300 REMINISCENCES OF 



tion for him as a man and our devotion to him so 

 long our Colonel, and our affection for him as a 

 friend. . . .' The Colonel in his remarks said that 

 they had met that night not only as inhabitants of 

 'the Kingdom,' but as Light Horse men ; and they 

 felt a pride that no poor words of his could ever ex- 

 press in being privileged to entertain as they now 

 did the head of an old Fife family who had so well 

 fulfilled his part not in one line of duty, but in all. 

 A smart officer, with experience gained in two of 

 the crack cavalry regiments of the service, a pro- 

 prietor who early recognised that his position called 

 him to undertake duties not confined to those within 

 his park walls, and, above everything to them, the 

 man who had devoted thirty-five years of his life to 

 maintain as a credit to the service and an honour to 

 the county the gallant regiment of which all there 

 were so proud. That, in a few words, was the record 

 of a life spent not for himself alone, but a life giving 

 an example of all that was best in a Britisher an 

 example of what had made Britain what she is. 

 The exponent of all that was manly, straight and 

 honest, be it in sport, as in every phase of general 

 life, few indeed were the associations of men who 

 could claim as the Fife Light Horse men could do 

 that night such a man as their chief. It was not, 

 however, his province to dwell on Colonel Thomson's 

 early life ; that was not the place to do more than refer 

 to the long and valued services in the county affairs 

 performed by him. Nor need he speak to them of 

 their Colonel's name and fame as one of the greatest 



