Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/142

134 was even then following his career with interest. One evening in the carriage, he said, "I love to believe the dear old country approves our work out here."

'He never neglected what society might naturally expect from his position. He gave excellent balls; and in the equipments of daily life he was very careful to keep up all the appearances suitable to his office. His carriages and horses were excellent, and in his Private Secretary and Aide-de-Camp, Captain Minchin, he had a capital manager, and one who contrived that Government House dinners should have an easy pre-eminence over private entertaining.

'In his public speeches the matter was well arranged and fluency fully secured. His manners were particularly easy, from the entire absence of self-consciousness. When Lord Dalhousie visited Agra, the expression of his face and his gestures were watched with interest, because the Governor-General was understood to have mastered deportment to the extent of being able to indicate by his bow, to a nicety, the degree of notice he deemed it appropriate to bestow. But we all thought afterwards that the self-possession of the great Proconsul was not more striking than the simplicity of our own Chief. For Mr. Thomason was exactly his good old personality, and having no pretences and nothing to hide, was perfectly unembarrassed, and reached without knowing it the perfection the other had acquired.

'Mr. Thomason was hardly a man of what is called "culture," though he appreciated it in others. His time was too occupied to admit of much general reading, and he had no special turn for any of the arts. Humour had unfailing attractions for him; he said once "my greatest treat is one of Dickens' novels."

'He was a man of much personal courage. Though experiencing great difficulty in riding from his lameness, he would mount a spirited horse, and with the aid of providence