THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



333 



best men of their class are identified with it, while its 

 prosperity is as thoroughly in their own hands. At 

 the recent dinner, Mr. Langston, a gentleman with 

 some taste for the pursuit, admitted lie had never 

 been at one of the Club meetings; and the chairman, 

 Mr. MorrcU, in proposing the health of the Duke of 

 Marlborough, confessed that he did not know till then 

 that his Grace was " the Patron" of the Farmers' 

 Club. This dinner in itself, in a word, told the whole 

 history of the rise and progress of the Society. It was 

 given in honour of one of the Club's staunchest friends 

 and supporters, and the chairman of its meetings for 

 some consecutive seasons. Need wc odd that this gentle- 

 man ranks no higher than those he presides over, or that 

 Mr. Thomson of Culham is himself a tenant-farmer ? 



Terribly overdone as the testhnonial system has been 

 of late, we can honestly welcome such a demonstration as 

 this. It was in every way significant. The agricul- 

 turists of Oxfordshire who, on Wednesday, gave a 

 service of plate of more than two hundred pounds' value 

 to the Chairman of their Club* were honouring no old 

 friend or neighbour, with ties and associations, in 

 perhaps, every other parish. It speaks well for the 

 mutual subjection of our prejudices, when the midland 

 counties can pay such a compliment to a Scotchman. 

 To learn how he has deserved this of them, we cannot 

 do better than turn to the toast of the occasion, intro- 

 duced so happily and unaffectedly by Mr. Morrell : — 



" As a few facts relative to the history and career of 

 their friend Thomson might not be uninteresting, he 

 would cite some. He had ascertained that he was born 

 in 1800, at Broad Meadows, in Selkirkshire, and re- 

 ceived his education at IMelrose, near Abbotsford, where 

 Sir Walter Scott, to whom Mrs. Thomson was related, 

 lived. The relatives of Mr. 'Thomson were intimately 

 acquainted with Sir Walter, and the great writer took 

 considerable notice of him, and, having a high opinion 

 of his capabilities, and anticipating great things from 

 him, urged upon his friends that they should keep him 

 strictly to school, and give him every advantage in the 

 way of education. In consequence of this he was 

 educated and intended for the Kirk ; but his natural 

 bent was for agricultural pursuits, which he liked best, 

 and in which they all knew he had so well succeeded. 

 Having made himself thoroughly and practically ac- 

 quainted with farming operations of all kinds, under 

 his father, he left home in 1825, and settled at Culham, 

 in this county, and for a period of sixteen years ma- 

 naged the farm occupied by the late Mr. Jonathan Peel. 

 On the death of that gentleman, in 1841, his family re- 

 linquished the farm, and Mr. Thomson took it for the 

 remainder of the lease. On its expiration he continued 

 it, and on the death of Sir George Pechell's agent (Mr. 



* The plate bore this inscription :— " Presented to Wil- 

 liam Thomson, Esquire, of Culham, by upwards of 200 sub- 

 scribers in this and the adjoining countieB, and elsewhere, to 

 testify their appreciation of his pubhc services as President 

 of the Oxford Farmers' Club, and Chairman of the Oxford 

 Corn Exchange, and of hia efforts to advance the general in- 

 terests of agriculture, as well as the deep-rooted respect for 

 him in his private capacity. March 9, 1859." 



Salter), Sir George gave the best proof of the high esti- 

 mation in which he held Mr. Thomson by oflTering him 

 the management of his Oxfordshire estates, and he fuU 

 filled that duty to the great satisfaction of his employer 

 and the tenantry until the estates were disposed of in 

 185G. It would thus be seen that Mr. Thomson had 

 spent thirty-three years in this county, and no man 

 could say a word against him, and he (the Chairman) 

 did not think a more honest, straightforward man ever 

 existed. In 1851, Mr. Thomson, who had been one 

 of the original promoters of the Oxford Farmers' 

 Club, succeeded to the high position of President 

 of that body, and had been re-elected every year. No 

 one had done more to uphold that club, for he had en- 

 listed nearly half its members, had been constant in his 

 attendance, and given to them and the county at large 

 the benefit of his great experience and sound practical 

 advice. For many years a most intolerable nuisance 

 existed on Carfax, where every week the farmers 

 assembled, and all the business of a corn market 

 was transacted, while they were exposed to all weathers, 

 and to the chance of being run over. In 1851, Mr. 

 Thomson was the first to make an effort to remedy this 

 state of things ; for a meeting, over which he presided, 

 was held at the Roebuck Hotel, when it was agreed to 

 memorialize the Market Commissioners to grant the 

 use of the new avenue where the Corn Exchange is now 

 held. Mr. Thomson was so anxious that the experiment 

 should be tried, that he very liberally and spiritedly 

 offered to pay down the first year's rent ; but that was 

 rendered unnecessary, because the superiority of the 

 situation over that of Carfax was so manifest that sufiS- 

 cient funds were raised by subscription to establish the 

 Corn Exchange there. There was one more act of 

 Mr. Thomson's which he felt bound to mention, 

 although it might be known to some, and it was one 

 which hardly one man in ten thousand would have done. 

 Some few years ago Mr. Thomson became a shareholder 

 in a Joint Stock Bank at Abingdon, and, not being 

 satisfied with the state of its affairs, he obtained an 

 additional number of shares to become a director, and 

 to have a voice in its management ; he soon found that 

 it was a failing concern, and then went vigorously to 

 work, and succeeded in stopping it, and getting its 

 affairs wound up. The result was that there was a con- 

 siderable deficiency, and many who had deposited in 

 the bank the hard earnings of a long life would have 

 been reduced to beggary had not Mr. Thomson come to 

 the rescue. To his infinite credit, he declared that no 

 one who had deposited money in the bank on the face 

 or strength of his name should be a loser, and that his 

 last rick and his last shQling, if necessary, should go 

 to make up the deficiency. He rejoiced to say that 

 every depositor was paid in full ; but he grieved to 

 add, that Mr. Thomson lost above ^2,000 by the 

 transaction." 



There is a good moral in this history, that tells 

 equally well for the Club and its Chairman. Let other 

 similar Sociefies learn from it how they also may 

 flourish. Let them bear in mind the men they have 

 to depend upon, and how the character of a President 



