and Assistant Quartermaster-General . He thus had his hands full , but he was ever foremost in the field , seemingly t ifted with ubiquity and a charmed life . He was escribed by a brother officer as " sitting on his horse before the Moree Bastion on the : day of the assault like a man carved in stone , and apparently as unconcerned as the sentries at the Horse Guards , the balls flying as thick as hail . "
We have space for neither his sparkling narrative of the siege , nor for the vivid narratives by different hands of the capture of the King of Delhi . It appears that Hodson , with difficulty , extorted permission to start upon and perform this wonderful exploit : how lie accomplished it is now a matter of history . The editor has mustered amp le proofs that the old King ' life was guaranteed before , not after , his capture , in order to effect that captureotherwise impossible—and in compliance with the prudent orders of the general . The prompt extermination of the three princes was also admitted by good judges to be a necessity in the pz * esence of a surging mob of 6000 Mahoinedans . That deed alone enabled the little band to reach Delhi with
their royal prize ; but what infinite satisfaction it must have afforded him who felt himself the minister of Heaven ' s justice , may be gathered from his remark three weeks before . "If I get into the palace , the house of Timur will not be worth five minutes ' purchase . " After the fall of Delhi , Hodson , now a Captain , learned officially that his conduct never required justification , and after a flying visit to his wife he joined Showers ' a Brigade with his regiment of horse , now 1000 strong . They were employed in clearing the country south-west of Delhi , and in collecting supplies . That there was sometimes an embarras de riohesse in this lino , appears from the following anecdote , which shows that our hero ' s composition , so rich in the elements of Crichton , was not without a spico of Jtob Roy : —
ammunition , taken , and Captain Hodson , with his favourite lieutenant Macdowell , accomplished an unescorted ride of more than a hundred miles through the enemy ' s country with despatches . We have no room for the details of this adventurej but must lead pur reader at once to Shamshabad ( where poor Macdowell was killed and Hodson wounded ) , and lastly to Lucknow . Under the walls of that city he threw' away his life . Having mounted a breach en amateur beside his friend General Napier , whom he playfully insisted on accompanying , he peered into a darkroom in search of hidden Sepoys . A shot was fired from within , and he fell pierced
through the chest . The next morning saw the end of one whom , to use his brother ' s words , " the Gommauder-in-Chief pronounced the most brilliant soldier under his command , whom all ranks of the army in India reckoned . amongst their bravest and most skilful leaders , whom the popular voice has already enrolled among the heroes of the nation , whose name was known , either in love or fear , by every native from Calcutta to Cabul . " The reverend editor has well shown , as he set out to do , what military -life in India may be ; how vast a field it sometimes opens for the exercise of high and noble qualities ; and how such qualities
were displayed by his brother . In his affection for his hero , he appears rather to ignore other celebrated " irregular" leaders whom we cannot forget ; but this venial and common error among biographers is one the reader will not fall into . If either will the reading public altogether endorse his condemnation of the Government for affording Hodson " no mark of his Sovereign ' s approbation —no recognition of * gallant services and deeds of daring . " We are no votaries of this or that department , but we . cannot help remarking evidence throughout these letters that
the . writer was a highly successful man . He was ever watched by friendly eyes , and his Interest supported by powerful hands . We have his repeated avowal of what is true , that his services were appreciated and rewarded beyond his hopes . He was upheld by strong arms at a time when men less favoured but as pure might have been maddene to suicide , and , in violation of etiquette , without knowing what influences had wrought for him , he was rescued by the well-timed sagacity of General Anson from the thick darkness that had for a time obscured him . The biographer perhaps
regards all tin ' s as mere scant justice , but how many thousands are there who must have deemed it Fortune ' s favour to a pet child . Again , we read with sorrow that Hodson ' s wondrous exploit at the Tomb of Humayoon was as good as suppressed by Jiis superior at I > elhi ; and that he had perished before the official news of his equally daring night ride could well have reached this country' But yet the biographer of one who so despised newspaper reports could hardly claim honours for Hodson ' s
memory upon the strength of his own communications to the Times . On the other hand , though promotion be now impossible , the honour of Lord Clyde at least demands that the hardly-earned Victoria Cross he promised should pass as an heirloom to the family of the departed hero . There is yet time for the right to be done ; but if it bo denied , Are not the admiration and sympathy of England , iinattainabie as yet by fools and flunkeys , something soothing to repose upon ?
On one occasion upwards of 1700 head of cattle had boon taken . When tuoy were brought in , Showers oxclaimed . " Hang me ! what in the -world am I to do with tnem ? It would take half my force to convoy them back to Delhi . I can't take thorn . " On this Captain Hodson said , " Well , sir , will you soil them to mo , and let me take my chance ? " " Willingly , " eald the Brigadier ; so the bargain was struck for two rupeoa a head . Captain Hodson sent thorn off , under charge of their drivers , and two ov threo of his own sowars , to Delhi , whore they arrived safely , and were of course sold at a large profit , The speculation turned out a good one , but the chances were against it . No one else , probably , under the circumstances , would have run the risk , and the cattlo would have been left behind . Shortly
afterwards he invested' part of the proceeds in a house at TJmballu , which happonod to bo then put up for a forced sale at a great depreciation . This , consequently , went among his friends by the name of the " cow-houso . " In Deoeaiber , the " Horse " joined Soaton ' s column , in charge of a train of supplies for Sir C . Campboll , which covered fifteen milos of road . The esoori ) w « 8 but 2000 strong j yet three notions were fought , twonty-flvQ guns , with vast stores of
44 The Leader. [No. 459, January 8, 1859...
44 THE LEADER . [ No . 459 , January 8 , 1859 .
Of Smithfield, Halfiicld, Tialfmarsh, Ad...
of Smithfield , Halfiicld , TIalfmarsh , adjoining the great moor through which flowed the lliver of Wells , in still earlier times an outer protection to the Gity Wall , and subsequently developing the gradual extension of buildings upon the reclaimed marsli of old , thus cnd & avouring to supply the lacuna of three centuries that exist ¦ between the curt notices of ifitzstephen and the methodical descrip tion of Stow . These remarks , with some observa tions upon the ancient marts or fairs , those ambulatory resorts of ancient commerce , constitute an agreeable and well-timed induction to the Fair itself , with its minor accompaniments ; and here Ben
Jonson ' s Bartholomew Fair affords Mr . Morley an opportunity of displaying his well-conceived illustrations of the characters in that comedy , but here we must , as a subject of regret , remark that , as he proceeds in his volume , Mr . Morley frequently digresses into a one-sided political history of the seventeenth century in order to laud the Roundheads and Puritans and disparage : Charles I . and the Cavaliers , forgetting that Puritanism was accused of rebellion , although the times of Charles I . are associated with higher notions of prerogative than our present constitution , as
settled by the Bill of Rights , will allow . The motions and puppet-shows of old Jiarlilmeic are exquisitely described . Every one in those days crowded to witness the performance of a Droll . " On the 29 th August , 1 GGS , Mr . Pepys having found poor entertainment at the playhouse , was dull , " and therefore desired to relieve his mind by the sight of some broad farce , where the " unities " were not so strictly preserved as in legitimate drama . "So . 1 out , and met my ' wife , in a . coach , and stopped my wife going thither to meet me , and took her and ' Mercer and Bob . to Bartholomew
Fair * and did there sec a ridiculous obscene lit tic stage ¦ p , ' , ' called Many / Aiidrey , , a foolish- thing , but seen by everybody . " Bartholomew Fair was , indeed , a place for sight-seeing and show-peeping , and a long account have we given us ot the frimaciers , jack-puddings , and merry-andrews of ygone times ,- . together' with the . more recent wonders of learned . pigs , spotted boys , monsters , deformities ,., and cxtraordinaries , that formerly glutted vulgar curiosity ; at the same time the pleasant vices of old Bartholomew , as related by the
author , demonstrate that the Sihithficld . Saturnalia , even when restricted to three davs , were a nursery for debauchery and riot ; the leading events of old Bxirtilmcice certainly do not imp ress upon the reader any favourable comparisons of tlie past with the present . Even in the memory of ourselves the quiet of night was disturbed with the tumultuous orgies of " Lady Holland ' s Mob , " a collection of drunk and disorderly journeymen tailors , who were accustomed to sally forth from the tap-rooms of Cloth-fair , and at twelve o ' clock on the night of that which witnessed the civic state of the Lord
Mayor ' s proclamation of the next day at noon , to make a mock proclamation . The origin of this Mob , remembered only by bruised pates , broken windows , and other accompaniments of supper and "distempering draughts , " is thus stated by-Mr . Morley , who thinks nothing too minute or too local , so long as it can be rendered subscrviont to the illustration of Bartholomew Fair , viz .: — In Oliver ' s day , there- was much secret connivance at dramatic Gntertaininonts , private performances wero hold now at one place now at another a few miles from town , sometimes at noblomon ' s bonnes ; and among noble patrons , there was none so prominent as . the one in
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR . Memoirs of Bartholomaw Fair . By Henry Morloy , With Fac-aimilo Drawings , Engraved upon Wood by the Brothers Dalziel . Chapman and Hall . An unwritten portion of tho s ^ ory of tho people , " as tho oompilor of those Memoirs styles his work , whioh has been got up with all tho artistic effect that typographic skill and bibliopolio art can suggest qr afford , while tho wood souljpiurea ndvortiscu in tho title-page aid the general ombeUishmcnt of this handsome volume . Mr . Morloy is evidentl y sensible that tho subjcot of his book , which forcibly reminds us of Mr . George Daniel ' s Merry England in the Olden Time , is insufficient in the eyes of many to command that attention ho considers it deserves , and therefore somo introductory as well as correlative subjects have beon , and that with considerable judgment and taot , ombodied , Mr . Morloy giving 1 us tho early history of tho priory and convent of St . Bartholomew , tho original grantees of Bartholomew Fair , first placing vividly Doforc our oyos tlio degrading superstition of tlie time of Honry I . and his successors , and next enabling us to view an " adumbration" of tho anoiont topographical peouliariUos
whoso family part of Bartholomew Fair was an inheritance . Of tho aocrot performances nt Holland House tboro is espoeial recollection . At such meetings tho porformors wore paid by a collection made among those proflont . At tho groat festival times of Christmas and Bartholomew Fair , it was found possible ti > bribe tho officer who commanded at Whitehall ana to open tho theatre in St . JohnVstroet , tho Mod Bull , which , from its vicinity to Smithnuld , was especially tho Bartholomew Fair playhouso , for a few performances . Even then , bowovor , they woro disturbed sometimes by tho soldiery . Itemombraneo is hero duo to llobert Cos , a good eompdian , who , during tho su ppression of the playhousos , wrote drolls or farces which were actod undor tho disguise of rope-dancing , " ho hiinsolf usually taking the chief character , lie represented thus tho living drama in . tho fair ; and it is said that by his performance of the part * of Simpleton the Smith , at a country fair , ho so impressed a blacksmith who waa prosont with his gonlua for smith ' s work , that lie oflbrod him tho post of journeyman at twoivo ponce a wools extra wages . At tho Restoration , tho old actors who survived wore formed into a company that performed at several of tho old playhouses , including tho Boa B «"» unW tuo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1859, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011859/page/12/
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