CHAPTER XIV 



A Devon Squire A Somerset Squire A Kentish Squire. 



AMONG the leading promoters of the Bath 

 and West Society was the late Sir Thomas 

 Acland, for many years one of the most 

 distinguished personalities of the West. The 

 debt which both Agriculture and Education owe 

 to " The Squire of Killerton," is too well known 

 to need recording here, so I will confine myself 

 to depicting those special characteristics which 

 were brought home to me after a long and some- 

 what intimate personal acquaintance. His very 

 appearance always commanded attention. A 

 certain rugged picturesqueness of face and fea- 

 ture, with a light in the eye that, on occasion, 

 was full of humour, was set off by a strikingly 

 fine physique. Clad in a rough homespun suit, 

 with a satchel of agricultural literature for dis- 

 tribution, slung low down at his side, he would 

 with some brief spells of rest in the secretary's 

 office stride about the Bath and West show yard 

 all day with an uprightness of body and a power 

 and elasticity of gait which many a man twenty 

 years younger for he could thus be seen when 

 he was close upon eighty might envy. 



The versatility of his knowledge was very re- 

 markable. Shortly after my appointment to the 



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