110 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



PRESENTATIOxX OF A TESTIMONIAL TO MR. JOHN CLARKE, 

 OF LONG SUTTON. 



At the tenth anniversary of the Long Sutton Asso- 

 ciation for the Prosecution of Felons, held Jan. 23rd, 

 1837, it was resolved to establish an Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation forthwith. This was immediately done, and 

 Mr. John Clarke appointed Honorary Secretary ; an 

 office which he has now held for twenty-two years, with 

 much benefit to the Society and the district. It having 

 lately been determined to offer him some testimonial of 

 his friends' respect, the anniversary of the above Asso- 

 ciation was chosen as the most appropriate day for its 

 presentation. The Chairman of the day was Robert 

 Mossop, Esq., who, in a very able and complimentary 

 speech, enumerated many of the local objects which 

 Mr. Clarke had aided by his efforts, as well as the 

 Association with which he stood more immediately 

 connected — concluding amidst the plaudits of a large 

 assemblage by presenting the testimonial, consisting 

 of a very chaste and beautiful ormolu timepiece, 

 a splendid tea-service, and a massive salver, highly 

 ornamented. 



Mr. John Clarke, in acknowledgement, said, I beg, sir, 

 to thank you for permitting us of the Long Sutton Agri- 

 cultural Association the privilege of using this day for 

 our purpose. I know you have always encouraged any 

 useful project which could be brought forward at your 

 meetings. From this meeting emanated our Agricultural 

 Society, the Gas Company, the Corn Exchange Com- 

 pany, and many minor things, as cual clubs, and 

 the like. I thank you most sincerely for the kind and 

 appropriate manner in which you have on bthalf of the 

 subscribers and this meeting conveyed to me those 

 beautiful articles of plate on the side-board. I esteem it 

 a great honour. I believe I am the first individual in 

 this district tliat has ever had such an honour conferred 

 upon him : we have had testimonials presented, but 

 they have all been of a more private or local character 

 — from private friends, members of congregations to 

 their minister, bodies of tenantry to their landlords or 

 agents, fellow-parishioners ; but mine is from the dis- 

 trict, from the general public, whicli to me makes the 

 honour greater. I am most happy to receive it through 

 your instrumentality. To ^Ir. Prest and the Committee, 

 I feel under great obligations for the trouble they have 

 taken to do me this honour. I know what difficulties 

 arise in collecting subscriptions : many are disposed to 

 aid : but if an active committee-man is not at hand to 

 receive the sovereign, it lies quietly in the purse, and the 

 thing is passed by. I thank you for using such a wise 

 discretion in selecting such beautiful articles, so useful, so 

 ornamental. My prepossession was to build a model 

 cottage ; but I thank you for preventing me embruing 

 my hands in bricks and mortar. I thank you for 

 acceding to my wish to have it in three pieces, because 

 I wish to hand to each of my three children an heir- 

 loom, to show them in aftertime that tlieir parent did 

 once obtain the favour and approval of his friends and 

 neighbours for efforts of a i)ublic character, and that it 

 might stimulate them to activity and usefulness through 

 life. I wish also to name another member of the com- 

 mittee — I mean !Mr. E. Cole, to whom 1 am indebted 

 as the proposer of this testimonial. I beg also to con- 

 gratulate him on a similar token of approval awaiting 

 his acceptance. I know, my dear sir, that we are now 

 both marked men ; you are to receive « testimonial for 

 your private worth, your obliging and attentive business- 



habits ; mine is for public usefulness. I trust we shall 

 not forfeit the good opinion shown toward us ; but that 

 we may each fulfil our stations with honour, and prove 

 ourselves an example to others. To Mr. W. Skelton, 

 our esteemed President, I am greatly indebted for his 

 steady support, and the great encouragement and assist- 

 ance he has rendered me throughout the whole period of 

 the society's existence. It was by his help, and that of 

 some few others, that in times of great agricultural 

 difficulty, we were kept together. To the Stewards 

 I have been under very great obligations, and there 

 is one whom I desire more to particularize — I 

 mean Mr. John Peele. We have acted together 

 from the commencement for twenty-two years; we have 

 acted harmoniously and laboriously. I thank him for 

 his counsel ; for his great liberality ; for his determina- 

 tion to overcome and live down all difficulties. Recol- 

 lect that in the depressed times all the other societies 

 around us were given up — Wisbeach, Spalding, Deeping 

 Fen, Bourne, Boston, Wrangle, Ilolbeach — all fell 

 in, but Mr. Peele would never give up. To Messrs. 

 Allenby, Booth, Horn, Meatheringhm, and Mr. E. D. 

 Skelton, I tender my best thanks. Others have done 

 well, but you never had a class of Stewards equal to 

 these gentlemen. They have duties, and they fulfil them. 

 In judging allotments, drilling, and setting out work, 

 and managing our large meetings, they merit your high 

 approval — they do it admirably. To Mr. John Thomas 

 Marshall I owe many thanks for taking the educational 

 depaitment, and greatly relieving me from many duties ; 

 for this Society has this novel feature in its operations — 

 the education of the agricultural community, the labour- 

 ing population. To the present meeting I offer my best 

 thanks for your kind attention. I thank you for these ex- 

 pressions of your high opinion. I should think my mind 

 sadly regulated if I could be indifferent to such mani- 

 festations. I know your public spirit. I know of no 

 district having so many good institutions, or whose 

 inhabitants are so ready to aid each other. And in these 

 matters you do nothing by halves : your Society is 

 unexampled for its comprehensive prize list ; your little 

 town you improve at all quarters till you have made it 

 the pride of the low country ; your Corn Exchange is a 

 pattern to the whole country ; and the testimonial you 

 <{ive is the most acceptable, the most splendid and useful 

 it was ever the lot of any one in the district to receive. 

 I have one more name, one gentleman whose name I 

 wish particularly to bring before you ; I mean my co- 

 worker and colleague, Mr. John Swain. He Las now 

 been associated with me for fourteen years: a great part 

 of that time as joint secretary : he has done nearly all 

 the work — keeping- accounts, collecting subscriptions, 

 managing certificates, and most of the details of the 

 Association — for which I beg to offer him my sincere 

 thanks. Moreover, he is the treasurer and secretary of 

 this testimonial fund : it is to his energy and manage- 

 ment that much is due. I have ever found him a most 

 useful and disinterested fellow-labourer, and I don't 

 know one amongst us who makes himself more generally 

 useful, and but for whose help I must long ago have 

 resigned. I beg, Sir, to conclude by proposing his 

 health, with best wishes for his prosperity. 



In the course of the evening, Mr. Clarke gave an 

 interesting sketch of his career, for which, however, we 

 have not room this month. 



