COLONEL ANSTRUTHER THOMSON. 



It is not always 'the siller' that draws Scotsmen from 

 their native land to England. The love of sport has 

 sent many a gallant Scot from ' Caledonia stern and 

 wild ' to the green pastures and glorious galloping- 

 grounds of the South. And, to do him justice, the 

 Scot has left his mark as a sportsman whenever he has 

 invaded the country of the Southron. The achievements 

 of Scottish prowess in the saddle are writ large in the 

 annals of Leicestershire. No harder rider than Sir David 

 Baird ever led the Quorn, and the ' golden age ' of Melton 

 owed much of its glory to men like Lord Kenned}', 

 Captain Ross, Captain Douglas, Captain Maxse and 

 their ' brither Scots ' whose names have cropped up 

 from time to time in these pages. But none of them 

 all, I think, stood out as a bolder or more striking figure 

 in the English hunting-field than the subject of my 

 present sketch. Colonel John Anstruther Thomson. 



Born at Charleton in the ' Kingdom of Fife,' on the 

 8th of August 1818, John Anstruther Thomson can 

 boast descent from one of the oldest families in Scotland. 

 He is twentieth in direct descent from William de 

 Candela, Lord of Anstruther, and heir of the line of the 

 St Clairs, Earls of Orkney. His father, who added the 

 name of Thomson to that of Anstruther on succeeding 



