Family circumstances compelled him to earn his living by teaching at an early age, in Glasgow and later at the Liverpool Royal Institution.
After leaving Cambridge he became on 25 July 1852 second master of Bristol Grammar School, and on 30 March 1855 he was appointed headmaster.
[1] He resigned this post at midsummer 1860, and in 1861 opened a private school at Manilla Hall, Clifton, Bristol, formerly the residence of Sir William Draper, which he conducted until 1881.
Afterwards he lived at 6 Royal York Crescent, Clifton; in 1891 he moved to Dawlish, Devon, and in 1899 to Shanklin, Isle of Wight.
During his later years he often gave lectures, chiefly at public schools, on natural history, which he illustrated with coloured transparencies of his own construction.
9) quotes the charming introduction of this work as showing that the true naturalist was no mere dry collector.
The Hudson Transparencies are held in the University of Exeter Special Collections Department, reference number EUL MS 442.