224 REMINISCENCES OF 



the lights out except in the station-master's office. I 

 said to him, " You must give us an engine and run 

 us down, special, to Kilconquhar ". He said, " I 

 have not got one. There is a goods train going to 

 Markinch ; you can go by it, and sleep at Balbirnie." 

 That would not do. Mr. Orchardson had a pony 

 and trap, but the minister had got it out to do some 

 duty at Dysart, and had remained to dinner. It was 

 past eleven when the pony returned. It then had 

 to be fed. At last we made a start and g-ot home 

 about two in the morning. Mr. Orchardson sent for 

 his pony next day. So ended my last day, and one 

 of the longest I ever experienced. 



26th May. — The second tournament in the 

 Waverley Market, Edinburgh. General Annesley 

 preferred that it should be called an " assault-at- 

 arms". The 15th Hussars were quartered at 

 Piershill, Colonel White in command. Quarter- 

 master Swan presented the Swan Trophy to be 

 competed for by four members of any auxiliary 

 cavalry in Scotland — heads and posts, tent-pegging, 

 lemon-cutting and jumping. Only three squads com- 

 peted. Result: Fife, 147; Lothian and Berwick, 

 142; Forfar, iii. Sergeant-major Thom, Sergeant 

 Millar, Sergeant Blyth and Corporal Webster were 

 the Fife team. In the three competitions — heads 

 and posts, tent-pegging and lemon-cutting — Fife was 

 twenty-two points better than Lothians, and thirty- 

 eight points ahead of Forfar. In the jumping 

 competition Sergeant Millar's horse tumbled over 

 the bar, which reduced Fife's majority by seventeen 



