COL. ANSTRUtHER THOMSON 299 



to have my name recorded as one who has always 

 felt proud at the mention of the gallant Colonel's 

 name in connection with fox-hunting or anything 

 else, and I wish my health had permitted me to have 

 seen the ovation that most gallant of men will receive 

 at your hands this evening. As one who has seen 

 him at his best negotiating big " oxers " and sailing 

 over the broad grass fields of Northamptonshire, I 

 can testify, as I think few can now in Fife, to the 

 enthusiasm, I might say the hero-worship, his very 

 name created as Master of the Pytchley or Atherstone 

 Hunts. His mode of hunting and handling hounds 

 — leaving them alone — is, as everybody knows, the 

 orthodox way now in every hunting country, for has 

 he not been the preceptor of the best huntsmen for 

 the last twenty years, and his name will be re- 

 membered as long as fox-hunting lasts.' 



" Sergeant Martin wrote : ' I feel I am not so 

 well, and have to deny myself the pleasure of coming 

 to the Colonel's dinner. I hope you will have a 

 good night. We will never see his like again.' 



" Colonel Gilmour, on rising to make the presen- 

 tation, was received with loud cheering. He said : 

 ' Gentlemen of the Fife Light Horse, I rise now 

 to attempt to fulfil a duty which, great as 1 feel the 

 honour to be, still is fraught with a responsibility 

 that I assure you I do not under-estimate. That 

 duty is to give expression to the feeling that animates 

 all hearts here to-night — aye, and of so many who 

 have not been able to be with us — the desire to 

 convey to Colonel Anstruther Thomson our admira- 



