12 G The Secret Lije of Nature
comfortable drawing room.There, as Hodson recounted the story, his
black-and-white fox terrier, Peter, would sit and stare into the fire, es-
pecially in winter. One day, for no apparent reason, Peter abandoned
the fire in favor of a far corner of the room, where he sat staring fixedly
into space. When the dog repeated this odd behavior for several con-
secutive evenings, Hodson decided to find an explanation. Sitting by
Peter, "he quickened his clairvoyant faculty by the practice ofYoga."
The result was as unexpected to Hodson as it was to become for-
mative of his future life. He described seeing a large, lavender-colored,
luminous ovoid filled with small figures "in the traditional forms of
brownies, elves, fairies, and the like."
Gradually, says Hodson, the ovoid opened outward to liberate the
little creatures who "flew all about the room, some to settle on the pic-
ture rail, others on the architrave of the door, whilst one--who resem-
bled the traditional browniesstrutted up and down the hearth rug to
which Peter had returned."
Sensing a possible significance and even spiritual guidance in this
strange adventure into fairyland, Hodson at once began to examine the
little folk with more detailed care. As the visitations were repeated on
a number of evenings, Hodson dictated his observations to his wife.
The result was a considerably large manuscript, which opened a whole
new world for the Hodsons. What had started as a purely personal
pursuit of occult knowledge soon became responsible for completely
changing the Hodsons' lives.
Captivated by their discovery, the Hodsons spent most of their spare
time in the spring and summer of 1919 in the fields and woodlands of
Lancashire. By motorcycle and sidecar they traveled through mountain
and moorland, malung detailed notes of the various types of fairies and
nature spirits discovered in the countryside.Their dog, Peter, would ac-
company them on these expeditions, sitting quietly to watch the in-
vestigations.
It was thus that Hodson came to the attention of Gardner, who
soon found a way to dragoon the tank major into assisting in the
investigation of the Cottingley fairies. With great good humor, as
Gardner put it, Hodson agreed to sacrifice his scanty August holiday in
J 1921 to go to Cottingley.