FIFTY YEARS Otf A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



clothes he stood upright in, he made a fortune out 

 of farming before he died. He did so, at the same 

 time earning the goodwill of those in whose midst 

 he had prospered, who, in the closing years of his 

 career, showed their regard and esteem for him, 

 and their appreciation of the services he had 

 rendered to agriculture, by a handsome presenta- 

 tion of plate. He frequently visited my father, 

 and he greatly impressed me, as a youngster, for 

 three reasons. One was that he was the tallest 

 man I had ever seen, having to stoop before he 

 could enter the full-sized doorway of our dining- 

 poom ; another was that he had, in his younger 

 days, known and conversed with Sir Walter Scott, 

 which placed him on a pinnacle in my young 

 eyes ; and, thirdly, that he drank more tea at 

 a sitting than any one I had ever beheld or thought 

 capable of. He was the despair of my mother in 

 this respect, because an ordinary tea-cup was to 

 him but a thimbleful. 



32 



