FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



secretaryship of the Bath and West Society, he 

 kindly invited me to visit him at Killerton. 

 When I accepted, I knew him by reputation only 

 as a great educationalist, and in connection with 

 the West as a large landowner, and a staunch 

 supporter of the Society. Concluding that, under 

 the circumstances, Agriculture would be the staple 

 subject of our discourse, I took the precaution, 

 as I travelled down, to read up his views, as ex- 

 pressed in the Society's Journal, in the hope, if 

 conversation flagged, of having something to fall 

 back upon. But I need have had no fears that 

 there would be any hiatus for lack of topics the 

 difficulty, rather, was the plethora and diversity 

 of them. Nor was it always easy to keep pace 

 with my host's transitions of thought, which oft- 

 times, with startling suddenness, diverted the 

 course of the conversational current into unex- 

 pected channels. 



His talk was apt to be a little overwhelming, 

 owing to his complete absorption in any subject 

 uppermost in his mind, and to the velocity with 

 which he poured forth his thoughts ; this some- 

 times lessened the effectiveness of what he had 

 to impart. He could not always pull himself 

 up, even when he felt it was time to do so ; and, 

 as he was of too kindly a nature intentionally 

 to overtax anyone's attention, he was full of 

 regrets when he realized the possibility of this. 



During that visit, I soon found that, after all, 

 agriculture was but one item in an apparently 

 inexhaustible programme, and, as Sir Thomas 

 could do nothing by halves, his enthusiasm was 

 kindled by whatever had possession of him at 



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