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JOHNA.SEAVERNS
Webster Family Libraiy of Vaterinary Medicine
Cummings School of Veterinary i^^ledicine at
Tufts University
200 Westboro Road y
.North Grafton, MA 01536 '^ .^i^.
THE HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW AND STIELINGSHIEE HUNT
1792- Inglehart.
Mr GEORGE RAMSAY of Barnton.
From Miniatuye in the possession of Lord Torfthichcn.
THE HISTORY
Linlithgow and Stirlingshire
-1910
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND ^nx
EDINBURGH AND LONDO:
MCMXI
ri
All RiifhU fUtrveJ
BWttMUMiiiaUttiailBiaH
}W,dz
!m'm
THE HISTORY
OF THE
Linlithgow and Stirlingshire
HUNT
1775-1910
BY
JAMES H. EUTHERFUED, W.S.
HONORARY SECRETARY
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
M C M X I
All Rights reserved
1^
7
i
PKEFACE.
It is perhaps mainly in consequence of a perusal of the hunting diary of Mr George Ramsay of Barnton, which was kindly lent to me by Mr Keith Eamsay Maitland, Edinburgh, in the year 1902, that this history came to be written ; for although the putting together of some records of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt had been attempted by me several years earlier, the diffi- culty in finding sufficient material for the purpose was so great that the idea had all but been aban- doned. The pleasure derived from reading the little volume lent to me by Mr Maitland, however, induced me to make some further researches, and of these this work is the result. That it may prove of interest to those who now hunt or have hunted with the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hounds, I sincerely hope : and since it embraces the period (1814-1825) during which — the Hunt being in abeyance — the country was visited by the original Lothian now the Duke of Buccleuch's Hounds, under Mr Robert Baird of Newbyth, and Will Williamson his huntsman, and the period (1869-
PREFACE
1877) during which the Hunt and that of East Lothian were amalgamated under the title of the Lothians Hunt, it is possible that it may also possess some small outside interest.
To all who have in any way given me help — and I have received much from acquaintances and strangers as well as from personal friends — I render my warmest thanks ; for without their aid the information which the book contains would cer- tainly have been either less extensive or less accurate. The index was prepared by Mr A. W. Jones, Chester, and I am most grateful to him for the expenditure of time and trouble involved in doing so.
While these pages were passing through the press, the deaths took place of Mr John Ross, head forester to the Marquis of Linlithgow, and Mr William Shore, late huntsman to the Duke of Buccleuch, whose names occur in the text, and for each of whom I had much regard.
Edinburgh, December 1910.
VI
CONTENTS.
PEEFACE.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
THE COUNTRY. THE MASTERS, SUPPORTERS AND HUNTS- MEN. THE HOUNDS. THE KENNELS .... 1
CHAPTER I.
EARLY RECORDS. SIR WILLIAM AUGUSTUS CUNYNGHAME OF
LIVINGSTONE. THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT . , 24
CHAPTER II.
LORD ELPHINSTONE. MR GEORGE RAMSAY OP BARNTON.
MR WILLIAM MURRAY, YOUNGER OP POLMAISE . . 40
CHAPTER III.
THE INTERREGNUM 68
CHAPTER IV.
THE THREE LAIRDS. THE HUNT CLUB .... 87
CHAPTER V.
THE SQUIRE OP BARNTON 112
vii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VI.
THE REGENCY AND THE YOUNG SQUIRE OF BARNTON . . 158
CHAPTER VII.
THE LAIRD OF WALLHOUSE . . . . . .187
CHAPTER VIII.
THE UNION ......... 212
CHAPTER IX.
MAJOR WILLIAM JOHN WAUCHOPE OF NIDDRIE. MR JAMES RUSSEL OP DUNDAS CASTLE. MR JOHN GRAHAM MBNZIBS 247
CHAPTER X.
CAPTAIN GEORGE CLERK CHEAPE OF WELLFIELD. MR ADAM PATERSON CROSS .......
273
CHAPTER XI.
MR ROBERT, MR FRED, AND MR FRANK J. USHER . . 295
CHAPTER XII.
SIR ROBERT USHER AND MR ANDREW GILLON . . . 316
APPENDICES.
HUNTING DIARY OF MR GEORGE RAMSAY OF BARNTON . 337
RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE HUNT CLUB, 1826 . . 350
LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE PROPRIETORSHIP OF THE HOUNDS,
1857 355
DECLARATION BY GEORGE KNIGHT, 1866 . . . . 363
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS, 1877-1909 (INCLUSIVE) . . . 366
INDEX.
viii
LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS.
MR GEORGE RAMSAY OP BARNTON . . Frontispiece
HOPETOUN HOUSE, 1796 ...... 4
THE LATE MARQUIS OF LINLITHGOW AND HIS SONS, THE EARL
OF HOPETOUN AND LORD CHARLES HOPE . . .12
THE DEATH OF THE FOX ...... 14
THE DOG-HOUSES ....... 22
SIR WILLIAM AUGUSTUS CUNTNGHAME OF LIVINGSTONE . . 26
RICHARD FORRESTER ...... 34
JOHN, 12rH LORD ELPHINSTONE ..... 40
CRAMOND REGIS, 1791 ...... 44
MR WILLIAM MURRAY, YOUNGER OF POLMAISE . . .62
THOMAS GRANGER AND HOUNDS . . . . .64
WILL WILLIAMSON ON SAM SLICK ..... 78
MR WILLIAM DOWNE GILLON OF WALLHOUSE . . .88
MR WILLIAM HAY OF DUNS CASTLE . . . .96
THE STAR AND GARTER, LINLITHGOW . . . .110
MR WILLIAM RAMSAY RAMSAY OP BARNTON . . .112
THE OLD RIDING SCHOOL AT BARNTON .... 122
MR W. R. RAMSAY AND THE HOUNDS . . . .134
LANERC08T ........ 142
THE INN AT BROXBURN ...... 144
BEDFORD (1830) . . . . . . .146
ix
ILLUSTRATIONS
OLD HUNTING HORN AND FOXES BRUSHES
MR W. R. RAMSAY OF BARNTON .
THE HON. MRS W. R. RAMSAY
THOMAS RINTOUL .
CAPTAIN JOHN ELPHINSTONE-FLEEMING
A MEET AT BARNTON
CAPTAIN THE HON. JAMES SANDILANDS
BARNTON HOUSE, 1860
COLONEL ANDREW GILLON OF WALLHOUSE
WALLHODSE
OLD B'oRMIE and HIS PONY, DONALD
COLONEL GILLON ON SNOWDROP .
MR HENRY WALTER HOPE OF LUFFNESS
MR JAMES HOPE
JOHN ATKINSON
MAJOR WILLIAM JOHN WAUCHOPE OF NIDDRIE .
MR RUSSEL AND THE HOUNDS AT DUNDA8 CASTLE
MR MENZIES AND THE HOUNDS AT BINNY
CAPTAIN CHEAPE AND THE HOUNDS AT HOPETOUN HOUSE
HEAD OF THE GOLDEN FOX
MR CROSS AND THE HOUNDS AT CRAIGIEHALL
MR ROBERT, MR FRED, AND MR PRANK J. USHER
EDWARD COTESWORTH AND HOUNDS
MR FRED USHER AND THE HOUNDS AT INGLISTON GATE
MR ANDREW GILLON ON SMOKE .
THE KENNELS, GOLFHALL .
SIR ROBERT USHER, MR GILLON, AND THE HOUNDS AT NORTON
148 156 158 162 166 170 180 182 188 192 198 208 216 228 236 248 260 268 284 290 292 296 298 312 318 326 332
MAP OF THE COUNTRY.
LIST OF MASTERS. THE LINLITHGOW AND STIRLINGSHIEE HUNT.
1775-1795 . . Sir William Augustus Cunynghaiie of
Livingstone and Milncraig. 1795-1806 . . A Committee.
1806-1807 . . John, 12th Lord Elphinstone.
1807-1810 . . John, 12th Lord Elphinstone, and Mr
George Eamsay of Barnton. 1810-1814 , . Mr William Murray, younger of Polmaise.
1814-1825 . . —The Hunt in abeyance.—
1825-1828 . . Mr James Johnston of Straiten and Champ-
fleurie and Mr William Downe Gillon of
Wallhouse. 1828-1830 . . Mr William Hay of Duns Castle and Drum-
melzier. 1830-1850 . . Mr William Eamsay Ramsay of Barnton.
1850-1855 . . Captain the Hon. James Sandilands and Captain
John Elphinstone-Fleeming. 1855-1865 . . Captain the Hon. James Sandilands.
1865-1866 . . Mr Charles William Eamsay Eamsay of
Barnton. 1866-1869 . . Colonel Andrew Gillon of Wallhouse,
THE LOTHIANS HUNT.
1869-1871 . . Mr Henry Walter Hope of Luffness.
1871-1877 . . Mr James Hope, Easter Duddingston.
THE LINLITHGOW AND STIELINGSHIRE HUNT.
1877-1881 1881-1884 1884-1887 1887-1890 1890-1895 1895-1906 1906-1910 1910
Captain William John Wauchope of Niddrie. Mr James Eussel of Dundas Castle. Mr John Graham Menzies. Captain George Clerk Cheape of Wellfield. Mr Adam P. Cross.
Mr Eobert, Mr Fred, and Mr Frank J. Usher. Sir Egbert Usher and Mr Andrew Gillon. Sir Egbert Usher and Mr Arthur J. Meldrum of Dechmont.
xi
LIST OF HUNTSMEN.
THE LINLITHGOW AND STIELINGSHIRE HUNT.
|
1797-1805 |
. EicHARD Forrester. |
|
1805-1807 |
. Robert Borton. |
|
1807-1814 |
. Thomas Granger. |
|
1814-1825 |
. — The Hunt in abeyance. — |
|
1825-1828 |
. George Knight. |
|
1828-1830 |
. Mr Hat of Duns Castle, M.F.H. |
|
1830-1839 |
. Christopher Scott. |
|
1839-1851 |
. Thomas Piintoul. |
|
1851-1853 |
. Captain J. Elphinstone-Fleeming, M.F.H |
|
1853-1856 |
. W. Potts. |
|
1856-1857 |
. Egbert Purslow. |
|
1857-1858 |
. Henry Nason. |
|
1858-1860 |
. J. Jones. |
|
1860-1866 |
. James Stracey. |
|
1866-1869 |
. ElCHARD HoRTON. |
1869-1877
THE LOTHIANS HUNT.
. John Atkinson.
THE LINLITHGOW AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT.
|
1877-1881 |
, John Atkinson. |
|
1881-1882 |
. Charles Atkinson. |
|
1882-1884 |
. Mr James Eussel of Dundas Castle, M.F.H |
|
1884-1887 |
. John Atkinson. |
|
1887-1889 |
. James Beavan. |
|
1889-1891 |
. Edward Cotesworth. |
|
1891-1895 |
. Mr Adam P. Cross, M.F.H. |
|
1895-1904 |
. Edward Cotesworth. |
|
1904-1906 |
. Thomas Hall. |
|
1906 |
. Sam Morgan, junior. |
|
xiii |
THE HISTOEY
OF THE
LINLITHGOW AND STIELINGSHIEE HUNT.
INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTER
THE COUNTRY.
THE MASTERS, SUPPORTERS, AND HUNTSMEN.
THE HOUNDS. THE KENNELS.
The shires of Linlithgow and Stirhng are quaintly described by Sir Robert Sibbald, who was born and lived at the Castle of Kipps, near Linlithgow, in a history ^ written early in the eighteenth century, dedicated to the Right Honourable Charles Hope Earl of Hopetoun, Sheriff Principal of Linlithgow- shire, and to the Right Honourable the Earl of Linlithgow and Calander, Heretable Sheriff of Stirlingshire. "The Sheriffdom of Linlithgow, as it is now," Sir Robert states, "hath to the North
1 ' History of the Sherift'doms of Linlithgow and Stirling,' by Sir Robert Sibbald, M.D. 1710.
A
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
the Firth of Forth. Towards the South-east and South - west the Waters of Ahnond and Breich separate it from Edinburgh Shire, and towards the North-west it is parted from Stirling Shire by the water of Even. Towards the West it hath part of Clydsdale. The length of the Shire from the mouth of Almond at Nether Cramond to Bed- lormie is fourteen miles, and the breadth of it, where it is broadest, from Borrowstoness upon the Firth of Forth, to Almond Fala, will be some Nine miles. The figure of it is unequal, and such is the Quality of the Soil. The West part is mountain- ous and hilly, and the North-side and the East is plain and level ; and the middle part sloaps much from the bights, both to the North - west and South-east. The South-west part is well watered with the Bourns which glide through it, and so is the North side and middle part." Stirlingshire, Sir Bobert further states, "hath now for Bounds towards the West, Dumbartonshire, and for Marches there. Loch Lomund, and the Waters of Blane and Ainrick : and it has to the South, part of Dumbartonshire and Clydsdale : and to the East it hath Linlithgowshire : and towards the North, it is limited by the River and Firth of Forth. Where it is longest, that is at the North- west point, where it joyneth with Dundaff-Moor in Lennox, to the Nunnerie of Emanuel ^ upon Avon water, which is to the East, the March betwixt it and Linlithgow-shire, it will be twenty
1 Now Manuel.
2
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
Miles in length. And where it is broadest, from the Town of Kilsyth to the Castle of Elphingston, it will be about twelve Miles in Breadth. The Nature and Quality of its Soil differeth much, the West and South-west parts of it are Mountain- ous and Hillie : and the North part of it from the Town of Stirling to the East March is Levell and plain : and the South-east part is much of it a rising ground. The whole is well watered with the Waters, and the Bourns which run through it ; and besides several Woods and Copices, the Seats of the Nobility and the Gentry are well planted : the South side is a mixed Countrey, fitted for Pasture and Corns : the North side is most fitted for Grains and Fruit Trees."
Mr John Penney, a native of Bathgate, also gives an account ^ of Linlithgowshire, written, most probably, towards the end of the eighteenth cen- tury, which, although like Sir Robert Sibbald's, bearing no reference to hunting, contains such a fair description of the boundaries and contour of that county as it exists at the present day, that it may not be out of place to quote one or two passages from it. Linlithgowshire, says Mr Penney " has the Firth of Forth on the north, Edinburghshire on the east and south - east, Lanarkshire on the south-west, and Stirlingshire on the west. On the east, it is separated from Edinburghshire, first, by the Breich Water, from its source till it joins the Amon ; and, after this
^ ' Historical Account of Linlithgowshire,' by John Penney, 1832.
3
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
junction, the Amon forms the more remarkable boundary throughout its course to the Forth, except at Mid-Calder, where Edmburghshire in- trudes somewhat more than a mile into Linlith- gowshire. On the west, this county is separated , from Stirlingshire, first, by the Linn Burn, from its rise till its junction with the Avon, which now forms the separation between them, till it falls into the Forth. The length of the east side, from the foot of Almond, on the north-east, to the top of Breich water, on the south-west, is nearly twenty -one miles ; the breadth is twelve miles. The superficial contents of the whole appear, from very minute calculations, to be 121 square miles or 77,440 statute acres. . . . None of the protuberances of this district rise into lofty eminences ; neither is its surface by any means flat. It is diversified by a number of small hills, which do not rise to any inconvenient elevation. The most remarkable of them forms a range, which runs from Bowden, across the middle of the county, in an oblique direction from north- west to south-east. Cairn-naple, the most prom- inent centre of this range, rises to the height of 1498 feet above the level of the sea; and Cock- lerne, on the western part of this range, rises to the height of 500 feet.^ The Kipps Hills, Knock Hills, and Drumcross Hills, all form conspicuous parts of this range. Biccarton-edge and Binny-
^ The Ordnance Survey sheets indicate that Cairnpai^ple is about 1000 feet, and Cockleroi about 900 feet, above sea-level.
4
AND STIELINGSHmE HUNT
craig, may also be deemed a part of this range, and rise to a considerable elevation. The second class of hills, which are more worthy of notice, is variously distributed, throughout the northern parts of the county, along the Forth. Of those the most conspicuous are, Mons Hill, Craigie Hill, and Dundas Hill, in Dalmenie parish ; Craigton Hill and Binns Hill, in Abercorn parish — from whence the beauty and grandeur of the prospect are unrivalled, — and Irongarth, in Linlithgow parish. The middle and western districts of the county are the most hilly ; the east and north are the most plain. The southern divisions of this shire consist mostly of moor, moss, and morass, with few heights of any elevation. . . . In Linlithgowshire there are not many waters of great extent. The only lakes are, the loch at Linlithgow town, and Lochcoat,^ in Torphichen parish. . . . Of large rivers this county cannot boast ; yet it is well watered by several streams for every domestic purpose, while the Amon on the east, and the Avon on the west, are the only considerable rivulets."
When the district was first crossed by hounds — and there is evidence ^ to show that at least a part of it was hunted as early as the year 1762 — its surface must have presented an aspect differing considerably from that which it now bears. It
^ Now only a marsh.
* 'Morison's Dictionary of Decisions of the Court of Session,' voce " Game," vol. vi. p. 4991 : vide p. 24.
5
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
must then have been comparatively open in character, and therefore foxes and consequently hounds may possibly have run straighter than they do at the present time. It is stated^ that about the year 1820 Linlithgowshire, as a hunt- ing country, was decidedly in every respect to be preferred to the counties of Edinburgh and Had- dington ; that it held a remarkably good scent at all seasons of the year ; that it consisted, for a provincial, of a very fair proportion of grass, and that it was "a flat and very pleasant and straightforward one to ride over " ; while Nimrod, who visited the country in 1834, mentions^ that it was then considered the best in Scotland. In those days, however, it was much less intersected than it is now, for although the Union or Forth and Clyde canal was completed in 1822, there were no rail- ways and few mineral works — the lines from Edin- burgh to Glasgow by Linlithgow and by Bathgate, and to Carstairs having been opened subsequently to the year 1840, and the production of shale-oil not having become an industry in West Lothian until about the year 1850. Nor had wire then begun to show itself as it has since, creeping snake- like over the land and renderino^ more than one district and many hundreds of acres of good old grass practically unfit for the chase.
Since the beginning, the Linlithgow and Stirling- shire Hounds have hunted no fewer than twelve
1 'Sporting Magazine,' December 1828.
2 ' Nimrod's Northern Tour,' 1838, p. 208.
6
AND STIELINGSHIRE HUNT
counties, namely, Linlithgow or West Lothian and Stirling — which may be considered originally to have formed the country proper, — Berwick, Dum- barton, Dumfries, Edinburgh or Mid-Lothian, Fife, Forfar, Haddington or East Lothian, Lanark, Peebles, and Perth. In addition to the shires of Linlithgow and Stirling, part of Mid-Lothian was hunted in the year 1790, as were portions of the counties of Dumbarton and Lanark in 1807 and some subsequent years. From 1825 to 1828 the west of Fife country and a part of Dumfriesshire were visited from time to time, and in 1828 and the immediately following seasons the Duns country in Berwickshire was hunted alternately with the counties of Linlithgow and Stirling. When the Duns country was given up in 1833, part of Lanark- shire was lent by Lord Kelburne, and the district around Dunblane in Perthshire received some at- tention. Then Forfarshire had its turn from 1838 to 1842, and in the year after that last-mentioned, East Lothian was taken over with the approval of the Duke of Buccleuch, and hunted in conjunction with the counties of Linlithgow and Stirling, part of Mid-Lothian, and certain parts of Lanarkshire and Peeblesshire known as the Carnwath country. In 1848, East Lothian was relinquished, and in its place the west of Fife district was again resorted to, Fife at that time possessing no foxhounds of its own. From 1855 to 1866 the Carnwath country seems to have been preferred to Stirlingshire, which then received only a small share of the fixtures, but
7
HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW
which at the end of that period was resumed, and until 1869, was once more hunted fairly with Lin- lithgowshire and part of the county of Edinburgh. During the union with East Lothian (1869-1877) the three Lothians may be said to have consti- tuted the country, for the district lying to the west of the Avon was but seldom visited ; while from its termination down to the present time, the area hunted has practically consisted of the county of Linlithgow, with the south-eastern part of Stir- lingshire and the north-western portion of Mid- Lothian as adjuncts.
Turning from the country to the men who con- ducted the hunting establishment and to those who gave it their support, — it would seem that Sir William Augustus Cunynghame of Living- stone and Milncraig was master about the year 1775, and that after his retirement, which probably took place some twenty years later, the manage- ment was in the hands of a committee. Subse- quently, John, twelfth Lord Elphinstone, Mr George Ramsay of Barnton, and Mr William Murray, younger of Polmaise, had the control from the year 1806 to the year 1814, in which the Hunt fell into abeyance; while after 1814, and until
1824, the Lothian^ Hounds, under Mr Kobert Baird of Newbyth, hunted the country periodically. In
1825, a renewal of the establishment was effected by Mr James Johnston of Straiton and Champfleurie,
^ The original Lothian Hunt, now the Duke of Buccleuch's, estab- lished circa 1783.
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
and Mr William Downe Gillon of Wallhouse, who acted as joint - masters for three years and three months. On their resignation Mr William Hay of Duns Castle and Drummelzier accepted the man- agement, but two seasons later retired in favour of Mr William Ramsay Ramsay of Barnton, whose reign lasted from 1830 until his death in 1850. The conduct of affairs was then entrusted to Cap- tain the Hon. James Sandilands, second son of the tenth Lord Torphichen, and Captain John Elphinstone-Fleeming, afterwards fourteenth Lord Elphinstone, the latter taking the chief charge until 1855, and the former subsequently acting alone for the space of ten seasons. In 1865, Mr Charles William Ramsay Ramsay of Barnton attained majority and assumed the control, but his mastership was a short one, for his death took place in the end of that year. Colonel Andrew Gillon of Wallhouse succeeded him and hunted the country for three seasons, or until 1869, when the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire and the Lothian ^ Hunts were amalgamated under the title of the Lothians Hunt. Mr Henry Walter Hope of Luffness was the first master of the con- joined establishments, his successor being found in 1871 in Mr James Hope, Easter Duddingston, who remained in ofiice until the year 1877, when the union terminated. Then the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt was revived under Captain, afterwards Major, William John Wauchope of
' The second or East Lothian Hunt, established 1855.
9
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
Niddrie, who, four seasons later, was succeeded by Mr James Russel of Dundas Castle. In 1884 the management passed to Mr John Graham Menzies, in 1887 to Cap tarn George Clerk Cheape of Wellfield, in 1890 to Mr Adam Paterson Cross, and in 1895 to Mr, now Sir Robert, Usher and his brothers, Mr Fred Usher and Mr Francis James Usher, who, with Mr Fred Usher in charge of the establishment, remained in office until 1906. From 1906 to the close of the past season (1909) Sir Robert Usher and Mr Andrew Gillon have hunted the country — Mr Gillon undertaking the active part of the management — and although their resignation was received in the end of the year 1909, Sir Robert has since agreed to continue in office with Mr Arthur James Mel- drum of Dechmont as joint-master.
From what has been stated it will be observed that in the earlier part of the Hunt's existence the masters were, with one exception, Mr Hay, landowners in the counties of Linlithgow or Stir- ling and the adjoining district, or their relatives, and that it was only after the union with East Lothian that the control came to rest with others. It will also be noticed that two families, the Ramsays of Barnton and the Gillons of Wallhouse, have each contributed three masters in successive generations, — the former being represented by Mr George Ramsay, his son Mr W. R. Ramsay, and his grandson Mr C. W. R. Ramsay, all of whom died while in office ; and the latter, by Mr W. D.
10
AND STIRLINGSHIEE HUNT
Gillon, his son Colonel Andrew Gillon, and his grandson Mr Andrew Gillon ; that two Lords Elphinstone, the twelfth lord and the fourteenth lord, then Captain Fleeming, gave their services to the Hunt in directing its management ; and that Captain Sandilands and Sir Kobert Usher have each occupied the position of master for the con- siderable space of fifteen years.
Regarding those, other than masters, who have supported the Hunt — since the beginning, most of the landowners in the country, whether they hunted or not, have given their aid or counte- nance to the sport in one way or another ; the farmers, although but few of them have joined in the chase of late years, have cheerfully allowed their land to be ridden over in the worst periods of agricultural depression ; and many more, neither owners nor occupiers of land, but followers of the pack, have aiforded pecuniary assistance. To enu- merate all the supporters whom the Hunt has, and has had, would form a difficult if not a well- nigh impossible task, but without invidious dis- tinction, particular mention may be made of the Houstoun family and the Hopetoun family, for the former during several generations has given every assistance in its power, and the latter, notably, all through the Hunt's history, has contributed much support. Within recent years the Hunt has had no better friend than the late Marquis of Linlithgow, who, although keeping two private packs, the Hopetoun harriers and beagles, was
11
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
always ready, as his son is now, to welcome the foxhounds upon his land. And although none of the main line of this family has ever accepted the control, there has probably never been a period at which a member of it would not have been gladly hailed as master, both by the subscribers and by the country.
Of a long list of Hunt servants, only seven hunts- men— Richard Forrester, Thomas Granger, Chris- topher Scott, Thomas Rintoul, James Stracey, John Atkinson, and Edward Cotes worth — have been in office for a period exceeding five years. Forrester was huntsman to the pack at an early date (1797), and acted as such until his death in or about the year 1805, when Robert Burton was appointed to fill his place ; while Granger, who succeeded Burton, hunted the hounds from 1807 to 1814, the year in which the Hunt fell into abeyance. On the renewal of the establishment in 1825, George Knight became huntsman, but three years later was superseded by Mr Hay, who during his mastership (1828 - 1830) hunted the hounds himself. Scott followed Mr Hay and held the huntsman's place from 1830 to 1839, when he retired in favour of Rintoul, who at that time had seen many seasons' service with the pack, and whose term of office as huntsman subsequently lasted until 1851, in which year the master, Captain Fleeming, undertook the huntsman's duties in the field. In 1853 W. Potts came as huntsman, in 1856 Robert Purslow, in 1857 Henry
12
Photo by Elliott &= Fry, London. Thk latk :\I.\RgLI.S OV LIXLITIU-.OW"
AM) HIS SONS
The earl OF HOl'KTOL'X and LORD CHARLES HOPE.
AND STmLINGSHIKE HUNT
Nason, and in 1858 John Jones. Jones' relinquish- ment of the post in 1860 cleared the way for Stracey, his first whipper - in, who acted until 1866, when he was succeeded by Kichard Horton, the last of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire hunts- men prior to the union with East Lothian. On the revival of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt in 1877, Atkinson, who had carried the horn during the union, was retained, and, with the exception of the season of 1881, in which his nephew Charles Atkinson was huntsman, and of the two following seasons, in which the master, Mr Russel, was nominally huntsman and frequently hunted the hounds, continued in office until 1887, when his huntinof career closed. James Beavan came next, and remained for two seasons, at the end of which he went to Lord Eglinton, and Cotes worth was appointed in his stead. Cotes- worth was huntsman in 1889 and 1890, kennel- huntsman and first whipper-in in the four succeed- ing seasons, during which the master, Mr Cross, hunted the hounds, and again huntsman from 1895 to 1904 ; while Tom Hall, who got the horn on Cotesworth's retirement, carried it for two seasons or until 1906, when he accompanied Mr Fred Usher to Berwickshire. Since then Sam Mor- gan, junior, a son of Lord Fitzwilliam's hunts- man, has had the charge at Golfhall, and has hunted the hounds for Sir Robert Usher and Mr Gillon, as he will now for Sir Bobert and Mr Meldrum.
13
HISTOBY OF THE LINLITHGOW
Turning again from the men — masters, sup- porters, and huntsmen — to the hounds, there is nothing to indicate where the original pack came from, or what was its strength in the Hunt's earhest days. The picture of " The Death of the Fox," however, painted by Alexander Nasmyth about the year 1795, gives some idea of the stamp of hound in use at that time. In appearance the hounds seem to have been small, perhaps not more than twenty inches in height, deficient in bone and substance, light in colour, and resembling the harrier rather than the foxhound, but showing quality and having great neck and shoulder. The pictures of different dates in which the hounds are depicted form in themselves a sort of history of the latter, and it is interesting to compare one picture with another since each, assuming always that the drawing is correct, serves to illustrate the type of hound existing at the time, and to demonstrate the progress which has gradually taken place in hound breeding.
In 1806, what was evidently the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire pack was advertised to be dis- posed of by public sale,^ but it would seem that the hounds were not sold in this way, and eventu- ally remained in the country. Three or four years later, fresh blood appears to have been obtained from the kennel of a Mr Harley Drummond, since the accounts for the year 1810 refer to a lawsuit at his instance for the recovery of the price of
1 ' Edinburgh Advertiser,' May 20, 1806 : vide p. 42. 14
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
some hounds which the Hunt had purchased from him.
The picture containing the portrait of Granger, painted by Douglas in 1813,^ points to the fact that the hounds were then still wanting in bone, and harrier-like, although in character more nearly- approaching the modern foxhound than those rep- resented by Nasmyth. Yet it matters little what improvement in breeding had been effected at this stage, for in the following year the hounds were sold, and were replaced, on the renewal of the hunting establishment in 1825, by an entirely distinct pack. This, coming as it did from the kennel of the Earl of Kintore, and consisting, as his list for 1824^ indicates, partly of hounds which had fallen to him on the division of the united Fife and Forfarshire packs, and partly of drafts from various well-known kennels in England, was probably made up of hounds of a better class than those which had constituted the previous pack.
It seems possible that when Mr Johnston and Mr W. D. Gillon resigned their mastership in 1828, the fifth Earl of Hopetoun may have purchased the hounds and offered them as a gift to the gentlemen of the counties of Linlithgow and Stirling,^ but it cannot be stated authoritatively that this offer, if made, was accepted, nor is it by any means clear that either Mr Hay or Mr W. R. Ramsay, on
^ Vide illustration, p. 64.
2 Appendix to ' Notitia Venatica ' by R. T. Vyner, 1842.
■'' Vide Appendix IV.
15
HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW
assuming the control, took over the hounds as county property, and without purchasing them, as has been suggested.^
In his short reign Mr Hay improved the pack in a wonderful manner ; ^ and although there are no hound lists forthcoming to show it, he seems to have introduced a strain of blood which he had brought down from Warwickshire and had obtained from the old Pytchley.^ The one and a half couples of hounds represented in the picture containing his portrait, painted in 1830,^ if forming part of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire pack, indicate a distinct improvement both in shape and in sub- stance, and since the figures in this work are by Sir Francis Grant, it may be assumed that the drawing is good.
The large picture ^ painted for Mr W. R. Ramsay by H. B. Chalon in 1835, shows some fourteen and a half couples of hounds which, although perhaps rather wanting in bone, have at least the appear- ance of foxhounds, and will be compared favour- ably with those portrayed by Nasmyth and Douglas. During Mr Ramsay's mastership the pack, notwith- standing the fact that it was strengthened by drafts from Lord Kintore's, the Duke of Cleveland's, the Badsworth and other kennels, was generally of Beaufort and Lonsdale blood, ^ and possibly Mr
^ Vide Appendix IV. ^ ' Sporting Magazine,' April 1831.
3 Ibid., August 1839. * Vide illustration, p. 96.
^ Vide illustration, p. 134.
6 ' Field and Fern ' (South), by The Druid, 1865, p. 54.
16
AND STIRLINGSHIEE HUNT
Ramsay never had a better hound than Bedford (1830) by the Duke of Beaufort's Brusher (1822) — Dairymaid, bred by Mr Nichol and entered in 1824 by Lord Kintore. But "Lonsdale blood was Mr Bamsay's delight, and he bought 17^ couple of them at the Cottesmore sale"^ in 1842, while two years later he acquired Lord Kintore's pack,^ which thus, a second time, found its way into the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire country.
Captain Sandilands did not care for a heavy- boned hound, ^ and the picture * of " The Meet at Barnton," painted by Stewart Watson, and finished about the year 1858, rather bears this out. At this period drafts were got from the Brocklesby, the Bramham Moor, the Berkeley, and other kennels ; but then, as at other times both earlier and later, there were always hounds bred at home, and the sire most used was Sir Bichard Sutton's Bajazet (1854) by Mr Lumley's Boyster (1848) — Sir Bichard's Barbara (1851).
On the death of Mr C. W. B. Bamsay in 1865, the pack, which a few years previously had been claimed as private property by Mrs W. B. Bamsay, was sold. The dog hounds were purchased by Colonel Gillon, the next master, and the bitches, which had been bought by Lord Eglinton, were taken to Ayrshire by Trueman Tuff, the first whipper-in. Throughout Colonel Gillon's master-
1 'Field and Fern' (South), by The Druid, 1865, p. 54.
2 'Sporting Magazine' and ' New Sporting Magazine,' March 1844.
^ ' Field and Fern,' supra, p. 59. * Vide illustration, p. 170.
17 B
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
ship, the pack was afflicted to a considerable extent by kennel lameness, and each year fresh hounds had to be purchased in order to provide the requisite working number. These were obtained from many sources, the chief being the Cheshire, the Old Burton, Lord Eglinton's, and the Milton kennels.
When the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire and the East Lothian Hunts were united in 1869, Mr H. W. Hope purchased Colonel Gillon's pack, and shortly afterwards acquired the Lothian one also ; but, after a season, very few of the hounds which had belonged to either remained in the kennel. During the subsistence of the union it was necessary, in consequence of the increase of country, to maintain a stronger pack than previously, and both Mr H. W. Hope, and his successor, Mr James Hope, acquired drafts freely, the most important in point of numbers being got from the Berkeley, Lord Middleton's, the Atherstone, Mr Meynell-Ingram's, and the Badminton kennels, and the most useful perhaps from the Badminton. After the first year of Mr James Hope's term of office, during which the hounds were lent by Mr H. W. Hope, the pack became the property of the Hunt committee, and continued to be so throughout the mastership of Major Wauchope, who obtained drafts from Badminton, from Berkeley, and from the Earl of Zetland, and in 1880 put on some fifteen couples of entered hounds purchased at Lord Coventry's and Mr Askew's sales at Bugby in that year.
18
AND STmLINGSHIEE HUNT
On taking the control, Mr Russel purchased the pack from the Hunt committee and strengthened it with drafts from Lord Eglinton's, the Brocklesby, the Milton, and the Hertfordshire kennels, besides using the Marquis of Waterford's Rutland (1880) by Milton Rifleman (1874) — his lordship's Red- wing (1877), a hound which he bought when the Curraghmore establishment was reduced in 1882.
When Mr Russel retired, Mr Menzies purchased the hounds from him, and in turn sold them to Captain Cheape, who was the last individual owner of the pack ; for during the two succeeding master- ships— those of Mr Cross and the Messrs Usher — the hounds belonged partly to the country and partly to the masters, whereas they are now en- tirely the property of the country. During his term of ofiice, Mr Menzies obtained drafts from the Grafton and the New Forest ; while sub- sequently Captain Cheape turned to Sir Bache Cunard's, the Blankney, the Milton, the Ather- stone, Captain Johnstone's, and the North Cheshire kennels in order to get the number and stamp of hounds he required.
In the beginning of Mr Cross' mastership there set in a tendency towards home-breeding which grew during the period in which Mr Fred Usher had the management of the pack. Consequently, very few drafts were purchased by Mr Cross, and no hounds were put forward by Mr Usher which were not bred at Golfhall, although from time to time he had recourse to the sires of other
19
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
kennels, such as Earl Fitzwilliam's Chanter (1891), the Dumfriesshire Pilot (1894), the South Durham Streamer (1896), and the Lanark and Kenfrewshire Eaeburn (1900). At home, Renegade (1892), Gov- ernor (1893), Donovan (1895), Genitor (1896), Grappler (1898), Hamlet (1899), Sounder (1900), Delegate (1901), and the Atherstone Comrade (1900) purchased in 1904, were all used between the years 1895 and 1906 — Genitor^ most freely, — and there is still much of their blood in the kennel, notwithstanding the fact that many of their descendants went to form a draft which was presented to Mr Usher when he accepted the mastership of the Berwickshire Hounds in 1906.
Sir Robert Usher and Mr Gillon reverted to the old order, for, although continuing home-breeding, they did so at first on a smaller scale, and made up the working number required by the purchase of drafts. Since the beginning of their mastership, the Atherstone, Sir W. Williams -Wynn's, Earl Fitzwilliam's (Wentworth), the Cattistock, the Duke of Buccleuch's, the Brocklesby, the Grove, and the Puckeridge, have all contributed towards maintaining the strength of the pack, while Mr Forbes of Callendar has presented a number of hounds from the Hurworth kennel, and the Duke of Beaufort the Badminton Druid (1904). The Atherstone draft proved to be a good one, and
1 Genitor (1896) by Governor (1893)— Grateful (1891) : Governor by the Duke of Buccleuch's General (1886)— Rompish (1888) ; General by Belvoir Gamester (1882)— the Duke of Buccleuch's Starlight (1882).
20
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
their Dagon (1900) stood out promioently for two seasons as a working hound, being second only in his performance in the field to the home-bred Hostile (1902).
Owing to the want of continuity in the earlier lists, it is difficult to trace the pedigrees of the hounds, but there can be little doubt that there is not now any blood in the kennel which goes back in it prior to the union with East Lothian, and that the Lothians' list for 1872 contains the name of the last survivor ^ of the previous Lin- lithgow and Stirlingshire pack.
Before concluding this chapter, a reference to the various kennels occupied from time to time will not be out of place. The earliest known are *' the Doghouses," which were built by Sir William Cunynghame on the farm of Lethem between Uphall and Midcalder, in or about the year 1775. These were probably used until the end of his mastership, or until the committee of management, which was afterwards appointed, began to act ; but however this may have been, in the year 1797, the hounds were kennelled at Linlithgow, where they appear to have been kept until 1806. From 1806 to 1814, the period during which the management rested with Lord Elphinstone, Mr George Ramsay, and Mr William Murray, kennels at Laurieston, near Falkirk, were used as well as those at Linhthgow ;
1 Lively (1868) by Lucifer (1862) — Shropshire Bonnylass (1865). Lucifer by Belvoir Lucifer (1852) — Liberty (1854). Liberty by Auditor — Luna. Auditor by Dreadnought — Active.
21
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
and it is probable that the hounds were accom- modated at Barnton when the eastern side of the country was hunted, as they were at Hamilton when the Lanarkshire district was visited. When Lord Kintore's hounds were purchased by Mr Johnston and Mr Gillon in 1825, they were taken to kennels at Winchburgh, which had been occupied by the Lothian, now the Duke of Buccleuch's, pack during the period in which the Hunt was in abeyance (1814-1824). In the same year (1825), however, they were transferred from Winchburgh to new kennels erected by Mr Johnston at the Bonnytoun entry to Linlithgow, and from these they hunted the whole country except the west of Fife, the west of Stirlingshire, and part of Dumfriesshire. On the occasions upon which these outlying districts were visited, the pack was put up at Torryburn, at Stirling, and at Lochmaben respectively. It would seem that between the years 1828 and 1830, during which Mr Hay had the management, the hounds, when in the home country, occupied kennels at Kettleston, about a mile to the west of Linlithgow, and when in Berwickshire, the kennels at Duns Castle. Through- out Mr W. B. Ramsay's mastership the head- quarters were at Laurieston, — the Barnton kennels, and subsequently others at Golfhall, an old inn and posting - house, receiving the pack when the eastern and southern parts of the home country were hunted. So long as Mr Ramsay hunted the Duns country, it is probable that he had the
22
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
use of the Duns Castle kennels. When he hunted Lanarkshire and the Carnwath country, he had kennels at Newmains and Carnbroe, and at Carn- wath ; when in Forfarshire, kennels at Forfar ; and when in East Lothian, kennels at Amisfield near Haddington ; while the west of Fife district was probably overtaken from Torryburn or some other convenient centre. Captain Fleeming seems to have used the Laurieston, Golfhall, and Carnwath kennels during his term of office in the same way that Captain Sandilands did later. In 1856, how- ever, kennels at Kersewell were substituted for those at Carnwath, and in the following year the Laurieston kennels were given up, and those at Golfhall, which had been rebuilt or repaired, were constituted the headquarters. In Mr C. W. R. Ramsay's short mastership there was no change, the kennels used being those at Golfhall and at Kersewell, but when Colonel Gillon undertook the management, he reverted to the Laurieston kennels, with outlying quarters at Hopetoun and at Uphall. In 1869 the kennels at Golfhall again became the headquarters, and there the hounds have been kept ever since.
23
CHAPTEE I.
EARLY RECORDS.
SIR WILLIAM AUGUSTUS CUNYNGHAME OF LIVINGSTONE.
THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
1762-1806.
It is difficult to assign a definite date to the commencement of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire, or Stirling and Linlithgowshire, Hunt.-^ In the year 1762 part of the county of Mid-Lothian, which, on the west, adjoins Linlithgowshire, was hunted by the Edinburgh Hunt,^ and while it is possible
1 In the earlier records the Hunt is frequently so called. ^ Morison's ' Dictionary of Decisions of the Court of Session ' contains the following report : —
1763. August 9. James Watson of Saughton, Thomas Craig of Eickerton, John Christie of Baberton, George Inglis of Redhall, and James Carmichael of Hailes, against James Earl of Errol, and the other Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Edinburgh Hunt, and Eichard Vary their servant.
In May 1762, a petition and complaint was exhibited to the Sheriff of Edinburgh by the pursuers, with concourse of the fiscal, against Eichard Vary, huntsman of the Edinburgh pack of hounds, for breaking down and leaping over their hedges and ditches, and riding through sown corn, and for hunting a pack of hounds, which he was not entitled to do ; and therefore praying, that he might be discharged
24
HISTORY OF THE L. & S. HUNT
that, in it, the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire may have had its origin, — the sportsmen of the time going gradually farther afield for the purpose of hunting, and discovering out westward in the shires of Linlithgow and Stirling a country well adapted to the chase of the fox, — it is also possible that both Hunts may have been in existence then, the former overtaking Mid-Lothian, and the latter the two counties from which it derives its title. But however this may have been, it would seem that Sir William Augustus Cunynghame, fourth Baronet of Livingstone and Milncraig, was master of the Hunt which forms the subject of this history, in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
Sir David Cunynghame the third Baronet " died
to hunt in time coming ; that he might be found hable in damages to the complainers ; and that he might be lined in the sum of £50 SterHng for contempt of the law, &c.
A proof having been taken, the Sheriff found it proven, " That the defender, Richard Vary, has hunted with a pack of hounds on the grounds belonging to the complainers James Watson and James Carmichael of Hailes, after the wheat thereon was brierded, and that he once brushed through the hedge of an inclosure belonging to the said Mr Carmichael ; Found, that the said defender had no right to hunt with the said pack of hounds on the grounds belonging to any of the complainers ; and therefore prohibited and discharged him from hunting thereon in time coming, with certification. And found the defender liable to the said Mr Watson and Mr Carmichael in damages and expenses, and modified the same to £2 Sterling ; as also, fined and amerciated the said defender in £5 Sterling, payable to the procurator fiscal of Court ; and granted warrant to any of the officers of Court to apprehend and incarcerate the defender in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, ^ the keepers whereof were ordered to receive and detain him, until he should pay the said two sums."
1 The Tolbooth Jail or Prison. Vide ' Minor Antiquities of Edinburgh ' (Chambers), 1833, p. 122.
25
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
suddenly of the gout in his stomach at his house of Livingstone," on the 10th of October 1767, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir William. He, Sir William, "was many years Member for Lin- lithgowshire, and has long held several respectable offices in the public service. In 1778, he was appointed Captain in the Duke of Buccleuch's Southern Regiment of Fencibles ; and having in 1779 received the appointment of Comptroller of the Board of Green Cloth, which vacated his seat in Parliament, he was again re-elected. During the late Administration in 1806 he was appointed Receiver-General of the land rents of Scotland. He married first, on the 21st of October 1768, Frances, daughter and heiress of the late Sir Robert Myrton of Gogar, Bart., in Mid-Lothian, by whom, who died
Against this interlocutor Vary petitioned, setting forth that he was only a servant ; and therefore praying, that procedure might be sisted till the gentlemen of the hunt might be called in the process.
The Sheriff upon answers, refused this petition ; upon which the Earl of Errol and others raised a suspension ; in which they insisted, that, by law, they were entitled to hunt whei'e they pleased, and were entitled to keep Vary as their servant to take care of their dogs.
Lord Edgefield, Ordinary on the bills, reported the same to the Court ; upon which the following interlocutor was pronounced : —
" The Lord Ordinary, after advising with the Lords, passes the bill upon caution, prohibiting and discharging Richard Vary, the Earl of Errol, and others, contributors to the Edinburgh Hunt, sus- penders, or any in their company, from hunting or pursuing game by themselves, or with horses, within the inclosures, or upon the grounds of the chargers or their tenants, and from trespassing upon said in- closures, till such time as this suspension shall be discussed ; and that under the penalty of £5 Sterling toties quoties, to be levied from the suspenders, or any of them, conjunctly and severally." — Vide Morison's ' Dictionary of Decisions of 'the Court of Session,' voce " Game," vol. vi. p. 499L
26
Sir WILLIAM AUGUSTUS CUNYNGHAME
OF LiyiNGSTONi:.
From Portrait in tlie possession of itr Henry Cittiyngliainc, London.
AND STmLINGSHIRE HUNT
at Livingstone House the 14th of November 1771," he had three sons. " Sir William married to his second wife on the 27th of June 1785 at Marybone, London, Mary only daughter and sole heiress of Robert Udney of Udney in Aberdeenshire, Esq.," by whom he had four sons and a daughter.^
Sir William was thus by birth and through his first marriage closely connected with the counties of Linlithgow and Mid-Lothian, and in succeeding to the family estate of Livingstone in 1767, he was no doubt placed in such a position as to be able to gratify any love of the chase which he possessed. That he preferred hunting to other forms of sport is probable, for a few years after his succession he built kennels near Livingstone, evidently with the view of having hounds within easy reach of his home ; while, when the Caledonian Hunt ^ was
^ Appendix to Playfair's 'Baronetage of Scotland,' 1811, p. cxcix.
^ The Caledonian Hunt was instituted at Hamilton in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire on 2nd August 1777, under the title of the Hunter's Club — a title which seems to have been changed to the present one in the following year. At its commencement the Hunt had for its Patroness the then Countess of Eglintoun, but since the year 1822, it has received Royal Patronage, their Majesties George IV., William IV., Queen Victoria, the Prince Consoi-t, and his late Majesty, Edward VII., all having been Patrons. Originally, as its title implies, the Hunt had Minting as its object, and its first meeting was fixed to take place at Haddington on the 12th of October 1778, " to hunt for a fortnight."
On one occasion Sir William Augustus Cunynghame is particularly mentioned in the Minutes of the Caledonian Hunt. On the 10th of February 1807, he was fined a guinea for not dining "notwithstanding a written apology of indisposition, which was overruled, he having been seen walking the streets before dinner." — Vide ' The Royal Caledonian Hunt' ; 1871, p. 1 et seq.
27
HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW
instituted in 1777, he was one of its twelve original members. And it may be observed that the fact of his having held " several respectable offices in the public service," and having been more than once a Member of Parliament, was not inconsistent with his occupying the position of a master of fox-hounds ; for in those days a country was not hunted in such a regular and business-like manner as it is now, and hounds were taken into the field more or less as it suited the convenience of the master and members, — the fixtures not usually being publicly advertised, but merely intimated privately to those concerned.
Livingstone House or Place where Sir William lived, stood inside the remains of the Peel of Livingstone, an old fortified camp which was situated a little to the north-east of Livingstone village. Sir Robert Sibbald relates that " the late Baron Patrick Murray planted a curious Garden within the Peel, in which he trained up many curious Flowers and Herbs. . . . He inclosed large Parks, Orchards, and Avenues, which were inviron'd with a Stone Dyke, by Mr John Elis, Advocat, his brother - in - law, and planted with many thickets of Oaks and Firrs, and other Barren Trees : the Nephew by his Brother John Murray, did build a neat House within the Peel, which is now the Seat of Sir James Cuningham." ^ Within
^ ' History of the Sheriflfdoms of Linlithgow and Stirling,' by Sir Robert Sibbald, 1710, p. 21. The Sir James Cunynghame here referred to was the second Baronet, the elder brother of Sir David and the uncle of Sir William,
28
AND STIELINGSHIRE HUNT
a couple of miles of its site ^ lie the farms of Lethem and the Craigs, which seem to have belonged to the Houstoun family until 1774.^ In that year, however, Sir William purchased them from Mr Shairp, and upon the former, on the west side of the road leading from Uphall to Midcalder, built the kennels before referred to.^ This build- ing still stands, and although now occupied only as a dwelling-house and offices, it is to this day known as " the Doghouses," and in it a room is pointed out as being that in which the huntsman
^ The house appears to have been pulled down by the fourth Earl of Kosebery soon after he purchased the principal part of the barony. — Vide 'Statistical Account of Scotland,' 1845, vol, ii., Linlithgowshire, p. 117.
^ The farms of Lethem and the Craigs are now the property of Lord
Torphichen, but it is evident that Sir William Cunynghame was in
possession of the former in 1780, for in that year he issued the
following notice in regard to the preservation of the game upon it : —
" Game. — Sir William Augustus Cunynghame, being desirous to
preserve the game upon the estates of Livingstone, Breich,
and Whitburn, lying in the county of Linlithgow, and upon
the estates of Gogar and Lethem, lying in the county of
Edinburgh, hereby gives notice that persons are appointed to
interrupt and inform against all poachers who shall be found
shooting upon these grounds ; and he begs that any gentleman
who inclines to shoot upon them will take the trouble to apply
for a written order, that he may meet with no disturbance from
the keepers." — Vide 'Edinburgh Advertiser,' Friday, August
18, 1780.
3 Letter from the late Major Norman Leckie to the late Mr Fred
Usher, M.F.H., dated Tuesday (November or December 1897), in the
possession of the author. In this lettter Major Leckie, who was a
relative of the Houstoun family, states : " I know that Sir William
Cunynghame, Bart, of Livingstone, was Master. . . . The Cunynghames
purchased the farms of Lethem and the Craigs, between Houstoun
& the Almond, from the Shairps in 1774, & Sir W. built kennels
on the Midcalder road. They still bear the name of the " doghouses."
29
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
used to dine. Here it was, the story goes, that the kennelman or feeder returning home from Midcalder one night the worse of liquor, and entering one of the lodging rooms of the pack, was set upon and totally devoured, nothing but his boots and one or two fragments of his clothes being found on the following morning. But the kennelman's life was not the only sacrifice on this occasion, for the Hunt lost a considerable number of hounds, all those which were concerned in this un- fortunate affair having been immediately destroyed. •••
Among Sir William Cunynghame's friends or companions ^ were Colonel Gillon of Wallhouse, grandfather of the late Colonel Gillon, who was a member of the Hunt until the year 1821, and Mr Shairp of Houstoun, whose family has already been mentioned as contributing much support towards the hunting of the country ; while the diary ^ of Mr William Ramsay of Barnton shows that his son, Mr George Ramsay, upon whom the mastership devolved at a later period, knew Sir William, and visited him at Livingstone. In this journal Mr Ramsay makes frequent mention of his son's being " a-hunting," and under date the 13th of March 1790, alludes to the hounds being at Barnton.
" 1790, March 13th.— Fox-hunting in the neigh- bourhood. A great number of gentlemen come here
^ Mr Robert Martin (aged 77), gamekeeper to Mr Shairp of Houstoun, states that he has heard this tale from many persons Hving in the district.
2 'Political State of Scotland in 1788,' by Sir Charles Elphinstone Adam of Blairadam : 1887, pp. 230, 231.
2 Diary in the possession of Mr Keith Ramsay Maitland, Edinburgh.
30
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
before dinner with George, take a little cold beef, etc., and return to the sport."
Seven years afterwards the hounds were estab- lished in kennels at Linlithgow. This change of kennel, coupled with a reference ^ to the exist- ence a little later of a committee of management, is almost conclusive evidence that the control had now (1797) passed into other hands; and as Sir William Cunynghame's name does not appear in any of the subsequent records of the Hunt, not- withstanding his survival for a period of over thirty years, this will be a convenient opportun- ity to take leave of him and his time, in regard to which such scanty information exists. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it may be assumed that his reign — which, if it began about the year 1775, as seems probable, had lasted over twenty years — had been productive of sport, and that he had been a good master. That he was at least both hospitable and popular may be gathered from the fact that the descendant of one of his servants, Thomas Bishop, late grieve to Mr Stoddart of Howden, remembers having heard from his father that in his. Sir William's, time there were often as many as from twenty to thirty carriages at Livingstone House on a Sunday after- noon. Sir William died at his house in London on the 17th of January 1828.^ A newspaper of the day bears that few men were more distinguished than he was " for elegance of manners, high
1 'Edinburgh Advertiser' of 25th March 1803.
2 Burke's ' Peerage and Baronetage' ; Foster's ' Members of Parliament.'
31
mSTOKY OF THE LINLITHGOW
breeding, and upright and honourable feehng," and that " he was one of the few survivors of the old days of Scottish fashion, universally known, and highly esteemed." ^
It is most likely that the committee of manage- ment before referred to had been appointed soon after the retirement of Sir William Cunynghame ; and it may be mentioned that, as the members of the Hunt from time to time elected a master or manager to take charge of the establishment and the hunting of the country, so also did they annually choose a preses and councillors to arrange meetings for the transaction of business, and gatherings of a social nature.^ Thus it is evident
1 ' Edinburgh Courant,' 24th January 1828.
2 Vide advertisements in ' The Edinburgh Advertiser,' of which the following may be given as bearing out what is above stated : —
'Edinburgh Advertiser' of 14th September 1798 —
Stirling and Linlithgowshire Hunt. A Meeting of the Members is to be held at Forrester's, in Linlith- gow, on Monday, the 24th inst. As there will be particular business before the Meeting, it is expected as many of the Members as possible will attend. Dinner on the table at 4 o'clock.
General Maxwell of Parkhill, Preses. J. Boyd, Secretary.
N.B. — The Hounds will throw off at Dundas Hill on the 25th at 10 o'clock.
'Edinburgh Advertiser' of 23rd December 1803 —
Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt. The Members are requested to meet at the Hunt Inn, Linlithgow, on Monday, the 2nd January, to chuse a Preses and Council for the ensuing year. And as there will be other business of importance under consideration, a full attendance is expected.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Hopetoun, Preses. J. Boyd, Sec.
32
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
that at this period the Hunt was to some extent a hunt club, and to such having been the case may be attributed its survival of the sale of the hounds and the temporary abandonment of the establishment early in the following century, a matter which will be further alluded to at a later stage. ^
Linlithgow had probably been chosen by the committee as being, on the whole, the most suitable position for the new kennels, although those at Lethem must have been much more conveniently situated for the hunting of Mid-Lothian which, from an advertisement for lost hounds,^ seems to have continued to be overtaken in conjunction with the counties of Linlithgow and Stirling. This advertisement, which appeared in ' The Edinburgh Advertiser,' newspaper, of the 27th of January 1797, mentions Richard Forrester, who was the
1 Vide p. 109.
2 STEAYED.
On Friday, the 20th January curt., on the road from Dalkeith to Edinburgh,
Three Fox - Hounds, one of which, a Dog, had five clips or marks made with a pair of scissars, on the right loin, and answers to the name of Rattler ; another, also a Dog, the like number of clips on the left loin, and answers to the name of Searcher ; and the third, a Bitch, six clips on the stern or tail, and answers to the name of Ruin.
Whoever will bring the above Hounds, or give any information respecting them to Richard Forrester, Huntsman to the Stirling and Linlithgowshire Hunt, at Linlithgow, will be handsomely rewarded.
If found in the possession of any person after this public notice, they will be prosecuted to the utmost severity of law. — Vide ' Edin- burgh Advertiser' of 27th January 1797.
33 c
HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW
huntsman at that time, and probably had been so for a number of years previously. It is not known when he was born, but he married first, on the 20th of March 1780, an Elizabeth Forrester, probably a kinswoman, by whom he had two sons and two daughters ; and second, on the 7th of December 1789, an Ann Smith, by whom he had two sons and three daughters,-^ ' The Sporting Maga- zine,'^ which describes him as being about the year 1805 "a pottering, slow, thistle-whipping chap," refers to him as old Dick Forrester, and although it is possible that the adjective may have been used in the friendly or familiar sense, the above particulars concerning him rather point to his having been, if not actually advanced in years, at least past the prime of life. If it be assumed that he was then (1805) fifty - five years of age, and that he was thirty at the time when his miniature as huntsman was painted, — the face in the miniature is that of quite a young man, — it follows that he was huntsman in 1780. But it is not likely that this or indeed any portrait of him would be painted in the first season, or even the first few seasons in which he held the huntsman's place, and it may therefore be assumed that he was in the service of the Hunt some years earlier — possibly from the beginning of Sir William Cunyng- hame's mastership. The miniature, besides being
^ Notes relative to miniature of Richard Forrestei', in the possession of Lord Torphichen.
2 'Sjiorting Magazine,' May 1825.
34
RICHARD FORRESTER.
From Mivintioc in tlw possession of Lord TorJtJiichcfi.
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
evidence of the fact that the white collar formed part of the uniform of the Hunt at an early date, shows that Forrester wore the Caledonian Hunt badofe. It is thoua:ht that the Caledonian Hunt never, except perhaps at its commencement,^ had any regular hunting establishment, and that such of its members as hunted with recognised packs, or kept hounds privately, brought these to the meetings fixed from time to time. It is more than likely therefore that Forrester and the hounds had attended several of these meetings, either during the mastership of Sir William Cunynghame, or during the rule of the committee of manage- ment,^ and that for this reason he had been pre- sented with the badge, which he afterwards wore as a mark of distinction.
In addition to being huntsman, Forrester, from the date at which the hounds came to be kennelled at Linlithgow, was landlord or tenant of the Hunt Inn there. ^ But as he could not well have attended to the business of the inn, and at the same time
' The Druid mentions "a Hamilton pack, with Holy Town as its kennel," presumably in the end of the eighteenth century. — Vide 'Field and Fern' (South), 1865, p. 218.
2 Sir William Cunynghame, as already mentioned, was an original member of the Caledonian Hunt. Lord Elphinstone and Mr George Ramsay, who appear to have been hunting with the pack during the management of the committee, were also members of the Caledonian Hunt at that time.
2 From inquiry it would seem that this was the same as the Fox and Hounds Inn, a building which, according to tradition, had been in existence for several hundred years before being demolished about 1839, and in which Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh is said to have lodged the night before he shot the Regent Moray.
35
HISTOHY OF THE LINLITHGOW
have done his duty towards the Hunt, it may be concluded that his wife, who carried on the concern after his death, practically undertook the entire charge of it. He had under him, as whipper-in, a lad named Andrew Hichardson, who is described as "dashing" and "straightforward," and from whom, no doubt, he received much help both in and out of the kennel. In the field, during the latter days of his career, he, although somewhat slow, was generally "there or thereabouts" at the close of the run, especially when mounted on his old ball-faced gelding by Dux, one of a race of stayers for which no day was too long and of which there were then several in the Hunt.-^
When Forrester passed away in or about the year 1805, the huntsman's place was filled by Robert Burton, who is stated to have been im- ported from some popular Yorkshire Hunt. The Records of the Fife Fox-Hounds ^ mention a Robert Burton as having been huntsman to the Fife Hounds in 1803, and it is more than likely that he and Forrester's successor were one and the same, a season in Yorkshire having elapsed be- tween his leaving Fife and coming to the Lin- lithgow and Stirlingshire country. Burton is alluded to as "a very dashing impertinent fellow — a divil to ride and a divil to swear," and it
1 'Sporting Magazine,'' May 1825.
^ ' Records of the Fife Fox-Hounds,' by Lieut.-Col. Babington, 1883, pp. 14 and 15.
36
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
is said that he did not care how he damaged the horses he rode, so long as he got to his hounds. Many a roll he got, too, " for he had raw ones to make, and ratv enough they were 'in bodily estate' from the severe effects of their 'prenticeship " under him.^ During his first season he received an allowance from the Hunt for the maintenance of the hounds, horses, &c., which, the accounts^ for the year 1806 indicate, amounted to a considerable sum. These accounts were kept by Mr John Boyd, solicitor, Linlithgow, who for some years before and many years after- wards, acted as secretary and treasurer of the Hunt. In them, minutes, a minute book, and other vouchers are constantly referred to, and if these had been forthcoming much interesting information mio^ht have been obtained. In them- selves, however, they are sufficient to show that it was the members of the Hunt who defrayed the expenses of the establishment without the aid or backing of a master, a circumstance which makes it clear that the committee of management was still in existence. And that the expenditure was seriously considered by those who had to bear it is evident from the fact that special authority was annually given by the members to Mr Louis H. Ferrier, younger of Belsyde, one
1 ' Sporting Magazine,' May 1825,
2 Volume of accounts among Hunt papers in the custody of Messrs Glen & Henderson, Linlithgow.
37
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
of their number, to audit the statements of the treasurer's intromissions with the funds, which, after being carefully examined, were formally doc- queted and signed by him.
With the dawn of the 19th century the Hunt rapidly gained popularity, for the majority of the landowners in the country, although compara- tively few of them actually took part in the chase, were encouraging the sport for the sake of their friends, and in so doing, were setting an example which could hardly fail to be followed by others. So, it may be conceived, many who were possessed of a desire to hunt w^ere led to gratify it, and many more "who at first may have been disposed to regard the sport with disfavour, were induced to adopt a tolerant and even a kindly attitude towards it. In course of time, no doubt, such of the farmers as could afford to keep a horse suitable for the purpose indulged in a day with the hounds, while the arrival, passing, or departure of the pack with its fol- lowers would then, as now, be a matter of interest and excitement to the villagers and country folk. Thus the Hunt had its bearing on the social life of the district, and having given birth to one form of social gathering — for some years past it had been customary for the members to dine together periodically at the Hunt Inn, Linlithgow — it was not long in producing another, the Hunt ball, which, as time went by, came to be a more
38
AND STIELINGSHIIIE HUNT
or less regular, and probably a very popular event. ^
But the days of the committee of management were now drawing to an end and, in the year 1806, a change took place under which the control again passed into the hands of an individual.
^ Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt.
The Subscribers to the Hunt are to give a Ball at Finlayson's in Linlithgow, on Wednesday the 10th November, at seven o'clock. — The Members and those Gentlemen who have been invited to the Ball, are hereby informed that the Hounds will be at the 12 mile stone east from Linlithgow, on the great turnpike road leading to Edin- biu'gh, on Tuesday the 9th November, at Half - past Ten o'clock ; and that there will be an Ordinary for the Sportsmen that day at the Hunt Inn, Linlithgow, at Five o'clock.
On the 10th there will be a Coursing Match in the forenoon, and an Ordinary at the Hunt Inn, for those Ladies and Gentlemen who mean to attend the Ball. — Dinner on the table at Four o'clock. General Maxwell of Parkhill, Preses. Sir James Dalyell of Binns, Bart. \„ ., WiLLM. Maxwell of Carriden, Esq./ J. Boyd, Sec. — Vide 'Edinbui'gh Advertiser,' 22nd October 1802.
39
CHAPTER II.
LORD ELPHINSTONE.
MR GEORGE RAMSAY OF BARNTON.
MR WILLIAM MURRAY, YOUNGER OF POLMAISE.
1806-1814.
In April 1806, the members of the Hunt were called together on particular business. This doubtless had reference to the change in the management, referred to at the close of the preceding chapter, which resulted in John, twelfth Lord Elphinstone, taking over the control^ in the following summer, and entering into an agreement with the Hunt, under which he received a sub- scription of £500, afterwards slightly increased, towards the maintenance of the establishment.
Lord Elphinstone was then about thirty -six years of age. While Master of Elphinstone,
1 There is a note in the handwriting of the late Mr W. H. Henderson, Linlithgow, for many years honorary secretary and treasurer to the Hunt Club and honorary treasurer to the Hunt, to the effect that Lord Elphinstone was master from 1794 to 1812. This, however, is not in accordance with the documentary evidence relative to this period, the greater part of which was most kindly placed at the author's disposal for the purpose of this work by Mr Henderson himself.
40
JOHN, I2TH LORD HLPHIXSTONE.
From Faintiiis in ihi- />ossc-ssi<m of Lord Klphiustoue.
HISTORY OF THE L. & S. HUNT
he had entered the army, and by the year 1794 had risen to the rank of heutenant- colonel of the Sixtieth Regiment of Foot. Soon after- wards he was transferred to the battalion of the Royal Americans in Canada, and when there, through the death of his father, the eleventh Lord, on the 19th of August 1794, he succeeded to the title. In 1795 he had returned to England and received the appointment of aide - de - camp to H.R.H. Frederick, Duke of York, then Com- mander-in-chief of the army; while in June 1801 he appears to have sailed for Egypt. The promo- tion in the army which he had hitherto received had been rapid, and his subsequent advancement was striking. He exchanged from the Royal Americans to the Sixty-First Regiment, and from that Regiment to the Twenty-Sixth Cameronians, prior to his being appointed a major-general on the 2nd of November 1805. In May 1806 he became colonel of the Twenty-Sixth Regiment, and in the December of the same year, in the midst of his military preferments, he was elected a representative peer. About that time he was given the second command in Scotland, and on the 30th of December 1811 he was appointed by the Prince - Regent to take rank by brevet as lieutenant-general in the army. In addition to his other appointments. Lord Elphinstone was lord-lieutenant for the county of Dumbarton.^
1 'The Elphinstone Family Book,' by Sir William Eraser, K.C.B., vol. i. p. 320 et seq.
41
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
The year 1806 was thus not an uneventful one in Lord Elphinstone's Ufe, but his election as master of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hounds, and as a representative peer were not the only incidents of note which occurred in it, since it was in that year also that his mar- riage took place. He married on the 31st of July, Janet Hyndford, youngest daughter of Mr Cornelius Elliot of Wolflee, and widow of Sir John Gibson Carmichael of Skirling ; and soon afterwards removed from Ward Park, where he had previously lived, to Cumbernauld House.
Although the kennels at Linlithgow still con- tinued to be occupied from time to time, others at Laurieston, near Falkirk, were also used, pro- bably with the view of having the hounds nearer Cumbernauld ; but as Laurieston is dis- tant from Cumbernauld about eleven miles by road, the arrangement does not appear to have been a very convenient one for the master. Allusion has already been made to the fact that what was evidently the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire pack was advertised^ to be dis-
1 FOX-HOUNDS.
To be disposed of by public sale at Linlithgow, on Saturday, the 31st current.
From Twenty to Thirty Couple of good steady Fox-hounds, in Lots
as intended purchasers may incline. The Sale to begin at the Hunt Inn, Linlithgow, at 12 o'clock mid-day.
Linlithgow, May 19, 1806.
Vide 'Edinburgh Advertiser,' ]\Iay 20, 1806.
42
AND STIRLlNGSHmE HUNT
posed of by public sale at this period. Such a step had most likely been decided upon in connection with the change in the manage- ment, yet it would seem that eventually the pack was not disposed of in this way, but was parted with privately to Lord Elphinstone ; for the only reference to any sale of hounds at this time is contained in an entry in the ac- counts, of date the 14th of February 1807, which shows that the Hunt received credit for the sum of £104, 7s. as the price of "Hounds and others" sold to his lordship. Such a sum could hardly have been a full price, even in those days, for a pack of fox -hounds consisting of from twenty to thirty couples, but as there would then almost certainly be considerable diffi- culty in effecting satisfactorily the sale of a pack whose kennel was situated so far north, the Hunt would no doubt be glad to accept a nominal sum as its value, more especially when it was known that the hounds were to remain in the country.
Lord Elphinstone had been in office but a year when he was joined in the management by Mr George Ramsay of Barnton, the only surviving son of Mr William Ramsay of Barnton, banker in Edinburgh, one of the directors of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Mr George Ramsay, who was born on the 10th of August 1767, began to hunt almost immediately after his return to this country from Paris in the end of the year
43
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
1789. His miniature in the Caledonian Hunt coat of the period, painted by Inglehart about three years later, is reproduced as a frontispiece to this history, but, unfortunately, the reproduc- tion conveys no idea of the beautiful colour- ing of the original, which, worthy of the artist's work, is set in gold and diamonds. Mr Ramsay had married, in 1791, the Hon. Jean Hamilton, sister of William, seventh Lord Belhaven ; and after occupying Drylaw House, near Edinburgh, for a year or two, adopted as his residence what is now Barnton House, but what was then King's Cramond or Cramond Regis, — the Barn- ton House of those days standing almost mid- way between King's Cramond and the village of Davidson's Mains. " To the north - west of Barntoun House, at the distance of about half a mile, is King's Cramond, also belonging to Mr Ramsay. . . . Very large additions and con- siderable alterations are now making to this house, which is destined for the residence of George Ramsay, Esq., banker in Edinburgh, eldest son of William Ramsay of Barntoun." ^
In joining Lord Elphinstone in the management, Mr Ramsay formed that connection between his family and the Hunt which was to last so long, and to prove so satisfactory. He and Lord Elphinstone were nearly the same age.
1 'State of the Parish of Cramond,' by J. P. Wood, 1794, p. 56 et seq.
44
AND STIRLINGSHmE HUNT
They had met one another in the hunting-field as well as on other occasions, — they were both members of the Caledonian Hunt/ — and were at this time on terms of considerable intimacy, fostered no doubt by a mutual love of the chase. The picture of "The Death of the Fox," ^ painted by Alexander Nasmyth, probably about the year 1795, portrays both of them. Mr Ramsay has jumped from his horse and has taken the fox from the hounds, while Lord Elphinstone is pointing backwards, possibly explaining that the huntsman is just coming up, or that another fox has been viewed stealing away. The figures of the men, the landscape, and the trees, are beautifully painted ; the fox and the hounds also are natural, but the horses seem to have been the victims of a fashion, which, although now and for long departed from, was common at one time, — they appear to have been crop-eared.
Although Lord Elphinstone and Mr Ramsay were associated in the management, it is clear that the latter -indertook the more active part, and early in the summer of 1807 he began to defray much of the current expense of the Hunt, — the huntsman receiving from him the funds which were required to meet his disbursements. Burton had left, and was succeeded by Thomas Granger, previously Mr Ramsay's groom, who was born
^ Mr Ramsay was admitted a member of the Caledonian Hunt on 9th February 1791 ; Lord Elphinstone on 27th October 1792. 2 Vide illustration, p. 14.
45
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
on the 12th of March 1765, and was therefore at this time in his forty -third year. A grand- daughter of his ^ states that he was a very shy, retiring man ; nevertheless he pleased every one by his civility and good -humour, gave great satisfaction as huntsman,^ and in course of time received due recognition of his ability in that capacity. The whippers-in were John Hislop, who remained in the service of the Hunt for three seasons (1806 - 1808), and James Carter. The latter, who stayed one season only, was Granger's nephew, and son and brother respect- ively of the Thomas and William Carter, who are represented as huntsman and whipper-in in the picture of Sir Mark Masterman Sykes' Fox-Hounds breaking covert, painted by H. B. Chalon, in 1821.
The area hunted at this time was an extensive one, and from Barnton and Corstorphine in Mid- Lothian on the east, the country proper stretched away through the counties of Linlithgow and Stirling to Cumbernauld in Dumbartonshire on the west, and almost to Dunblane in Perthshire on the north-west; besides which the district around Hamilton and Wishaw, reaching from Lanark on the south-east to Coatbridge on the north-west, was hunted for a short period in the spring of the year, from Hamilton. The Druid relates ^ that Mr Ramsay was wont to ride from
1 Mrs Walker, Hereford Road, Harrogate.
2 ' Sporting Magazine,' May 1825.
3 'Field and Fern ' (South), 1865, p. 53.
46
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
Barnton to Hamilton, hunt all day and be back again at night by changing hacks at Cumbernauld. In order to have done so he must have risen early and retired to rest late, and when, from a measurement of the Ordnance Survey map, it is ascertained that the distance as the crow flies from Barnton to Cumbernauld and thence to Hamilton is all but forty miles, it is obvious that he must have traversed at least eighty miles besides hunting, — a performance which can only be described as wonderful. But Mr Ramsay, who loved hunting with his whole heart, would no doubt consider such a journey and the con- sequent bodily fatigue merely as the means to an end, and reckon these lightly so long as that end was attained.
There has been preserved a slim little volume, which, although unpretentious in appearance, pos- sesses much that is of interest, since it contains the first records of sport. It is Mr Ramsay's hunting diary,^ and in its pages are to be found a brief account of each day's doings in the field, the names of his hunters, and frequent notes of his weight. The diary, which is forcibly expressed — the present tense being used almost throughout in describing the events which occurred — is so early in date and gives so much information in regard to the country hunted, that it has been thought desirable to reproduce it. Those there-
1 In the possession of Mr Keith Ramsay Maitland, Edinburgh.
47
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
fore who care to read it will find it printed as an Appendix^ to these pages. The following are among the entries : —
1807. Dec. 14. Drumshoreland muir. Fox went away (while
Tom 2 and the hounds were in the large whin) as hard as possible, through Houston wood, over Dechmont, Bangour, cross the Glasgow road three miles west Uphall, kill him about a mile to the north of the road. Eestless, Whalebone, Paddy, B. mare. George Kamsay's^ horse nearly dead in the field.
„ Dec. 17. Find a brace at Duntarvie, run through Hopeton wood, by Mid-up,* Hopeton House, Dalmeny toun, Munch hill, ^ to the sea east of Luchold, along the sea shore to the Halls, cross the road top of Halls brae, and right away back, kill near the garden at Hopeton House, cold hunting, hounds remarkably steady. Eestless, Goldfinder, Mr B.^ — grey horse.
„ Dec. 26. Saturday. Meet at 12 mile stone, find oppo- site Sir James Dalziel's, run to the 12 mile stone covers, west by Phillipstone loch, and south over Binnie craig where he was headed and turned north, kill him a little south of Dolphinton.'^ Ploughboy, Whalebone, Mr B. — grey horse.
1808, Jan. 2. Find at Torphichen bridge — a brace, — in-
stantly get hounds together, run south of Wall- house, turn north to Bowden, much running in
1 Yide Appendix I. ^ Thomas Granger, the huntsman.
3 Probably Mr Ramsay's cousin, a son of Mr David Ramsay of Craigleith.
* Mid-hope. ^ Mons hill in Dalmeny park.
6 Possibly Mr Ramsay's partner, Mr Bonar.
' This appears to have been a seven - mile point, Dolphinton or Dolphington being near Dalmeny.
48
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
the cover, run a fox towards Muiravonside, cross the water, bothered with Livingstone's ^ harriers, return to Bowden, find again, run towards Genl. rerrier's,^ through Dr Seton's^ near the new manse south of Lithgow, turn over the hill west of Eic- carton, down through the cover over Binnie craig, kill south of Binnie House. Murray * and myself only up with the hounds, having gone round south side of Cockle Eoy ; famous run. Whale- bone, Murray his old horse. Cavendish at a standstill, old Paddy, grey horse. 1808. Jan. 19. Torphichen bridge. Find outside of the cover, run west and back again to Torphichen town by Wallhouse, thro' the cover again to Bowden, — three foxes at least on foot — one goes away from east end of Bowden over Cockle Roy, south towards Bathgate, hounds split, Elphinstone and I follow some hounds east as far as Uphall, — he goes home, and I come to K. Cd.^ P. Boy, Goldfinder, Mr B. — grey. Lord E.*^ — chestnut Star. „ Mar. 5. Find at Drumshoreland muir, run north to Winchburgh, — hounds streaming along, — lose him. Try at Sir James Dalziel's'^ Phillipstone mill, &c. Find in a small covert south of three mile town, run east and then north to near 12 mile stone covers, turn short south, cross the Riccarton road, by Binny House, south of the craig to Riccarton cover, through the south side of it, over the hill west and south, kill at Silver Craigs lime works. Restless, Whalebone, Paddy, B. mare, Ld.
^ Mr Thomas Livingstone of Parkhall, Stirlingshire.
^ General Ferrier of Belsyde.
3 Dr Seton of Preston.
* Mr AVilliam Murray, yr. of Polmaise, Stirlingshire.
'•> King's Cramond, now Barnton House, Mr Ramsay's residence.
® Lord Elphinstone.
^ Sir James Dalyell of the Binns.
49 D
HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW
E. — Star, not up. A famous ruu, Murray, Louis Ferrier/ , ^ farmer Duncan, come up im- mediately. Hislop^ and myself first. Granger not far behind. Horses all tired.
1808. Mar. 14. Cockle Eoy, Bowden, Mr Terrier's. Find
south of Bowden, run through Bowden, by Muir- avonside, west, and kill near the west end of Mr Livingstone's young cover in the gill. Ploughboy,
Major, Mr B. mare. A famous run — the fox
got up at view and ran through several fields without ever breaking view. „ Oct. 1. Find at Bonny Hill two foxes. A number of [hounds] tumble into an iron-stone pit. Lamb- ton, Cruiser, Herdsman, and Strenuous killed. No sport, not out.
1809. Feb. 23. Try Eavelrig — round cover under it, find
at Drumshoreland, fox stole away from north-east corner large field, run across main lane to the House of Amondell, by Illiston, Kilpunt, west of Newliston and Humbie, to Duddingstone wood, Duntarvie, and to ground Hopeton wood — famous run. Large field, — Huntly,* Dal- housie,^ M'Lean,^ Wallace,'' Murray, Binning,*^ Davie M'Dowall.^ Hounds behave uncommonly well. „ Feb. 25. Eiccarton. Find at upper end, run east and down the road to north end of cover, right over
1 Mr Loiiis H. Ferrier, yr. of Belsyde.
"^ Two words illegible.
^ John Hislop, 1st whipper-in.
* The Marquis of Huntly.
^ The Earl of Dalhoiisie.
' Major Maclean of Ardgour.
' Mr James M. Wallace.
8 Mr D. Monro Binning of Auchenbowie, Stirlingshii-e.
9 Cai^tain David Macdowall, R.X., son of Mr William Macdowall of Castle Semple.
50
AND STIELINGSHIRE HUNT
the hill, west of cover, along the belt north to lime quarries, over Cockle Roy, Bowden, down to Bo'ness road, kill in belt west of Bellside, right-hand side of lane to Bowden. — Famous run.
Besides Mr Eamsay's diary there exists another relic of this period in the shape of Granger's dis- bursement book/ and it is fortunate that this has been cared for, because, with the information which it affords, it is possible to form an almost accurate idea of the cost of the establishment a hundred years ago. It shows that through Granger's hands passed considerable sums of money — the whole expenses connected with the kennel and stable, as well as the wages and board-wages of the Hunt servants, — and from it the statement on the three following pages has been compiled.
Apparently the only items connected with the maintenance of the establishment which were not paid through Granger were the rent of the ken- nels at Linlithgow, — there is no evidence of any rent having been paid for those at Laurieston, — the taxes on the servants, hounds and horses, and the cost of the servants' clothes. The rent of the kennels at Linlithgow was £3, 3s., the taxes amounted in the year 1806 to £33, 8s. 8d., and the cost of the servants' clothes may be reasonably estimated at £30. By halving the total of the disbursements and adding these figures to the result, it would seem that the annual cost slightly exceeded £800, which, having regard to the high
1 In the possession of Mr Keith Ramsay Maitland, Edinburgh.
51
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
STATEMENT of the HUNTSMAN'S DISBURSEMENTS FOR THE Two Years ending 6th June 1809.
|
To 23 Load of Oatmeal |
, |
, |
£63 |
16 |
0 |
|
|
„ 36 Bolls II |
49 |
6 |
0 |
|||
|
II 161 Dog Horses . |
, |
. |
38 |
7 |
0 |
|
|
II Brimstone and Oil for Dressing |
Hounds |
,, Oint- |
||||
|
ment, Drugs, &c. |
' |
• |
• |
9 |
19 |
8 |
|
£161 |
8 |
8 |
||||
|
To 60 Bolls of Oats . |
£79 |
16 |
6 |
|||
|
II 1000 Stone of Hay |
41 |
13 |
4 |
|||
|
II Leading Hay, Stacking, Stacks- |
||||||
|
topping, Tolls, and Whisky, |
||||||
|
Beer, &c. .... |
11 |
5 |
11 |
|||
|
1, 80^ Threave of Straw . |
26 |
18 |
0 |
|||
|
II 770 Stone n |
20 |
5 |
2h |
|||
|
1, Straw got in 1806-1807 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
|||
|
II 5 BoUs of Bran . |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|||
|
11 Drvigs for Stables |
2 |
7 |
H |
1 S7 |
1 2 |
1 |
|
To Thomas Granger — |
L ^ 1 |
X ^ |
J. |
|||
|
Wages from May 15, 1807, |
||||||
|
to May 15, 1809, at |
||||||
|
£105 per annum . |
£210 |
0 |
0 |
|||
|
II John Hislop — |
||||||
|
Wages from May 15, 1807, |
||||||
|
to May 31, 1809, at £63 |
||||||
|
per annum |
128 |
15 |
4 |
|||
|
II James Carter — |
||||||
|
Wages from May 15, 1807, |
||||||
|
to May 15, 1808 . |
63 |
0 |
0 |
|||
|
11 Christopher Scott — |
||||||
|
Wages from May 15, 1808, |
||||||
|
to May 15, 1809 . |
18 |
18 |
0 |
|||
|
II Henderson, Dog-feeder — |
||||||
|
Wages from Nov. 24, 1807, |
||||||
|
to May 7, 1808, at 3s. |
||||||
|
per day |
24 |
15 |
0 |
Fwd.
£445 8 4 £349 0 9
52
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
Bt. fwd. To George Fobert —
Wages from June 14, 1808, to Sept. 23, 1808, at 10s. 6d. per weeke Wages from Sept. 23, 1808, toJune4, 1809, at£l,ls. per weeke It Other Servants' Wages . ri Various Servants, including Christopher Scott, — Board Wages ....
To Earthstoppers at L'ithgow, Trafagon,-^ West Quarter, Bonnyhill, Hopetoun, Tor- wood, Plean Bank, Redding,
£445 8 4 £349 0 9
7 11 6
37
84
19 16
64 8 9
640 3 7
|
and Dundas Hill ir Lord Hopetoun's Keeper |
for Fwc |
£14 1 |
14 1 |
6 0 4 2 |
15 28 15 80 3 27 |
15 9 18 4 3 12 |
6 6 0 8 0 6 |
|
To 1 1 3 Cart Load of Coals M Soape, Candles, Oil, &c. |
£15 13 |
7 2 |
|||||
|
To Blacksmith Bill . „ Saddler Bill at Falkirk . ., Saddler Bill at Falkirk 1806-1807 „ 12 Whip Thongs, ti 3 Whip Crops |
£8 2 2 1 1 |
17 10 7 2 1 |
3 0 9 0 0 |
||||
|
To Joiner Learmonth Bill . II Joiner Nimmo Bill |
£73 7 |
0 4 |
0 8 |
||||
|
To House Rent for one year To Expense to Yorkshire . II Coach Hire from England II a Post Horse for Hislop II Turnpikes . |
"£9 9 0 8 |
0 12 10 10 |
0 0 0 6 |
||||
|
1. |
|||||||
|
£1160 |
7 |
6 |
|||||
|
' Torphichen. 53 |
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
|
Bt. |
fwd. |
. |
. £1160 |
1 |
6 |
|
To a Man for a Fox at Cramond |
|||||
|
Kiver .... |
£0 |
2 |
6 |
||
|
II Digging a Fox |
0 |
2 |
6 |
||
|
0 |
5 |
0 |
|||
|
Miscellaneous .... |
• |
16 |
8 |
9 |
|
|
£1177 |
1 |
3 |
|||
|
To Expenses of Hounds and Horses |
|||||
|
at Hamilton ^ . |
£51 |
14 |
1 |
||
|
II Earthstopper Bill at Hamilton |
24 |
16 |
0 |
||
|
It Servants 21 Days (Board) |
23 |
16 |
6 |
||
|
To Expenses at Hamilton ^ : — |
|||||
|
Oats and Beans |
65 |
19 |
4 |
||
|
Hay ... . |
18 |
11 |
0 |
||
|
Oatmeal |
25 |
4 |
3 |
||
|
Dog Horses . |
2 |
8 |
0 |
||
|
Saddler |
0 |
12 |
0 |
||
|
Earthstopper Bill . |
36 |
0 |
6 |
||
|
Servants' Eating and |
|||||
|
Drinking . |
48 |
14 |
6 |
||
|
Blacksmith Bill . |
1 |
9 |
3 |
||
|
Hounds lost . |
0 |
5 |
0 |
||
|
Tolls and Turnpikes |
0 |
19 |
0 |
||
|
Miscellaneous |
2 |
1 |
0 302 |
10 |
5 |
|
£1479 |
11 |
8 |
By Cash of Genl. Maxwell for
Dung sold to him . . £18 12 0
By Cash of Mr Eamsay (various
dates) .... 1460 19 8
£1479 11 8
This Account settled,
"George Ramsay,"
Edinr., 6th June 1809.
1 From about March 22 to April 12, 1808.
2 From about March 8 to April 5, 1809.
54
AND STIELINGSHIEE HUNT
prices prevalent at that time, was not extravagant for the maintenance of a pack of fox -hounds hunting three and occasionally four days a -week. But the expense of the short visit to Lanarkshire was comparatively great ; and had the hounds been able to hunt that district from their own kennel, or had they remained in the home country instead, a considerable saving would have been effected.
The Hunt had now reached the zenith of its fame, and many sportsmen besides those immedi- ately connected with the counties of Linlithgow and Stirling were either hunting with or sub- scribing to the hounds. In addition to Lord Elphinstone and Mr Ramsay, there were the Earl of Hopetoun and his brothers the Hon. John Hope and the Hon. Alexander Hope, the Duke of Mon- trose, Lord Primrose and his brother the Hon. F. W. Primrose, the Marquis of Douglas, after- wards Duke of Hamilton, and his brother Lord Archibald Hamilton, Lord Keith and Captain, afterwards Admiral, the Hon. Charles Elphinstone- Fleeming — uncle and brother respectively of Lord Elphinstone — Mr John Smellie, Mr James Graham of Underwood, Mr Thomas Graham of Airth, the Earl of Dalhousie, Mr James Watson of Saughton, Major G. Hamilton Dundas of Duddingston, Mr William Macdowall of Castle Semple and his son Captain David Macdowall, R.N., Sir John Hope of Craighall, Mr James J. Cadell of Grange, Colonel F. Simpson of Plean, Mr James M. Wal-
55
HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW
lace of Kelly, Mr H. D. Erskine, afterwards Earl of Buchan, son of the Hon. Henry Erskine of Amondell Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, and nephew of the Lord Chancellor, Mr James Bruce of Kinnaird, Mr Louis H. Ferrier, younger of Bel- syde, Mr D. Monro Binning of Auchenbowie, the Hon. George Abercromby, afterwards Lord Aber- cromby, Mr William Murray, younger of Polmaise, Sir James Dalyell of The Binns, and Captain Bobert Dalyell, Mr Michael Nicolson of Carnock, Mr James Russel of Woodside, the Marquis of Huntly, Major Maclean of Ardgour, Captain the Hon. A. Murray, Mr William Maxwell of Carriden, General Maxwell, Colonel Maxwell, Mr Thomas Livingstone of Park- hall, and Mr James Wilkie of Foulden ; also, within the next few years. Sir James Biddell of Mount- riddell, Captain, afterwards Admiral, William John- stone Hope, B.N., Sir Charles Edmonstone of Dun- treath, Mr James J, Hope Vere of Blackwood and Craigiehall, and Sir Michael Shaw Stewart of Greenock.
At this time a race meeting was held at Stirling annually in the autumn of the year, and with such stewards as the Duke of Montrose, Lord Primrose, Lord Kinnoull, Lord Doune, the Hon. George Abercromby, Lord Elphinstone, and Mr Bamsay, and with the hounds, by arrangement, hunting the surrounding country, the meeting was no doubt a popular one. The Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt Stakes " of five guineas each for hunters bond Jide the property of the members qualified
56
AND STIELINGSHIRE HUNT
in terms of the articles" formed a prominent event, and with ordinaries daily, and balls in the evening, the county town was probably created a centre of attraction, full, to overflowing, of the beauty, sportsmen, and fashion of the day. In the year 1808, the Hunt Stakes being run for on the 12th of October, the hounds were at Stirling for a fortnight, meeting at Sauchie, Dunmore Park, Hunters' Folly, Denovan, Keir, &c. The Hunt staff remained the same as in the previous season, except that Christopher Scott had succeeded Car- ter as second whipper-in, Scott, who at a later period became huntsman under Mr Ramsay's son, Mr W. R. Ramsay, had been, as a lad, in the stables of Colonel Hamilton of Pencaitland in East Lothian. Wishing to get into hunt service, he obtained permission to see Mr Baird of New- byth, who was in want of a whipper-in ; but it turned out that the day before he did so the place was promised to Will Williamson, afterwards huntsman to the Dake of Buccleuch, and all that Mr Baird could do for him was to send him on to Lord Elphinstone, who was then looking out for a whipper-in for Lord Kintore. Scott accord- ingly proceeded to Ward Park, Cumbernauld, and there saw Lord Elphinstone, who had with him Mr Ramsay. " Can you holloa ? " said Lord Elphinstone ; and on Scott doing so to some pur- pose, " That will do ; go to Keith Hall and give this letter to Lord Kintore." Scott's further jour- ney had a successful issue, for shortly after his
57
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
arrival at Keith Hall he was engaged by Lord Kintore — he and Will Williamson thus being entered to hounds in the same year.^
The commencement of the season of 1809 saw Lord Elphinstone and Mr Ramsay still at the head of affairs, with Granger as huntsman. Hislop, how- ever, had left, Scott had been promoted to fill his place, and Thomas Luck had been engaged as second whipper-in. Although the subscriptions had slightly fallen off, the Hunt was still popular, and consequently prosperous, and its horizon was as yet bright and unclouded ; but trouble was in store, and a storm was gathering, which was des- tined to shake the old Hunt to its foundations. The most interesting part of Mr Ramsay's diary ends on the 4th of March 1809, for the later entries contain little more than the dates of the hunting days, the fixtures, and the number of foxes killed and run to ground. These, however, show that hunting began on the 7th of October (1809), and that up to the 6th of January following there had been thirty-six hunting days in which ten brace of foxes were killed, and fourteen and a half brace run to ground. The notes of Mr Ramsay's weight, already referred to, form a sad record of failing health, seeing that between the 5th of February 1806 and the 22nd of January 1810, two days before his death, his weight had steadily dropped from 17 st. to 12 st. 5 lb. In the frequency of
1 This story is repeated as nearly as possible in the words of William Shore, late huntsman to the Duke of Bucclouch, to whom it was told by Williamson.
58
AND STmLINGSHIRE HUNT
these weighings too — they seem to have taken place at intervals of about a week — and from the fact that they were made under a variety of cir- cumstances,— some of them with "hunting cap,
whip, &c.," others in " boots and thick ^ before
breakfast," and others again in "flannel gown, &c.," — may be read no little anxiety as to the story which the scales would tell, and a consciousness of the approaching end, — an event which may have been hastened by those long rides to and from hunting, and by the overtaxing of a constitution not naturally of the strongest. On the 24th of January 1810,^ within a few days of the last entry in his diary, and within two of the last weighing, Mr Kamsay's death occurred. The storm had gathered and burst, and the Hunt had sustained
^ One word illegible.
2 "Jamiary 24th, at Barnton, in the 41at. year of his age, George Ramsay of Barnton, Esq. — There have been few individuals whose death has, at any time, excited a more lively and more universal feeling of regret, amongst all ranks and conditions of men, in this part of the country. AVith a vigorous and comprehensive understanding, Mr Ramsay combined the most amiable and endearing dispositions of mind ; while his princely fortune enabled him to give ample scope to the display of his excellent qualities, and to evince himself at once a generous friend, and a most valuable member of society. The loss which his numerous friends and relatives have sustained by his death is undoubtedly great, and will be long and deeply regretted ; nor will the blank which has been created in the community, in consequence of that afflicting event, be less severely felt and deplored. As an active, public-spirited man, and promoter of improvements of every kind, he was eminently distinguished among his contemporaries, and has probably left few equals behind him. His sudden and unexpected death, indeed, has spread a degree of gloom over the country, which we scarcely remember to have witnessed upon any similar occasion. He is succeeded in his extensive estates by an infant son." — Vide ' Scots Magazine,' January 1810.
59
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
an irreparable loss, not only of a master, but also of a liberal and steady supporter, who had spared neither money nor time in bringing it to the acme of perfection.^
" Oh breathe not his name ! the initials are enough to call tears into the eyes, and sighs from the feeling bosoms of those that still live, Avho knew him ; in whose memories he still lives, and who followed him to an untimely grave. At the performance of these last sorrowful duties to that highly respected and valued friend and brother sportsman, those wept like children, who were * albeit unused to the melting mood,' and their honest and unfeigned grief spoke more strongly the value of him they had lost, than could ' storied urns or animated busts ' " . . . " His honest blunt kindness — his unsophisticated liberality of senti- ment, endeared him equally to his co-temporary friends, and to the hearts of the youthful sports- men whom he cheered on to the chase ' with hand and voice to point the winding way'" ... "As an honest man, as a steady friend, as a liberal and generous sportsman — 'take him for all in all, we shall not soon look upon his like again.' " ^
That Mr Ramsay was a sportsm.an of the best type, and loved hunting for its own sake, cannot be doubted,^ and the frequent allusions to the
1 ' Sporting Magazine,' May 1825. 2 i\y[^
^ 'The Scotsman' of 15th December 1865, contains an article de- scribing a run with Lord Wemyss' Hounds, in which Mr Ramsay is referred to as "one of the best sportsmen Scotland ever knew."
60
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
hounds which his diary contains, and the use of such expressions as " hounds remarkably steady," " instantly get hounds together," " hounds stream- ing along," "hounds behave uncommonly well," &c., show the lively interest which he displayed in them and their work. His strong attachment to the Hunt, and his sincere desire for its wellbeing, also, are patent in the fact that in the year of his death, and in those which followed until hunting in the country was temporarily discontinued, his repre- sentatives contributed to its funds a sum of no less than £300 annually, in consequence of which he may be said to have been the mainstay of its ex- istence even after his death had taken place. His remains having been laid to rest in the family vault under the old church at Cramond, it behoved the members of the Hunt to consider how affairs were to be carried on ; for Lord Elphinstone had not latterly taken an active part in the manage- ment. Therefore were they summoned to an extra- ordinary meeting at Linlithgow on Monday the 19th of February. No record of what took place on that occasion has been preserved, but it would seem that Lord Elphinstone agreed to continue to act as master, either alone or in conjunction with Mr William Murray, younger of Polmaise, until the close of the season, when he should be relieved by Mr Murray. A few days after this meeting, Mr Ramsay's hunters were sold, and Ploughboy and Restless, who had carried their owner through many a " famous run," Cato, Charmer, Star,
61
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
Bempton, Catchem, Honest Harry, Archer, Star- gazer and Jenny Nettles — all mentioned in his diary — besides a number of young ones, brood mares, foals, and hacks were disposed of at the hammer : and to have seen the string wending its way from King's Cramond to the place of sale — Wordsworth's Repository, Nottingham Place, Edinburgh — must have been an imposing and to his friends a sorrowful spectacle.
Although Lord Elphinstone severed his official connection with the Hunt at the end of the season of 1809, a settlement of his claims upon it was not effected until the 30th of January 1811, when Mr Boyd, the secretary and treasurer, travelled to Edinburgh for the purpose, and paid over to him the sum of £307, 18s. as the value of the horses. No mention, however, is made of the hounds, and it is possible that his lordship either formally presented them to the Hunt on his resignation, or eventually waived his claim to them. Notwith- standing his retirement he continued to subscribe to the Hunt funds up to the time of his death, although it would seem that he now began to keep hounds of his own, and engaged Christopher Scott as his whipper-in, since Scott is referred to in the * Sporting Magazine ' ^ as " a veteran, who has whip- ped-in to or hunted every pack in Scotland, but the Duke's, in his day, and some that are not now in force, — Lord Elphinstone's for one," and since he, Scott, is represented as whipper-in in a picture
^ 'Sporting Magazine,' September 1835.
62
Mr WILLIAM MURRAY, Youngkk of Polmaise. Frotit Crayon Drawing in the possession oj Mr James Murray of Polmaise.
AND STIELINGSHIRE HUNT
of Lord Elphinstone and his hounds, painted by Douglas about this time.-'^ This picture, from which the portrait of Lord Elphinstone has been repro- duced, ^ was executed in duplicate, one copy being in the possession of the present Lord Elphinstone at Carberry Tower, Mid-Lothian, and the other in that of Colonel Anstruther at Charleton, Fife.^ Lord Elphinstone died at Bath in May 1813, and was buried at the Abbey there. He was succeeded in the title by his only son.
Mr Murray, who assumed the control in 1810, was the eldest son of Mr William Murray of Touchadam and Polmaise in Stirlingshire, and was born on the 6th of July 1773. In 1799 he married Miss Anne Maxwell, daughter of Sir William Maxwell of Monreith, and went to live at Muiravonside, at that time called " The Neuk." He was a member of the Caledonian Hunt, a deputy lieutenant for the county of Stirling, and a lieutenant-colonel of yeomanry, in consequence of which he is often alluded to, and was perhaps better known, as Colonel Murray. At the end of his first season, Granger, whose services as huntsman had been retained, had been in office for four years. Having shown much good sport,
^ Letter from the late Colonel Anstruther Thomson to the author, dated 12th November 1893. In this letter Colonel Thomson states : "I have a picture of John, 12th Lord Elphinstone, with his hounds and whipper-in. . . . The whij^per-in was Kit Scott."
2 Vide illustration, p. 40.
2 The picture at Charleton bears this inscription : "John, 12th Lord Elphinstone, on his Favom-ite Horse, and His Lordship's Whipper-in mounted on Burgundy.''
63
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
and proved himself worthy of the trust reposed in him, he was presented with a testimonial in the shape of a silver cup, suitably inscribed ; ^ while two years later (1813) his portrait with a few of his favourite hounds — Frampton, Racer, Ferryman, Damper, and Lifter — was painted by Douglas, the picture being afterwards engraved.
As time passed, the cost of the establishment yearly became greater, added to which vari- ous other sources of expense presented them- selves. The renting of coverts was not unusual or at least unknown, while the repairing of fences damaged and the compensating of farmers and tenants for loss sustained by and trouble caused to them, were matters which, then as now, required attention. To make ends meet was therefore no easy matter, and in the year 1810, in response to an appeal, many of the members contributed additional sums, so that the total subscription received amounted to no less than £1250, and that at a time when, although rents were high, taxes were high also, and war prices prevailed. During nearly the whole of the period embraced in this chapter the Continent had been in a state of considerable commotion, and while the Hunt was pursuing the more or less even tenor of its way at home, the attention of all men was directed
1 This cup, which is in the possession of Granger's granddaughter, Mrs Walker, Hereford Road, Harrogate, has engraved upon it a flying fox and the following inscription : " Presented by the Members of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt to Thomas Granger, their Huntsman, in testimony of their unqualified approbation of the establishment under his management."
64
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
to the Spanish Peninsula. Thither a large number of British troops had been sent in 1808 under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley for the purpose of thwarting the movements of Napoleon, who had found a pretext for interfering in the affairs of Spain. The battles of Vimiera, Corunna, and Talavera had been fought and won, and now, in the year 1810, came a temporary cessation of hostilities, and the troops were retired within the lines of Torres Vedras. Great matters and small are not infrequently interwoven, and during this period of inactivity, a pack of British fox- hounds, hunted by a British huntsman, pursued its quarry on Spanish soil. Through the sport shown by this pack and its huntsman — the famous Tom Crane, who had been appointed to the post by the "Iron Duke" himself — many days, which would otherwise have proved almost unendurable, were passed pleasantly by the soldiers who joined in the chase, hardships were made to appear less hard, and man and horse were braced and fitted for the important work yet to be accomplished.
But before the campaign had been brought to a conclusion, before the season of 1813 had drawn to a close at home, it was foreseen that it would be impossible to maintain the old Hunt much longer. Foxes had become scarce, and although this was the only reason assigned for the breaking- up of the establishment, others may be found in the death of Mr Ramsay, with whom, it is stated,^ expired the spirit and the sinews of the Hunt,
^ 'Sporting Magazine,' May 1825.
65 E
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
and in the war in the Peninsula, owing to which probably many of those who might otherwise have been following the chase at home, were serving their country abroad.
The accounts end on the 31st of December 1813, when, after having been " carefully gone over and examined," and " narrowly compared with the vouchers thereof," they are docqueted and signed as in previous years by Mr Louis Ferrier. They close with a balance of £136, 2s. ll|-d. due to the treasurer, Mr Boyd, but from an examination of them it appears that there was then at the credit of the Hunt with " the Falkirk Bank," a sum more than sufficient to meet this deficiency. Hunting, however, seems to have been continued well into the spring of the following year, for the sale of the hounds and horses was not advertised^ to take place until the month of April (1814).
1 FOX-HOUNDS AND HUNTERS— To be sold.
To be disj)osed of at Wordsworth's Repository, Nottingham Place, Edinburgh, on Wednesday, the 20th April current, the well-known Pack of Fox-Hounds, belonging to the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt, together with the following Stud of Horses, viz. : —
Fairplay, a Chestnut Gelding, 8 years old, got by Statesman. The Captain, a Grey Gelding, 9 years old, got by Scorpion. Swagger, a Black Gelding, 9 years old, got by Scorpion. Witchcraft, a Brown Mare, 9 years old, got by Star, thorough -bred. WiLDGOOSE, a Grey ]\Iare, 7 years old, got by Cyrus, dam by
Pumpkin, thorough-bred. Silverlocks, a Grey Mare, 9 years old, got by Master Robert,
nearly thorough-bred. Skiprope, a Grey Highland Poney, 6 years old.
N.B. — The Horses will be sold without reserve. — Vide 'Edinburgh Advertiser,' Friday, April 15, 1814.
66
AND STIRLINGSHmE HUNT
Although the Hunt had now ceased to exist except as a club, it was destined to be resurrected at no very distant date, a circumstance which, could he have survived to see it, would doubtless have rejoiced Mr Ramsay, in whose thoughts the hunting of the country had filled so large a place. Meantime, he was not forgotten, and the members, still meeting at Linlithgow and at Stirling, did "drink in solemn silence the memory of him whose loss was a serious one for all who had the pleasure of knowing him." ^ Meantime also — between the temporary cessation of the Hunt and its revival — the country did not long remain vacant, and after the lapse of a short interval, it was wakened by the music of a pack of fox-hounds, which at that time was, as it is at the present day, second to none in Scotland, controlled by a sportsman of renown, and guided by a huntsman of considerable celebrity.
1 'Sporting Magazine,' May 1825.
67
CHAPTER III.
THE I N T E R K E G N U M.
1814-1825.
The pack just referred to was the Lothian, now the Duke of Buccleuch's, the master Mr Robert Baird of Nevvbyth, grandfather of the present Sir David Baird, and the huntsman Will Williamson.
The Lothian Hunt had been established about the year 1783 by Henry, third Duke of Buccleuch, Mr Baird, Colonel Hamilton of Pentcaitland, and other gentlemen.^ The country consisted of the greater part of Mid and East Lothian, which was hunted from kennels at Dalkeith park, and part of Berwickshire, known as the Duns country, ^ which appears to have been overtaken from kennels at Langton.^ In 1826, Mr Baillie of Mellerstain, who, up to that year, had hunted the remainder of Berwickshire along with the counties of Roxburgh and Selkirk and a large part of Northumberland,
^ Papers at Dalkeitli House. ^ Ibid.
3 'Sporting Magazine,' December 1828.
68
HISTORY OF THE L. & S. HUNT
broke up his establishment ^ and handed over his country to Mr Baird ; while in the following year, Walter, fifth Duke of Buccleuch, whose guardians during his minority had subscribed largely on his behalf to the maintenance of the pack, attained majority and agreed to join Mr Baird, then the only surviving original subscriber, in the mastership — the arrangement being that upon Mr Baird's retirement, the hounds, the horses and everything connected with the establishment should become the sole property of the Duke.^ Accordingly on Mr Baird's retirement or death — he did not long survive the making of the arrangement — the pack became the property of the Duke, and has ever since been known as the Duke of Buccleuch's. And it is an interesting fact that the old Lothian blood still exists, and that there are in the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire kennel to-day, partly through Darling (1895), by The Duke of Buccleuch's Trident (1892), and partly through a draft got from his Grace in 1907, descendants of hounds which were in the pack in Mr Baird's time, and which, nearly a century ago, must have crossed the old grass of Linlithgowshire with Will Williamson.
Shortly after the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire
1 Mr Baillie's hounds and horses were sold by auction on 14th October 1826, and reaUsed nearly £2000.— Vide 'Sporting Magazine,' November 1826. Some of his young hounds, however, were presented by him to the Duke of Buccleuch, and were entered in the Lothian pack. — Papers at Dalkeith House.
2 Papers at Dalkeith House.
69
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
establishment was broken up in 1814, Mr Baird asked Granger to become his huntsman in place of Collison, who had resigned ; but Granger declined, and it would seem that his term of hunt service with the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire pack was his only one. Retiring into private life, he died in the year 1846, at the age of eighty-one, and was buried at North Newbald, near Beverley, in Yorkshire. In declining Mr Baird's offer, Granger suggested the promotion of Williamson who had been whipper-in under Collison. This suggestion Mr Baird acted upon in the year 1816, and if Williamson did not actually begin his first season as huntsman, in Lin- lithgowshire, it must have been very shortly after its commencement that he brought his hounds to the kennels at Winchburgh,^ for it is recorded that the first fox he ever killed was one from a fixture at Armadale toll-bar, a little to the west of Bath- gate, hounds pulling him down after seven or eight miles before he could reach Callendar woods, near Falkirk.2
'' Few packs, probably, had a greater range of country than the Lothian — under the manage- ment of the late worthy and lamented Mr Baird — enjoyed at this period, — its strict limits extend- ing from the Duke's coverts^ west of LinlithgoM', to Penmaushiel wood, beyond Cockburnspath, on
^ The Winchburgh kennels appear to have stood close to the inn there, the building which forms the eastern side of the small square in front of it having been the stable.
2 'Field and Fern ' (South), 1865, p. 217.
3 The Duke of Hamilton's coverts, — Avon Banks, Kinneil, &c.
70
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
the road to Berwick — a distance of nearly sixty miles by the milestones — and embracing, with a small part of Berwickshire, the whole of the three Lothians — or in other words, the entire counties of Haddington, Linlithgow, and Edinburgh. Of each of these I shall now proceed briefly to speak ; and commence with that of Linlithgow, which, as a hunting country, was decidedly in every respect to be preferred to the others. In the first place it held a remarkably good scent at all seasons of the year, and consisted, for a provincial, of a very fair proportion of grass ; secondly, it was a flat and very pleasant and straight - forward one to ride over ; and thirdly, the foxes were flyers, and the coverts, the majority of them at least, were neither too large, nor crammed with that redundance of game that is so destructive and inimical to sport in the largest portions of Mid and East Lothian. I cannot, indeed, imagine, and certainly have never seen, anything much superior to the cream of it ; and it was here that this splendid pack, with Williamson at their head, displayed themselves in their proper colours. It was indeed a delight, after witnessing the distressing and fruitless efforts of man and hound in the cold cheerless ploughs they usually came last from, to see twenty couples of these magnificent animals press- ing their fox gallantly away from Binny craig, Drumshorelane moor, Duntarvie, or Riccarton, and afterwards sticking to him over a country
71
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
that permitted them to do so without the con- tinual interruption of glens, bogs, hills, and pheasant preserves, which, with sown grass and young wheat, were elsewhere, in the rare event of a run, such vexatious and almost insurmount- able draw - backs. It was only twice a year, however — November and the end of March — that the arrangements of the Hunt could allow this comparative Leicestershire to be visited, and then only for a fortnight at a time ; but I think I am not going too far in saying, that in one of these brief periods there was generally more sport than in six weeks' hunting in either of the other counties. The kennel at Winchburgh, which the hounds during these occasions occupied, was, without exception, the very worst and most inconvenient I ever beheld ; but this could neither prevent their being turned out in their usual most superior form, nor detract very materially from the pleasure with which their huntsman always looked forward to ' the fortnight in the west country.' Nor indeed was it to be wondered at that he did so ; for in the words of Colonel Cook, when speaking of the late Lord Vernon's huntsman, Sam Lawley, in the Bosworth country, ' he had nothing to do but ride as fast as he could — it was all racing heads up and sterns down ; ' and the contrast between this and the unsatisfactory toil imposed on him in the neighbourhood of Newbattle, Dalhousie, &c., must no doubt — especi- ally to a man so completely wrapt up in the
72
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
sport of his pack — have been either dehghtful or miserable, according to the direction in which his hounds were travelHng. . . . Nothing could be much stronger than Williamson's attachment to West Lothian for the sake of his hounds. So fond indeed was he of it, that he would never allow the possibility of its being taken away from them, by the re - establishment of the old Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt ; which event, however, in despite of his hopes and predictions took place ... at the beginning of 1825."^
These brief sojourns of the Lothian Hounds in the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire country must have been looked forward to with no little pleasure by those of its residents who still cared to hunt and had at their command the means of following the chase. " Angels' visits," they might be termed in consequence of their having been so few and far between, and doubtless as such they were looked upon, and appreciated accordingly. During them it would seem that much brilliant sport was enjoyed, and in particular, in the spring of the year 1821, hounds appear to have had an unbroken succession of most capital runs.^ In the spring of 1823, when again there was brilliant sport, a curious incident occurred during a burst from Kinneil wood. As a member of the field was riding over some ground covered with stunted gorse, he and his horse almost suddenly disap- peared ; the horse sank into the bowels of the
^ 'Sporting Magazine,' December 1828. " Ibid.
73
HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW
earth, but his rider, being providentially thrown over his head, escaped by catching hold of some weeds. Ropes were immediately procured, and a descent was made, in order to explore the cavity, which was found to be eighteen feet perpendicular, and afterwards to extend to the depth of nearly seventy feet in a slanting direction, at the bottom of which the horse was found, alive. The country people instantly volunteered their services, and the entrance to the j^it, caused by the falling of the metals in a stratum of coal, being enlarged, the horse, after eight or nine hours' labour, was brought to the surface unhurt, and travelled eighteen miles the next day.^
Mr Baird has been alluded to as "a sportsman of renown," and in this he has probably not been rated too highly. " Mr Baird is a veteran of the old school, and, as a thorough-bred sportsman, and gentleman, is a universal favourite in this part of the world. He is upwards of sixty, and yet, among all the young bloods of the Lothian Hunt, you will see few neater turns - out than Mr Baird on his mare Bounty."^ But under his rule the whole establishment was well turned out, and it would seem that no expense was spared, for the statement on the following page shows that between the years 1815 and 1825, the period during which Linlithgowshire was visited, the annual cost was never less than £1300 per annum, while, in 1818, it amounted
J 'Sporting Magazine,' July 1823. 2 i^id., June 1824.
74
AND STIRLINGSHmE HUNT
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75
HISTOKY OF THE LINLITHGOW
more nearly to £1500 — the hounds hunting three and four days a- week.
Williamson, who afterwards became such a promi- nent figure in the annals of Scottish hunting, was born in August 1782.^ His father, James William- son, after having acted as whipper-in to the Lothian Hounds under Mr Baird and Colonel Hamilton, became head -groom to the latter, and it was then that Williamson entered the Colonel's service as message-boy. In 1802 he began his hunting life as second whipper-in to the pack with which his father had previously been connected.^ Seven years later he was promoted, and after serving as first whipper - in for another period of seven years, was made huntsman.^ This position he held, first under Mr Baird, and afterwards under the Duke of Buccleuch, for the long space of forty -six seasons, his retirement not taking place until the end of the month of April 1862.^ "Mr William Williamson, the oldest living huntsman, bar Tom Wingfield, senior, has retired from the Duke of Buccleuch's service. This celebrated Scottish worthy was born in 1782, just one year after the late Lord Campbell, and those who were at the last Hartrigge meet, at which his Lordship was present, remember how the Lord Chancellor came out to greet Will on the lawn, and how the great
^ Memorandum among papers at Dalkeith House. - The ' Sporting Magazine ' for June 1824 states that Williamson was educated under Granger. This appears to be erroneous.
3 Memorandum among papers at Dalkeith House. * Ibid.
76
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
Scottish huntsman thanked the great lawyer from his saddle, for the honour he had done their mutual country by his occupation of the English woolsack. Unluckily, no photographer was by to ' fix ' that memorable handshake between * Plain Jock ' and Will. Will's professional hunting sphere has known no change, although for twenty or thirty years he occasionally had a mount from his Mel- tonian pupils, to see a gallop with the Quorn. At thirteen he went to serve under his father, who was then groom to Colonel Hamilton, and stayed there seven years as message-boy and pad-groom to the Colonel ; and in 1802 he commenced his sixty years of hunting life as second whip to the Lothian Hounds, of which Mr Baird, of Newbyth, was the master, John King the huntsman, and Frank Collison, father of Peter of the Cheshire, first whip. In seven years' time Frank got the horn, and after keeping it for seven more, retired in Williamson's favour. Will thus got his pro- motion eleven years before the present Duke of Buccleuch came of age, up to which time ' The Lothian ' was a subscription pack,^ and held it till April 22nd of this year, when he hung up his coat and cap after as long and as honourable a service, and under as good a master as ever fell to huntsman's lot." ^
No portrait of Williamson was painted until after he had retired, but he then sat first for Sir
1 Not in the present acceptation of the term.
2 * New Sporting Magazine,' June 1862.
71
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
Francis Grant and afterwards for Mr Frain. Nimrod, however, sketches him as he was in the autumn of 1834, when about fifty-two years of age.
"The stature of WilHamson is below the average height of man, but his person is well turned and very well proportioned ; and the exact fit of his clothes sets it off to advantage. The sit of his cap, the fall of his shoulders, and the junction of the breeches with the boots — a great point in a horse- man, as far as the eye is concerned — are all equally good ; and the general cleanliness of his person, renders the tout ensemble complete. He has a keen, penetrating eye ; carries his country in his face, as well as its full dialect on his tongue ; is, as Lord Kintore says of him, ' an astonishing bit of wire — a sort of genus per se — and the king of Scotch servants.' " ^
The portrait by Sir Francis Grant was painted for the Duke of Buccleuch, and some of the letters ^ which Sir Francis wrote to the Duke, at the time, are both interesting and amusing. The first of these mentions Will in the studio, getting rather weary of ' sitting,' but instantly enlivened by the arrival of a letter from the Duke.
27 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, N.W., 25tli Oct. [1862].
My dear Duke, — . . . Your letter was brought into the painting room whilst Will was in the act of sitting, and was getting rather tired. But the arrival of a letter from you, put him all alive. I showed him a portion of it where
1 ' Northern Tour,' 1838, p. 138.
2 Among papers at Dalkeith House.
78
AND STIELINGSHIRE HUNT
you speak of my knowledge of his character and peculi- arities— Will read it "propensities." "Ma propensities, what can his Grace mean by ma propensities," and then he went into roars, I have only, since Will left, dis- covered that the word is peculiarities.
I am, I hope, getting on well with him. I think Will seems much satisfied. He says " Noo I dinna want you to mak me just as I am, but what I used to be, for, for some years back, I have only just been an apology for a Huntsman." — 1 am, ever my dear Duke, yours very truly and obliged, Fkan. Grant.
The next letter refers to the termination of the *' sittings," and to the introduction into the picture of some of the hounds as well as the horse " Sam Slick." It also refers to Will's deafness.
27 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, N.W., Nov. 2 [1862].
My dear Duke, — You will be glad to hear I am done with Will, and I think it is very successful. He seemed much pleased himself. I have arranged with him to have some hounds up to Melton the first good frost, when they can be spared. He talks of coming with them himself — he is so much interested in the picture.
He was very amusing — his anecdotes numerous. When he left me, I always got a cab to the door for him, when he invariably roared out to the cabman, "Do ye ken a place caa'ed ' Belgrave Square.' " When the cabman assented, and succeeded in making Will hear, he said, " Weel, I want to be taken to a hoose there, No. thirty- seeven." — I am ever, my dear Duke, yours truly,
F. Grant.
P.S. — This letter needs no answer, but 1 thought you would be glad to hear that we think we have been success- ful. He is very anxious that the likeness of Sam Slick may be attended to.
79
HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW
The last letter of interest mentions the completion of the picture and arrangements for its despatch to Dalkeith.
27 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, N.W., Aug. 23 [1863].
My dear Duke, — The picture will leave my house for Dalkeith on the 1st September. I only quite completed it yesterday. To-morrow or the day after, I must give it a slight varnish, and it will require all the week to be thoroughly dry. The carver and guilder has orders to call for it on Monday the 31st and send it by rail to Dalkeith on the 1st of September.
I am much obliged for your kind message. I assure you I painted the picture con amore, and I hope it is a good memorial of poor old Will. I wish I had painted the horse from nature. But Will was so urgent — "I maun hae my horse Sam Slick," that I had no option, and on the whole it is best that it should be a brown animal. . . . I am ever, my dear Duke, yours very truly, F. Grant.
Amongst these letters there is one from William- son to the Duke which, besides indicating his Grace's constant kindly attitude towards Will, expresses the latter's unswerving regard for his master.
St Boswells, 10 Nov. [1862].
May it please your Grace, — I beg to say it is with a feeling overcome by more than I can express (having received from Mr Sutherland a note intimating your Grace's never failing consideration and kindness) that I attempt to address you, so far short of what my mind, under a less impressed state, would have enabled me to do.
However, I beg to assure your Grace it is with the sincerest gratitude that I conjure up all the benefits I have received from you, but as the case is without a
80
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
parallel between master and servant, it masters me to enter upon it, and I can only conclude, your Grace, by re-iterating what has been a thousand times my standing toast — viz., " The Duke, God bless him." — And I am, may it please your Grace, your most humble servant,
W. Williamson.
Williamson did not live many years after his portrait vv^as painted, and dying on the 11th of February 1870, in his eighty-eighth year,^ he was buried in the quiet churchyard of Pencaitland in the district in which he had passed many of his early days.
Perhaps the subject of Williamson has been lingered over unduly, but it should be borne in mind that, there having been no Linlithgow and Stirlingshire huntsman at this period (1814-1825), Williamson virtually stood in that relation to the country, or at least to the county of Linlithgow, and that therefore some account of him and of his career is far from being out of place in these pages. And it is worthy of mention that when the Lothian Hounds ceased to visit the country, in consequence of the revival of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire pack in 1825, he received from those who had taken part in the sport he had shown in West Lothian a token of regard in the shape of a silver jug which is still pre- served and cherished by his descendants. The following letter and verses ^ by the late Professor
1 Memorandum among papers at Dalkeith House.
2 In the possession of Miss Williamson, Galashiels.
81 F
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
James Miller,^ however, will form a fitting con- clusion to what has been said in regard to this famous Scottish huntsman : —
Dear Williamson, — I have been so infernally busy with
the getting up of a dinner to your friend Mr (where
by the bye, I expected to have seen yon) that I have not had time to redeem my pledge anent my promise to send you the accompanying palaver. But coming home, to-day, I found that you had been here, and not looking very well pleased. So I hasten to say peccavi and make amends. Here it is in all its imperfections. If it can help to con- vince you that nothing can be nearer ray warmest wish than to further in any way in my power your wishes or interests, I am amply repaid for the pains of delivery that authors are subjected to. — Ever yours faithfully,
Jas. Miller.
"WILL 0' THE WISP."
(Air—" The Boys of Kilkenny.")
Oh long may Will stick to his " Pension and Place," For tho' nearly three-score — still " full score " is his pace.
He can ride like the Devil — talk or write like the Praist ;
And he's aisy and kind both to man and to Baist. Oh in troth he's a broth of a boy to be sure.
Tho' he doats on his pack, he's no pedlar or cheat.
For no wares does he sport but " ware grass " or " ware wheat."
Good covers he covets, but throivs off all disguise ;
All that's liollow in him are his View hollo cries. Oh in troth, &c.
1 Professor of Surgery, Edinburgh University, 1842. 82
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
As a Huntsman, who's like him, for head and for heel,
As sharp as a razor, true and hard as the steel ;
With both science and bottom, pluck, talent, and fun, And the rank oi full major — being noio twenty-one. Oh in troth, &c.
As a man and a friend he is " warranted nouncl,"
If a better you'd seek, let it be underground.
Staunch, sterling, and steady, — tough, trusty, and true, He's beloved and respected by !N'oble Buccleuch. Oh in troth, &c.
For title and rank due respect he maintains ;
In return their esteem, and their friendship obtains. All follow him hard over turf, hill, and heath, And none stick so close as the gallant Newhyth. Oh in troth, &c.
More power to his elbow ! More success then to "Will ! May he equal Saint Patrick in the varmint he'll kill.
Hounds healthy and fleet, — horse and men fast and sound ;
And long may it be before he's " run to ground." For in troth, &c.
" The Dusty Miller."
While the Lothian Hounds, under Mr Baird, were periodically hunting the Linlithgowshire side of the country, during the interregnum, the R.A.L.D.S. Hounds, under Captain, afterwards Sir, David Baird, Mr Baird's son, visited the Stirling- shire district occasionally, and, judging from the following account of what appears to have been a long and fine run, the confines of West Lothian also. This Hunt was so styled from the initial letters of the counties hunted by it, namely —
83
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
Kenfrew, Ayr, Lanark, Dumbarton or Dumfries, — probably the former — and Stirling. The hounds had three kennels, one of which was situated at the mouth of the Doon in Ayrshire, another at Cathcart near Glasgow, and the third at Motherwell, Cap- tain Baird had undertaken the management of the pack in the year 1822, but after acting as master for two seasons, retired in favour of Mr James Oswald of Shieldhall, who in turn gave place to Lord Kelburne in 1826. When Captain Baird took the hounds, it would seem that they were not in the best possible form, but through the care and attention which he bestowed on them during his mastership, a great improvement was effected.^ This is borne out by the account of the run already referred to.
"On Saturday, the 10th April [1824], Captain Baird's Hounds had a fine day's sport. The place of meeting was Armadale toll-bar, on the Glasgow road, where they immediately found a fine fox, with which they went away at a killing pace, towards the village of Bathgate, upon nearing which, he turned to the left, through Mr Marjori- banks', of Marjoribanks, grounds, for Wallhouse craig, where being headed, he gallantly faced the Bathgate hills, and skirting the numerous lime quarries, disdained all the earths. Here he turned short to the left, and crossing Hilderston hill, he ran through Witch-craig wood, the west parks of B'ormie, and continuing in a north direction as far
1 ' Sporting Magazine,' January 1825.
84
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
as the bottom of Cockleroi, he turned to the right, and running over the fine grass country of B'ormie, he never varied a point till he reached Riccarton wood/ where he was so closely pressed by the gallant pack, that he was obliged once more to take the open country. He broke away toward the Binny craig, but leaving it to his right, he made for the badger earths" where he was twice viewed, dead beat, and here he would have been killed, had the scent at all served on the ploughed land. Getting away again, he crossed the Linlithgow road, ran through the Champfleurie grounds as far as the Union canal ; here he turned round and came back to Champ- fleurie, where he went to ground in a drain at the bottom of the garden, — thus completing one of the finest runs ever seen with hounds, — the extent of the country, point-blank, not being less then 14 miles, and, taking the run, certainly not less than 20 miles. Never did hounds do their duty better : it was a fine finish to the season. Too much praise cannot be given to Captain Baird for having in so short a time brought his hounds to so high a state of perfection." ^
Although the Lothian and R.A.L.D.S. packs had to some extent filled the place of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire during the seasons which followed the sale of the hounds in 1814, there had evidently existed in the country, throughout this period, a
* Longmuir covert. ' On Nancy's hill.
3 'Annals of Sporting and Fancy Gazette,' May 1824.
85
HISTORY OF THE L. & S. HUNT
feeling of regret that the old Hunt had died down, and a sort of smouldering desire for its revival, requiring but little to kindle it into life. How the embers of this desire, which, having been stirred and fanned into a glow by the good sport shown in the visits of the above-mentioned packs, suddenly leaped into flame with the coming of the new year of 1825, will be described in the pages which im- mediately follow.
86
CHAPTER IV.
THE THREE LAIRDS. THE HUNT CLUB.
1825-1830.
How unfortunate it is that the hounds ever came to be sold. The good sport which the Lothian and E-.A.L.D.S. packs have shown, instead of satisfy- ing, has strengthened, the desire of those now hunting, and has brought home to the country- most forcibly the want of hounds of its own. Many of the members have for some time past wished for, and even contemplated, a revival of the old Hunt, and it now only remains that some one should take the initiative in order to bring this about !
Some thoughts such as these must have passed through the minds of Mr Johnston and Mr Gillon during the summer of 1824. Probably upon many different occasions they had discussed the feasi- bility of renewing the establishment, weighed all the pros and cons, summed up those whom they knew would support such a movement, as well as those whom they considered would be likely
87
HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW
to do so, and finally decided that they them- selves would take the first steps towards this end. Thus resolved, they must have eagerly watched and waited for a chance of securing any suitable hounds which might be for sale, and when, a little later, it became known that the Earl of Kiutore desired to dispose of the pack which he then had in Kincardineshire, gladly availed themselves of the opportunity, and concluded a bargain for its purchase. No doubt the news of this purchase spread rapidly through the country, but the fact was not formally made known until the 17th of January (1825), when the members of the Hunt met at Linlithgow for the express purpose of con- sidering the situation. Then Mr Johnston re- ported what he and Mr Gillon had done, and ofiered to the Hunt the hounds which they had purchased at the price they had paid for them ; and although this offer was not accepted, it was resolved that the hunting establishment should be renewed, and that the support of the noblemen and gentlemen of the district should be sought.^ The minutes of this meeting bear that those present " earnestly recommend to the members at large, to enable these gentlemen [Mr Johnston and Mr Gillon] to resume and continue the establishment by afford- ing them their countenance and support, and to enter into a liberal subscription for that purpose." ^
^ Minute - Book in the custody of Messrs Glen & Henderson, Linlithgow. 2 Ibid.
1833-
Mr WILLIA.M DOWNE GILLOX of Wah.hoisk
From Portrait in the possession of Mrs Gilloii, Kdinburgh.
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
The list of subscribers ^ given on the following page is interesting not only on account of the names which it contains, but also as showing the sums agreed to be contributed.
' The Sporting Magazine ' alludes to Mr Johnston and Mr Gillon as "celebrated sportsmen,"^ and although the adjective used was taken exception to,^ it will be conceded that their action in endea- vouring to bring about a renewal of the establish- ment was a most sportsman-like one. And it is probable that no better arrangement than the association of these gentlemen in the management could well have been devised, since each, being an owner of property lying within the Hunt's terri- tory, had that interest in the country as well as in the Hunt which forms a connecting link between the two, and tends to promote good feeling between those who cultivate and those who ride over the land. Mr Johnston was proprietor of the estate of Straiton in Mid-Lothian, as well as of the lands of Champfleurie in Linlithgowshire, while Mr Gillon had inherited the property of Wallhouse, which had then been in the possession of his family for between two and three hundred years. The pack which they had purchased had hunted Forfarshire and Kincardineshire in the autumn of 1824, It consisted of about thirty couples of hounds, and included several of those which had been drawn
* List of subscribers among Hunt papers in the custody of Messrs Glen & Henderson, Linlithgow. 2 'Sporting Magazine,' February 1825. ^ xbid., May 1825.
89
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS to the Establishment of a Pack of Fox-Hounds for Hunting the Counties op Linlithgow & Stirling, commencing as at 1st January 1825, under THE Joint Management op James Johnston, Esq"", op Straiton, & William D. Gillon, Esq'', of Wallhousb, with their several Subscriptions annexed.
subscribers' names.
His Grace, the Duke of Hamilton & Brandon
His Grace, the Duke of Montrose
The Most Nohle The Marquis of Graham
The Right ELonourable the Earl of Hopetoun
The Right Honourable the Earl of Rosebery
The Right Honourable Lord Abercromby
The Honourable Capt. Abercromby, M.P.
The Honourable Sir Alexander Hope of Waughton
M.P
Sir James Dalyell, Baronet of Binns . Sir William Baillie, Baronet of Polkemmet . Sir Gilbert Stirling, Baronet of Larbert Compte de Flahault ..... Michael Bruce, Esq''., Yr. of Stenhouse Alexander Macleod, Esq''., of Muiravonside . James Inglis, Esq'., Yr. of Middleton . Thomas Graham Stirling, Esq'., of Airth C. L. Cumming Bruce, Esq^, of Kinnaird . Robert Stein, Esq"^., of Kilbagie . H. Home Drummond, Esq'., of Blairdrummond, M William Murray, Esq''., of Polmaise . William Gibson Craig, Esq''., Yr. of Riccarton Francis Simpson, Esq*"., of Plean James Hart, Esq''., of Drumcrosshall . Gabriel Hamilton Dundas, Esq''., of Duddingston James J. Hope Vere, Esq''., of Craigiehall . H. Fletcher Campbell, Esq''., of Boquhan B. Dunmore Napier, Esq''., of Ballikinrain . James Dennistoun, Esq''., of Barbacklaw Major Norman Shairp, Yr. of Houstoun
90
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SUMS |
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SUBSCRIBED. |
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. £40 |
0 |
0 |
|
50 |
0 |
0 |
|
20 |
0 |
0 |
|
. 300 |
0 |
0 |
|
. 100 |
0 |
0 |
|
25 |
0 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
|
I, 21 |
0 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
|
50 |
0 |
0 |
|
20 |
0 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
|
25 |
0 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
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LP. 25 |
0 |
0 |
|
25 |
0 |
0 |
|
15 |
0 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
|
10 |
10 |
0 |
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30 |
0 |
0 |
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31 |
10 |
0 |
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50 |
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30 |
0 |
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10 |
10 |
0 |
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10 |
10 |
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£983 |
10 |
0 |
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
by Lord Kintore on the division of the united Fife and Forfarshire packs in or about the year 1823, while the remainder was composed chiefly of drafts procured from different well-known kennels in England.^ The huntsman engaged was George Knight, who at this time was about thirty-seven years of age, and was living at Dalkeith. He either then was, or had been, whipper-in to the Lothian Hounds^ under Williamson, and therefore must have been acquainted to some extent with the country which he was about to hunt. He seems to have come originally from Gloucestershire or Monmouthshire, and to have been in the service, first, of Captain Davidson of Cantray, with whom he came to Scotland, then of Mr Forbes of Culloden, and, finally, before commencing his hunting career, of the Duke of Gordon, to whom he acted as pad- groom or second horseman. Shortly after his en- gagement he travelled to Inglismaldie in Kincar- dineshire, and early in February brought down the pack to the kennels at Winchburgh which had previously been occupied by the Lothian Hounds
1 " It must be well known to most masters of fox-hounds, that the Earl of Kintore (from whom the hounds were bought by the present manager, Mr Johnston) procured the best drafts England could produce as well as old hounds from different quarters, besides taking ten or twelve couples of the best hunting hounds (as he had a right to do) from the Fife or Forfar pack. His Lordship commenced hunting in the autumn of 1824," . . . "and the pack having had their fair share of sport, and being well blooded early in the season, about Christmas, came to their present country." — Vide ' Sporting Magazine,' March 1828, and 'Xotitia Yenatica,' by R. T. Vyner, 1842, the appendix to which includes Lord Kintore's List for 1824.
'■^ 'Sporting Magazine," July 1825.
91
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
when they visited the country. The services of two whippers-in^ were secured, horses were pur- chased, and before the middle of the month all was in readiness for taking the field. This was effected on Monday, the 14th, when, meeting at Linlithgow Bridge, hounds found a fox at Tod's mill, on the banks of the Avon, and killed him near Hopetoun House.
"On Monday, Feb. 14, the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Fox - hounds met for the first time since the renewal of the hunting establishment, under the management of those celebrated sports- men, James Johnston, Esq., of Straiton, and William Downe Gillon, Esq., of Wallhouse, at Linlithgow Bridge. They proceeded to draw the Duke of Hamilton's covert on the banks of the Avon, and immediately unkennelled a fine dog fox. Notwithstanding the great number of eques- trians as well as pedestrians who had turned out to see the hounds, reynard broke away at once .in the most gallant style, close by the crowd, making for Kinneil wood, near which the hounds were over-rode in a lane, and came to a short check. The fox ran by Bonhard, Carriden, Stacks, and Blackness Castle, passing in his way the beautiful grounds of Sir James Dalyell of Binns, Baronet, and took to ground in a drain in a wood of the Earl of Hopetoun near to Hopetoun
^ It would seem that one of these was James Raw who came from Yorkshire, and is said to have died at Linlithgow of typhus or typhoid fever.
92
AND STIELINGSHIRE HUNT
House, close by the great head of earths for which he was making. He was then dug out in an exhausted state and soon killed. The staunch- ness of the hounds, which were lately purchased from that out - and - out sportsman, the Earl of Kintore, and the conduct in the field of George Knight, the new huntsman, were the theme of universal admiration, and a more propitious com- mencement of this young pack could not have been wished for. The time occupied in the run was fully an hour, and the distance from point to point, nine or ten miles. The distance run over must have been much greater. After the whoo-whoop the field of sportsmen separated, much gratified. The Hunt Club assembled in the evening at Whitten's Inn, Linlithgow, where they enter- tained a party of their friends at dinner." ^
To none could this day's work have been more gratifying than to Knight who, since his perform- ance in the field had created a favourable impres- sion, probably began to entertain that feeling of confidence in himself without which a huntsman will almost certainly fail to show sport, Mr John- ston and Mr Gillon, also, could not but have been well satisfied with their opening day, for the manner in which the hounds had acquitted them- selves must have proved to them, almost beyond a doubt, that the purchase which they had made was a sound one ; and it may therefore be imag- ined that they joined the dinner-party which took
1 ' Sporting Magazine,' February 1825.
93
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
place at Linlithgow that evening in a more than usually pleasant frame of mind.^ There were also present on that occasion Sir William Baillie of Polkemmet, Sir James Dalyell of the Binns, Mr C. S. Norvell of Boghall, Mr James S. Inglis of Middleton, the Earl of Caithness, Major Moray of Abercairney, Mr Grant of Kilgraston, Mr Maconochie, Sheriff - Depute of Orkney, brother of Lord Meadowbank, and Mr Keith Dick.^
The season ended about the middle of April, two months after the fixture at Linlithgow Bridge. In the following month of August the hounds were moved from Winchburgh to new kennels ^ which had been built on a field belonging to Mr Johnston near the Bonnytoun entry to Linlithgow ; while, about the same time, the old West Port House,^ belonging to Mr Hamilton of Cathlaw, was leased by the Hunt,^ and occupied by Knight,
^ Mrs Whitten's Inn, at which the dinner-party referred to was given, stood where the stables of the Star and Garter Hotel now are.
^ Minute - Book in the custody of Messrs Glen & Henderson, Linlithgow.
^ The Bonnytoun kennels, although diverted from their original purpose, still stand. They are situated in the angle formed by the junction of the roads leading from Carriden and from Burghmuir to Linlithgow.
* The West Port House is situated on the south side of the main street in Linlithgow, a little to the east of the point from which the road to Bo'ness branches off".
^ At a meeting held on 14th February 1825, Mr Boyd, the secretciry and treasurer, was authorised " to take a Lease for behoof of the Hunt, of that house, stabling, and garden, at the West Port of LinHthgow, occupied by Mr Williams, for a period of from one to five years, at a rent not exceeding £30 Stg. p. annum." — Minute - Book in the custody of Messrs Glen & Henderson, Linlithgow.
94
AND SimLINGSHlRE HUNT
the Hunt horses being stabled in the yard adjoining.
The country hunted embraced, in addition to the counties of Linhthgow and StirHng, the west of Fife district and a part of Dumfriesshire, which included or consisted of Mr Hope - Johnstone's property in Annandale. The whole of this area was hunted from the kennels at Bonnytoun, with the exception of the western part of Stirlingshire, which was overtaken from temporary quarters in the county town, and the west of Fife and Dumfriesshire districts, which were hunted from Torryburn and Lochmaben respectively. In the broken season of 1824 Knight killed seven and a half brace of foxes, in his first whole season twent}^ - eight brace, and in the succeeding one thirty brace, the hounds hunting three days a-week.
Although Mr Johnston and Mr Gillon were joint - masters, the former took the chief charge, and when he was in the field the latter did not interfere. Neither of them carried a hunting horn, but both wore the white collar in virtue of their office. After hunting the country for a period of three years over and above the broken season of 1824, they tendered their resignation, and the mastership was offered to Major Norman Shairp, younger of Houstoun.^ He, however, to the great disappointment of his friends and brother sportsmen, declined the honour,^ and the manage-
1 'Sporting Magazine,' April 1828. ^ Il.>id.
95
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
ment was intrusted to Mr William Hay of Duns Castle.'
"Who comes next? A master of fox-hounds should take the precedence of all others when Nimrod writes, and therefore I introduce to my readers who may not be acquainted with him, a gentleman known in Warwickshire — which county he hunted three seasons in first-rate style — as Mr Hay, but in Scotland as ' Willie Hay ' of Duns Castle ; and if I could but persuade myself to believe — with a little addition to it — in the doctrine of metempsychosis, or exchange of souls, I should boldly assert that ' Mr Hay ' in England, and ' Willie Hay' in Scotland, could not be the same man. But in what consists the fancied trans- figuration ? Why, the character of Mr Hay in Warwickshire — and I appeal to my brother sports- men there, if such it was not — was that of a good sportsman, a well-bred gentleman, an agreeable companion ; and that was all. Perhaps he acted the part of the cautious hound on a ticklish scent- ing day, and on fresh ground, and left it to others to throw their tongues on the hazard ; but this I can say, on my own experience of this highly respected gentleman on both sides of the Tweed, that Willie Hay north of the river, is worth a dozen Mr Hays south of it. That in one he was merely the agreeable companion ; on the other he is the life and soul of every party he is in ; — the best teller of a story, with the best stock of
1 ' Sporting Magazine,' July 1828.
96
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
anecdotes, and with as much of the orighial char- acter of his country about him, as any man I am acquainted with. That he is a horseman of the first order, I need not trouble myself to assert." ^
Mr Hay, whose portrait has been thus drawn by Nimrod, was the eldest son of Mr Robert Hay of Duns Castle in Berwickshire, and of Drumelzier in Peeblesshire, his family being a branch of the Hays, Marquesses of Tweeddale. He was born on the 29th of February 1788, succeeded his father on the 21st of August 1807, and was elected a member of the Caledonian Hunt on the 13th of January 1829. Besides having previously hunted a part of Berwickshire,^ he had been master of the Holder- ness Hounds for one season (1821),^ and of the Warwickshire for two (1825 and 1826).^ He had, therefore, had considerable experience as a master of hounds, and was at this time well known as a good sportsman both in England and Scotland. While master of the Warwickshire, he appears to have acquired through his kennel-huntsman, Jack Wood, previously with the Pytchley during the mastership of Lord Althorp, some Pytchley blood. This, it would seem, he eventually brought with him from Warwickshire to Scotland ; ^ and it is possible that the introduction of it into the Lin-
1 Ninirod's 'Northern Tour,' 1838, p. 46.
^ There are preserved at Duns Castle some old hunt buttons used by Mr Hay, on which are embossed the letters D.C.H., i.e., presumably, Dims Castle Hunt.
•^ ' Sporting Magazine,' April 1821 and February 1822.
^ Ibid., November 1825 and January 1827. ° Ibid., August 1839.
97 G
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
lithgow and Stirlingshire kennel may have tended to effect the improvement in the pack which is said to have taken place during his mastership.-^
In conjunction with the home country, which seems to have been worked from kennels at Kettleston near Linlithgow, Mr Hay hunted from Duns Castle, a considerable part of Berwick- shire, at that time placed at his disposal by the Duke of Buccleuch. This embraced, in addition to the Duns country, the coverts of Paxton, Milne- Graden, Fogo muir, and Marchmont, — the bound- ary line between these and the Duke's own country being Greenlaw Dean and the Greenlaw road as far as Orange Lane, and the north and east limits of the Castlelaw and Lennel estates.^ The home country and the Berwickshire district appear to have been hunted alternately, each for a month or so at a time, and both seem to have afforded good sport, although about this period the former suffered a serious loss through the cutting down and draining of one of its best coverts. This, the great wood of Drumshoreland,^ from which many good runs had taken place during the days of Lord Elphinstone and Mr George Ramsay, conse- quently now failed to hold a fox, and it is prob- able that the occurrence of an event so unusual may have suggested to the twelfth Earl of Buchan the idea of giving to his excellent and amusing
1 ' Sporting Magazine,' April 1831. ^ Papers at Dalkeith House.
5 The name is spelt in various ways, Drumshoreland and Drum- shorelane being perhaps the most common.
98
AND STIKLINGSHIRE HUNT
verses the title of " The Blank Day at Drumshore- lane." In after years, during the reign of Mr W. R. Ramsay, when the young wood planted in place of the old had grown, it produced foxes which could travel, and the covert accordingly regained much, if not all, of its former high reputation. At the present day Drumshoreland is a great wood once more, and although it is seldom drawn in vain, it is now almost impossible, in consequence of its surroundings and bad scenting properties, for hounds to force foxes from it as they did in the past.
it IB
THE BLANK DAY AT DRUMSHORELANE.
1827.
At what once was Drumshorelane, by ten o' the clocks, I met the old Lithgows a-searching a fox ; But there disappointment " was all that we found," Not a tod could we view from that once famous ground.
Hark away ! hark away !
Each dog has his day ;
The Lithgowshire Fox-hounds
For ever, I say !
Not a few were the murmurs, as I understood, 'Gainst the axe that had levelled this once famous wood : Which, fue to the sport, sans remorse, did efface, To tods ^ such a covert, the county such grace. Hark away ! &c.
The field was select, but the scarlets were few ; At their head rode bold Norman,^ the trusty and true ; " Drumshorelane has failed us," he cried, " but, by G— d, " The cover of Houstoun shall give us a tod." Hark away ! &c.
Tod, Scotch for fox.
* lilajor Norman Shairp, yr. of Houstoun.
99
■ I
'> 1»
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
lithgow and Stirlingshire kennel may have tended to effect the improvement in the pack which is said to have taken place during his mastership.^
In conjunction with the home country, which seems to have been worked from kennels at Kettleston near Linlithgow, Mr Hay hunted from Duns Castle, a considerable part of Berwick- shire, at that time placed at his disposal by the Duke of Buccleuch. This embraced, in addition to the Duns country, the coverts of Paxton, Milne- Graden, Fogo muir, and Marchmont, — the bound- ary line between these and the Duke's own country being Greenlaw Dean and the Greenlaw road as far as Orange Lane, and the north and east limits of the Castlelaw and Lennel estates.^ The home country and the Berwickshire district appear to have been hunted alternately, each for a month or so at a time, and both seem to have afforded good sport, although about this period the former suffered a serious loss through the cutting down and draining of one of its best coverts. This, the great wood of Drumshoreland,^ from which many good runs had taken place during the days of Lord Elphinstone and Mr George Ramsay, conse- quently now failed to hold a fox, and it is prob- able that the occurrence of an event so unusual may have suggested to the twelfth Earl of Buchan the idea of giving to his excellent and amusing
^ ' Sporting Magazine,' April 1831. - Papers at Dalkeith House.
2 The name is spelt in various ways, Drumshoreland and Drum- shorelane being perhaps the most common.
98
AND STIKLINGSHIRE HUNT
verses the title of " The Blank Day at Drumshore- lane." In after years, during the reign of Mr W. R. Ramsay, when the young wood planted in place of the old had grown, it produced foxes which could travel, and the covert accordingly regained much, if not all, of its former high reputation. At the present day Drumshoreland is a great wood once more, and although it is seldom drawn in vain, it is now almost impossible, in consequence of its surroundings and bad scenting properties, for hounds to force foxes from it as they did in the past.
THE BLANK DAY AT DKUMSHORELANE.
1827.
At what once was Drumshorelane, by teu o' the clocks, I met the old Lithgows a-searching a fox ; But there disappointment " was all that we found," Not a tod could we view from that once famous ground.
Hark away ! hark away !
Each dog has his day ;
The Lithgowshire Fox-hounds
For ever, I say !
Not a few were the murmurs, as I understood, 'Gainst the axe that had levelled this once famous wood : Which foe to the sport, sans remorse, did efface, To tods ^ such a covert, the county such grace. Hark away ! &c.
The field was select, but the scarlets were few ; At their head rode bold Norman,^ the trusty and true ; "Drumshorelane has failed us," he cried, "but, by G-d, " The cover of Houstoun shall give us a tod." Hark away ! &c.
^ Tod, Scotch for fox. ' Major Norman Shairp, yr. of Houstoun.
99
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
Then off in despair to old Houstoun we rode, Of brawny-legged Tommy ^ (a), the tall white abode ; Of a rattling good fox the ne'er failing resort, Thro' the care of his boy, who's an eye to the sport. Hark away ! &c.
And true was his word ; for in five minutes' space, Comes Straiton ^ along at a thundering pace ; " Gone away ! gone away ! " shouts the yellow-haired Laird, Determined that day to outride Davy Baird. Hark away ! &c.
Knee-deep in the mud, sometimes out, sometimes in. See Norman tear past, what a fuss he is in ! What can be the reason 1 0 Lord ! now I ha'e't, The field has forgot for Lord Hopetoun to wait {h). Hark away ! &c.
But thanks to the freedom of famed British land, Once Reynard has broken, who dares to command ? The lord and the peasant are then all alike ; Whoe'er saw precedence in jumping a dike ? Hark away ! &c.
Annoy'd at the fuss which bold Norman had made, The gruff Lord-L — t — t, disdaining parade, Put spurs to his gelding, nor tenders one nod ; All he thinks of's the run, and a view of the tod. Hark away ! &c.
The gay laird of Wallhouse ^ see streaking along, On Sunrise (c) awaking to join the gay throng ; Whilst his friend Jemmy Stein, by his side you may see, On his bay Irish cocktail, as brisk as a bee. Hark away ! &c.
(a) The last of the Lairds, even on his last legs, never was a " haa been " as to brawn.
(6) On this day the Lord-L — t — t was waited for by '•'■ 'particular desire." ifi) Sunrise was the name of Wallhouse's favourite nag, hence the pun.
^ Mr Thomas Shairp of Houstoun.
2 Mr Johnston of Straiton. ' Mr Gillon of Wallhouse.
100
AND STIRLINGSHIEE HUNT
To Livingstone covert the fox bends his course ; Well in is each hound, and well blown is each horse ; "Whilst tooting and blawing, a mile out of sight, But slowly and surely, conies fat Geordie Knight.^ Hark away ! &c.
On his black nag, see Erskiue,^ a mile in the rear, With none alongside him his sad heart to cheer ; Though none less jy^^sumptuous or quiet can be, I am sorry to say, %ii\\ presumptive is he. Hark away ! &c.
A sportsman of note, in green collar behold, Sticking close to the road, a M' Adamite bold ; And looking as though he said, " Catch me who can " ; Yet though Adam's ^ (a) his name, here he's never tirst man. Hark away ! &c.
Who's he in white topper, on flea-bitten grey. With hobby-like canter slow streaming away 1 His name I forget : but the ladies all own He's the prettiest, genteelest young man about town. Hark away ! &c.
Alive to the adage we have read long ago, Of " Train up a child in the way he should go," Scrambling, tumbling, and jumping o'er all sorts of fence, See the scions of Buchan and Houstoun advance. Hark away ! &c.
Three raw gaunt Goliaths are thund'ring this way. That they won't ride us down I most fervently pray ; Half gemmen, half dealers, all sons of the clod, Not so long as their daddy, by near half a rod. Hark away, &c.
(a) Adam. Addicted to splashing his comrades on the highway.
' Gteorge Knight, huntsman.
' Afterwards Earl of Buchan, the author of these verses.
^ Mr Adam Hay.
101
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
The Laird of Drumcross/ sure, I must not forget, Neat mounted on Franco, his darling and pet ; But he dines just at three, and whatever the fun, He's home by that hour, lest the mutton's o'erdone. Hark away ! &c.
And now I have given you, as near as I know, A list of who cannot, and those who can go ; Now then, even I, must my garron bestride, Lest the Lithgow and Stirlingshire say I can't ride. Hark away ! &c.
Whilst each heart with the hope of the Irush now beats high, And echo resounds with the soul-cheering cry, Old reynard, awake to the chance called the main, Puts an end to our hopes, and pops into a drain (a). Hark away ! &c.
Ah me ! that improvement should prove such a curse To the joys of the chase, though so good for the purse ; Would to goodness the King issued forth his command, For the good of the sport, against draining the land. Hark away, &c.
And now, ere I draw this grand run to a close, Ere I take to my grubbing and then to my doze, Let me wish to the Lithgow and Stirlingshire hounds, The best of good sport, without measure or bounds ; Hark away ! &c.
May the Laird of Duns Castle ^ prove steady and true. And give such good sport as to sportsmen is due ; And when at Drumshorelane they muster again. May they not draw it blank, nor fall into a drain. Hark away ! &c.^
(a) Whenever a tod was lost, he had cdways gone into a drain.
1 Mr James Hart of Drumcross. ^ Mr Hay of Duns Castle.
^ A similar version, without names, appeared in the ' Sporting Magazine,^ August 1828.
102
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
Mr Hay, who hunted the hounds hmiself,^ showed capital sport, and in his first season there were several brilliant runs — one in par- ticular from Ravelrig, skirting the Pentland hills, being much talked of. Unfortunately almost no details concerning it are recorded, but it would seem that on that occasion hounds distanced their followers, and that no one was actually with them when they ran into their fox. Mr W. R. Ramsay of Barnton, Mr Home, Berwickshire, Captain Christie, Mr M'Bean and Mr Gillon, however, were not far off at the finish, while, amongst others, the Messrs Williamson of Lixmount, Mr Hay, Major Shairp, Mr Home, Linhouse, and Colonel Holmes and Mr Dyson from Piershill Barracks, came up shortly after- wards.^ In his second season, after some excellent runs in the Duns country, a long and good hunt took place on the 3rd of November (1829) from a fixture at Linlithgow Bridge. Hounds found twice in Kinneil wood, but other- ways the morning proved uneventful, and when, from Bowden, a small but good fox broke covert, the best scenting part of the day was over. The first burst was sharp, but after about five miles had been traversed, hounds came to a check, — so long that half the field departed ; and perhaps to this circumstance may have been due the rest and best of the run. Although the afternoon was cold and most unfavourable for scent, it afforded
' 'Sporting Magazine,' April 1831. « Ibid., February 1829.
103
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
an excellent opportunity of evincing the nose, patience, and bottom of the hounds, and the zeal and determination of the master. For the last five or six miles hounds literally hunted by inches, for the scent lay dead cold in some fields, and difficult in others ; but eventually, after a stiff and most sporting run, they pulled down their fox on the banks of the dell of Muiravonside. The field, which then consisted of Major Shairp, Mr Forbes of Callendar, his friend Mr Gatacre, Mr P. Stewart, Captain Cheyne and two strangers, turned for home, resolved, as the ' Sporting Maga- zine' expresses it, to "make hay while the sun shines," or, in other words, to hunt with Mr Hay's hounds as often as possible.^ In this run, a puppy at walk, hearing the cry, joined in the chase, was well with the pack during the last part of it, and at the finish had the head of the fox in his mouth. '^
When, in 1830, Mr Hay resigned his master- ship,— one all too short in so far as the country was concerned, — Mr W. R. Ramsay of Barnton, son of Mr George Ramsay, was elected to fill his place. During the two years in which Mr Hay had been master, Mr Ramsay had kept stag- hounds at Golfhall or at Barnton, and although his doing so was not at all popular and was the means of causing some friction, all unpleasantness seems to have passed away before he took over the control.^ He engaged as hunts-
1 Sporting Magazine,' February 1830. 2 ibid. s ibid.
104
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
man, Christopher Scott, previously whipper-in under Granger during part of his father's mastership ; and to him. Knight, who seems to have acted as kennel - huntsman at Duns Castle throughout Mr Hay's term of office, handed over thirty -three and a half couples of hounds.^
Whether Mr Ramsay, and before him Mr Hay, was the owner of the pack, it is difficult to determine, for the information on the point is far from satisfactory. It seems plain that the hounds were sold when Mr Johnston and Mr Gillon resigned their mastership in 1828, but it is not clear into whose possession they pa.ssed. The writer of a letter which appeared in the ' Sporting Magazine ' ^ at the time states, " I understand that the subscribers have purchased the hounds," while Knight, in a formal declaration ^ which he made in 1866 in regard to several matters relating to the Hunt, affirms that "Lord Hopetoun, in 1828, bought the hounds from Mr Johnston for three hundred pounds or guineas. I think the hounds and horses had been paid for by Mr Johnston — at least all the horses that were unsold were left at Champfleurie when I went to Duns Castle. This, however, may have been by private arrange- ment between Mr Johnston and Mr Gillon. I understand that Lord Hopetoun offi^red the
1 Declaration by George Knight : Vide Appendix IV.
2 ' Sporting Magazine,' April 1828.
3 Declaration by George Knight, supra.
105
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
hounds as a gift to the gentlemen of the counties of Linlithgow and Stirling, but I cannot say anything about whether this was carried out, or whether his Lordship's subscription was suspended till he was repaid." So far there is nothing which precludes the possibility of Mr Hay, and after him Mr Ramsay, having become the owner of the pack, but Knight continues, "I don't think that Mr Ramsay paid anything for the hounds, I never heard that he did " ; and while thus sup- porting the view that Mr Ramsay, at least, was not owner of the pack, he weakens the effect of his statement by adding, " I always understood that he [Mr Ramsay] got them as the county property in the same way as Mr Johnston, Mr Gillon^ and Mr Hay had done before him." Certain letters^ which passed between Mr Hay and other gentlemen towards the end of his mastership, allude to his being relieved of " the hounds, horses, &c.," but they really throw no light on the subject, and perhaps the most re- liable information is that derived from William Shore, the Duke of Buccleuch's late huntsman, who asserts ^ that Mr Ramsay purchased the hounds from Mr Hay, and in consequence of having paid the price to him instead of to his trustee,* was for some time in danger of having
1 Ml' Johnston and Mr Gillon, or Mr Johnston, had acquired the hounds hy purchase. Vide p. 88.
2 Among papers at Duns Castle.
3 Letters to the author, of various dates,
* Mr Hay's affairs had become in olved about this period.
106
AND STmLINGSHIRE HUNT
to repeat the payment. Although the point is an interesting one, it is not of importance, except in so far as it bears upon the question, which arose at a later period, as to whether or not the hounds were the private property of Mr Ramsay's representatives, — a matter which will be referred to at the proper time.^
On leaving Mr Hay's service, Knight entered that of Mr Meiklam of Carnbroe in Lanarkshire, and afterwards became kennel-huntsman to Lord Kelburne.'^ Retiring from hunt service, he trained race-horses for Mr Merry at Gullane in East Lo- thian before he took to farming and became tenant of a small farm in Fife. There the late Colonel Anstruther - Thomson stopped one evening after hunting, in order to have a whipper-in's horse, which was very lame, tended, and Knight and one of his daughters kindly gave all the help they could. But, as a farmer, Knight was not success- ful, and eventually, returning to Linlithgow, he once more occupied the old West Port House, in which he died on the 25th of September 1870, at the age of eighty-two.^ Although an old man, it would seem that he was in g-ood health and able to take exercise almost up to the time of his death, for
1 Vide p. 168.
^ Knight is mentioned by Nimrod as being kennel-huntsman to Lord Kelbiu-ne in the year 1835. Vide ' Northern Tour,' 1838, p. 407 The * Sporting Magazine ' also contains this reference to him : " When wind- ing up the season at Carnwath in Lanarkshire, Lord Kelburne being necessarily absent, Knight was in command and charge." — Vide ' Sport- ing Magazine,' August 1839.
' Gravestone in Linlithgow old churchyard.
107
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
in a memorandum^ dated the 14th of November 1866, the late Colonel Gillon of Wallhouse mentions that he was then " hale and hearty. Last Satur- day he walked from Linlithgow to Champfleurie to the meet. His eyesight is failing, but he dearly loves to hear the music of the old pack." The following lines by the late Mr Ebeneezer Oliphant, Linlithgow, a native of the parish of Torphichen, and apparently a keen sportsman, possess consider- able merit. They describe a run in the Torphichen district, and, as will be noticed, mention Knight.
I'm auld you'll observe as a matter of course, I stand in the shoon o' a worn oot auld horse,
Nae mair at the morn o'er yon mountains I'll go To hear the glad sound o' the sweet Tally-Ho.
If they met at Crawhill
When the west wind blew shrill
I stole awa up tae Slackend,
Whaur I sune heard the naigs Coming east Wallhoose Craigs, —
And faster nae horses could spend.
And auld Geordie Knight
In his nune o' delight Cried " Laddie, which way has he gaen 1 "
" He gaed east by Ca'law
As fast's he could draw, But I think to the north he has ta'en."
By this time " the Boy "
Had cross'd Cockleroi, But there nae shelter he got,
For they ran him sae fine
Awa doon Gledwyn' That they cut aff his brush at Lochco't.
* ^Memorandum among Hunt papers in the custody of Messrs Glen & Henderson, Linlithgow.
108
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
In a previous chapter ^ it has been indicated that the Hunt as it existed in the end of the eighteenth and the bemnninff of the nineteenth centuries was to some extent a hunt club. Still, it was never then alluded to otherwise than as the Hunt, and no mention is made of the Hunt Club until the year 1825. In the minutes of a meeting of the Hunt, held on the 14th of February in that year, it is stated that the secretary, Mr Boyd, had ad- dressed a circular relative to the renewal of the hunting establishment by Mr Johnston and Mr Gillon, to the landowners in the counties of Lin- lithgow and Stirling likely to give countenance and support to the measure, as well as to " the whole members of the present Hunt Club." These were none other than the surviving members of the Hunt as it was when the establishment was broken up in the year 1814, and those who had joined it in "the Interregnum," during which period occasional meet- ings of a social character had been held alternately at Linlithgow and Stirling, in accordance with pre- vious custom. From the time when the hunting- establishment was revived in 1825 until the present day, the Hunt Club has continued to exist almost uninterruptedly,^ and rules which were adopted for
1 Vide p. 33.
- The minutes of a meeting held on 31st March 1834, bear that " the meeting, considering that the Chib has not met for some years, and being desirous to revive the establishment, authorise the secretary to address a circular letter to all the former members who are absent, requesting a continuance of their support to the Club, and that they would remit to the treasurer a sovereign as their subscription to the same for the present year." — Minute-Book in the custody of Messrs Glen & Henderson, Linlithgow.
109
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
its management in 1826, although since somewhat modified, are, in the main, still in force. These, with a list of the preses from the year 1797 to the pres- ent time, will be found among the Appendices ^ to this work. Kule 1 provides that the noblemen and gentlemen connected with the counties of Linlith- gow and Stirling, and none other, shall be eligible to become members. Consequently it was not possible for many who have since hunted with the pack to become members of the Club ; but a kindly feeling between the Club and the Hunt has always existed, and in many years of the past century the former contributed generously to the funds of the latter.^ Rule 7 fixes the "Wednesday nearest the full moon in the months of November, February, and July" for the meetings of the Club, which Rule 12 determines shall be held alternately in Linlithgow and Falkirk. Now, these meetings take place in the former town only, and irrespec- tive of the state of the moon and any possible aid which the members or their guests might derive
^ Vide Appendix II.
2 On 29th November 1848, it was unanimously agreed that "the council and committee shall be empowered on balancing the accounts in November, after providing for the reserve fund and the contingent expenses of the year, to present to the master or manager of the Lin- lithgow and Stirlingshire Foxhounds, such a sum as they consider the state of the funds will permit, as expressive of the good wishes of the Members of the Hunt Club and of their desire to renew association with a fox-hunting establishment." — Minute-Book in the custody of Messrs Glen & Henderson, Linlithgow.
In each of the years 1848, 1849, 1851 to 1855 inclusive, 1857, 1858, and 1862 to 1868 inclusive, the Club contributed to the Hunt funds. It again did so in 1909.
* 110
Photo by Scott, U'iiuhbitrgh.
THE STAR AND GARTER HOTEL, Lim.hik.ow. 5TH Novp:mber 19T0.
Mk woodcock. Mr A. J. MKLDRUM.
AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT
from her light. The provisions of Rule 8, that every member should " wear at the meetings a blue coat with black velvet turn-down collar, and yellow buttons, having embossed thereon the letters ' L.S.H.,' and a white kersimere waistcoat with similar buttons," and that every member who should appear at the Club in any other dress should " forfeit an imperial gallon of claret for the use of the Club," no longer apply, nor conse- quently are the buttons now "to be had at Gard- ner's shop Linlithgow." And when the Club meets at the Star and Garter, Linlithgow, at the present day, it is the ordinary scarlet evening coat of the Hunt with white facings which is worn, albeit there is strictly a slight distinction in the matter of but- tons, the members of the Club wearing a silver button with the letters L.S.H. only, and the sub- scribers to the Hunt a brass one with the same initials, but in different character, beneath a flying fox.
Ill
CHAPTER V.
THE SQUIRE OF BARNTON.
1830-1850.
Had Mr W. R. Ramsay, who, as has been shown, succeeded Mr Hay m the mastership in 1830, not been born the sportsman he was, he could hardly have escaped becoming one in the circumstances which attended his upbringing. In the care of a mother for an only son there would naturally be embraced an endeavour to impart a liking for the sport which the father had loved, and in this, doubtless, she would not be unaided by the father's friends. Possibly it was with the view of developing such a liking that Mr Stirling of Keir presented to Mr George Ramsay's son, whilst the latter was as yet little beyond his cradle-days, the beautiful old hunting-horn,^ a photograph of which has been reproduced.^ The
1 This horn, which is in the possession of Lord Torphichen, bears the following inscription: "William Ramsay, Esq., of Barn ton, from James Stirling, Esq., of Keir, 1812."
2 Vide illustration, p. 148.
112
Kenn'eth MacLeay, R.S.A.
Mr WILLIAM RAMSAY RAMSAY OF Barnton.
From Miniature in the possession of Lord Torphiclicn.
HISTORY OF THE L. & S. HUNT
possession of large landed estates lying in a hunting country, also, would not be without its influence, and the fortune which Mr Ramsay had inherited from his father, and which must have increased very materially during his long minority, would render the indulgence in any form of sport an easy matter. Thus, within a few months of his having attained manhood, Mr Ramsay came to occupy the position of master of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hounds, and to enter upon that period in the history of the Hunt during which — the country being almost entirely pastoral or agricultural and uninjured by mineral workings — sport was probably at its best. Born on the 29th of May 1809, he succeeded, on the death of his father in the following year, to the estate of Barn ton in Mid -Lothian and to the properties of Sauchie and Bannockburn in Stirlingshire. He married on the 4th of August 1828, the Hon. Mary Sandilands, only daughter of James, tenth Lord Torphichen ; represented Stirlingshire in Parliament in the years 1831 and 1832; and was subsequently member for Mid- Lothian from 1841 to 1845.1 On the 9th of January 1832 he was admitted a member of the Caledonian Hunt.
Nimrod entitled his well-known work 'The Chase, the Turf, and the Road,' and although each of these subjects seems to have occupied Mr Ram- say to a considerable extent, it is possible that,
1 Foster's ' Members of Parliament.'
113 H
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
had he and not Nimrod been the author, the order of precedence given to them in the title might have been somewhat different. For " his heart was in the Defiance and the Tally-ho," ^ and pro- bably he was better known to the racing world of his time than he was in the hunting field. Many of the old Barnton papers were destroyed some years ago, with the view of clearing away what was deemed to be useless matter, and al- though it is of no avail bemoaning what can- not be undone, it is nevertheless a matter for resfret that such an incident should have taken
CD
place. Had these papers been preserved, how much information might not they have thrown upon Mr Ramsay's tastes and predilections, how much lighter might not the task have been in respect to this particular period of the Hunt's history ?
Captain Barclay of Ury, by whom the Defiance coach was instituted in the summer of 1829, and Mr Ramsay, are said to have been partners as regards its management during at least a portion of its existence ; and so anxious was the latter to encourage travelling by it, that he would some- times take passengers free of charge.
" It is possible that some of my readers may not have heard or read of the renowned Defiance
1 'Field and Fern' (South), by The Druid, 1865, p. 54. The Tally- ho coach, which seems to have riin between Edinburgh and Stirling, was instituted by Mr Ramsay in April 1828. — Vide 'Sporting Maga- zine,' September 1829.
114
AND STIRLINGSHmE HUNT
coach from Edinburgh to Aberdeen — the Wonder * of Scotland — which rightly indeed may it be called. Any person, however, who ma}^ chance to be at Edinburgh, and to step into the coach office of the Waterloo hotel, will see announced, amongst many others, though this stands first on the list, — ' The Defiance Coach to Aberdeen, matchless for speed and safety, at half- past five o'clock every lawful morning.' And 'matchless' no doubt it has been in this part of this world. ... So com- plete are its arrangements ; so respectable and civil are the servants employed upon it ; so well does it keep its time — in addition to the honour of very often being driven by the Captain him- self— that the first people in the country are, or were, found in and about it, including even the late Duke of Gordon himself, who would fre- quently be seen in it on his road south, although some of his own carriages might have been on the road on the same day." ^
Mr Ramsay as well as Captain Barclay frequently drove the Defiance, a circumstance which probably tended very much to support and maintain its popularity ; and " even the gravest Edinburgh professors liked to see the Ramsay coaches with their rich brass-mounted harness, and the scarlets
* " The Shrewsbury and London Wonder Coach is considered the best in England for that length of ground ; and was so called, because it was the first that was attempted to be worked over such a distance — 152 miles in one day"
1 Nimrod's 'Northern Tour,= 1838, p. 272.
115
^mwmm^.
HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW
had he and not Nhnrod been the author, the order of precedence given to them in the title might have been somewhat different. For " his heart was in the Defiance and the TaUy-ho," ^ and pro- bably he was better known to the racing world of his time than he was in the hunting field. Many of the old Barnton papers were destroyed some years ago, with the view of clearing away what was deemed to be useless matter, and al- though it is of no avail bemoaning what can- not be undone, it is nevertheless a matter for reo;;ret that such an incident should have taken place. Had these papers been preserved, how much information might not they have thrown upon Mr Ramsay's tastes and predilections, how much lighter might not the task have been in respect to this particular period of the Hunt's history ?
Captain Barclay of Ury, by whom the Defiance coach was instituted in the summer of 1829, and Mr Ramsay, are said to have been partners as regards its management during at least a portion of its existence ; and so anxious was the latter to encourage travelling by it, that he would some- times take passengers free of charge.
" It is possible that some of my readers