COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON ii 



the best farmers, in one of the best-farmed counties 

 of England. What body of men could be more 

 fit to pronounce an opinion on the merits of fox- 

 hunting, or better fitted to speak of the qualities of 

 our guest ? We are in company with legislators from 

 both Houses of Parliament. Who is there more 

 competent to speak of the well-known advantages of 

 cordiality and good feeling which spring up in the 

 hunting field than those who have to govern the 

 country? Authors and writers are not so plentiful 

 that we can speak of them in the plural, yet we have 

 one here, the most popular of our popular favourites. 

 The author of Holmby House, a tale of old 

 Northamptonshire, can throw a halo of chivalry and 

 poetry round the noble sport. We are amongst 

 soldiers. I should like to know what soldier there 

 is who can't be enthusiastic, if not eloquent, in praise 

 of fox-hunting? Who are the men who have led 

 our companies and headed our squadrons in presence 

 of the enemy ? Who are the men who have fought 

 in India and in the Crimea? Are they not men 

 trained in the games of this country, of which fox- 

 hunting is the highest and noblest of all ? And 

 lastly, gentlemen, we are in a company who are all 

 of them fox-hunters, be they soldiers, sailors, farmers, 

 or authors, and who can be more fit than such a 

 company to drink the health of J. Anstruther Thom- 

 son, who has just now been well described as a 

 master of the craft? Gendemen, this gathering, 

 besides being in honour of Captain Thomson, is a 

 demonstration in favour of the noblest of man's 



